Tiki Barber Investing in Marijuana Business Startups; Discusses NFL Drug Testing

Former NFL running back Tiki Barber is using his business acumen in an attempt to create change around the use of marijuana.

Per Fox Business' Jade Scipioni, Barber's investment firm, Grove Group Management, is planning on backing "marijuana and cannabis startups in an effort to help them navigate through unfolding legal regulations."

"It's simply a business opportunity," Barber said. "We wanted to put a group together that could attack this cannabis space in an intelligent way that makes sense for not only the business opportunity but also for minority communities and create a message of social progress."

Barber also discussed the NFL's current stance on players using marijuana:

"We've seen the punitive nature with which the NFL attacks users of cannabis and I believe a lot of these guys are just self-medicating. They don't want to be caught in the opioid addiction crisis that has affected a lot of former players because of the constant damage to your knees and your joints and that's not even to mentioning the head trauma. [...]

"It's an evolving conversation with the league and I'm sure come 2020 or 2021 with a new collective bargaining agreement going to be negotiated, it's going to be a talking point. Guys are tired of managing their pain with things that are going to destroy their livers and make their lives down the line very untenable in some ways."

Under the NFL's current collective bargaining agreement, player discipline for positive marijuana tests ranges from fines to suspension for at least one year with the ability to apply for reinstatement after one year. 

Players can fail up to three tests before they are suspended from games. 

Per Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, the league is "prepared to make major concessions regarding the substance-abuse policy, especially as it relates to marijuana" in the next collective bargaining agreement. 

Free-agent defensive lineman David Irving said in an Instagram video last month he was quitting the NFL after being suspended indefinitely following another positive drug test for marijuana. 

A total of 10 states have made marijuana fully legal, while only 14 states still deem the drug to be completely illegal. It's partially legal for medical reasons and/or decriminalized in the 26 other states. 

The current NFL collective bargaining agreement was put into effect into 2011 and expires after the 2020 season.