When we think about drug use in sports, we often think of performance-enhancing drugs (PED), or the doping scandal that rocked the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. While doping is undoubtedly a scourge on professional sports, and the side effects of PEDs are extremely hazardous, steroids are only one part of much larger issue. Recreational drug and substance use is on the rise in sports, and not just in the big leagues; college athletic programs are seeing a rise in recreational drug use, but not in the sports we might think.
College sports are a multi-million (near billion, after the NCAA made nearly $990 million in 2014) industry, with basketball and football programs raking in hundreds of millions of dollars every year in sponsorships, advertising, broadcasting, and merchandising. In fact, it’s not uncommon for a college to put over one billion dollars into their football programs, as Ohio State did in 2014. With this amount of money comes a ridiculous amount of pressure for athletes to not only compete on a professional level, but to succeed at virtually any cost. This is why PED use comes as no surprise. While the NCAA often comments on their near-zero positive drug tests, research focusing on the weight gain and hospital time for NCAA football players makes the case that doping is far more rampant than the public is led to believe. Combined with the opposition from colleges to increase their drug testing efforts, it’s clear that drug use is being swept under the rug. However, substance use disorder at this level isn’t just PEDs.
Despite the relatively lenient drug testing policies of major American universities, research shows that cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana are all being used in large amounts by collegiate athletes. Surprisingly, however, the numbers don’t point to athletes in the most popular sports. Basketball and football players reported some of the lowest numbers of substance use, placing 10th and 8th in the list of the ten most popular sports that report substance use disorder, respectively. Shockingly, a majority of substance use disorder occurs outside of the most popular sports in college athletics. On the same list, lacrosse and ice hockey place first and second in terms of substance use disorder. The reason for this is relatively illusive, but research suggests that these trends point to team based sports using more alcohol and substances vs. individual sports, as golf and track athletes reported the least substance use.
However, there might be more to this than just what type of sport the substance use disorder takes place in. Drug testing in the NCAA is inconsistent, and some schools and sports programs aren’t required to release the results of their drug testing or their policies. There still may be truth to team v. individual sports and the correlation of drug use, though. Lacrosse players use more than fifteen times the amount of cocaine that golf and tennis players do, and double the marijuana. It could also be a combination of many factors, including inconsistent drug testing, team/individual sports, or simply the amount of pressure athletes are facing in their respective programs. Regardless of the reason, a spotlight needs to be shone on this issue, and more needs to be done on the part of the NCAA to help prevent substance use disorder in college sports.
