Former commissioner David Stern wants the NBA to allow the players to smoke marijuana, despite its negative connotations. So many states have now legalized marijuana, not just for medical use but recreational too, so Stern feels it’s high time the NBA loosen up and let players smoke weed.
Ironically it was Stern who clamped down on the marijuana policy during the CBA negotiations in 1999 per Uproxx. Stern recently sat down for an interview with former player Al Harrington, who is known for being pro-marijuana and discussed his thoughts on weed.
“I would say that it was generally known at some point that until we tighten the rules,” Stern told Harrington. That a lot of our players were smoking a lot of marijuana, in fact a lot of our players were coming to us, and told us ‘some of these guys are high coming into the games.’ But we began tightening that up and people accepted the generally held wisdom that marijuana was a gateway drug and that if you start smoking, you’re liable to go on to bigger and better things.”
Stern also said one of the major stumbling blocks in this NBA – marijuana debate is that there’s been no spokesperson for this matter.
“I don’t think there’s been a proper spokesperson for this subject,” Stern added. “I think if medical marijuana is available, then it’s up to the team doctor. If it works, we should find a way to get that defined and made official and proceed to educating team docs. And I think all of the leagues are now appropriately focused on player training, structuring the right parts of their body, player rehabilitation. This should be part of that conversation.”
Flip the page to watch David Stern’s interview and his thoughts on players smoking weed.