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Understanding Drug Tests: The Weed and the Damage Done

Mark Thompson

Every time a player has been dismissed under Charlie Strong (and we're up to nine now), speculation about each dismissal has run rampant on UT websites/blogs. Most of the talk has (rightfully) centered on recreational drug use by players. This should not be shocking to: (1. Anyone who has gone to college, or (2. Anyone who has breached the city limits of our beloved Austin.

Amid all the speculation, there's a very basic aspect that comes up consistently which people are surprisingly undereducated about, yet remains a constant point of contention: what are the drug testing protocols for athletes at UT, in the Big 12 and the NCAA? I'm not an expert on these matters, but I've researched them enough, and I'd like for everyone to have the same baseline understanding so I don't read another "Charlie Strong kicks guys out for being in a room with a bong" type comment.

Let me toss out a few parameters for comments in the event anyone reads this: (1. This isn't a forum for advocating your personal feelings on marijuana legality. I'm relating institutional rules - I don't care. I live in a medicinal use state; anyone with a sore wrist and a doctor has a card and dime bag where I live. (2. This isn't a forum to bash Mack Brown for purportedly running a lax program. I don't know how he addressed this stuff. I don't care. He's gone. (3. This isn't a forum to bemoan Charlie Strong taking a hard line with drug use. He's the head coach. He stated his rules the day he took over. He's enforcing them.

Marijuana and heroin use are prohibited by the NCAA as recreational drugs. That's it. That's the list of recreational drugs as far as the NCAA is concerned. Historically a positive test resulted in one calendar year of ineligibility. As of August 1st of this year, that penalty has been reduced to 6 months.

The caveat is that the NCAA only administers drug tests during "championship" events (playoffs, tournaments, bowl games). For those of you paying attention to such things, you'll recall Mitch McGary at the University of Michigan was handed a one year ban this summer. That resulted from a huge mistake by the Wolverines in order to complicate opponents' game plans(?) and give false hope to fans.

McGary was never going to see the court due to his back injury, but he dressed out. Since he was in uniform at the tourney, the NCAA tested him along with the team, and whaddya know - he had been commiserating with MJ. That gamesmanship didn't mean anything for the Maize and Blue last year, but McGary was planning on sticking around for another year. He rightfully bolted for the draft instead of sitting on a folding chair in Ann Arbor for a year.

All other drug testing is administered by conferences and schools on a year-round, randomized basis.

Schools and conferences set their own and, ideally, more restrictive policies regarding the frequency of drug testing and the resultant punishments over the standards established by the NCAA. The Big 12 conducts school-wide, random drug tests covering all athletes at every member institution twice annually, and then during all conference championship events. Pretty straight forward stuff on the conference level.

With respect to UT, there are a few important things to note about how the University conducts it’s drug testing. For people thinking Charlie Strong is handing out plastic specimen cups to each player on a daily basis, that's not the case. The testing is conducted by Athletic Department staff (with no ties to any team), and they determine who is tested and when.

It is my understanding that a coach can request that an athlete be tested more frequently, but that's it. Typically football and baseball players are tested more frequently than other athletes. Coaches aren’t notified of a first positive test for recreational drugs – the athlete is told and a report is put in their file.

Although I don’t know Strong’s policy on suspensions, University policy is that if you test positive three times for recreational drugs, you are dismissed from the school. And that's the policy FOR ALL ATHLETES.

It stands to reason that a second positive test,when coaches are notified, is the trigger for Strong to suspend a player. Considering Strong's only been on the job 8+ months, if you’ve already popped positive two or three times, I’d say you’re not taking the rules or your football commitment very seriously. I'd also venture to say he has made the same assessment of those individuals.

Like I stated earlier, I'm not an expert on this stuff. I would say this summarizes the parameters for the team, conference and NCAA pretty well. If anyone has corrections or more specific information, please share. I just don't want to see any more posts that Coach Strong booted someone for one bad test. That's not the program he's running, but his vigilance insuring the football players adhere to the rules is robust. Robust, straight forward, and fair in my opinion.

Be excellent to each other.

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