The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC), one of the most prominent sanctioning bodies in combat sports, announced Wednesday that they will no longer issue punishments to athletes that test positive for marijuana.
The commission held a vote on Wednesday during one of their re-occurring meetings. Board members voted unanimously in favour of changing their testing rules, taking marijuana out of the list of prohibited drugs for athletes to take.
The move comes months after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the testing body for all UFC events, dropped all rules that punished fighters who tested positive for marijuana.
Under previous rules, sanctions on positive marijuana tests by the NAC could result in fines, suspensions from competing within the state and the result of fights being overturned.
While the ruling on marijuana suspensions is effective immediately, the NAC dished out two sanctions during the meeting – giving Gillian Robertson and Misha Cirkunov suspensions and fines for marijuana being detected in tests.
