Drug use in athletics always has been a problem. It appeared in the writings of the ancient Greeks more than 2,000 years ago, and has been a recurring theme ever since. Athletes continue to use drugs for two major reasons: to help them perform better and to make them feel better.

The NCAA exists to promote fairness in intercollegiate sports and protect the safety and health of the student-athletes who compete. Our mission conflicts with the use of drugs and other substances that can create an unfair competitive advantage or harm those who compete. For this reason, we have policies that ban or restrict the use of many substances, including cigarettes, alcohol, spit tobacco, street drugs and performance enhancers.

The NCAA has conducted drug testing since 1986 under the auspices of the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS), and specifically by the Drug-Education and Drug-Testing Subcommittee. Last year, more than 10,000 athletes were tested at championships, bowl games and through unannounced on-campus testing in some sports.

The program is not perfect in that not every athlete gets tested on every campus, and not every championship is tested every year (a rotating system is used). However, the penalty for a positive test is severe and a student-athlete is entitled to a fair and open appeal process. Despite this, most student-athletes anonymously surveyed every four years in the NCAA's Study of Substance Abuse support drug testing and believe it deters college athletes from using drugs.

Since we have a program that is well-accepted and deters substance abuse, why re-examine it now? The CSMAS, which administers the drug-testing program for the NCAA, has been reviewing the program recently for several important reasons:

The list of banned substances becomes longer and more complex each year;

Many substances that may be performance-enhancing can be purchased legally in stores, through the mail and over the Internet;

Supplement labels are not always clear or accurate;

Many student-athletes, coaches and administrators continue to be confused by the fact that a substance banned by the NCAA can still be legally purchased; and

Various national and international sports governing bodies have different penalties for the same substance. The NCAA penalties for some substances are not as strict and for other substances are stricter than those of other organizations. There has been increasing pressure on the NCAA from other sports organization to have similar penalties.

The accompanying chart illustrates some differences that exist in the penalty structures of various sports governing bodies.

Arnold F. Mazur is employed by Boston College Health Services. He is a member of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports and serves on the Drug-Education and Drug-Testing Subcommittee.