NCAA Considers Allowing Student-athletes to Smoke Pot

INDIANAPOLIS, IN — A committee formed by the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) will discuss removing marijuana from the organization’s banned substance list for its student-athletes. The Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports Committee (CSMAS) signaled its support for removing cannabis from the Association's banned drug list and testing protocols. The committee will gather input from the membership this summer, with final action expected in the fall.

In a committee meeting held in Indianapolis last week, Divisions II and III referred this issue to the CSMAS committee. The two divisions asked CSMAS to consider the NCAA’s cannabis policy and whether NCAA drug testing should be limited to only performance-enhancing substances.

“For cannabis to be removed from the NCAA list of banned drugs, each of the three NCAA divisional governance bodies would have to introduce and adopt legislation. The committee will also seek support from the NCAA Board of Governors to stop testing for cannabis at NCAA championship events while legislative action is considered,” the NCAA said in a release on Friday.

The rationale for considering the change was largely informed by the December 2022 Summit on Cannabinoids in College Athletics and includes the consensus opinion that cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug and that a harm-reduction approach to cannabis is best implemented at the school level. In the release, additional rationale included:

• Focusing on testing for substances that provide an unfair advantage by enhancing athletic performance.
• Shifting toward a harm reduction philosophy for cannabis, similar to the approaches taken with alcohol.
• Realigning toward institutional testing and how that testing supports/enhances campus efforts to identify problematic cannabis use.
• Educating student-athletes on the health threats posed by contemporary cannabis and methods of use.
• Identifying and explaining relevant harm reduction/mitigation strategies to those student-athletes who choose to consume cannabis legally.
• In addition to the policy and testing changes, CSMAS also signaled its support for the development of a comprehensive communication and education campaign that provides guidance to the membership about cannabis.