The National Football League (NFL) has reached an agreement with its players union to reform its marijuana policies further, significantly reducing fines for positive tests while increasing the allowable THC threshold for players. About four years after the 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.
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. As NBC Pro Football Talk first reported, penalty for missed tests will also be reduced.
This builds upon the 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.
