Benzinga - Rapper, cannabis entrepreneur and advocate Snoop Dogg recently praised the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) recent deal with National Basketball Players Association to stop testing players for marijuana use.
The first thing Snoop thought about when he heard the news was the “medical side of it.”
"How it can actually help ease the opioids and all the pills they’ve been given and the injections. I thought about that side," he said during a recent episode of ESPN’s Stephen A’s World. "And, how certain players, have been able to have a beautiful life after sports because of the fact they’ve been able to treat themselves with that.”
The NBA is now aligning itself with Major League Baseball (MLB). In October, the MLB became the first big-league sports property to officially have a CBD sponsor, Charlotte’s Web (OTCQX: CWBHF).
“So, it is mostly the same thing. As long as it doesn’t enhance your skills to make you play better or to give you an advantage, you should be able to treat yourself and to heal yourself,” Dogg concluded.
The man @SnoopDogg preaching about how the NBA no longer testing for WEED can be very beneficial for the players’ health.#sascast pic.twitter.com/9q1853cwMo
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 12, 2023
Quickly after NBA announced this major change, it also confirmed it will give players the ability to invest in NBA and WNBA teams, as well as promote and/or invest in sports betting and cannabis companies.
“Specific details will be made available once a term sheet is finalized,” the group said in a statement, a couple of weeks ago.
Up until the changes, current NBA players weren’t allowed to take part in marijuana sponsorship or businesses. However, ex-players grabbed sought these opportunities quite often. For example, Al Harrington co-founded LA-based marijuana brand Viola Brands, Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets All-Star partnered with Weedmaps (NASDAQ: MAPS) to help “destigmatize marijuana use among athletes.”
There’s also Chris Webber, NBA All-Star and founder of Webber Wellness who along with Jason Wild, founder and CIO of JW Asset Management, teamed up to create a $100 million cannabis impact fund.
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Photo: Benzinga edit with images by Glenn Francis, Wikimedia Commons, and Kym MacKinnon on Unsplash.
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