In yet another sign of the changing perception of cannabis and cannabis-related products, the professional three-on-three basketball league, BIG3, has announced it will, effective immediately, allow its players to use CBD in pain treatments and in recovery measures.

“The BIG3 is uniquely positioned in professional sports as a player-powered league that looks at our players as partners not property,” BIG3 co-founder and co-CEO Jeff Kwatinetz said in a statement. “As a testament to our relationship with our players, we listened to their feedback on CBD, as well as feedback from professionals in the regulatory and CBD industry, and decided to take this major step to support their health.”

Becoming the first pro league in the USA to allow CBD to be used by its athletes, BIG3 is following in the steps of the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA), which removed CBD from its list of banned substances earlier in 2018. The nascent hoops league has found itself quite a niche audience, what with its cadre of former NBA stars (Carlos Boozer, Metta World Peace, Nate Robinson, Kenyon Martin and Baron Davis to name only a few), that’s sure to applaud the league’s decision, to say nothing of the players and their happy reactions. Noteworthy for his reaction, league founder/former NWA member/star of the cult classic “Anaconda”, Ice Cube:

CBD has grown in popularity, too, within endurance runner circles as an aid in recovering from ultra-marathons and long-distance training runs. Avery Collins, one of the premiere ultra-marathoners to publicly utilize and endorse CBD (and marijuana at large) was featured in a great story on SBNation in April of this year.  Collins, who is sponsored by such plant-touching businesses as Incredibles, The Farm Co., and others, shattered the course record at the Tortola Torture, a punishing ultra-distance race with thousands of feet in elevation change and the Caribbean’s scalding sun beating down.

Brick by brick, the road to legalization is steadily being laid before us, folks.