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Report: New NFL policy could ease penalties on Adderall, other stimulants

The NFL and the NFLPA could look at the drug policy differently in the future. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The NFL and NFLPA are close to changing the NFL's calendar year. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The NFL and the NFL Players Association could ease their penalties for players testing positive for Adderall and other banned drugs, reports USA Today.

Adderall and other diuretics are now considered performance-enhancing drugs by the league, and under a new proposal the drugs would be labeled as drugs of abuse.

The league could change the way it punishes those who are caught, including possibly giving first violators counseling and treatment, instead of suspensions.

Adolpho Birch, the NFL's senior vice president of labor policy and government affairs, said the NFL has given ground in hopes of having human-growth hormone testing this season. According to the report, at least 14 NFL players have blamed suspensions on Adderall or Ritalin. Those drugs are primarily used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

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"What we would do is reflect the understanding that those types of substances have both a performance-enhancing kind of component, but also a recreational (use) component," Birch said. "It would provide for a different treatment depending on what we were able to understand about the use. A positive test in the offseason might be treated differently than a positive test during the season, because one suggests no competitive issue and one does."