Nevada state regulators have now officially proposed adopting a rule change that would protect athletes from punishment if they use or possess marijuana in violation of state law.
Although the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) voted to send the regulation change to the governor last year, a separate legislative process was also required to codify the policy and submit it to the Legislature’s Legislative Counsel Bureau (LCB) in May.
Last week, the LCB sent the reformatted draft proposal back to the NSAC, which regulates unarmed combat sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts in the state. The draft was largely identical to what the commission had originally submitted, containing mostly technical and formal changes.
The LCB’s role is to “bring a regulatory agency’s rules into a uniform form,” an official told Marijuana Moment on Friday. “We review them for legal accuracy … and then send them back to the agency.”
The commission now has two years to hold a hearing and adopt the final language. After that, the bill will be sent back to the LCB to ensure that any changes meet legal requirements. The bill will then be sent to the Legislature’s Legislative Committee, which will consist of six members of the Senate and six members of the Assembly, which will decide whether the bill should officially become law.
While the final rule has yet to go through that process, the NSAC has already informally adopted a policy retroactive to 2021, which it is authorized to do under state law, waiving penalties for professional fighters who test positive for THC.
While the proposed regulations continue to state that the Commission will adopt the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of substances prohibited for athletes – which will continue to include marijuana following scientific review by the international governing body in 2022 – additional wording would create an exception for cannabis for fighters in the state.
The regulation states: “The possession, use or consumption of cannabis or cannabis products shall not be considered an anti-doping rule violation, regardless of the laws of the state in which the possession, use or consumption occurred.”
Previously, the rule specifically stated, “Provided such possession, use, or consumption is legal under the laws of the State of Nevada.” So this seems to offer more comprehensive protection.
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Professional sports organizations at various levels have reevaluated and reformed their cannabis policies in recent years in the wake of the state-level legalization movement.
For example, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently voted to remove marijuana from the list of banned substances for Division I players.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced in December that it was officially removing marijuana from its newly revised list of banned substances for athletes, also building on an earlier reform.
However, ahead of a UFC competition in February, a California athletics commission said that a positive THC test above a certain limit could still result in penalties under state regulations, as the state commission’s policies are based on WADA’s guidelines.
While the NFL and its players’ union agreed as part of a 2020 collective bargaining agreement to end the practice of suspending players for marijuana or other drugs, players have continued to be fined for testing positive for THC – a policy that is being challenged in federal court by a player who has been repeatedly punished for taking a synthetic THC drug prescribed to treat anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pain.
At the same time, two in three Americans believe Olympic athletes should be allowed to use marijuana without being penalized, a higher percentage than those who say this about alcohol, tobacco and psychedelics, according to a recent poll.
This is a topic of long-standing debate, with international organizations such as WADA maintaining the cannabis ban while institutions such as the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) pushing for reforms.
Just this month, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said it was “disappointing” that WADA was maintaining the cannabis ban based on what he considered to be misguided reasoning.
“I think we should all be open and honest about the lack of performance-enhancing effects of marijuana,” Tygardt said. “We are not in the drug war. We are here to prevent cheating and fraud in sports.”
At the request of USADA and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), WADA has reviewed its marijuana policy. This comes after the controversial suspension of US runner Sha’Carri Richardson, who was barred from competing in the 2021 Olympic Games after testing positive for THC. Richardson said she had been using cannabis to cope with the recent death of her mother.
USADA said at the time that international marijuana regulations “need to change.” The White House and President Joe Biden himself also signaled that it was time for new policies, and members of Congress reinforced that message.
Marijuana use should not disqualify athletes from the Olympics, Americans say in new poll
Photo courtesy of Martin Alonso.
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