• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • News
  • Lifestyle
  • Wellness
  • Cuisine
  • Product Reviews
  • Subscribe
Cannabis News and Culture Magazine

Cannabis News and Culture Magazine

Cannabis News and Culture Magazine

Emerald Media News Subscription
  • Print Magazines
  • 100+ Minority-Owned Companies to Support
  • No Pipe, No Problem
  • Blunt vs. Joint
  • The Cost of Cannabis in Each State
  • Calculating Your Edibles Dosage
  • Flintts Mouthwatering Mints

UFC Will no Longer Punish Fighters for Smoking Cannabis

January 17, 2021 by Rita Thompson Leave a Comment

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), a nonprofit whose goal is the advancement of clean sports, will no longer penalize Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athletes who test positive for cannabis. 

Prior to the change, which retroactively began Jan. 1st, officials tested athletes for cannabis prior to fights using a threshold system. Test results showing THC levels higher than 180ng/ML could result in suspension. 

 

Why the new Rules?

Under the new rules, however, there will be no punishment for a positive test result. That is as long as the athletes show no signs of visible impairment during the mixed martial arts competitions. 

The senior vice president of athlete health and performance for the UFC, Jeff Nivitzky, explained why he supported the rule change to MMA Fighting. 

“When I get those calls weeks out from a fight, fighters that use marijuana say ‘Jeff, when should I stop to make sure I’m under the level?’ Novitzky said. “What some of those stories include are ‘I choose to use marijuana in lieu of opioids for pain management, in lieu of Xanax to control my anxiety, in lieu of Ambien so I can sleep because I’m so damn nervous before a fight.’ It bothered me a lot that the rules in anti-doping really directs these fighters towards more dangerous drugs, the closer they get to fights.”

 

What the Science Shows

Novitzky, who noted recent discoveries regarding cannabis-impaired driving, said a report by the Department of Transportation is what accelerated his interest in the changes. 

The report, which researchers submitted to Congress in 2017, found no scientific correlation between levels of THC in the urine or blood, and impairment. 

Further, with no evidence to show that the phytocannabinoids often present in CBD products used by UFC athletes would provide significant performance advantages, the UFC is also removing such substances from the anti-doping policy.

“There’s just no science to support that any number correlates to impairment,” Novitzky said. “So that’s why we felt necessary to add that extra prong into the determination factor of ‘is there real evidence of impairment?’ I think this is going to be really good.”

“That’s really the only thing we care about in fighting from an anti-doping perspective is impairment,” he added. 

It is important to note that the change in USADA rules does not affect state-to-state regulations. Thus, athletes could potentially still face punishment for a positive test from varying athletic commissions.

The goal end, as noted by Novitzky, however, is to “educate, inform, and lobby” the entire organization into uniformity. 

A copy of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy can be found at ufc.usada.org.

 

Filed Under: Current, Lifestyle Tagged With: cannabis, drug testing, professional fighters, smoking, ufc

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Advertise Here

Categories

Sustainability

seaweed naturals

SeaWeed Naturals Combines the Power of Seaweed with Cannabis to Further Ocean Restoration

April 3, 2022 By Maggie Horton

fungi climate change

Research Finds Fungi Help Ease Climate Change and Benefit the Environment

March 30, 2022 By Julia Meyer

climate crisis and the pandemic

“We Can Act:” What Bending the COVID-19 Curve Teaches Us About the Climate Crisis

April 21, 2020 By Melissa Hutsell

Footer

  • Subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Press

Recent

  • Choosing the Right Cryptocurrency to Invest in
  • The Russian Cannabis Sentencing of Brittney Griner
  • CBD SEO Strategy – Best Practices in 2022
  • The Civilized Future of Public Consumption
  • The Best THCV Gummies & Oils for Weight Loss

Search

Copyright © 2022 · The Emerald™ · News & Lifestyle Magazine

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Cannabis News and Culture Magazine
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.