The NCAA News - News and Features

October 27, 1997

Sports Sciences Newletter -- Increased marijuana use among student-athletes should be a concern

By Ann-Quinn-Zobeck
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO

Marijuana use among high-school and college students appears to be increasing in the 1990's after years of decline in the 1980s.

Some campuses have reported an increase in marijuana arrests. NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) meetings are appearing on more and more campus schedules. The 1997 NCAA Study of Substance Use and Abuse Habits of College Student-Athletes also reported a rise in marijuana use, compared with previous years' studies.

Why has this happened? Researchers agree on one thing. There is no single cause.

Should those of us who work with student-athletes be concerned?

Elaine Johnson, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, reported that the reasons for the increase gathered from focus groups with adolescents include the belief that everyone uses marijuana, the accessibility of the substance, pro-use messages from the popular media, and the large amount of clothing and merchandise bearing pro-marijuana designs.

Lloyd Johnston of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research believes the decrease in public attention paid to drug problems, such as fewer newscasts and anti-drug commercials being aired, has contributed to the perception of marijuana as a harmless drug, which has fueled increased use. In a news release about the study's results, Johnston said, "...parents of a decade ago may have been more likely than today's parents to talk to their children about drugs, because more of today's parents actually used drugs when they were teens and may feel hypocritical telling their own teens not to use."

A 1996 survey of parents and 12-to-17-year-old adolescents by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) found that teenagers whose parents once used marijuana were more likely to use it than teens whose parents did not. Forty-six percent of the parents surveyed said they believe it is likely their teens will use illegal drugs. Forty percent of parents said they believe they have little influence on their teen's choice of whether to use drugs.

Marijuana is the dried flowers and leaves of cannabis sativa, the hemp plant. It contains nearly 400 chemicals, but Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the ingredient that accounts for most of the mind-altering effects. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the amount of THC in marijuana ranges from three percent to as much as 70 percent, depending on how the plant is grown, what parts are used, and what is distilled from different parts.

Many college students I have talked to view marijuana as a harmless, nonaddictive drug. What they don't realize is that each year in the U. S., more than 100,000 people seek treatment for addiction to this substance. More and more research is investigating its addictive potential. One recent study exposed rats to THC for four days. When given a dose of a THC antagonist, the rats exhibited withdrawal symptoms (shakes, facial rubbing, biting and twitching), indicating that they were dependent on THC.

The short-term effects of marijuana include impaired speech, thinking, short-term memory, physical coordination, and balance. It interferes with judgment, concentration, and attention span. Driving a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana is as dangerous as doing so while impaired by alcohol. Long-term effects include upper respiratory problems, memory and concentration impairments, tolerance to marijuana requiring increased dosage to achieve desired affects, and physical and psychological addiction.

Marijuana smoke acts directly on the lungs. Chronic users may develop many of the same negative effects experienced by cigarette smokers. Adverse effects of marijuana on athletics performance include reduced reflex-response capacity leading to chronically slowed reaction times, decreased visual-tracking capability, impaired eye-hand coordination, altered perception of time, and impaired depth perception. Chronic users have described a loss of drive to complete tasks such as schoolwork or training schedules, and a loss of interest in setting or attaining goals.

In the past year, the drug-education and testing subcommittee of the NCAA Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sport Committee has had an increase in the number of appeals to positive drug tests for marijuana. Most are based on the athlete's claim that he or she did not use the drug, but was in close proximity to someone who did. In making a decision on whether to grant an appeal, the subcommittee takes into consideration all evidence and testimony, including the results of the urinalysis and testimony from the directors of the testing laboratories. A drug test is positive for marijuana if it contains more than 15 nanograms per milliliter of THC metabolite. The 15 nanograms per milliliter is the cutoff recommended by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Sevices Administration (SAMHSA). A positive drug test of more than 15 nanograms indicates that the subject did more than passively inhale someone else's marijuana smoke. For this reason, the subcommittee has never granted an appeal of a positive marijuana test based on passive inhalation.

Members of our subcommittee have been asked why marijuana is included in the list of banned drugs since it does not enhance athletics performance. The subcommittee has discussed this issue extensively and, in the past, has proposed legislation to reduce the penalty for testing positive for marijuana. The membership has consistently communicated to the subcommittee its desire that marijuana remain on the banned-substances list and that the penalty be no different than that for any other banned drug.

The NCAA drug-education and testing program was created to safeguard the health and safety of participants in collegiate athletics. Educating student-athletes about drugs and the drug-testing program is an important responsibility of athletics departments. Many resources exist to help you develop effective education programs for your student-athletes. To find out more about NCAA programs in alcohol, tobacco, and other drug-use prevention and education, contact the sports sciences division at the NCAA.

Ann Quinn-Zobeck is the chair of the drug-education and testing subcommittee of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports and the assistant athletics director of student activities at the University of Northern Colorado. She may be contacted at 970/351-1136 or via the Internet at azobeck@bentley.univnorthco.edu.