For those thinking that FBS football programs in Colorado and Washington were the biggest winners Election Day, that may have been nothing more than a pipe dream, so to speak.
Citizens in the states of Colorado and Washington Tuesday approved proposals that decriminalized the use of marijuana (up to 28.5 grams), even for non-medicinal (recreational) purposes. Shortly after it was announced the twin initiatives had passed, the line of thinking went that, with weed legal in those two states, it would help programs like Colorado, Colorado State, Washington and Washington State on the recruiting trail.
The head of the NCAA, though, doesn’t see that happening.
Marijuana has been on the NCAA’s list of banned substances, and president Mark Emmert said it would come as a surprise if the Association changed its stance in the wake of the drug being legalized in the two states.
“There hasn’t been any discussion to that effect, and I would be surprised if there was an interest in doing that,” Emmert said according to the Associated Press. “Our policies are our policies now, and I would be surprised if they change.”
An NCAA official further refined the group’s stance, reminding people that, yes, marijuana is still a banned substance.
“The NCAA banned drug and testing policies are not tied to whether a substance is legal for general population use,” NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson wrote in a statement to the AP, “but rather whether the substance is considered a threat to student-athlete health and safety or the integrity of the game.”