Jon Jones/In-competition v Out-of-competition
Some people are under the mistaken impression that Nevada (And WADA and others) allow cocaine use and prohibit marijuana use. This, of course, is false. But the people saying that are pointing to the fact that Nick Diaz and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr were busted for marijuana and were penalized and Jon Jones was allowed to fight despite being found with the metabolite for cocaine in his system a month before the fight.
This is because of the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Diaz and Chavez Jr. tested positive while in-competition. Jones tested positive out-of-competition.
This is a link to the WADA code:
https://wada-main-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/files/wada-2015-world-anti-doping-code.pdfHere are its definitions of in-competition and out-of-competition:
"In-Competition: Unless provided otherwise in the rules of an international Federation or the ruling body of the event in question, “In-Competition” means the period commencing twelve hours before a Competition in which the athlete is scheduled to participate through the end of such Competition and the Sample collection process related to such Competition.
Out-of-Competition: Any period which is not In-Competition. "
Jones was tested on Dec. 4, 2014, about a month before his Jan. 3, 2015, fight. He tested positive for benzoylecgonine, the metabolite in cocaine in that test. Given that it was more than 12 hours before his fight, it was considered out-of-competition.
It's hard to understand, but those are the facts.