In December 2001, the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS) met to discuss strategies to deal with an issue that frequently comes to the committee's attention during NCAA drug-testing appeal calls, and that is whether the student-athlete had notice and access regarding the NCAA list of banned substances.

Too often, the story told by the student-athlete on the call -- and confirmed by the administrator -- includes a variation on "we were warned against using steroids and marijuana, but I didn't know I needed to check out ingredients on a nutritional supplement," or "the clerk at the store said this was safe to use."

The CSMAS has found that frequently, the main culprits in positive drug tests have been over-the-counter nutritional supplements containing ephendrine (ephedra or ma huang) and androstenedione -- both of which appear on the current NCAA list of banned substances.

It is important that institutions are aware of the ramifications of failing to disseminate and discuss the banned-substances list with student-athletes at the time the NCAA drug-testing program is presented and the drug-testing consent form is signed, something required by NCAA Bylaw 30.5.

Student-athletes also should be informed of the appropriate athletics department procedures for disseminating updates to the current list of banned substances and the procedures for having nutritional supplements evaluated for banned substances by the team physician or a member of the athletic training staff.

In order to eliminate confusion and assure compliance with the bylaw, the CSMAS proposed to the three Management Councils that a copy of the list of banned-drug classes be required to be distributed to each student-athlete. The committee suggested the following statement be placed in the introduction to the drug-testing consent form, effective August 2002: "Per NCAA Bylaw 30.5 (b), the director of athletics or the director of athletics' designee shall disseminate a copy of the list of banned-drug classes to each student-athlete."

This recommendation was passed by all three Councils, and the 2002-03 drug-testing consent form will be amended to reflect this requirement.

The CSMAS recommends that the written list of NCAA-banned substances be provided to each student-athlete at the team's orientation meeting before the first practice each year. It also should be sent to incoming student-athletes, freshmen and transfers sometime in the summer.

By signing the drug-testing consent form, student-athletes acknowledge they have received the NCAA banned-substances list for the year. To further heighten awareness, an institution could create a separate acknowledgement form, which when signed verifies that student-athletes have received a copy of the current list. The institution could use this opportunity to emphasize that over-the-counter medicines and nutritional supplements may contain items on the current banned-substances list.

Those additional efforts should reduce the amount of ignorance on this issue and reduce the number of positive drug tests due to the inadvertent use of nutritional supplements that contain NCAA banned substances.

Pete Carlon is the director of athletics at the University of Texas at Arlington and a member of the drug-education and drug-testing subcommittee of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.