How does marijuana legalization impact college athletes?

Up until recently, the anti-marijuana movement has been prevalent and relatively normalized in our society. Now all of the sudden, there are several U.S states that have legalized cannabis recreationally. 

The older college athletes and those that came through campus before them were always told about the consequences and dangers of using marijuana, and what it could do to them and their athletic careers. Now, certain college athletes are in a legalized state while also now being able to accept benefits through recent Name-Image-Likeness legislation.

The autonomy, freedom, and leeway for college athletes has taken a pretty substantial 180 degree turn even from just a few years ago. Between that and everything that comes with having a life on social media as an athlete as well, it’s a pretty incredible position for 18-22 year olds to be in these days. 

The pressing question is how does this still very active movement toward a pro or at least tolerable-marijuana America specifically, affect the psychological and physical makeup of the college athlete, if they so choose to use it regularly. 

The origins are horrifying yet laughable for a natural plant that was originally sold and used regularly in the 1800’s. It was truly first publicized in the startling 1936 propaganda film “Reefer Madness.” Portraying teenagers smoking weed for the first time and doing obscene and terrible things such as hallucinating, rape, and murder.

The media would also then of course sell it as a guaranteed gateway drug to morphine and heroin. Then, Harry Anslinger was appointed commissioner of Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He completely neglected and nullified the scientific support behind it, and said marijuana is a drug that is a direct cause of “acts of violence” and connected it to be black and hispanic people. 

Between that information to relay to the media and “Reefer Madness," the stigma was set. He went as far as to say cannabis made black people forget “their place in society” and jazz music was an evil genre of music influenced by marijuana. There was also a major emphasis on the Spanish word “marijuana” versus cannabis. 

The impact of his discrimination is evidence in crime statistics related to marijuana. The counterculture movement of the 1960’s and 70’s grew the popularity of marijuana among young white people. Yet, the “severity and danger” of it was still pushed publicly. The fear mongering has been all time regular. 

But now, roughly a 50% increase in America’s view of being pro or anti marijuana legalization on a recreational level. 19 states in the United States have legalized cannabis and the overwhelming belief is it’ll continue to grow nationwide more in middle America. Even states like Massachusetts, first passed the bill for legalization all the way back in 2016. 

According to Pew Research, roughly 91% of Americans are in favor of medical marijuana legalization. Even though it’s not recreational, that’s still a staggering number of folks favoring those with physical and mental ailments to be given a medical card and the ability to purchase marijuana. 

A pretty seismic shift given the aforementioned history of cannabis. Just 60% of Americans meanwhile are in favor of medical and recreational marijuana. Nonetheless, over 50% favoritism still shows a massive 180 degree turn our society has gone under pertaining to weed.

Pew’s research shows that those in favor cited the medical upside of cannabis use as well as citing it allowing police to focus on other, frankly more severe crime. The absurdity of some of the jail sentences, particularly for minorities due to reasons that are cannabis related, has obviously been a major talking point in this marijuana discussion. The emphasis certainly needs to be shifted more toward severe drugs from that standpoint. 

However, it was also discovered during this research that 79% of the Americans who voted against marijuana say it’s due to an increase of car accidents caused by cannabis. Legalization does give people just age 21 and over free reign to use cannabis while driving, which obviously opens the door for an honest, nuanced conversation on how much this shifted pro-weed narrative is responsible for young, legal Americans. 

Meanwhile 69% of that anti crowd cited the aforementioned gateway drug ideology that marijuana causes. This is obviously more dependent on circumstance rather than operating under the influence argumentSpecifically for college athletes, they’re under a microscope and in more of a precarious position than ever before. Name-Image-Likeness growth, social media growth, growth of the transfer portal. And now, weed legalization on top of it. It’s still a novel reality in our world, and different college athletes, playing different sports, coming from different backgrounds. 

For All-MAAC standout guard for Quinnipiac Women’s Basketball MacKenzie DeWees, she’s seen cannabis have a great enough effect on ball players she’s come across through the years to have real concern. “I have seen first hand a change in cognitive levels and lung capacity in athletes through my career after repetitively using marijuana,” said DeWees. 

She went on to dispel the idea that cannabis is the best resource for physical and mental recovery through the grueling grind of college athletics. “I think using marijuana to cope with injury is unnecessary,” said DeWees. “There are athletes all across the world that have dealt with injury, pain, and the mental strains of overcoming an injury.”

“There are many outlets for athletes to cope with injury such as a sports psychologist, icing, reading a book, thinking positively and thinking about things you can do versus can’t do. Relying on a drug to cure an athlete's mental block is impossible. It only postpones the inevitable feelings and pains, and it is up to the athlete to overcome their injury rather than succumb to it. No excuses.” 

Although there’s concrete evidence to suggest that marijuana is a great tool for mental and physical recovery for an athlete, relying solely on it definitely won’t get you far. 

On the flip side, former UMass Amherst Catcher Ben Brungardt, spoke on the frustrations teammates expressed on the difference between states' tolerance for marijuana use versus the NCAA. 

