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Could a Biden-Harris administration open the door for CBD and medical marijuana endorsements in sports?
If elected, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have vowed to decriminalize cannabis in the U.S., a federal rescheduling that could potentially open the door for major sponsorship opportunities in sports.
Sporticodraws a comparison to sports betting. Legislation that effectively outlawed the practice was overturned in 2018, leading to major deals for sports gambling companies like DraftKings, which is now the National Football League’ s official sports-betting partner.
If cannabis reforms were to happen at the federal level, Sportico predicts that something similar could happen with pro sports and pot.
Though no major sports league has signed an endorsement deal with a CBD or medical marijuana company to date, many athletes have done so, and research partnerships have proliferated in recent years. In 2019, the Ultimate Fighting Championship inked a deal with Aurora Cannabis to study the efficacy of hemp-derived CBD formulations to treat pain, inflammation and other common injuries faced by fighters.
“Collaborating with Aurora is the best way to educate ourselves and our fighters about the impact of CBD on MMA (mixed martial arts) athletes and our sport,” Duncan French, Ph.D., UFC’s vice president of performance, said when the deal was announced.
“We want to apply science and see where it leads us. Ideally, these studies will give us the clarity we need to determine the effectiveness of hemp-derived CBD on athlete health and injury recovery,” French noted.
Earlier this year, Australian medical cannabis company Zelira Therapeutics began conducting trials to explore the efficacy of medical cannabis for patients who traditionally rely on opioids for chronic pain, with the trial notably including former Australian football player Ryan Gale.
Nonprofit organizations such as Athletes For Care are also focused on the intersection of sports and cannabis and how plant-based therapies can benefit former and current athletes.
“We have very solid and exciting research showing that cannabinoids have neuroprotective and antioxidant properties,” professional rugby player turned cannabis educator Anna Symonds told The GrowthOp earlier this year “Understanding how that can prevent, mitigate and potentially help heal brain injuries is, I think, one of the most promising approaches that we know of,” Symonds said.
Sportico’s Michael Neuman predicts that CBD and medical cannabis partnerships could be commonplace in sports within the next five years. Neuman cautions that even if cannabis laws were to be reformed federally in the U.S., individual leagues will still need to establish their own rules.
“[The leagues] will still need to make modifications to their respective collective bargaining agreements, because if [the substance] is prohibited for player use, you’re not going to see the leagues trying to monetize it,” he says.
The next major sports league that will have the opportunity to reform its approach to cannabis is Major League Baseball, as the league’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) will expire after next season. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is in line after that, with the league’s CBA expiring following the 2023-2024 season.
During a recent episode of the podcast Winging it with Vince Carter, 15-year NBA veteran Matt Barnes predicted that the league could permit CBD as early as next season and medical cannabis within two to three years.
“We can be prescribed cannabis for sleep, for focus, for anti-inflammatory reasons — for all the reason they give us opioids, they can prescribe us cannabis,” Barnes said.
Though the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill legalized hemp-derived CBD, the Food and Drug Administration has yet to offer clear guidance about CBD-infused products. Until that happens, it will be difficult for any of the major sporting leagues to embark on a CBD partnership.
Still, that hasn’t prevented other sports leagues, like the Big3 and the World Surf League, from signing deals with CBD brands.
Former NFL star Kyle Turley, who now has his own CBD company, told The GrowthOp earlier this year that the marriage between cannabis and athletics will only get stronger in the years ahead, particularly once advertising restrictions are loosened.
“Look at how big sports have made the alcohol industry,” Turley said. “And now you’re talking about something that helps people, and doesn’t hurt people? C’mon.”
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