The NCAA sent a press statement on Friday claiming that the suggestion was made by the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS), which offers the association advice on player health. At their meeting this week in Indianapolis, committee members suggested creating a "robust educational strategy to accompany a potential change to cannabinoid legislation."

The announcement added that the advice was supported by "extensive study informed by industry and subject matter experts," including doctors and substance abuse specialists, and informed by a summit on cannabinoids in college athletics held in December 2022. It also stated that "the consensus opinion formed that cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug and that a harm-reduction approach to cannabis is best implemented at the school level."

According to the announcement, "the recommendation seeks to modernize student-athlete health while acknowledging membership opinions and the shifting cultural and legal environments surrounding cannabinoids."

Also said in the statement was that the removal of cannabis from the list of prohibited substances "acknowledges the ineffectiveness of existing policy" and "affirms the role of the NCAA drug-testing program to address only performance-enhancing substances."

The timetable of debating and passing potential legislation will be determined by each of the three governing structures for the NCAA divisions.

James Houle, chair of the CSMAS and chief sport psychologist at Ohio State, stated in a statement, "We agree that the membership should have the opportunity to vote on the final outcome when making a decision on an important topic like this." "We are advocating a significant paradigm shift with regard to cannabis. To provide schools the best chance to assist student-athlete health, we aim to modernize the approach with the most recent evidence.

Since more and more states have legalized marijuana, the NCAA has made it known that it is interested in modifying its position on the drug. Given the wide-ranging regulatory changes and the fact that the substance is not performance-enhancing, it is a reasonable next step. In the last five or ten years, marijuana for medical and recreational purposes has gained more public acceptance, which has had an impact on a number of rules in many industries and even in professional sports leagues. It appears that the NCAA intends to approach marijuana in a manner similar to how it approaches alcohol, putting more emphasis on assistance and education than sanctions and other punitive measures.