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      Marijuana Use and College Athletes
 Annual Marijuana Usage Among College Athletes  1985-19974
Year Annual Usage
1985 35.3%
1989 27.5%
1993 21.4%
1997 28.4%
2001 27.3%
 

 

       

                  

In June 2001, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) surveyed 21,225 college athletes from 713 institutions across the United States. Past surveys had shown a sharp decrease of marijuana use in the late 1980s and early 1990s (see table 2). In a reversal of that trend, 28.4 percent of the athletes surveyed in 1997 reported using marijuana at least once during the previous year. This figure dropped slightly to 27.3 percent in 2001.

The majority of the athletes surveyed had started using marijuana prior to coming to college. Specifically, 63.7 percent of users started in high school, while 12.9 percent started during their first year in college and 8.6 percent after their first year in college. By ethnic group, the highest rate of marijuana use was found among Caucasians, a trend also found among college students in general.

Among athletes, 60.4 percent of marijuana users state that they use marijuana to serve recreational or social purposes, and 33.8 percent say that they use it because it makes them feel good. For those who do not use marijuana, 27.1 percent said that they refrained because they had no desire for the effects created by marijuana, 24.1 percent refrained because they were concerned about their health, and 13.4 percent refrained because it was against their religious or moral beliefs.5

4 Gledhill-Hoyt, J.; Lee, H.; Strote, J.; Wechsler, H. "Increased Use of Marijuana and Other Illicit Drugs at U.S. Colleges in the 1990s: Results of Three National Surveys," Addiction 95, no. 11 (2000): 1655–1667; 5 NCAA Research Staff. NCAA Study of Substance Use Habits of College Student-Athletes (The National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2001).

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