On March 1st, 2022 the NCAA took the first steps forward to a green inclusive future, changing the policy for a relaxed approach to cannabis and the amount of THC an athlete can have to trigger a positive test. In an effort to align with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s levels, the NCAA Committee of Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports agreed to allow for the threshold levels of THC (the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) to increase from 35 nanograms per millilitre to 150 nanograms per millilitre.

Maintaining the course, the NCAA Committee has formally advised each of the three divisional governance bodies to introduce and adopt legislation to remove Cannabis from the banned substance list in all three divisions.  The recommendation hopes to establish that cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug and that cannabis harm-reduction tools are better developed at school levels.

“Cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug and that a harm-reduction approach to cannabis is best implemented at the school level…”

-NCAA Press Release Statement

The spark that ignited the NCAA Committee’s commitment to change started in December 2022 at The Summit on Cannabinoids in College Athletics.  The event was hosted at the national office in Indianapolis and focused on fostering education as well as providing guests with an opportunity to learn about the endocannabinoid system and the cannabinoid landscape as it relates to student-athlete health and performance. 

“This summit provided an incredible opportunity to better understand current research and data pertaining to marijuana use at the college level…” adding “The cannabis industry is rapidly evolving, and it’s important for the NCAA to understand the current landscape as educational, policy and research strategies are developed to best support the physical and mental health of student-athletes.”

-Brian Hainline, NCAA Chief Medical Officer

Changing the landscape for athletes and creating an environment to promote education, the NCAA hopes their latest signal of support shares their collective opinion on;

• Focusing on testing for substances that provide an unfair advantage by enhancing athletic performance.
• Shifting toward a harm reduction philosophy for cannabis, similar to the approaches taken with alcohol.
• Realigning toward institutional testing and how that testing supports/enhances campus efforts to identify problematic cannabis use.
• Educating student-athletes on the health threats posed by contemporary cannabis and methods of use.
• Identifying and explaining relevant harm reduction/mitigation strategies to those student-athletes who choose to legally consume cannabis.
• Support for the development of a comprehensive communication and education campaign that provides guidance to the membership of cannabis.

Athletes like former NCAA Villanova Champion, Sports Cannabis Athlete Ambassador and host of The Halftime Report; Darryl Reynolds have been hopeful for change.

Darryl Reynolds played NCAA Basketball for the Villanova Wildcats and won a championship in 2018.  After graduating, Reynolds took his talents to play professional basketball in Poland before suffering a career-ending injury in the offseason, tearing his ACL, LCL, PCL, ripped off his hamstring and suffered residual nerve damage from the knee down.  Pushing forward, D Rey incorporated Cannabis for recovery and relief.  Today he’s using his platform to advocate for cannabis in athletics, share education and host infused conversations with elite athletes on The Halftime Report.

Close to the game, Darryl is hopeful that the latest signal from CSMAS will mean;

“They have to legalize it. Today, kids are growing up faster. There are so many different things out there that they can get into.  If an entity like the NCAA, which has so much control legalizes cannabis, it opens up the opportunity for parents to educate their children on it and that’s when the conversation with the plant changes entirely.  Student-athletes would be able to learn and get educated on CBD and THC products.  Everybody grows up learning about Tylenol and Advil, why wouldn’t they come up knowing about the difference between THC, CBD, THCv, Delta 8, and everything that has to do with the whole cannabis plant.”

-Former NCAA Champion, Darryl Reynolds

With an ability to replace outdated pharmaceuticals and provide alternative avenues for recovery, relief, inflammation, sleep, mental health and more, the future looks bright for cannabis and athletics.