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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The Nevada Athletic Commission has passed new punishment guidelines for drug and PED offenses, and it means significant punishments are coming to offenders moving forward.
The commission debated the guidelines at their latest meeting in Las Vegas, passing the proposed measure unanimously.
Here are the suspensions and fines to be implemented moving forward later this year, via ESPN's Brett Okamoto (Numbers now updated as of 3PMET):
Avoiding Testing or Detection (i.e., using an altered sample)
First Offense: 4 years, 75% of purse
Second Offense: Lifetime ban, 100% of purse
In addition to those punishments, a failed drug test will now result in a loss on the fighters record, rather than a "no contest."
The rules will not be implemented immediately. According to Okamoto, the commission will still need to amend their statutes to allow for these punishments, which will take some time.
Penick's Analysis: These are severe punishments across the board, but there's some significant concern as it relates to their marijuana testing. Considering they don't do blood tests for marijuana, and rely simply on urinalysis to find metabolites, these are ridiculous punishments with no proof of use on fight night. They're not finding the psychoactive component of the drug in these fighters, and even at the higher thresholds for the metabolites, they're not proving anything was done the day of the fight, and that's a problem when it's currently not a banned substance "out of competition." Also, given it's current legality in several states and increasing pushes for it to be legalized in general, this becomes an unjust thing to punish considering that, again, they're not proving the drug was used the night of the fight. When there is little recourse for fighters on appeal, this could be seen as a significant overreach on the part of the commission, and we may yet see their authority on this end challenged. Unfortunately, this is the way it's going for now, and though it may represent a significant deterrent to some fighters, it may also mean many and more avoid getting booked in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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