To those of you reading, both past and present college students, I’m sure you all have endless stories to tell of your experiences- good, bad, or indifferent. I myself have quite a few, but for my fellow collegiate athletes out there this one is for you.

I recently graduated from a small private University in the state of Florida. While there I ran on the men’s cross country team for two years. Looking back now, I would do it all again. However, at times I sit back and think about how I used to get up at the crack ass of dawn to bang out five to ten mile-training runs. People used to ask me if I was on drugs or insane. (Or maybe both!) Sometimes even I myself wondered. No, no, yours truly is not the latest to be caught up in the performance enhancing drug scandal, nor do I aspire to be the next Tony Montana, but I do have a funny experience with regards to the issue.

As some of you may know, collegiate athletes of all sports are required to partake in random drug testing both in and out of season. As it was, it came to be my turn one week in November during the cross-country season. The test was scheduled for Monday morning at 8am. However, my coach only called me at 6pm the night before to let me know. Having a hectic schedule, I was nowhere near my room at that time, nor did I check my messages till days after. Ironically, I was off campus that Monday morning doing some community service activity for the school, when my coach calls to inform me that I missed my drug test. I’m wondering what fucking drug test, and if so what’s the big deal. I later come to realize that NCAA rules state that if you miss a drugs test, be it mandatory or random, YOU AUTOMATICALLY TEST POSITIVE! My coach was tripping balls at first, but I think it got cleared up due to the timing of the test (who really wants to piss in a cup at 8am!) and the lack of communication between my coach and I. As it is, I guess somewhere in the books of the NCAA, yours truly has tested positive for a banned substance. It’s really kind of funny considering that I’ve never done any sort of drugs whatsoever. Looking back, I guessed I should of smoked some of that shit after all!

Which comes to my next point – should recreational drugs, or drugs that do not produce any sort of performance enhancement be banned? For example, take our friend who we all know and love, “Mary Jane”. Marijuana is a banned drug on the NCAA “things not to do list”, but at times one wonders why. Okay, Okay… I know that pot is quote on quote an illegal drug (yeah whatever), but would it not decrease performance rather than enhance it? I mean, if a guy is having some stress due to pressure both on and off the field, who am I or anyone else to deny him/her the pleasure of a little puff puff. As Bob Marley once said… “Who the cap fit, let them wear it.”