Two research teams, one from the University of California San Diego and one from the University of Regina, will conduct studies that determine whether marijuana can be an effective tool for the organization to help athletes manage pain or recover from concussions.
In total the NFL is spending $1 million in the effort.
It is still technically banned for NFL players to smoke marijuana, but the penalty for this has gone down from a suspension to a fine, and even that is dependent upon how many positive tests there are.
It seems the NFL is being rather conservative on this front, and are waiting until they have any conclusive evidence on the efficacy of marijuana in their sport before any bans are lifted.
Dr. Kevin Hill makes interesting points about marijuana research in an article about the news, stating how there hasn’t been much research in this area due to it already becoming legal in many places.
“One reason is the scheduling of cannabis makes it harder to do this research but the main reason is that stakeholders really aren’t interested in advancing the science. You have states and companies that are making a lot of money selling cannabis products, selling CBD products right now. So they don’t feel the need to prove the efficacy of these products, and millions of people are using them. So that’s the predicament that we’re in as healthcare professionals or organizations that really care about the health and safety of our constituents, the players in this case.
“We really want to know do they work? And every day I meet with patients who are interested in cannabinoids and it’s the same thing, we really don’t know the answers to that. So it becomes a very complicated risk/benefit discussion. So I’m thrilled to be a part of something that actually is going to get toward finding some answers to the questions that everybody’s been talking about for years.”
Read the original story at Palm Beach Post.
