As most MMA fans are now aware, Nick Diaz failed his post-fight drug test following his loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143. The test came back positive for marijuana, throwing any potential rematch between the two fighters into jeopardy much moreso than Diaz's premature announcement of retirement immediately following the fight.
Both Nick and his brother Nate Diaz have long been unabashed fans of recreational marijuana use, but Nick actually has a marijuana prescription. Some fans have said that prescription should render any positive tests for the drug moot, but the truth is that the athletic commissions have exemptions in place for just situation and the Diaz camp never went that route.
Brent Brookhouse at Bloody Elbow explains that Keith Kizer of the Nevada State Athletic Commission explained the situation in a recent interview.
According to Kizer, though, Diaz had another option: coming to the NSAC weeks before fighting and applying for a therapeutic exemption (TUE) for his marijuana use.
Given that Diaz' coach and manager, Cesar Gracie, has made a point of saying that Diaz has a legal right to use marijuana in California since a doctor prescribed it to him, one would have expected Diaz to have applied for the exemption with the commission.
But that did not happen Kizer explains, as no one from Diaz' camp has ever attempted to explain any mitigating circumstances to him about the fighter's marijuana use or tried to contextualize it to attempt for Nick to granted a therapeutic exemption. "I have no idea what [Diaz's] marijuana situation is," Kizer told CagePotato on Thursday. "No one from his camp has ever come to me or the commission and tried to explain it."
Anyone who has been following the Diaz brothers for any length of time should be anything but surprised regarding this revelation. Understanding that there is a potential way around a possible failed drug test that Nick did not take advantage of is the least shocking thing to happen yet in this story.
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