Tag: sports

UFC Warns Fighters To Stop Using Marijuana ‘Immediately’ So They Aren’t Punished Under California Athletics Rules

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) might have removed marijuana from its banned substances list for professional fighters—but a California athletics commission says they could still face penalties under state rules for testing positive for THC over a certain limit ahead of an upcoming event.

UFC, which formally amended its cannabis drug testing policy last month, reportedly advised fighters that they could be subject to a $100 fine by the California State Athletic Commission if they test over 150 nanograms of THC per milliliter ahead of the UFC 298 event that is set to take place on February 17 in Anaheim.

An email from UFC that was obtained by the trade publication MMA Fighting cautioned fighters to “discontinue use immediately to ensure you don’t exceed” the THC threshold.

The policy from the California commission, which falls under the state Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), might seem misplaced in light of UFC’s own recent reform, as well as the fact that marijuana is legal for adults in California.

Marijuana Moment reached out to DCA for comment, but a representative was not immediately available.

UFC itself said last month that while it models its list of prohibited drugs after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)—which has controversially maintained cannabis as a banned substance—it decided to make amendments “based on historical findings (i.e. marijuana removed from the prohibited list).”

Professional fighters were already largely protected from being penalized over testing positive for THC under a policy change that UFC adopted in 2021, but it has since removed cannabis as a banned drug altogether. The reform took effect on December 31, 2023.

Multiple sports organizations have moved to amend their marijuana testing policies for athletes amid the state legalization movement.

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Why is a full-grown man competing against teenage girls in swimming?

First they let men compete in women’s sports. Now they’re letting adult men compete against teenage girls – and wander into their changing rooms.

As hard as it might be to believe, in Canada a 50-year-old man really is being allowed to compete in swimming competitions alongside 13- and 14-year-old girls. Melody Wiseheart, formerly Nicholas Cepeda, is a professor of psychology and behavioural science at York University in Toronto, specialising in children and young people.

Concerned parents tipped off Rebel News, a right-wing website, about Wiseheart in October last year. He was spotted swimming in a competition at the Markham Pan Am recreation centre, representing the Orangeville Otters swimming club.

The next week, to try to stand up the story, Rebel News reporter Davide Menzies confronted several staff members at the recreation centre. Its competition coordinator initially said he could not recall seeing ‘a 50-year-old man’ competing alongside teenage girls. Menzies then presented him with the competition schedule, which showed Wiseheart’s name and age alongside those of nine teenage girls. Only then did the coordinator admit that Wiseheart had indeed been allowed to take part. The Daily Mail alleges that Wiseheart has been competing against teenage girls since 2019.

According to the competition coordinator, Wiseheart has the right to compete in girls’ competitions under Swimming Canada’s ‘trans inclusion’ rules. He has registered himself as female and is thus treated as female. And although the competitions he swims in consist almost exclusively of teenage girls, this is simply a matter of convention. It seems that, since no adult had ever tried to enter a teenagers’ race before, there had been no need to draw up explicit rules. In other words, Wiseheart did not even need to ‘identify’ as a 13-year-old girl to assert his ‘right’ to enter the girls’ competition.

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Mystery Deepens Around NFL Fans Found Frozen in Friend’s Backyard as Fifth Man Is Identified

A new name has arisen in the case of three Kansas City Chiefs fans who died earlier this month.

Alex Weamer-Lee, a friend of the victims, had joined them for a watch party, according to the Daily Mail. That makes five people who attended the event, three of whom later died.

According to the New York Post, Andrew Talge, Weamer-Lee’s attorney, his client was at the party on Jan. 7 that ended up in death, but left at about midnight, and said that when he left the four other men at the party were watching “Jeopardy!”

This is how the case unfolded. On Jan. 7, David Harrington, 37, Ricky Johnson, 38, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, visited Jordan Willis’ home in the northen part of Kansas City to watch a game between the Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers, WDAF-TV reported.

