NCAA Medical Committee Supports Removing Marijuana from Banned Drug List, Testing

Following a meeting of the NCAA's Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS), the committee expressed its support for removing cannabis from the Association's list of banned substances, according to a statement released by the NCAA.

The idea was suggested to the committee by Divisions II and III as they asked the committee to reconsider the NCAA's cannabis policy and to limit drug testing only to performance enhancing drugs.

After gathering some more input membership this summer, a final action on the issue is expected to come in the fall. In order for that change to come, each of the three NCAA divisional governing bodies would have to introduce and adopt some sort of legislation.

In the meantime, CSMAS is going to the board of governors to see if cannabis testing can be paused at NCAA championships while action is taken.

One of the biggest reasons for the potential change stems from the 2022 Summit on Cannabinoids in College Athletics back in December, where it was the consensus opinion that marijuana wasn't a performance-enhancing drug and that any harm reduction policy should be implemented at the level of individual schools.

CSMAS is also looking to help educate and inform the NCAA's member schools about marijuana through a comprehensive communication and education campaign.

This would be the second major change to the NCAA's marijuana policy in a relatively short period of time. Back in February of last year, the Association decided to raise the amount of THC an athlete can have in their system to trigger a positive test.

It also changed the punishment for any athlete that tested positive.

Whereas positive tests used to automatically mean either missing 50% of a regular season or even sitting out sit out for "the equivalent of one season ... of regular-season competition," now athletes have to undergo a school's "management plan and education" for one positive test.

A second would require sitting out 25 percent of the regular season.