Nick Diaz was suspended for one year by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his positive test for marijuana metabolites following his loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143 in Las Vegas.
The UFC welterweight, who was already under temporary suspension since the failed drug test, was also fined $60,000 (30 per cent of his $200,000 purse for the fight).
Appearing before the commission Monday, Diaz’s lawyer Ross Goodman argued that the NSAC could not suspend him for violating its policies since marijuana metabolites do not constitute a prohibited substance.
Diaz, who has a medical exemption to use marijuana in his home state of California, has been taking it to help deal with ADHD.
Goodman said that there was no evidence of use of “in-competition” use of marijuana, which is on the commission’s list of banned substance, and that the marijuana metabolite, which would have been from his last use of the drug more than a week prior, would not have had an active ingredient of THC at the time of the fight.
– Read the entire article at Sportsnet.ca.
