Photo courtesy of Martin Alonso.

Nevada regulators have now formally proposed to adopt a rule change that would protect athletes from being penalized for using or possessing marijuana in compliance with state law.

While the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) voted to send the regulatory amendment to the governor last year, they were also required to go through a separate rulemaking process to codify the policy, submitting it to the legislature’s Legislative Counsel Bureau (LCB) in May.

Last week, LCB sent the reformatted draft proposal back to NSAC—which regulates unarmed combat sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts within the state—with a largely identical version of what the commission had originally submitted, with mostly technical and formatting changes.

LCB’s role is to turn a regulatory agency’s rule “into a consistent form,” a staffer told Marijuana Moment on Friday. “We review it for legal accuracy…and then we send it back to the agency.”

The commission now has two years to hold a hearing to adopt final language. After that point, it will go back to LCB for another review to ensure that any changes meet legal requirements. Then it heads to the legislature’s Legislative Commission, comprised of six members of the Senate and six members of the Assembly, who will decide whether it should be officially enacted.

While the final rule must still go through that process, NSAC has already informally adopted to policy going back to 2021, which it’s empowered to do under state statute, and has been waiving penalties for professional fighters who test positive for THC.

While the proposed regulations would still say that the commission adopts the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of banned substances for athletes—which continues to include marijuana following the international governing body’s scientific review in 2022—they are seeking to add language to carve out an exception for cannabis for fighters in the state.

The regulation says that “the possession, use or consumption of cannabis or cannabis products will not be deemed an anti-doping violation, notwithstanding the laws of the jurisdiction where the possession, use or consumption may have occurred.”

Previously the rule specifically said “provided such possession, use, or consumption is legal under the laws of the State of Nevada,” so this seems to create a broader safeguard.

Professional athletics organizations at multiple levels have been reassessing and reforming cannabis policies in recent years amid the state-level legalization movement.

For example, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently voted to remove marijuana from its banned substances list for Division I players.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced in December that it is formally removing marijuana from its newly modified banned substances list for athletes, also building on an earlier reform.

However, ahead of a UFC event in February, a California athletics commission said they could still face penalties under state rules for testing positive for THC over a certain limit, as the state body’s policy is based around WADA guidance.

While the NFL and its players union agreed to end the practice of suspending players over marijuana or other drugs as part of a collective bargaining agreement in 2020, it has continued to fine players over positive THC tests—a policy that’s being challenged in federal court by one player who was repeatedly penalized over his use of a synthetic THC medication he was prescribed to treat anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pain.

Meanwhile, two in three Americans feel that Olympic athletes should be able to use marijuana without facing penalties—a higher percentage than those who say the same about alcohol, tobacco and psychedelics, according to a recent survey.

This gets at a longstanding debate, with international organizations such as WADA maintaining the cannabis ban, even as institutions such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) push for reform.

Just this month, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said it was “disappointing” that WADA has maintained the cannabis prohibition based on what he considers a misguided justification.

“I think we should all just be open and upfront about marijuana’s lack of performance-enhancing benefits,” Tygardt said. “We’re not in the recreational drug policing business. We’re here to prevent fraud in sport and cheaters in sport.”

WADA did carry out a review into its marijuana policy at the request of USADA and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) following the controversial suspension of U.S. runner Sha’Carri Richardson, who was barred from participating in the Olympics in 2021 after she tested positive for THC. Richardson said she used cannabis to cope with the recent passing of her mother.

Kyle Jaeger via (https://www.marijuanamoment.net/nevada-officials-take-next-step-to-stop-penalizing-boxers-and-mma-fighters-over-marijuana/)

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