By Dan Ambrose: In the latest boxing news, Bob Arum, the promoter for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., was quick to defend Chavez Jr. after he was nailed yesterday for testing positive for Marijuana for his fight with Sergio Martinez last Saturday night. Arum doesn’t see Marijuana as a performance enhancing drug that would have given Chavez Jr. an edge in the fight. Arum feels that Marijuana should be legalized. Unfortunately, it’s still illegal and the Nevada State Athletic Commission has rules against fighters using the drug.

Arum told the LA Times “As far as I’m concerned, marijuana should be legal…[Chavez Jr. smoked pot] Three weeks to a month out of breaking camp because he was having trouble sleeping…It was therapeutic use for insomnia.”

Arum is correct. One of the uses for medical marijuana is to treat insomnia. However, you have to get a doctor’s prescription and it’s obviously something that Chavez Jr. needed to advise the Nevada State Athletic Commission before he used using it, even it was a one-time thing. Nevada is one of the states where it’s legal to use medical marijuana, but that doesn’t appear what’s happened here with Chavez Jr. unless he’s able to show the Nevada State Athletic Commission a prescription from a doctor for the use of the marijuana.

Chavez Jr. could end up taking a big hit on his career from this positive marijuana test. Not only will he likely have a big chunk of his $3 million purse for the Martinez fight taken away, but a lengthy suspension is almost a given. The last time that Chavez Jr. was found with a banned substance in his urine was when he tested positive for a Diuretic in 2009 before his fight with Troy Rowland. The suspension was 7 months at that time. You’ve got to figure that Chavez Jr. will receive a lot more than this time with the positive test for marijuana.

This means that boxing fans won’t see a rematch between Chavez Jr. and Martinez for a long time to come, possibly not until 2014 if Chavez Jr. receives a year suspension.