On the night of Jan. 9, the men were all found dead on Willis’ property by the Kansas City Police Department. One of the men was dead on the back porch, while the other two were found in the backyard, WDAF reported.

Police said at the time that there were no obvious signs of foul play, and a member of one of the dead men’s families said Willis had claimed they “froze to death.”

Willis reportedly said his friends were at his home as he had gone to bed and had invited them to stay over as long as they wished, the outlet reported. However, an attorney for Willis first said his client watched his friends leave and then later said his client was asleep while the men continued to party at the house.

He said he spent the following two days with “no knowledge” that his friends were dead on his property, according to the New York Post.

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Ohio bans transgender drugs and surgery for children under 18 and blocks trans kids from participating in girls’ sports

Ohio has approved a ban on transgender drugs and surgery for children under the age of 18 years — and a block on trans youngsters for participating in girls’ sports.

The state’s legislature today overrode the Governor’s veto to clear a way for a ban on prescriptions of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender surgery for minors.

The bill will come into force in the next 90 days, with doctors who continue to provide care for minors risking losing their medical license.

Ohio has become the 23rd state to ban transgender care for minors, amid a wave of laws passed by Republican-controlled legislatures in recent years. It is also the 24th to outlaw trans girls participating in sport at the high school and college level.

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Mystery as three Kansas City Chiefs fans ‘freeze to death’ in friend’s backyard two days after play offs – as furious loved ones suggest they may have been POISONED and slam police for failing to investigate

Questions are swirling over the mysterious deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans who ‘froze to death’ in a friend’s backyard after watching a playoff game. 

David Harrington, Ricky Johnson and Clayton McGeeney visited an unnamed friend’s house on January 7 to watch the Chiefs’ playoff win against the Chargers, but never made it home. 

When the fiancé of one of the men couldn’t get hold of him for two days, she broke into the home to discover one of their bodies on the back porch. After police were called, they quickly found the bodies of the other two men also in the backyard. 

The homeowner claimed the three men froze to death, and investigators ruled out foul play as they declined to make any arrests. 

Now, the loved ones of the men are speaking out to demand answers, as they insist the reported circumstances of the deaths simply don’t add up. 

‘Nobody believes this story,’ said Harrington’s mother Jennifer Marquez. ‘None of his friends, none of the families, none of us believe it… Everybody is furious.’ 

The family of Johnson, a father-of-three, spoke with NewsNation this week, saying they have been left grief-stricken and confused at the sudden death of the ‘loving’ man. 

‘It’s very hard holding up,’ said Johnson’s mother Norma. ‘Something is not right.’ 

She said the police are ‘not doing anything’ to solve the mystery of her son’s passing, and called for the owner of the home, who has not been publicly identified, to be ‘at least investigated.’ 

Although relatives of the men feel investigators haven’t given the case enough attention, the Kansas City Police Department previously said they are awaiting medical examiner’s results on a cause of death before moving forward.

The department did not immediately respond to a request for an update on the case. 

Cops have also reportedly doubled down on their determination that no foul play was involved in the deaths, and say they are treating the case as a death investigation, not a homicide investigation. 

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NCAA Division I To Vote On Removing Marijuana From Banned Substances List For Student Athletes

A new collegiate athletics proposal would remove marijuana from the list of substances included in drug screenings for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship competitions, with officials set to vote on the matter in June. Proponents say the approach is consistent with designing rules to focus on reducing harm rather than punishing student athletes.

The plan would build on a 2022 change that increased the allowable THC threshold for college athletes, aligning NCAA’s rules with those of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The latest proposal would effectively treat marijuana more like alcohol. While NCAA doesn’t intend for the change to promote cannabis use, the substance isn’t believed to give competitors an unfair advantage in sport.

“Cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug, and we determined that the drug testing conducted at NCAA championships should focus on substances that impact competitive outcomes,” Pat Chun, athletics director at Washington State and chair of the Strategic Vision and Planning Committee, said in a statement last week. “To be clear, this does not mean that NCAA members condone or promote use of cannabinoids. However, rather than focus on testing and subsequently penalizing student-athletes who use cannabis, NCAA efforts should focus on a harm reduction strategy, similar to substances like alcohol.”

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USA Boxing to allow transgender women to compete against female boxers under certain conditions from 2024 after introducing new policy

USA Boxing has adopted a ‘Transgender Policy’, which will allow male boxers who transition to fight in the female category from 2024. 

The governing body, which oversees America’s amateur and Olympic-style boxing, will allow transgender athletes to compete under certain conditions. 

While boxers under the age of 18 must still compete as their birth gender, transgender fighters will be permitted to fight in the category of their choice. 

They must meet certain criteria, including declaring their new gender identity, completing gender reassignment surgery and regular hormone testing. 

Both male and female transgender athletes must have undergone quarterly hormone testing and provided US Boxing with documentation of their hormone levels for a minimum of four years following surgery. 

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Ohio’s Republican governor vetoes trans care restriction and sports ban

Ohio’s governor vetoed a bill Friday that would have restricted both transition-related care for minors and transgender girls’ participation on school sports teams.

Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto makes him one of only two Republican governors to veto a restriction on gender-affirming care, alongside Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2021, and one of only three Republican governors to veto a trans athlete bill after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb last year.

In a press conference on Friday following his veto, DeWine said the “gut-wrenching” decision about whether a minor should have access to gender-affirming care “should not be made by the government, should not be made by the state of Ohio,” rather it should be made by the child’s parents and doctors.

Prior to vetoing the bill, DeWine told The Associated Press that he visited three Ohio children’s hospitals to learn more about transition-related care and spoke to families who were both helped and harmed by it. 

“We’re dealing with children who are going through a challenging time, families that are going through a challenging time,” he said. “I want, the best I can, to get it right.”

The Ohio General Assembly, which is controlled by a Republican supermajority, can override the governor’s veto with a three-fifths majority vote.

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UFC Formally Removes Marijuana From Banned Substances List For Professional Fighters

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced on Thursday that it is formally removing marijuana from its newly modified banned substances list for athletes, building on an earlier reform.

While UFC says it is modeling its list of prohibited drugs after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)—which has controversially maintained cannabis as a banned substance—it is making amendments “based on historical findings (i.e. marijuana removed from the prohibited list).”

Professional fighters have already been largely protected from being penalized over testing positive for THC under a policy change that UFC adopted in 2021, but now it is removing cannabis as a banned drug altogether.

“UFC’s goal for the Anti-Doping Policy is to be the best, most effective, and most progressive anti-doping program in all of professional sports,” UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell said in a press release on Thursday.

“UFC is proud of the advancements we have made with our anti-doping program over the past eight years, and we will continue to maintain an independently administered drug-testing program that ensures all UFC athletes are competing under fair and equal circumstances,” he said. “With this new iteration of the program, UFC has once again raised the bar for health and safety in combat sports.”

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Sports Medicine Doctors Have ‘Favorable’ Attitudes Toward CBD And Marijuana, Study Finds

Sports medicine providers “generally have favorable views toward CBD and cannabis,” and most believe marijuana should be removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances, according to a new survey of 333 doctors published this month.

The study also found that most sports medicine physicians who participated support legalizing marijuana for recreational and medical use.

That said, there are still “varying views” about cannabis within the field, authors found, and those “appear to be significantly affected by age, practice type, and gender.”

Among demographic groups less likely to favor allowing marijuana for recreational use were women, older doctors and rural respondents, according to the survey, results of which appear in the journal Translational Sports Medicine.

“Similarly, these three factors were associated with a higher likelihood of disagreeing with WADA removing cannabis from the prohibited substance list and with the NCAA allowing CBD use by collegiate athletes,” it says.

Men and younger physicians, meanwhile, were less likely to identify marijuana as “performance-enhancing.”

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