Over the last 10 years, cannabis has gone from a career-threatening taboo in professional sports to a tightly managed reality the major leagues can no longer ignore.
A decade ago, marijuana was typically grouped with hard drugs in league rulebooks, with players facing suspensions, fines, and reputational damage. That approach has shifted toward harm reduction and medical framing, driven by legalization, athlete activism, and growing research into cannabis and CBD.
Baseball moved first among the big U.S. leagues. In December 2019, Major League Baseball and the players’ union agreed to remove natural cannabinoids—including THC and CBD—from the list of “drugs of abuse” in the joint drug program. Instead, marijuana use would be treated more like alcohol, with discipline focused on conduct such as driving under the influence or selling cannabis, while expanding testing and treatment for opioids and cocaine.
The NFL, once notorious for banning players over cannabis even as it battled an opioid crisis in its locker rooms, followed with a major reset in its 2020 collective bargaining agreement. Under the new deal, players can no longer be suspended solely for a positive marijuana test. The testing window for THC was shrunk to a short stretch at the start of training camp, and the threshold for a positive result was significantly increased. Those terms, embedded in an agreement running through the 2030 season, reflect a strategic retreat from punitive cannabis enforcement rather than an outright embrace.
The NBA’s transformation has been even more visible. After quietly suspending random marijuana testing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the league formalized that shift in a seven-year collective bargaining agreement that took effect in July 2023. Cannabis was removed from the banned-substances list, and routine marijuana screening ended altogether. Players may now invest in cannabis and CBD companies under strict conditions, provided promotions don’t blur the line with high-THC products.
Hockey has quietly been ahead of the curve. Under the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health (SABH) Program, cannabis remains monitored, but players who test positive are not automatically suspended. Instead, elevated levels trigger a confidential evaluation and possible treatment, an approach closer to health care than discipline. Analysts often point to the NHL as a model for balancing player welfare with league oversight.
Several forces are driving this broader rethinking. Dozens of U.S. states now allow medical or adult-use cannabis, and Canada — home to multiple NHL and MLB franchises — legalized it nationwide in 2018. That has left teams operating in jurisdictions where local law increasingly normalizes cannabis even as it remains illegal at the U.S. federal level. At the same time, current and retired athletes have become outspoken about using cannabis and CBD to manage chronic pain, concussion symptoms and insomnia, arguing it can be a safer alternative to opioids and alcohol.
Still, no major league is truly “pro-cannabis.” Players are barred from being impaired at games or team activities, and marijuana-related sponsorships and endorsements remain tightly scrutinized. The result is a gray zone: cannabis is no longer automatically career-ending, but it is far from fully normalized.
In the last decade, the story of cannabis in professional sports has shifted from punishment toward pragmatism. The next phase may depend on U.S. federal reform and on whether long-term data ultimately supports what many athletes already insist: that, used carefully, cannabis is not just a vice, but another tool for surviving the physical and mental toll of elite competition.