Question remains about the Jon Jones drug testing in Nevada

Between the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) hearings last week, and the results of Jon Jones‘ cocaine  test, we’re left right now with a very big question.

One key answer was something few were aware of, and certainly not many fighters were surprised when it came out. While illegal from a ordinary citizen standpoint, cocaine use is perfectly fine for fighters from an athletic commission standpoint so long as it doesn’t show up in a drug test taken on the day of the fight. In other words, as long as it’s not traceable in your urine, which is usually a 72-to-96 hour window, on a day everyone knows in advance they are being tested.

To get caught, and punished, under normal circumstances when it comes to cocaine, you have to be either a hopeless addict or someone with an IQ of an egg plant.

Faced with the obvious question about whether that’s a good thing, the Nevada commission talked in circles, avoided the issue and ultimately said nothing. At least they didn’t rush to make a ruling like last year when they abolished testosterone replacement therapy without any discussion. There was no understanding that people who were on it needed to use certain medications to get off it, most of which happen to be banned, for the very reason they are used by people coming off steroid cycles, which long-term TRT usage is.

Luckily this didn’t turn into as big an issue as it should have, because once Chael Sonnen admitted use of EPO and HGH, being caught with banned substances like Clomiphene, HCG and Anastrozole that were both banned and that for his own health, he should have been taking at the time, became a moot point.

But the labeling of cocaine, because it is not considered a performance-enhancing drug, as perfectly fine outside of competition has me worried. Perhaps it’s having written a number of obituaries over the years for athletes who used cocaine and then wound up dead.

I could see why the commission would want this to go away. On one hand, there is the issue of morality police for something that in theory should not be helping someone unfairly win a fight. But if they publicly say that, it comes across like they are soft on drug use. One thing clear from this past couple of weeks is that the general public, and most of the media, doesn’t understand the designation of in-competition and out-of-competition. All parties in this story, the commission, the UFC and Jones were considered laughing stocks by most fans, whether that’s fair or not.

But there is a silver lining to this, and that is to bring something that few knew, cocaine usage is fine most of the time in this drug tested sport, out in the open. And the best thing for UFC and the athletic commissions to do is to address this seriously.

The question that needs to be asked is if cocaine is dangerous to the athlete. And perhaps more important, if it isn’t all the time, when is it?

After every fight, the athletic commissions put fighters on suspension, not just from fighting, but in many cases from any kind of heavy contact training, for a certain length of time, particularly if they have taken significant physical damage.

These post-fight medical suspensions have nothing to do with performance-enhancing qualities. Going back to training early is not meant to protect the next opponent from something unfair. It is to protect the fighter on suspension from doing more damage to themselves because their bodies need rest more than they need contact training, because the latter in that condition could hurt them.

If cocaine is banned in competition, and this question can be asked of any drug, it’s to protect fighters from themselves, because fighting under the influence is more dangerous than just fighting alone.

The key is the physical demands of training in this sport are very different from most Olympic sports. Using a blanket rule that is used for archery, fencing or badminton may not be something that should be a rule for mixed martial arts

This is not a debate between drugs are bad vs. personal rights to use illegal drugs as long as you don’t get caught. It’s about the health and safety of the competitors, the same reason you can’t get knocked out on Saturday and spar hard the next Tuesday.

Doctors who have understanding of this specific sport and that training required to compete at a high level need to be brought in to a commission hearing. The questions should be asked is if cocaine usage during the hardest part of training camp mixes well with the physical nature and stress of training for a UFC level fight. If they feel the mix isn’t dangerous, fine, move on. If they feel it is, that, and any other substances that can have significant negative repercussions if used during heavy physical and cardiovascular training need to be both tested for, and banned, throughout camp, or even year-around, not just the day of the fight.

A second question revolves around the question of year-around drug testing for PED’s, who is in charge, and the protocol involved.

In a sport where PED use may be significant and at a minimum exists to a certain degree, and where the inherent nature of the sport makes it more dangerous than most, that there needs to be year-around random testing.

Part of me would rather it was an outside agency handling it and not the organization itself. Nothing against the UFC, but I’ve learned enough over the years not to trust plenty of other organizations that do handle their own testing. There has been too much evidence of people failing tests left and right that were never punished because of the star status of the person failing. Even an organization that wants to be fair and vigilant is going to have a hard time pulling a trigger with a dirty test result of the money draw if it comes in three days before a $50 million show that millions have already been spent in promotion on.

But there are also too many loopholes in the current commission-based testing. The key is that fighters are only tested out of competition in a few states, and those states only test fighters who have announced fights coming in their jurisdiction. This leaves too much time between fights. And there are still places that only test the day of the fight, or maybe only vigilantly test the main events.

The PED issue is a subject that commissioners can’t afford to not be on the ball on, or they shouldn’t be regulating it.

But no matter how the testing is handled, it is incumbent on all commissioners in major states to, as quickly as possible, get up to speed on this issue.

