In his 15 seasons in the NBA, Kevin Durant has collected two championships and a most valuable player award, all while establishing himself as one of the greatest scorers to ever play the game. 

But it turns out one of his most significant contributions to the league came off the court. And when he was under the influence. 

Appearing at a sports business summit that aired Tuesday on CNBC, the Phoenix Suns star said he personally lobbied NBA commissioner Adam Silver to drop the league’s marijuana ban.

“I actually called him and advocated for him to take marijuana off the banned substance list,” Durant told CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin at the event. “I just felt like it was becoming a thing around the country, around the world … the stigma behind it wasn’t as negative as it was before. It doesn’t affect you in any negative way.”

Under a new collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the players’ union, the league will no longer conduct drug screenings of players for marijuana. The agreement, which took effect earlier this month, also allows players to invest in cannabis companies –– something Durant and his business partners have done. 

“Marijuana will be removed from the Prohibited Substances List (‘PSL’),” the CBA reads. “A team that has reason to believe one of its players is under the influence of marijuana or alcohol while engaged in NBA or team-related activities, or has a dependency issue involving marijuana or alcohol, may refer the player to a required evaluation treatment program.”

The agreement also permits players to “invest in a company that makes products containing only CBD, and to “hold a passive, non-controlling interest in a company that makes products containing marijuana.” Players “will continue to be prohibited from promoting marijuana companies, but a player may promote a company that makes products containing only CBD,” the agreement says.

Durant recounted his meeting with Silver, saying the commissioner could readily pick up on his passion for the issue.

“Well, he smelled it when I walked in, so I ain’t really have to say much,” Durant said at the summit, drawing laughs from the crowd. “He kind of understood where this was going. And I mean, it’s the NBA, man. Everybody does it, to be honest. It’s like wine at this point.”

Durant, who was traded to the Suns from the Brooklyn Nets last season, has been open about his pot use in the past. 

In an interview last year on David Letterman’s Netflix series, Durant told the former late night legend that he was “high right now.”

“To me, it clears the distractions out of your brain a little bit. Settles you down. It’s like having a glass of wine,” Durant told Letterman, adding that he wanted to “change the narrative around athletes and marijuana.”

“It’s crazy that you got people in jail for 20 years for maybe selling a pound,” Durant said. 

The NBA first began phasing out marijuana testing for players in 2020, when it announced that it was suspending testing as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We decided that, given all the things that were happening in society, given all the pressures and stress that players were under, that we didn’t need to act as Big Brother right now,” Silver said at the time. “I think society’s views around marijuana have changed to a certain extent.”

Other sporting leagues have also relaxed their policies governing marijuana use. In 2019, Major League Baseball removed cannabis from its banned substances list. 

The post Kevin Durant Says He Lobbied NBA To Drop Cannabis Ban appeared first on High Times.

The post Kevin Durant Says He Lobbied NBA To Drop Cannabis Ban appeared first on Paradise Found.

The National Basketball Association has removed cannabis from its list of banned substances under a new contract that allows the league’s players to smoke weed and invest in cannabis companies. The new collective bargaining, which was ratified by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) in April, went into effect on Saturday, July 1, and will be in place through the 2029-2030 season.

On Friday, the league and the players union announced that the final long-form version of the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has been completed and signed. The terms of the new CBA had previously been reflected in a shorter-form memorandum of agreement.

Cannabis Removed From NBA’s Banned Substances List

Under the new contract, cannabis will be removed from the NBA’s list of banned substances. The agreement also ends marijuana screenings for players, giving them the opportunity to smoke marijuana and use other cannabis products without fear of reprisal. 

Although players will be permitted to use cannabis and will no longer be tested for weed, the new contract does have some limitations. Athletes will not be permitted to be high at games, practices or other team functions, and cannabis use that becomes problematic will still be subject to action from the league.

“A team that has reason to believe one of its players is under the influence of marijuana or alcohol while engaged in NBA or team-related activities, or has a dependency issue involving marijuana or alcohol, may refer the player to a required evaluation treatment program,” according to a summary of the contract.

