NCAA Committee Recommends Removing Cannabis From List Of Banned Drugs For College Athletes

The NCAA is taking the long-awaited step of acknowledging that cannabis has no performance-enhancing benefits and is recommending it be removed from its list of banned substances. 

On Friday, the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS) released a statement recommending that each of the three divisional governance bodies introduce and adopt legislation that would remove cannabinoids from the list of NCAA-banned drug classes.

Instead of banning it, the committee suggests a "harm-reduction" approach by each school, while recognizing the cultural and legal shifts that have taken place surrounding cannabis.

Modernizing Their Strategy

"When making a decision on an important topic like this, we agree that the membership should have an opportunity to vote on the final outcome," said James Houle, committee chair and lead sport psychologist at Ohio State University. "We are recommending a big shift in the paradigm when it comes to cannabinoids. We want to modernize the strategy with the most up-to-date research to give schools the best opportunity to support the health of student-athletes."

Cannabis: Not A Performance-Enhancing Drug

The NCAA said that the recommendation to remove cannabis from its banned list is based on "extensive study informed by industry and subject matter experts (including doctors, substance misuse experts)" and others that share the opinion that cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug.

In June, the committee signaled its support for removing cannabis from its banned drug list. This was followed by an NCAA decision to adopt more lenient cannabis policies in February 2022, the rationale of which was largely informed by the December 2022 Summit on Cannabinoids in College Athletics and included a consensus opinion that cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug.

Now, it seems the NCAA has taken these studies to heart. 

Details Of The Recommendation

The committee concluded that removing cannabis from the list of banned substances would accomplish the following: 

Acknowledges the ineffectiveness of existing policy (banning, testing and penalizing).

Affirms the role of the NCAA drug-testing program to address only performance-enhancing substances.

Emphasizes the importance of moving toward a harm-reduction strategy that prioritizes education and support at the school level over penalties.