In a surprise move by the California State Athletic Commission, Nick Diaz will not be allowed to fight on Saturday evening at EliteXC's event in San Jose, California. According to Sherdog.com's Josh Gross, Armando Garcia, the executive officer of the CSAC, made the decision after stating that Diaz's medicals were turned in late. Controversy now lies in the comments by Garcia due to the contradicting statements by Gary Shaw, EliteXC's president. Shaw and Nick Diaz's manager Cesar Gracie had this to say:

"He never mentioned anything about late medicals," said Shaw. "And if there were late medicals it wasn't because of Nick Diaz and it wasn't because of EliteXC."

The issue, as described to him by Garcia, said Shaw, was Diaz's prescription for medical marijuana, which is legal in California based on the Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

"He's got a medical marijuana card," confirmed Diaz's manager Cesar Gracie, who mentioned Attention Deficit Disorder as the cause for the prescription.

The reasoning behind Garcia's decision revolves around the time period in which Diaz let the commission know about the condition. Garcia stated that he was informed of the problem only three days before the event. The commission apparently launches an investigation into any medical marijuana case in order to “determine the reason for the prescription”. According to the article however, Diaz completed paperwork and a large amount of testing in Los Angeles nearly two and a half weeks beforehand.

Could this become a legal battle?

First and foremost, Nick Diaz and EliteXC may have grounds for a legal battle to obtain the money that Diaz stood to make for showing to the event on Saturday. Whether or not that will actually happen is up in the air, but the fact that Diaz turned paperwork in two and a half weeks ago is puzzling. Garcia claims he hadn't received paperwork that outlined the fact that Diaz had a medical marijuana card until three days before the event, yet the paperwork and physicals was done over half a month ago.

Cesar Gracie made a point that the commission should still allow Diaz to test clean before jumping to stopping the bout altogether. Unfortunately for fans and Nick Diaz, Garcia pulled the plug.

Questionable practices once again from the CSAC

If Shaw's recollection of their conversation is true and paperwork can be proven to have been filed with the commission at a much earlier date, it could prove that there was an ample amount of time for the CSAC to administer their investigation into the reasoning behind the prescription. The CSAC has had a long history of horrible logic when it comes to procedures and following by-laws in their own policy. Even in Sean Sherk's case, it was evident that the commission had huge problems in using any type of procedure during hearings. Some of the members of the board also had questionable logic.

Let Diaz fight, what does it really matter?

I never really understood the entire deal with marijuana affecting the abilities of a fighter. Numbing their mind to the affects of blows to the head? Give me a break, but in this case, does it really matter if Diaz has a prescription that may or may not have been disclosed sooner? What if they found Diaz's prescription to be valid? He'd be fighting on Saturday night with a medical marijuana card.. the exact same position he is in right now. He's missing out on $50,000 because somebody screwed transferring paperwork, or Shaw/Garcia is lying. Either way, Diaz's little prescription doesn't affect whether or not he should be allowed to fight or not.

How long does it take to investigate medical marijuana use for ADD anyways? Call up a few doctors, ask them for professional opinions, and get the show on the road. I'm really getting sick of the CSAC.