This time an amateur was bitten by the completely unjustifiable law, but the matter still stands:
Danny Davis, who last competed for Espinoza Kickboxing on December 13, 2008 in South San Francisco, has tested positive for Marijuana. His suspension period runs from the conclusion of the bout on December 13, 2008 through March 13, 2009. He has been fined $500.
For those new to the issue, the gist is this:
1. The CSAC and NSAC use urine tests to determine whether someone's metabolite levels determine impairment. The problem? There is no dose correlation between metabolite levels and impairment that can reasonably be established with urine tests. Were the commissions willing to use blood tests, the results would be more believable, but in this case we have a farrago of phony tests proving nothing except that the CSAC if perfectly willing to squander tax payer money on wild goose chases.
2. The reason metabolite levels determining impairment are important is because the commissions (more so the NSAC) want you to beleive marijuana is not performance enhancing, but could have a "positive impact". So, the commissions want to establish that a fighter was impaired at some point during the fight in order to prove the fighter benefited from the alleged "positive impact" of marijuana.
There is obviously more to the story and I want to be clear that I am not suggesting it's acceptable for a fighter to use marijuana such that they are intoxicated during a fight. There are serious problems with allowing such anarchy. My point is that however well intentioned the CSAC may be, the urine tests used to establish a threshold for impairment prove nothing and are a complete waste of time and resources. Given how negatively a drug suspension can impact a fighter's career and finances, the CSAC and NSAC have a responsibility to appropriately test for marijuana presence if they are to enforce laws against such use. Period.
Oh yeah, and if we're concerned with fighters' health even about drugs that are legal but aren't allowed to be used in certain circumstances (like aspirin before a fight), there's a decent list here maybe the CSAC should take a look at.