The NBA will suspend random testing for marijuana for the 2020-21 season and focus its attention on performance-enhancing products and drugs of abuse.

Marijuana has been stuck on the top of the NBA’s banned substances list for a long time, but some recent changes in policy could indicate that it might not be for long. Now that more than half the nation has legalized marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, officials overseeing professional basketball’s inner workings are starting to lose interest in players who smoke weed. 

The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) recently announced that it is discontinuing random drug screens for marijuana in the 2020-21 season. “Due to the unusual circumstances in conjunction with the pandemic, we have agreed with the NBPA to suspend random testing for marijuana for the 2020-21 season and focus our random testing program on performance-enhancing products and drugs of abuse,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement.

Although the decision to end marijuana testing is just an extension of the drug testing hiatus put into place at the beginning of the pandemic, the fact that the NBA isn’t in any hurry to start it up again is positive news. In March, just as the season was being forced to shut down because of COVID-19, the NBA pulled the plug on recreational drug testing until it could resume. The season has already come and gone. The Lakers won the championship, and players still aren’t being questioned about their pot use. But, given the NBA’s stance on cannabis, they probably should be.

In July, a feature story in The Athletic revealed that NBA players were going buck wild with bud inside the Orlando bubble. Many players tried to figure out how long a pound of pot would last them while waiting to see if their team would face elimination.

Most players were locked down for at least 40 days during playoff season, while others were there for more than 50. Players with the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat were inside the basketball bubble for 82 days. So, just how much marijuana was on Disney World’s property during the playoffs? “You’re asking about Fight Club,” one agent told the news source. “There’s no testing for a reason.”