NCAA endangers student athletes with terrible message on drugs

Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen joined ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to break down the impact alcohol, marijuana, and vaping can have on teenagers’ mental and physical health.

"It’s college – everyone experiments a little." This oft-repeated trope could soon have real-world consequences for today’s student-athletes.

The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports recently "signaled its support" for the college athletics governing body to remove marijuana (THC) from the NCAA’s list of banned substances and instead focus testing only on "performance-enhancing drugs."

That’s right, the governing body for college athletics might soon be telling their students – most of whom physiologically still have developing brains – that it’s OK to do drugs. 

A cannabis at the "Weed the People" event as enthusiasts gather to celebrate the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana in Portland, Oregon, in 2016. (Reuters)

They appear to be willing to create this permissive environment despite a mountain of medical and scientific data that’s making it increasingly clear the impacts of today’s high-potency pot products, including vapes and candies, are even worse than we thought, particularly for our young people.

THIS IS AMERICA'S SURPRISING YOUTH DRUG CRISIS

In even considering this risky if not outright dangerous move, the NCAA is choosing to ignore the advice of every major medical association and surgeon general that today’s THC-laced drugs are damaging to the brain. Marijuana isn’t the drug it was a generation ago. It’s an industrialized, highly potent product that is anything but "recreational."

Studies over the last number of years, including one released last month, link THC use to significant physical