June 20th 2023.
The NCAA is considering a major shift in policy. A committee from the NCAA, the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, is asking for cannabis to be removed from the association's banned drugs list and testing protocols for athletes. They suggest that testing should only be done for performance-enhancing drugs. To that end, the committee has asked the NCAA to suspend cannabis testing at championship events while the change is being considered.
The NCAA has acknowledged the request and released a statement saying that the three NCAA divisional governing bodies need to introduce and adopt the rule change before cannabis is removed from the banned substance list. The NCAA is expected to make a final decision this fall.
The changes put forward by the committee reflect the changing attitudes towards cannabis in the United States. In the last decade, cannabis has gone from being highly enforced to widely accepted, as numerous states have legalized recreational and medical use. As of today, according to Gallup, over 53 million people smoke cannabis.
The NCAA has kept up with the trends when it comes to cannabis use. Last year, the threshold to trigger a positive test was raised. Other sports leagues have made similar changes. The MLB dropped the drug from its "drugs of abuse" list in 2019 and the NFL announced that they would no longer test players in the off-season. Numerous current and former athletes have also joined the cannabis industry, such as gymnast Gabby Douglas, and former NBA players Al Harrington and Matt Barnes.
The NCAA has over 500,000 athletes and 350 schools, 23 of which are HBCU schools. In recent years, much has changed within the NCAA, including that college athletes can now sign name, image, and likeness deals that can earn them anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. According to Outkick, the largest NIL contracts include University of Colorado quarterback Shedur Sanders, LSU Gymnast Olivia Dunne, USC quarterback Caleb Williams, and the University of Texas quarterback Arch Manning.
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