People are already coming out with strong opinions about this. MMA female fighting star, Rhonda Rousey, is outraged and says "there's no real reason that they should be able to test [for marijuana] and make the athletes conform to their political ideas..." Read her interview here: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/women-star-rousey-thinks-commission-testing-marijuana-flat-153747504.html
Many others, of course, agree with the testing. Here's my take...
I believe that professional athletes should be held to a higher standard. These people are role models, whether they want to be or not, whether it's fair or not, they have tremendous influence over people. It's not their choice, they ARE role models, certain people will always look up the them.
These person's, gifted with athletic ability and a bright public spotlight, don't get to choose to be a role model, they are chosen. It's out of their hands. Their only choice is to be a good role model or a bad one.
It's common knowledge that I think Nick Diaz is a punk. I hate the very thought that somebody might actually look up to him. But someone does. Probably a lot of someones. And now he's tested positive for marijuana in a sport that has struggled to gain respect after the John McCain "human cockighting" days. This isn't the first time eithe, he also tested positive for pot after a fight back in 2007.
Look, I'm certainly no saint. I won't even describe some of the stuff I used to do before tournament competitions back in the high-flyin' 70s and 80s but I certainly wasn't on the world stage and later in life I took my role seriously. My point here is that marijuana is an illegal drug and I don't want any young person, practicing a sport that I love, reading about Diaz testing positive and thinking, "hey, if Nick smokes this stuff and can reach the highest level of his sport, why shouldn't I?"
Testing for illegal drugs is fine by me and so are the penalties for getting caught.
Whats next for Nick Diaz? He'll face a the Nevada State Athletic Commission in April and they will hand down some form of punishment most likely. The typical suspension for marijuana is 6 months but this is his second offense, so who knows, a year?
But, oh yeah, I forgot--it doesn't make any difference anyway because Diaz retired after he lost the Condit fight and he said "I think I'm done with this MMA. I don't need this s***."
Well, Nick, apparently you need some other kind of s***.
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