The agreement also notes that the “NBA and teams may impose reasonable discipline on players who are under the influence while engaged in any team activity or in violation of the law.”

The CBA also allows players to invest in the cannabis industry. Players will be permitted to invest in CBD companies, and may “hold a passive, non-controlling interest in a company that makes products containing marijuana.” Additionally, the summary of the labor agreement states that although players “may promote a company that makes products containing CBD,” they will “continue to be prohibited from promoting marijuana companies.” 

Jesse Burns, the chief marketing officer of the public relations firm Grasslands, told SFGATE that the new rules could make NBA athletes the face of the CBD movement, adding that players have an opportunity to “really leverage this moment of health and wellness” by launching their own CBD brands. 

“There’s this general knowledge that CBD is medicine and pain relief and inflammation relief,” Burns said. “The mainstream public is starting to get that.”

Previous Policy Disciplined Players For Using Pot 

The NBA’s previous policy on cannabis included a ban on the use of the drug by all players. Violations of the policy were addressed by entering players into the league’s counseling and treatment program on the first violation. Subsequent violations resulted in a fine of $25,000 for the second violation and a five-game suspension without pay for the third.

The NBA suspended testing players for cannabis as part of its response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In late 2020, league commissioner Adam Silver said that the moratorium would likely become permanent. He added that instead of a mandatory testing program for all players, the league would approach players who appear to be using cannabis problematically or because of dependency and decline to punish players who are “using marijuana casually.”

“We decided that, given all the things that were happening in society, given all the pressures and stress that players were under, that we didn’t need to act as Big Brother right now,” Silver told NBC. “I think society’s views around marijuana have changed to a certain extent.”

Cannabis And Professional Sports

The NBA’s end of its prohibition of cannabis for players follows similar action by top U.S. professional sports leagues. In 2019, Major League Baseball (MLB) removed marijuana from its list of banned substances, although the current policy allows players to be disciplined if they appear to be under the influence of cannabis during games, practices or team meetings.

The MLB’s cannabis policy continued to evolve last year when the league announced that teams would be permitted to enter sponsorship deals with cannabis companies. Four months later, the league announced that products from Colorado-based Charlotte’s Web Holdings had been named the “Official CBD of MLB.” 

The National Hockey League (NHL) also no longer lists cannabis as a banned substance and players who test positive for the drug don’t face disciplinary action. Players who have “abnormally” high levels of THC detected during testing are referred to a voluntary treatment program.

The National Football League’s collective bargaining agreement for the 2020-21 season relaxed the league’s policy on cannabis, allowing players to use marijuana during the off-season while maintaining prohibition throughout the season of play. The agreement also increased the level of THC that can be present in a player’s drug test before triggering sanctions from the league and ended game suspensions for all positive drug tests, with players facing fines instead.

The post NBA Contract Allowing Players To Smoke Weed Goes Into Effect appeared first on High Times.

The post NBA Contract Allowing Players To Smoke Weed Goes Into Effect appeared first on Paradise Found.

Celebrate with us Wednesday on a Livestream from the Nasdaq floor.

The post Leafly rings in 4/20 with the frickin’ NASDAQ bell this year, y’all appeared first on Leafly.

The post Leafly rings in 4/20 with the frickin’ NASDAQ bell this year, y’all appeared first on Paradise Found.

Are you ready to invest in cannabis? Find out where to start investing in weed in our beginner’s guide to investment from Good Tree Capital.

The post Beginner’s guide to investing in cannabis appeared first on Leafly.

The post Beginner’s guide to investing in cannabis appeared first on Paradise Found.

Celebrities have a little extra green, which is a big help when entering the Green Rush. Learn which brands and products are tied to celebrities in cannabis.

The post 7 celebrities invested in the cannabis industry appeared first on Leafly.

The post 7 celebrities invested in the cannabis industry appeared first on Paradise Found.