LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The NCAA has been randomly testing athletes at its championship events and football bowl games for performance enhancing and recreational drugs since 1986. In 2014, the penalty for testing positive at either of those events for a recreational drug such as marijuana was reduced from a suspension of one year to six months.
Now NCAA chief medical officer Dr. Brian Hainline wants to end NCAA testing for recreational drugs.
Hainline said the NCAA should focus on catching cheaters who gain a competitive advantage by using performance-enhancing drugs — year-round testing is still in place with a one-year suspension the punishment for a positive test — and leave it mostly to the schools to deal with athletes who are caught using rec drugs.