Image element courtesy of Marco Verch.

The National Football League (NFL) has reached an agreement with its players union to further reform its marijuana policies, significantly reducing fines for positive tests while increasing the allowable THC threshold for players.

About four years after NFL ended the practice of suspending players over cannabis or other drugs as part of a collective bargaining agreement, the league has again revised its Substances of Abuse Policy and Performance Enhancing Substances Policy as the state-level legalization movement continues to expand.

Effective Friday, the THC limit constituting a positive drug test will increase from 150 ng/ml to 350 ng/ml, the NFL Players Association said in a summary of the changes.

The penalty for a first offense will be reduced to a $15,000 fine, down from a half-game fine. A second offense will be lowered to $20,000. For a third positive test, players will lose a full-game pay, and for a fourth, it would be a two-game fine. Penalties for missed tests will also be reduced, as NBC Pro Football Talk first reported.

Notably, the league also agreed to make it so players’ individual teams will only be generally notified about positive or missed tests, without disclosure of the specific substance that showed up on the test.

The revised policy additionally says that positive tests will no longer be counted cumulatively. Players’ positive test counts will now reset after a year.

This builds upon NFL’s 2020 rule change for cannabis and other drugs. That included narrowing the testing window for marijuana. Players are only subject to testing for THC metabolites between the start of the pre-season training session and the first pre-season game. The threshold for a positive test for cannabis was also increased at the time from the previous 35 ng/ml.

Meanwhile, NFL and the Denver Broncos in July asked a federal court to reject a player’s lawsuit alleging discrimination over penalties he incurred due to positive THC tests from his prescribed use of a synthetic cannabinoid.

In a joint motion to dismiss filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the league and team defended their marijuana policy for players, affirming it’s their view that use of cannabis can lead to on-field injuries, poor job performance and “alienation of the fans.”

They said the league’s policy “contains detailed requirements and protocols for testing all players and makes clear that the use of substances prohibited under the Policy, including specifically THC, ‘can lead to on-the-field injuries, to alienation of the fans, [and] diminished job performance’ as an NFL player.”

While it is taking this position in the lawsuit, NFL itself has committed significant funding to research into whether CBD can serve as an effective opioid alternative, and it’s also explored the therapeutic potential of the non-intoxicating cannabinoid for pain management and neuroprotection from concussions.

A commissioner of the NFL and the league’s players union previewed the funding plan in June 2022, emphasizing the strong interest among players and other stakeholders. The joint NFL-NFLPA committee also held two informational forums on CBD in 2020.

Meanwhile, other sports leagues have also adopted revised marijuana policies as the state-level cannabis legalization movement continues to spread.

In October, Nevada regulators officially adopted a rule change that will protect athletes from being penalized for using or possessing marijuana in compliance with state law.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently voted to remove marijuana from its banned substances list for Division I players.

In June of last year, the NBA and its players union signed a collective bargaining agreement that removed marijuana from the league’s banned substances list and laid out rules allowing players to invest in and promote cannabis brands in certain cases.

MLB announced a league-wide partnership with a popular CBD brand in 2022. Charlotte’s Web Holdings, one of the most recognizable hemp-derived CBD companies in the country, signed the deal with league to become the “Official CBD of MLB.”

Certain individual MLB teams, including the Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs, have also partnered with CBD businesses.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced last December that it is formally removing marijuana from its newly modified banned substances list for athletes, also building on an earlier reform.

However, ahead of a UFC event in February, a California athletics commission said they could still face penalties under state rules for testing positive for THC over a certain limit, as the state body’s policy is based around WADA guidance.

Meanwhile, two in three Americans feel that Olympic athletes should be able to use marijuana without facing penalties—a higher percentage than those who say the same about alcohol, tobacco and psychedelics, according to a recent survey.

This gets at a longstanding debate, with international organizations such as World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) maintaining the cannabis ban, even as institutions such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) push for reform.

In August, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said it was “disappointing” that WADA has maintained the cannabis prohibition based on what he considers a misguided justification.

“I think we should all just be open and upfront about marijuana’s lack of performance-enhancing benefits,” Tygardt said. “We’re not in the recreational drug policing business. We’re here to prevent fraud in sport and cheaters in sport.”

WADA did carry out a review into its marijuana policy at the request of USADA and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) following the controversial suspension of U.S. runner Sha’Carri Richardson, who was barred from participating in the Olympics in 2021 after she tested positive for THC. Richardson said she used cannabis to cope with the recent passing of her mother.

USADA said at the time that the international rules on marijuana “must change.” The White House and President Joe Biden himself also signaled that it was time for new policies and congressional lawmakers amplified that message.

Kyle Jaeger via (https://www.marijuanamoment.net/nfl-adopts-new-marijuana-policy-for-players-reducing-fines-and-increasing-thc-limit-for-drug-tests/)

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