“I do think it puts athletes in a tough spot,” said Brungardt. “With the legalization spreading and seeing others be able to access cannabis with no restrictions or penalties I think it frustrates athletes because the NCAA is still very stone-age when it comes to general rules and regulations.”

Pertaining to the integrity and purity of the athletics specifically, Brungardt also cited the fact that there’s no infringement of that integrity at all on the game itself from using marijuana, along with it being a safe recovery outlet. “I think the stigma around what cannabis is and the image of people we see when we talk about cannabis use is the issue surrounding it,” said Brungardt. 

“It in itself really isn’t ‘performance enhancing’ so I think we will eventually get to a point where athletes are allowed to endorse cannabis brands (if they aren’t already) with regulation and rules set in place which I think will lead to free use of it within the college athletic world.”

 For this piece, when discussing the college athletes’ safety side, it’s of course pertaining to football players exclusively. With all of the outstanding head trauma and danger that comes with football, there’s a very strong argument for marijuana being a healer for such trauma.

Calvin Johnson: I smoked weed every week in the NFL

 “Personally I don’t think it’s the smartest thing to do for managing pain,” said former Brown football Guard Brendan Lynch. “But a lot of guys who had concussions would smoke and it would help with that.”

 

 

So that’s the young athletes' varying perspectives on a nuanced situation. Let’s get to the facts from experts:

 The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) made a profound statement regarding the trend of  a greater number of young people using marijuana:

Data from national surveys of drug use in college-aged adults (19-22 years of age) show that marijuana use within this age group is increasing every year. In light of this trend, it is imperative that we continue to monitor how and when marijuana is used among college-aged individuals, as well as the effects on their health. Because the brain continues to develop into a person’s mid-20s, cannabis use in youth is of concern for potential harms during that more vulnerable stage. Concerning marijuana use in athletes, research in this area to date – which is overall limited – has not revealed an association between cannabis use and athletic performance, despite early research suggesting otherwise. More research is needed to better inform the public as perceptions of the harms and benefits of marijuana use shift over time. NIDA continues to implement research projects to enhance our understanding of the risks and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis use, the impact of different doses and routes of administration on health outcomes, as well as the impact of cannabis policy on individual and public health.

 Once again, the NIDA highlights that this is a nuanced situation that is far from cut and dry. With the brain still developing through age 25, and there being cognitive, brain-development concerns pertaining to weed use for young people, it’s something that has to be looked at closely. 

 As far as the athletes specifically, much like Brungardt said, there being no correlation to marijuana use and athletic performance is really a driving point for the NCAA loosening their grip on marijuana restriction. And, in this day in age, even validates NIL deals with cannabis endorsement for athletes. Something that didn’t seem feasible at all just a short handful of years ago. 

 So this begs the question: where does cannabis legalization go from here? Molecular Biologist at UCONN Gerald Berkowitz, sees the weed-enabling momentum to be continuous on the track it’s been on. “I think the momentum is strong for federal legalization,” said Berkowitz. “There are too many states that have some legalized form of cannabis for adults that unless the federal policy is aligned with the states, we will have a difficult situation get worse.”

 From the college standpoint, he went on to say that he doesn’t believe colleges or the NCAA will change their marijuana regulations until it becomes federally legal. And that with more marijuana publicity, which there’s never been more of, that’ll eventually take shape. 

 Andrew Hathaway, a sociology professor at the University of Guelph in Canada, brings up another good side-point citing the effort to make legalized regulations for alcohol work despite it being the more harmful substance for your body.

 “Cannabis is safer than alcohol and therefore can be subject to similar regulations,” said Hathaway. “Smoked cannabis, like tobacco, might be subject to similar restrictions for those who do not like the smell of smoke. Edible forms require dosing information to facilitate harm reduction practices of users and to inform novice users of the risks.”

 Hathaway also circled back to one of the original sub-points of this issue, the perception and label of “criminals” that marijuana users have carried through time. 

 “Restricting use to 21 or older means that many more youth in the United States are considered criminal for their use of the drug. This is less than ideal from a public health standpoint and hinders the development of the legal market, said Hathaway. 

 Contrary to Berkowitz statement above, in the spring the NCAA did roll out a new, more lenient policy for positive marijuana test results for athletes.

 

 Sports Medicine professor Jeff Konin says people who are uncomfortable with this reality need to come to grips with it already arriving in full swing. “I hear a lot of people say we need to get ready, that cannabis is coming to the world of sports,” said Konin. “When I hear that I say ‘It’s not coming-it’s already here.’”

  “There is a stigma that’s preventing athletes from being open with their doctors about their use, and keeping sports physicians from being educated on what the science is showing us,” said Konin.

 "The overwhelmingly popular consensus voice of those athletes using cannabis is that they can notice improvements in recovery, and that translates to their performance," Konin said.

 Like every other novel concept or reality that has come to the forefront in our world, it needs to be taken in stride and in baby steps so that crucial mistakes aren’t made. 

 But based on the scientific evidence and first-hand accounts of people with experience, whether it be athletes or otherwise, using marijuana recreationally and or for recovery might be more beneficial than it was with the old marijuana stigma.