News Flash: Prevalence of Marijuana use among high school seniors is expected to increase with legalization.
That was the core finding that materialized in a study that was published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. The authors of the study were researchers affiliated with New York University’s Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR),
“What I personally find interesting is the reasonably high percentage of students who are very religious, non-cigarette smokers, non-drinkers, and those who have friends who disapprove of marijuana use said they intended to use marijuana if it was legal,” said Joseph J. Palamar, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor at the Department of Population Health, NYU Langone Medical Center. “This suggests that many people may be solely avoiding use because it is illegal, not because it is ‘bad’ for you, or ‘wrong’ to use.”
And most suggest that legalization is coming.
“Recreational use was recently legalized in the states of Colorado and Washington; other states across the country are expected to follow suit,” according to the NYU, which announced the study. “To date, an additional 15 states have decriminalized cannabis use, and 19 states and the District of Columbia now allow medical marijuana to be prescribed.”
This will undoubtedly create challenges in collegiate athletics, where NCAA member institutions continue to punish student athletes who test positive for Marijuana as if they were using performance-enhancing drugs.
NCAA: What to do About the Growing Use of Marijuana Among Student Athletes
The NCAA is trying to adjust to the national trend toward legalization. But it is sending mixed signals.
As recently as December, its Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS) voted to set a lower threshold for a positive marijuana test at NCAA championships.
At the same time, the NCAA’s Chief Medical Officer Brain Hainline appears to be monitoring the situation closely. He recently noted that CSMAS committee members have “universally agreed that marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug,” which represents a baby step toward a more progressive policy.
And the CSMAS did recommend in that December meeting “that the penalty for a positive marijuana test (and other street drugs) be reduced by 50 percent. Specifically, if a student-athlete tests positive for marijuana or other street drugs, CSMAS recommends that he or she be withheld from the next 50 percent of the season of competition in all sports, and the student-athlete shall remain ineligible until the prescribed penalty is fulfilled and subsequently tests negative for the substance. A second positive test will result in the current penalty of the loss of a season of competition.”
The amended penalty proposal will be introduced into the legislative cycle in all three divisions this year, with the earliest implementation coming in August 2014.
More Change May Be Coming, Hints Hainline
Nevertheless, Hainline maintained over the winter that “its use by student-athletes can jeopardize the individual’s health, and is not consistent with the spirit of sport. The CSMAS voiced a concern that student-athletes should not be ingesting marijuana because this represents a substance-abuse concern. With this in mind, the CSMAS highly recommends that member institutions intervene and try to assist student-athletes who test positive for marijuana and other street drugs in an effort to correct unhealthy behavior.”
Amplifying on this point, he said “we do not believe that student-athletes should be ingesting marijuana and other street drugs, and we believe that a combination of penalties coupled with behavioral intervention is the most balanced approach to this issue.”
While not contradicting the above statement, he did seem to offer a willingness to be fluid when we asked him about his current feeling on the issue.
“This is a very active discussion point for the NCAA, and we are also forming a task force around this matter, with experts from around the country,” he told Legal Issues in Collegiate Athletics. “There is not a simple answer — as always — but I do believe our policies and education will evolve in the right direction.”
