Drugs and Sports: Not All It’s Cracked up to Be
Even though drugs are illegal in the NCAA, that doesn’t stop all student athletes from taking the banned substances.
Some take it because they think it will increase their performance, because of pressure and anxiety or because they feel insecure or want to rebel.
So the NCAA does random drug testing to make sure all players are on even playing field.
The NCAA spends approximately $4 million each year for its national drug testing program, and it provides more than $800,000 each year in funding assistance for education programs to NCAA colleges and universities.
There are different types of NCAA drug testing—random testing during the year and drug testing at championship games.
About 2,500 student-athletes were tested in 2006-07. The championships testing program tests for steroids, masking agents and ephedrine as well as other stimulants, peptide hormones and street drugs.
Any Division I or Division II student-athlete may be tested for training drugs such as anabolic steroids. About 10,500 student-athletes are randomly selected from squad lists and tested by the NCAA on their campuses August through June.
The year-round program tests for steroids, masking agents and ephedrine.
If you’re caught, you can’t play for the NCAA for a full-year and loses one of four years of eligibility. If you’re caught a second time, you lose all remaining eligibility and are permanently banned from intercollegiate competition.
And don’t think you are home free over the summer. The NCAA has been doing periodically summer testing since 2006.
The NCAA’s list of banned drug classes is far more extensive than those substances banned under federal law. For a full list check the NCAA website.
So when it comes to college sports and drugs, there is no playing around.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Sports and Drugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
