Will the NCAA remove a ban on marijuana in sports?

Although marijuana is illegal on the federal level, states have loosened restrictions on marijuana when it comes to medical or recreational use. It appears that the NCAA, the governing body of collegiate athletics, may be headed in the same direction of deregulating marijuana use for its athletes.

As Higher Ed Dive reported, the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, a committee formed by the NCAA, said that the governing body should remove cannabis from its list of banned substances for college athletes at the college level. The committee also recommended that drug testing should focus on performance enhancers, not marijuana use.

Today, the NCAA won’t punish athletes by stripping eligibility if they test positive for marijuana. The nuance surrounding the first positive test, though, is that the college athlete has to go through a drug management and education plan. If the college athletes do not follow the plan, they could be barred from playing in regular season games.

But the committee’s proposal would eliminate the ban on marijuana use.

The next step in the process is approval from governing groups at the Division I, Division II, and Division III levels, which will likely happen this coming fall.

Related Topics