CSAC POSITION ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA
The California State Athletic Commission’s position is that Marijuana is a banned substance pursuant to Rule 303 and that any positive drug test may result in discipline.
The California Supreme Court has weighed in on “Medical Marijuana” in the employment context and has found that an employer may discipline an employee for off-duty medical marijuana use. The court found that the Compassionate Use Act did not legalize marijuana use per se, but merely provided a defense to criminal charges under particular circumstances. The Court acknowledged that marijuana still had a potential for abuse and that employers continued to have a legitimate interest in whether an employee uses the drug. The Court declined to extend the protections of the Compassionate Use Act any further than the plain language of the Act and into the employer-employee relationship.
Although the question springs from professional licensing rather than employment, much of the Court’s rationale applies. Because the Compassionate Use Act only provides a defense to criminal charges, any argument that the Act would allow an athlete to use the drug without consequences to his or her license must fail. If the Court were to take up a similar challenge to discipline of a licensee, it would likely find that the Commission has a legitimate interest in whether or not an athlete uses the drug because marijuana could slow a fighter’s reflexes and endanger his or her health and safety in the ring or the cage.
Therefore, given the limited reach of the Compassionate Use Act and the rationale of the Supreme Court in Ross v. RagingWire Telcomm, the Commission may safely discipline an athlete without running afoul of any law or court decision.
We’ve been following the cases of Nick Diaz and especially Toby “TigerHeart” Grear as they’ve battled the CSAC for the right to be able to use their medicine and continue to fight. The irony is that these MMA fighters could use all sorts of painkillers and anti-inflammatories to deal with the rigors of training and face no sanction, but those drugs are more harmful to their health. Marijuana continues to suffer because its metabolites are stored in the body and released over a long period of time. Isn’t that something? Our bodies will expel the toxic residues of alcohol and most drugs within two days, process and eliminate the liquids we drink and solids we eat within hours, and exhale the air we breathe every minute, but our bodies will hold on to cannabinoids for weeks.
I find it hilarious that the CSAC even attempts to rationalize its decision. The fact is that the law allows them to discriminate, so they will. But to say that “marijuana could slow a fighter’s reflexes and endanger his or her health and safety in the ring or the cage” is an insult to the fighters. Do you really think Nick or Toby or Diego are stepping into a fight having just hit a gravity bong? This rationale assumes these well-trained athletes are going to purposefully take a substance that diminished their performance, which in this sport means “having your face turned to hamburger by some dude’s elbows before he flips you on the back and chokes you unconscious or breaks your elbow backwards.”
I could give them a tad more respect (as in a raise from 0 to 0.1 on a scale of 1-10) if they had made the performance-enhancing arguments put forth on the ESPN blog coverage of the story:
(The hypotheticals: that marijuana’s soothing effect on chronic pain could help mitigate any nagging injuries suffered in training; that its calming effect could make someone less irritated or concerned by their physical fatigue; that it could make an athlete capable of tolerating more trauma in a bout; and inversely, that their reflexes or reaction time could result in serious injury during a bout.)
Jazz musicians often talk about how marijuana changes their perception of time, how it makes them be able to feel syncopation and grace notes that just don’t compute when straight. I know many a computer coder who tells of solving intricate logic problems through a flash of insight seen only when high. I imagine there must be some similar experience in professional fighting.
This is a combat sport, right? Let’s settle it in the cage! Next season of Ultimate Fighter, have one team that’s all medical marijuana patients and one team that is not, and let’s see who wins.
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[...] California State Athletic Commission rules against medical marijuana [...]
I do Capoeira and for the longest time I went to class sober, not wanting to be disrespectful I guess. Then one day I smoked a bowl beforehand and I started having lots of insights about how to do different things like walking on my hands, doing different kicks, coming up with new moves. I improved dramatically for several weeks.
Then I tried going to class sober for a week and not only was it less fun but it felt like I hit a wall on improving. When I returned to smoking before class I was able to play better again.
So yeah, it really does help with martial arts, at least for me. Capoeira isn’t exactly the same as MMA by any means but I can confidently say that being high makes me better at it, not worse. The extra creativity is a great help and I have better reactions. Maybe a pro’s reactions would be slowed but for an amateur like me it keeps me from getting stuck trying to think of what move to do.
SUNDAY!!! SUNDAY!!! SUNDAY!!!
It’s the Medical Marijuana Avengers vs. the Pre-Cambrian Era Prohibitionists battling it out! Under the lights and in the cage! he fans goig wild!
I can see it now!
There’s some MMA I could actually watch!
(Never been one inclined toward being part of the audience of what I see as pointless violence, so most competitive contact sports, and especially “theatrical” wrestling are of litle to no interest to me.)
As an additional aside regarding the athletic commission’s hypocritical decision…
One which hypocritically continues to allow athletes to ingest TOXIC pharmaceutical compounds that they can MUCH more easily, and permanently damage their highly tuned bodies and nervous systems with, to be full of hot air on another point or two.
I seem to remember a study that found that those who had already learned a set of reaction time dependent skills through practice showed no discernible reduction in reaction time while under the influence, so I would say that blows the whole “could slow a fighter’s reflexes and endanger his or her health and safety” argument out of the water as well.
a quick search on google turned it up…
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n645363732641104/
and wait, don’t I remember another study that showed that certain human endo-cannabinoids are intimately involved in protecting the brain in instances of brain trauma, and that certain phyto-cannabinoids were found to have similar properties?
http://www.erowid.org/references/refs_view.php?A=ShowDoc1&ID=1327
Well, all in all, it sounds like they were playing it to protect their own rear ends politically, and not truly evaluating the potential harm vs. therapeutic benefit to the athletes or the sport.
Although perhaps an argument that the cannabis might be performance enhancing could still find a leg or two to stand on…
Medical cannabis is important, but I will not rest easy until we ALL get our friends and relatives educated to the point that NOT ONE of us will vote for ANYONE who opposes legal recreational cannabis for adults, and cannabis as Fuel, Food, Fiber, and Pharma for all, so that we can all free ourselves from depenence on the current food, fuel, and money systems if we choose to, and live as truly free people once again.
Fuel, Food, Fiber, and Pharma from Cannabis…
The 4 F’s, as I call them, need to be re-learned and expanded upon by all of us through the recovery of our natural right to use cannabis in all of it’s wonderful varieties, for all purposes that we deem beneficial.
And through the judicious application of the divine infinities of our imaginations in its use and application, to provide FOR OURSELVES all health, happiness, and wealth that we need in this world without a constantly increasing toxic buildup that is the by-product of the large scale use of fossilized sunlight that produces and transports almost all that we currently use, build, or buy.
Like rural kids do in 4H for animal-husbandry, we all need to school ourselves and our friends and families on why this plant has been throughout history, and once again will be, so beneficial to every one of us in so many ways.
Acknowledging the minor risks of abuse that exist with any euphorant substance needs to happen in that discussion, but not at the expense of placing the onus of the majority of peoples perceived negative associations regarding marijuana use squarely where it belongs…
On the prohibitionist, criminalizing, profiteer promoting travesty that is the WAR on drugs….
May it soon end by our hands,
May all our harvests be bountiful,
And for us it shall be our meat, medicine, fuel, fibre, and shelter…
Lets go! Avengers!
yeah and they could call the fight “potheads vs knot-heads” this sunday on pay per view order NOW!
[...] California State Athletic Commission rules against medical marijuana [...]