Last week, the NCAA announced that they are relaxing their policy regarding cannabis testing in college athletes. They also recommended that penalties be reduced for positive tests. 

The decision came after a meeting on February 22 and 23 of the NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, (CSMAS) which raised the amount of THC required to constitute a positive test from 35 to 150 nanograms per milliliter.

The NCAA stated that the World Anti-Doping Agency established the THC threshold for student athletes. This global agency oversees athletic drug testing. 

“Reconsidering the NCAA approach to cannabis testing and management is consistent with feedback from membership on how to better support and educate student-athletes in a society with rapidly evolving public health and cultural views regarding cannabis use,” Dr. Brian Hainline, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, said in a press release on Friday. 

“Marijuana is not considered a performance-enhancing substance, but it remains important for member schools to engage student-athletes regarding substance use prevention and provide management and support when appropriate.”

The latest example of American sport adjusting to changing laws and attitudes is the NCAA policy shift. It includes more than 1000 schools across the U.S.

With cannabis legalization in most states, many domestic sports leagues have revised their drug testing procedures. And the incongruity between the changing laws and the drug testing policies in the athletic world drew attention last summer, when U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was suspended from the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for cannabis.

CSMAS recommended that the NCAA raise the THC threshold and also change the penalty for a positive cannabis testing result. (The NCAA said that such drug testing penalties “are legislated under NCAA bylaws, so each division will be required to separately adopt new legislation before changes are made.”)

According to the Associated Press, under the previous penalty structure “one positive test for marijuana would mean an NCAA athlete would immediately have to miss 50 percent of a regular season and a second would mean an athlete would sit out for ‘the equivalent of one season … of regular-season competition.’”

The NCAA said that under the new structure, the first positive test would result in “no loss of eligibility if the school provides a management plan and education for the student-athlete.” A second positive test would likewise result in no loss of eligibility “if the school provides additional management and education and confirms the student-athlete was compliant with the original management and education plan,” although “the student-athlete must be withheld from 25 percent of regular-season contests if they were not compliant with the original management and education plan.”

A third positive test would not result in a loss of eligibility either “if the school provides additional management and education and confirms the student-athlete was compliant with the previous two treatment and education plans,” but the “the student-athlete must be withheld from 50 percent of regular-season contests if they were not compliant with the previous management and education plan.”

“These adjustments to the NCAA drug testing program were approved after careful consideration and extensive discussion of the recommendations made by the Drug Testing Subcommittee, which has been meeting since last fall,” said Dr. Stephanie Chu, chair of the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. 

“The updated cannabis testing policies create a clear pathway for student-athletes to participate in education and management programs specific to their needs at the campus level.”