Major League Baseball to stop testing players for cannabis

The American professional baseball league (MLB) has decided to stop testing any of its players for cannabis.

As part of a new agreement on opioids being negotiated between Major League Baseball and the players’ union, MLB will remove marijuana from the list of banned substances for minor leaguers, sources tell The Athletic. Major leaguers have not been subject to testing for marijuana.

- Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 10, 2019

The league had already stopped testing its major league players for cannabis back in 2006, with an agreement aptly named Joint Drug Agreement. The league was still randomly testing players for drugs such as amphetamines and steroids, with admission to drug treatment programs instead of fines for violations.

The new agreement actually concerns the minor leagues, which bring together promising young players or injured pros.

This year, 13 players were suspended for «drugs of abuse», a classification that includes cannabis. Penalties are strict: players are suspended 25 games for their first positive drug test, 50 games for a second, 100 games for a third and banned for life for a fourth.

Major leagues are tested only if there is «probable cause». A THC test must exceed 50 nanograms of THC per milliliter of urine to be positive, resulting in a fine of 35,000 $ and a treatment plan, but no suspension.

The agreement also includes opioid testing and a treatment plan. Minor league players who test positive for opioids would thus be placed in a treatment program rather than suspended.

On July 1, famed Los Angeles Angels player Tyler Skaggs died of an overdose of fentanyl, oxycodone and oxymorphone, which he was taking for pain relief. MLB then announced it was reconsidering the place of opiates in its sport and decided that opiates were a far greater concern than cannabis, and that allowing players to use cannabis-based products for pain management could reduce opiate use.

Other sports leagues are also considering removing cannabis from their lists of banned substances. The NFL is currently conducting a study to evaluate whether cannabis can be an effective treatment for pain NHL conducts similar study for CBD products, and a former NBA commissioner called the pro basketball association to drop its restrictions on cannabis.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has removed CBD from the list of banned substances. in 2017.