September 16, 2015

Joe Rogan om Diaz' fem års utestengelse: "Kvalmende maktmisbruk"

September 16, 2015/ Tarjei Mørkve

UFC-kommentator og marihuana-forkjemper Joe Rogan viser avsky mot Nick Diaz' dopingdom.

Fra mmafighting.com:

It's no secret that UFC commentator Joe Rogan has been known to dabble in the ganja on occasion.

That's fine, you just can't bring it into the Octagon with you.

Standing before the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) on Monday, Nick Diaz was handed an unprecedented five-year suspension and fined $150,000 stemming from a failed post-fight drug test on Jan. 31 at UFC 183 at the MGM Grand.

In the test sample in question, Diaz's result showed marijuana metabolites amounting to 300 ng/ml, double the 150 allowable limit of the NAC.

Diaz was tested three different times on fight night by two different labs, the WADA-accredited Sports Medicine Research And Testing Laboratory out of Salt Lake City, Utah and Quest Diagnostics. The Sports Medicine Research And Testing Lab obtained two samples from Diaz at 7:12 PM and 11:50 PM local time and found both samples to be under the legal limit. The sample obtained by Quest at 10:38 PM found Diaz above the legal limit, leading to the test failure.

Basically, a lab with much better credentials found Diaz under the limit in two tests, while a lesser lab found Diaz above it in their single sample. The NAC decided to pay more attention to the later.

As a repeat offender in the state of Nevada, Diaz needed to submit a negative drug test result to the NAC before the fight. Diaz wasn't able to do so until Jan. 28, just three days before the event.

The legal process could keep Diaz tied up for years, but Rogan isn't staying silent.

NSAC suspending Nick Diaz for 5 years for pot is an irresponsible abuse of power. It's callous, idiotic and sickening.

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 15, 2015

Despite being an advocate for marijuana legalization, Rogan has actually played devil's advocate in the past by debating its merit as a performance-enhancing drug. Citing his own experience training under the influence of cannabis, Rogan hasn't always ruled it out as a competitive aid.

"I just know that [marijuana] gives you an advantage in jiu jitsu," Rogan told UFC's VP of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky in August. "I know it does. I know so many guys use it. So many guys roll [spar] with it. Big name guys that are high-level jiu jitsu competitors, they train high every time and they love it. I just think you can't ignore that. I think it's quite possible that there's an advantage to using.

"And then the pain relief aspect of it. Look, you can't fight on pain pills. If there was a pain blocker that allowed you not to feel the impacts of strikes and you just went out there and fought and dealt with the consequences tomorrow when it wore off, that would be illegal for sure. Well, marijuana is absolutely used to help people with pain management. Absolutely. So I don't think it should be legal to compete with."

In the case of fighters, Rogan says more research needs to be done to prove marijuana's performance-enhancing capabilities, if they exist at all.