Keith Keizer, you are a complete idiot.
I could not help but to react strongly to his comments on Inside MMA regarding Nick Diaz and others being suspended for many month for smoking cannabis. He was defending the penalties and suspensions in the least professional way possible. And we are supposed to take him seriously?
I quote Mr. Keizer now, "I have heard some athletes say that it helps them relax or reduce pain" ... "so it is a performance enhancing drug".
Well let me tell you something dipshit, it is not what you have "heard" that matters. Or what you think even. Your non existing experience and personal opinion is completely irrelevant.
To prohibit a substance and enforce hard penalties for the abuser, the decision has to be scientifically based. Not based on a hunch or what someone told Keith Keizer in the 80's.
It has to be based on real studies, made by professionals. As far as I know, no study has ever proven cannabis to be a performance enhancing drug in any other way then possibly for watching movies or eating pizza. Nobody hits harder or runs faster after using cannabis. No athlete in this world smokes a bong or a joint thinking that it will improve his athletic abilities, it is just a ridiculous thought.
Anybody that has the minimum of real experience using cannabis is well aware that it is not a performance enhancing drug. Specially smoking it is quite obviously bad for your lungs and condition overall. And to say it reduces pain... Smoking cannabis before a fight would not reduce any pain. If you know how it works you understand that, yes AFTER a fight it is possible that smoking will take your mind of the pain. It does not really reduce the pain. And so what, a painkiller does more effect and Im sure they are taken after fights.
I do think that athletes in general should avoid using any drugs, legal or not, in part to avoid any problems or confusion, but also because they are role-models for so many young people and shoud try to make good examples of themselves. But thats just an opinion, no law says an athlete has to be a good example for the kids. It is a free world and anybody is free to use any legal substance he likes on his free time. Specially if he has a medical prescription. Nobody should get suspended for smoking cannabis 12 days prior to the fight, thats just shows how little is really known about how cannabis works. 12 days after you smoked it, yes traces are left in your blood but no effect what so ever is present in your mind or body.
And what about coffee, I could easily say "I heard many athletes say they feel less tired after drinking it, thats a performance enhancing substance", and truth is that it is much more probable to give you an advantage in the cage then cannabis, still I don't hear Keizer and company moan about coffee.
I think it is sad to see that a few rotten eggs like these "athletic commission" wannabes can destroy all the good in a sport and there is nothing anybody can do about it. They have such a monopoly they don't have to respect anybody elses opinion and live on their high horses thinking they are something special when any dude that watched 10 UFC's fights cold do a better job.
