Amid news that marijuana has once again wrecked a UFC fighter’s night of triumph, promotion executive Marc Ratner has told the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) that it should soften its stance on fighters testing positive for the banned substance.
His comments came after revelations that bantamweight Alex Caceres was among the fighters who failed their post-fight drug tests following the UFC on Fuel TV event in Saitama, Japan, earlier in the month.
Caceres won a split decision against Kyung Ho Kang, but that was overturned to a no-contest after marijuana metabolites were found in the fighter’s urine.
The test was conducted by the UFC itself, as Japan has no athletic commission, and resulted in a six-month suspension for Caceres, retroactive to the date of the event. The punishment is less harsh than the one usually meted out by the NSAC for similar infractions.
For example, earlier this year, boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was suspended for nine months for testing positive for marijuana metabolites and fined $900,000. Last year, Nick Diaz, who failed his second test for marijuana in Nevada, was suspended one year and fined 30 percent of his purse.
Ratner told the NSAC Drug Testing Advisory Panel on Thursday (h/t MMA Junkie):
Society is changing… It’s a different world now than when I was on the commission. States are legalizing marijuana, and it’s becoming more and more of a problem with fighters testing positive (for marijuana) and the metabolites.
Ratner once worked for the NSAC as executive director but is now the UFC’s vice president of regulatory affairs.
There has been a much-publicized problem with fighters testing positive for steroids, with Lavar Johnson just the latest name accused of injecting steroids after he also failed a drug test following the same event in Japan.
Johnson has also been cut, but punishments for steroid abuse aren’t always so harsh. Chael Sonnen, for example, was only served a six-month suspension for using steroids in California, while Alistair Overeem was banned for nine months.
Since then, debate has raged about whether marijuana should be classified in the same league as steroids when it comes to handing punishments out to fighters who use.
“Right now, I just cannot believe that a performance-enhancing drug and marijuana can be treated the same,” Ratner said. “It just doesn’t make sense to the world anymore, and it’s something that I think has to be brought up.”
The NSAC committee will meet again in 30 days, but there is no indication that the issue of marijuana use will be on the agenda or that the commission even intends to do anything about it.
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