The NCAA has removed marijuana from its banned drugs list for Division I college football championships and postseason, Spectrum News reported. (Individual universities have their own drug policies that apply during the regular season, but NCAA rules take over in postseason competition.)
Josh Whitman, chair of the NCAA’s Division I Council, said the change was made because the NCAA’s drug-testing program is aimed at promoting the “integrity of competition, and cannabis products do not provide a competitive advantage.”
The NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports had previously recommended marijuana be removed from all three divisions’ banned drugs lists. In 2022, the NCAA raised the threshold for positive THC tests, according to Spectrum News.
The latest change comes in the wake of a large-scale NCAA study on substance use among student athletes, which found an increase in self-reported cannabis use from 22 percent in 2013 to 26 percent.
At the same time, the study noted that narcotic use continues to fall among student athletes, with 6 percent acknowledging the use prescription painkillers, including just under 2 percent who said they used them without a prescription.
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