Beginning Monday, October 6th the NF will begin testing for hGH (human growth hormone) as part of their Performance Enhancing Substances Policy. Each week of the season, 5 players on 8 teams will be tested. There will be no testing on game days.
As far as marijuana usage, there is a bit of a change in the policy there as well. The new policy will allow for higher levels of marijuana to be in a player’s system before they test positive. This is a big deal for players who may become victim of second hand smoke due to the high potency of today’s marijuana.
There will also be changes to the arbitration process when a player returns a positive test result. For the first time in the history of the NFL, their new collectively bargained policies usher in a neutral arbitration process for appeals of positive drug tests. Until these policies were negotiated, the Commissioner or his designee (an NFL employee) had jurisdiction over all appeals. The NFL made changes to these policies to ensure a fair due process rights.
Lastly there has been changes to the use of non performance enhancing drugs in the off season. Players will no longer be penalized by the NFL, even if it’s illegal.
The recent changes to the drug policy have been the first major update since 2010.
