While the NFL’s policy on THC has become more lenient in recent years, it was put into the spotlight this week after former player Adam “Pacman” Jones appeared on Deion Sanders’ Tubi show “We Got Time Today.”

Jones, who retired from the NFL in 2019, is an advocate of THC, the main ingredient in cannabis. When co-host Rocsi Diaz asked if he would have been a different player if the NFL had been more lenient on cannabis when he played, Jones responded:

“Well, I never stopped smoking. I’ve always smoked, while I played, after I played, now. I am a high advocate of THC.”

Jones then said he “cheated the program” as a player by falsifying drug tests administered by the league.

“I was really good,” Jones said. “People don’t know how smart I am, but I could say it now I don’t play no more. I’ve never used my piss for a piss test. Not one time. Not one time.”

In response, Sanders, the former NFL star and current head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, said “that can’t happen today” because of the strict administration of the test.

“It can happen if you know what you’re doing,” Jones said. “Don’t say it can’t happen, Pop.”

The Tennessee Titans selected Jones was the sixth pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, and he spent the majority of his career with the Cincinnati Bengals. He was suspended twice in his career, first for the entire 2007 season for violations of the league’s personal conduct policy and then for six games in 2008 after an alcohol-related incident in Dallas.

Jones said he has talked to the NFL about its drug policies, and he doesn’t think any sport should test for THC. Although THC testing remains part of the NFL’s policy on substance abuse and performance-enhancing drugs, the protocols around it have taken a new shape in recent years.

How has the NFL’s policy changed?

The 2020 refinement of the NFL and NFL Players Association policy on substance abuse and performance-enhancing drugs was the first signal toward a less punitive and more treatment-based protocol.

Most notably, the 2020 policy replaced suspensions for positive tests with fines. A player could test positive four-plus times, and though they’d be fined the equivalent of four game checks for each offense, they wouldn’t miss any playing time.

The 2020 agreement also refined the testing windows. THC was removed from the substances tested for during the April 20 to Aug. 9 offseason period, in which every player takes one annual test. Once training camp begins, the previous four-month window to receive an annual test gets reduced to two weeks, with only a random percentage testing for THC.

Shortly after the 2020 announcement, the pain management committee of the NFL and NFLPA announced a $1 million contribution to researching pain management and cannabinoids.

Released in December, the latest iteration of the league’s drug policy took several more steps toward leniency. The threshold for a positive THC level rose from 150 ng/ml to 350, a 300 percent increase from the 50 ng/ml amount pre-2020.

Fines for positive tests also eased. Under the previous policy, a first violation resulted in a half-game fine. Now, fines for first and second violations are set amounts, and game check-equivalent fines aren’t in effect until a third strike.

The administration of the tests has not fundamentally changed, though the window for testing was lengthened from within three hours of notification to a more relaxed timeframe. Notification to test in the morning must be completed before the start of afternoon activities, and notification to test in the afternoon must be completed within an hour after afternoon activities end.

(Photo: Cindy Ord / Getty Images)