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We’ve come a long way from the scandal a few years ago in which Sha’Carri Richardson was suspended from competing in the Olympics due to a positive marijuana test. At least, when you look at all of sports leagues as a whole.
For one, the NFL continues to reduce penalties for marijuana use, including less of a fine and a higher threshold of allowable THC in the system. The league stopped suspending players for marijuana four years ago and continue to ease restrictions each year.
The NCAA also took marijuana off the banned substances list for Division 1 athletes this year. In their statement about the change, they agreed that marijuana was not indeed a performance enhancing drug, which is a relatively new stance coming from a sports league. This is in fact the reason why Sha’Carri Richardson was suspended in the first place, due to marijuana’s performance enhancing qualities.
The state of Nevada has also made steps to protect the use of marijuana in sports, creating a rule change that disables athletes in their state from being penalized for using/possessing marijuana.
CBD has also come a long way, with the NBA and WNBA teams partnering with a CBD beverage company, and the NFL partnering with a Canadian CBD study.
This is only a handful of the examples of sports coming to terms with their athletes using marijuana in a variety of ways, and more are listed over at Marijuana Moment. We can only expect this trend to continue into 2025 as acceptance keeps spreading.