Between the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) hearings last week, and the results of Jon Jones‘ cocaine  test, we’re left right now with a very big question.

One key answer was something few were aware of, and certainly not many fighters were surprised when it came out. While illegal from a ordinary citizen standpoint, cocaine use is perfectly fine for fighters from an athletic commission standpoint so long as it doesn’t show up in a drug test taken on the day of the fight. In other words, as long as it’s not traceable in your urine, which is usually a 72-to-96 hour window, on a day everyone knows in advance they are being tested.

To get caught, and punished, under normal circumstances when it comes to cocaine, you have to be either a hopeless addict or someone with an IQ of an egg plant.

Faced with the obvious question about whether that’s a good thing, the Nevada commission talked in circles, avoided the issue and ultimately said nothing. At least they didn’t rush to make a ruling like last year when they abolished testosterone replacement therapy without any discussion. There was no understanding that people who were on it needed to use certain medications to get off it, most of which happen to be banned, for the very reason they are used by people coming off steroid cycles, which long-term TRT usage is.

Luckily this didn’t turn into as big an issue as it should have, because once Chael Sonnen admitted use of EPO and HGH, being caught with banned substances like Clomiphene, HCG and Anastrozole that were both banned and that for his own health, he should have been taking at the time, became a moot point.

But the labeling of cocaine, because it is not considered a performance-enhancing drug, as perfectly fine outside of competition has me worried. Perhaps it’s having written a number of obituaries over the years for athletes who used cocaine and then wound up dead.

I could see why the commission would want this to go away. On one hand, there is the issue of morality police for something that in theory should not be helping someone unfairly win a fight. But if they publicly say that, it comes across like they are soft on drug use. One thing clear from this past couple of weeks is that the general public, and most of the media, doesn’t understand the designation of in-competition and out-of-competition. All parties in this story, the commission, the UFC and Jones were considered laughing stocks by most fans, whether that’s fair or not.

But there is a silver lining to this, and that is to bring something that few knew, cocaine usage is fine most of the time in this drug tested sport, out in the open. And the best thing for UFC and the athletic commissions to do is to address this seriously.

The question that needs to be asked is if cocaine is dangerous to the athlete. And perhaps more important, if it isn’t all the time, when is it?

After every fight, the athletic commissions put fighters on suspension, not just from fighting, but in many cases from any kind of heavy contact training, for a certain length of time, particularly if they have taken significant physical damage.

These post-fight medical suspensions have nothing to do with performance-enhancing qualities. Going back to training early is not meant to protect the next opponent from something unfair. It is to protect the fighter on suspension from doing more damage to themselves because their bodies need rest more than they need contact training, because the latter in that condition could hurt them.

If cocaine is banned in competition, and this question can be asked of any drug, it’s to protect fighters from themselves, because fighting under the influence is more dangerous than just fighting alone.

The key is the physical demands of training in this sport are very different from most Olympic sports. Using a blanket rule that is used for archery, fencing or badminton may not be something that should be a rule for mixed martial arts

This is not a debate between drugs are bad vs. personal rights to use illegal drugs as long as you don’t get caught. It’s about the health and safety of the competitors, the same reason you can’t get knocked out on Saturday and spar hard the next Tuesday.

Doctors who have understanding of this specific sport and that training required to compete at a high level need to be brought in to a commission hearing. The questions should be asked is if cocaine usage during the hardest part of training camp mixes well with the physical nature and stress of training for a UFC level fight. If they feel the mix isn’t dangerous, fine, move on. If they feel it is, that, and any other substances that can have significant negative repercussions if used during heavy physical and cardiovascular training need to be both tested for, and banned, throughout camp, or even year-around, not just the day of the fight.

A second question revolves around the question of year-around drug testing for PED’s, who is in charge, and the protocol involved.

In a sport where PED use may be significant and at a minimum exists to a certain degree, and where the inherent nature of the sport makes it more dangerous than most, that there needs to be year-around random testing.

Part of me would rather it was an outside agency handling it and not the organization itself. Nothing against the UFC, but I’ve learned enough over the years not to trust plenty of other organizations that do handle their own testing. There has been too much evidence of people failing tests left and right that were never punished because of the star status of the person failing. Even an organization that wants to be fair and vigilant is going to have a hard time pulling a trigger with a dirty test result of the money draw if it comes in three days before a $50 million show that millions have already been spent in promotion on.

But there are also too many loopholes in the current commission-based testing. The key is that fighters are only tested out of competition in a few states, and those states only test fighters who have announced fights coming in their jurisdiction. This leaves too much time between fights. And there are still places that only test the day of the fight, or maybe only vigilantly test the main events.

The PED issue is a subject that commissioners can’t afford to not be on the ball on, or they shouldn’t be regulating it.

But no matter how the testing is handled, it is incumbent on all commissioners in major states to, as quickly as possible, get up to speed on this issue.