For years, marijuana lived in the gray area of mixed martial arts—treated like a performance-enhancing drug on paper but used by many fighters for sleep, pain and anxiety. Today, the rules are still far from uniform, but the landscape has shifted dramatically, especially at the UFC level.

In 2021, the UFC and its then-partner USADA essentially stopped treating positive THC tests as anti-doping violations unless there was evidence the drug was used for performance enhancement. That philosophy was locked in when the promotion rolled out a new anti-doping program on December 31, 2023, administered by Combat Sports Anti-Doping with Drug Free Sport International handling sample collection. In that revamped policy, cannabis was fully removed from the UFC’s list of banned substances, a move confirmed in multiple summaries of the 2024 update.

Practically, that means UFC athletes are no longer suspended, fined, or stripped of wins by the promotion solely for a positive marijuana test. The focus is now on true performance-enhancers—anabolics, blood-doping agents, hormone modulators—while cannabis is treated as a lifestyle and recovery choice unless a fighter shows up clearly impaired. UFC officials have framed the change as a response to data showing THC is not meaningfully performance-enhancing and to the broader legalization trend across North America.

The catch is that the UFC doesn’t operate in a vacuum. State and tribal athletic commissions still control fight-night licensing and results. Nevada, long the sport’s regulatory bellwether, voted in 2021 to stop disciplining boxers and MMA fighters for marijuana use and later codified rules protecting athletes who use cannabis in compliance with state law. Florida’s commission has taken a similar hands-off approach, removing marijuana from its banned list altogether. By contrast, California still follows the World Anti-Doping Agency’s in-competition threshold of 150 ng/mL of THC metabolites; fighters who test above that mark face a small fine but no suspension or overturned result. Ahead of UFC 298 in Anaheim, athletes were specifically warned to stop using cannabis early to avoid those commission penalties.

Behind these state decisions sits the Association of Boxing Commissions, whose medical advisory committee has recommended that THC over the WADA threshold be handled with light financial penalties rather than long suspensions or no-contests. WADA itself still lists THC as prohibited in-competition, with a 150 ng/mL threshold, but its stance has softened over the past decade as thresholds were raised and many national bodies chose to de-emphasize punishment.

Outside the UFC, policies are converging but not identical. The Professional Fighters League recently followed the UFC in leaving USADA and now runs its global anti-doping program through the Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation, which applies a WADA-style prohibited list across PFL’s U.S. and international events. Bellator, now absorbed into PFL, had already been operating under Mohegan’s regime for its U.S. shows. ONE Championship, meanwhile, uses International Doping Tests & Management and Drug Free Sport to collect samples under its own anti-doping policy, again anchored to WADA principles and host-country law.

Layered on top of the legal framework is a growing medical caution. A recent position statement from the Association of Ringside Physicians discourages cannabis use in combat sports, citing unproven performance benefits and clear evidence of impaired reaction time, decision-making and cardiovascular strain—key risk factors when punches and elbows are flying.

For fighters and managers, the bottom line is nuanced: the UFC itself no longer bans marijuana, several major commissions have largely stopped caring, but WADA-style thresholds and local rules still matter. As long as cannabis remains on the global prohibited list, athletes who rely on it for recovery will be walking a regulatory tightrope every time they step on the scales or into the cage.