MARIJUANA BUSTS BEATS STEROIDS NEARLY 200-1!
San Francisco, CA– Over the years, booze, prescription pills, cocaine, heroin, you name the drug, fighters, much like society as a whole have had drug issues since the beginning of time. In recent years, Performance Enhancing Drugs have taken over the headlines. Steroids, EPO blood doping, HGH (human growth hormone), they are now a major part of the fight landscape.
CANNABIS IS THE DRUG OF CHOICE IN 2010
But the drug that is more prevalent today than any other is marijuana. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the literary genius that he is refers to marijuana as a “benign” drug when it comes to affecting performance one way or the other. While neither Dave nor myself are advocating fighting stoned, I think we can both agree that the six month to one year marijuana suspensions are excessive.
BEWARE OF MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX?
According to MMA Opinion, the California Commission have given nearly 200% more suspensions for marijuana than they had for PEDs through 2008. Nick Diaz, the Strikeforce welterweight (170 lbs) champion has a prescription for Ritalin. It is approved for treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, which Diaz has. The side effects include stunting growth, Abdominal pain, Akathisia, Alopecia, Angina, Appetite loss, Blood pressure and pulse changes (both up and down), Cardiac arrhythmia, Diaphoresis (sweating), Dizziness, Drowsiness, Dyskinesia, Headaches, Hypersensitivity (including skin rash, urticaria, fever, arthralgia, exfoliative dermatitis, erythema multiforme, necrotizing vasculitis, and thrombocytopenic purpura, Nausea, Palpitations, Pupil dilation and short term weight loss.
SIDE EFFECTS OF CANNABIS INCLUDE..
Hunger, a better mood, relief of anxiety, cramps or pain. Probably shouldn’t handle heavy machinery and or drive a motorcycle. Oh, and you might misplace the TV’s remote control. It kept my stepfather Michael Ramirez alive and some what happy two years longer than was expected. Why? Because this wonderful drug made him want to eat! Even with many medical uses, cannabis has been portrayed as an evil weed. Randolph Hearst, he of newspaper fame, saw the effect cannabis was having on his bottom line when he was a major landowner in the growing fields of central California in the 1930s. His Mexican workers were staying away from his bars and liquor stores, thus Hearst was losing money, or at least not making what he thought he could, made cannabis use illegal.
HELL YES, BEWARE OF MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!
How preposterous is it that the California Commission will suspend Diaz if he tests positive for marijuana, EVEN THOUGH his MD’s recommend that cannabis, a green vegetable like-matter over Ritalin and the aforementioned side effects?
THE DRUG COMPANIES ARE FIGHTING CANNABIS
Although law enforcement got a lot of credit for defeating the legalize marijuana vote in California a fortnight ago, I feel the drug companies, realizing that they cannot control cannabis, which works on pain, the effects of the flu, glaucoma, hell, my ex-girlfriend smoked cannabis during days when her friend (period) was around for relief of cramps. Were it to become common knowledge regarding all of the medical benefits of cannabis, the drug companies would take a severe hit.
SO HOW MANY FIGHTERS MOKE WEED?
That is a hard question to answer seeing smoking cannabis is still done in secret with the shades drawn, etc. But I would gather to say that around 40% of active fighters have a toke or two a lot more often than now and then.
Pedro Fernandez