Will Mississippi high school athletes be allowed to take medical cannabis and play sports?
Mississippi became the 37th state to legalize medical marijuana in some capacity in February.
In the months since, many questions around the law have been answered. Such as which conditions qualify you for a cannabis card and why it may be challenging depending on your age.
Not everything is cut and dry, however. While the law provides guidelines that allow for high school students to be in possession of a card and have prescribed marijuana administered to them on campus, student athletes could be treading murkier waters.
The Mississippi High School Activities Association does not have any guidelines, rules or laws governing substance abuse for its member schools.
“The MHSAA recommends that each member school develop and implement a substance abuse/misuse policy, including procedures for chemical testing of student-athletes,” their handbook says.
Some school districts have separate drug policies for its student athletes while others do not, creating school-to-school discrepancies in what may be allowed and what may not be.
The Gulfport School District, home to 6,487 students, has a set of guidelines specifically for its athletes that says, “The use or possession of tobacco, vaping pens, alcohol, or illegal drugs by a Gulfport athlete is prohibited.”
The first offense punishment is a two-week suspension and counseling. The second leads to removal from the program.
Gulfport subjects every student involved in an extracurricular activity to random drug screenings.
As it currently stands, there is no athlete exception for a cannabis card. However, the school district is exploring the creation of one so that its athletic policies fall in line with state law.
For some schools, the answers are even more unclear.
The Harrison County School District, the largest in South Mississippi, does not have a separate drug policy for its athletes and are not subject to random drug screens.
“It may be a blind spot in our current policy,” HCSD athletic director Averie Bush told the Sun Herald. “Our policy as it relates to cannabinoids has not been specifically updated.”
Bush said there have been cases in the past where a student has been on a prescription narcotic and such instances needed to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Medical marijuana cannot be purchased in Mississippi just yet, as licensed dispensaries are still on the docket. The rollout process will give schools time to update their policies ahead of the 2022-23 academic year.
“When it’s out there and they start opening these places, I’m sure we’ll address it then,” Biloxi High School athletic director Tom Gladney said.
The City of Biloxi recently hosted a successful cannabis festival that both entertained and educated people on the medicinal value of marijuana.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
