NCAA medical committee recommendations include removal of marijuana from banned drug list

Indianapolis: An NCAA medical committee wants to remove marijuana from the banned drug list and consider whether testing should be limited to performance-enhancing drugs. The legislation must still be introduced and approved by all three NCAA divisions. Administrators from Division II and Division III asked the committee to look into the marijuana issue and a final decision is expected this fall.

The NCAA's committee on safeguards and medical aspects of sports also recommended suspending marijuana testing at NCAA championship events until a final judgment about the proposal is made, establishing a trace-level threshold for a banned hormone and metabolic modulator and updates to the governing body's best practices on mental health.

But the marijuana proposal will likely be the most pivotal change.

Last December, at a summit on marijuana use among college athletes, it was determined the drug is not performance enhancing and that NCAA schools should focus more on educating athletes about the harms of marijuana and reducing use of the drug rather than imposing penalties.

Separately, the committee also proposed setting a threshold of 0.1 nanograms per milliliter as a trace level for the hormone GW1516. It hopes to prevent athletes becoming ineligible because of ingesting the substance unintentionally from contaminated supplements. The substance was initially designed for diabetes treatment but was discontinued in 2007. It has been linked to positive doping tests in endurance-related sports.