October/November 2020 - 16

Treatment & Recovery
GROWING PAINS
CBD Use by Athletes Slow Despite Mainstream Popularity
By Rich Maclone
Contributing Writer
R
..ecovery and pain
..management is a high profile
..concern for athletes at every
level of their game. After a contest
or hard workout, they need a way to
bounce back from what ails them.
Aside from the oft-taken paths
pharmaceutical companies offer, there
are less-traveled routes of natural
remedies that are being looked at.
The use of CBD, or the nonpsychoactive
compound derived from
the cannabis plant, has exploded in
popularity over the past decade. Many
athletes from around the sports world,
especially professional athletes, have
been singing the praises of CBD for
the past few years, claiming it is a
safe and natural alternative to opioidbased
pain relief.
While the mainstream is certainly
becoming more and more receptive
and tolerant of hemp-based products,
both psychoactive and not, there is
still a cloud of gray area that athletes
have to navigate. Knowing that CBD
isn't going anywhere any time soon,
researchers are actively seeking to
better understand the ways CBD can
positively impact those who use it.
Though banned by nearly every
governing athletic body in the country,
marijuana is now fully legal in 11
states across the country and has
been decriminalized in 29 others. Just
eight states in the United States still
consider marijuana completely illegal.
For a lot of athletes, one of the
biggest hurdles to clear is the
stigma associated with the use of
cannabinoids. The association with
marijuana, which is also harvested
from the hemp plant, can scare
athletes away from trying the
non-psychoactive benefits of the
plant. Also, there is little rock-solid
evidence that supports the benefits
of CBD products.
The positive effects have ranged
from inflammatory relief, soothing
digestive discomfort, reducing stress,
and increased quality of sleep - all
of which could be big benefits to
athletes in the recovery process,
14 | Training & Conditioning | October/November 2020
particularly those partaking in collision
and high-contact sports. Anecdotal
evidence abounds in support of their
benefits, but the powers that be in the
pharmaceutical world have not taken
a stand in favor of their use.
Athletic governing bodies have
begun to come around on the use
of CBD, though. Starting in January
of 2018, the World Anti-Doping
Agency added CBD to the list
of substances that are no longer
banned, in or out of competition.
THC, the psychoactive component of
marijuana, is still prohibited, and so
are synthetic cannabinoids.
The selling and marketing of CBD
products also became legal in the
United States in 2018. A revision to
the United States Farm Bill that year
allowed for the production and sale of
industrial hemp products throughout
the United States, including hempderived
CBD products.
The Food and Drug Administration
monitors and regulates CBD
products that make therapeutic
October/November 2020

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