Nick Diaz hearing on hold as NSAC awaits medical-marijuana card
by Steven Marrocco
A tersely worded letter (.pdf) from Nick Diaz's camp demanding to be placed on the agenda for next week's Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting was unsuccessful.
The Nevada attorney general issued a response (.pdf) on Monday that states the fighter's appeal won't proceed without a medical-marijuana card previously agreed to be admitted in the commission proceedings.
Diaz's appeal of a suspension the NSAC issued thus has been tabled and isn't on the agenda for the commission's April 24 meeting in Las Vegas.
In the letter sent this past Friday, Diaz lawyer, Ross Goodman, said the commission didn't have a legal right to suspend Diaz "indefinitely" pending the hearing, which would decide the fighter's fate following a failed drug test following UFC 143 in February. Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites and on February 22 was placed under temporary administrative suspension pending a hearing.
Goodman invoked a Nevada legislative statute that said the commission must rule on Diaz's case within 45 days of the temporary suspension – April 6 – or the Diaz camp would consider the state's complaint null and void.
Nevada deputy attorney Christopher Eccles responded on Monday that the statute applied only in cases in which "the public health, safety or welfare imperatively require emergency action." He noted that Diaz had not appeared at an NSAC hearing in which a temporary suspension was addressed and reminded Goodman that an agreement to produce the medical-marijuana card was in place.
Eccles stated the state was moving forward with its disciplinary complaint against Diaz, which could result in a suspension, fines or other sanctions against the fighter's license.
NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer initially told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Diaz's case was targeted for the April 24 meeting.
UFC 143 took place Feb. 4 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and featured an interim welterweight title fight between Diaz (27-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) and Carlos Condit (28-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC). After five rounds, Condit was declared the winner by unanimous decision. Diaz subsequently said he would retire from fighting, but when controversy ensued over the fight's judging, a rematch was targeted for the summer. Diaz's positive test scrapped the proposed fight.
In a pair of responses to Diaz's positive test, Goodman argued that the commission had no legal basis to suspend Diaz for marijuana metabolites and stated Diaz had not violated statutes when he used the drug outside of competition. In the first response, the lawyer included an affidavit from Diaz that acknowledged he was a medical-marijuana patient in California and had ceased using the drug eight days prior to the fight.
That prompted an amended complaint from the NSAC that stated Diaz not only tested positive for marijuana but misled the commission by omitting that information on pre-fight medical paperwork.
As of now, the former Strikeforce champ is slated to compete in a grappling superfight with jiu-jitsu champion Braulio Estima on May 12.
A four-page, 36-item agenda released today by the NSAC for the April 24 meeting includes the request of UFC heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem, who failed a pre-fight drug test for next month's UFC 146 event when he was flagged for elevated levels of testosterone.
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