Karl-Anthony Towns is the NBA's latest advocate for marijuana.

After former NBA commissioner David Stern said the league should remove marijuana from the list of banned substances last month, the Timberwolves big man voiced his consensus for the substance to be used for medical purposes.

"I agree with David Stern with marijuana," Towns told ESPN. "You don't have to actually make it 'Mary J' [or] 'Half Baked.' You don't have to do it like that, but you could use the [chemical] properties in it to make a lot of people better.

"That's something that Adam Silver has to do. That's out of my control, but maybe legalizing marijuana. Not fully legal, where people are chimneys, but using [marijuana] as a beneficial factor as an athlete, as a person living daily."

While Towns said he hasn't personally used or ingested marijuana, the 21-year-old has seen the benefits through his family's experience and working with autistic children.

"I think it's discussed," Towns said. "But I look at it from my experience with it. I've never smoked. I've never taken a strand. I've never taken properties of it, whatever the case may be. But I deal with kids all the time at autistic schools, Reed Academy in New Jersey. My girlfriend has an autistic nephew, and you realize those properties of marijuana can do a lot of good for kids and for adults.

"These guys, just because we're NBA athletes, we're not superhumans. Some of us have conditions that could use [medicinal marijuana] to our benefit for everyday living, just taking care of our kids and our families."

The league has yet to make any substantial changes to its drug policy, but Towns is eager to speak to executives about his opinion on the matter in the future.

"We have such a great commissioner in Adam Silver who's willing to listen to opinions and talk to us about how he feels as well," Towns said. "The NBA has done a great job of just really cracking down on things that should not be legal. Not only legal as a performance enhancing, or whatever case it may be, but just for daily living to have a better life, a more sustainable life, a more healthy life by removing those drugs from the game."