Concerns about prevention and treatment of concussions have been growing within the last several years. Five to ten per cent of competitive student-athletes will sustain a concussion; this doesn’t include any undiagnosed head injuries.
The University of Regina has been working to solve this issue since 2022, when $500,000 was received from the NFL to determine whether cannabinoids could safely be used for pain management in post-concussion syndrome athletes, as opposed to prescription medication such as opioids.
Carter Ashman is a participant in the study and a rookie on the Regina Rams.
“I hope that it helps with concussions because that’s a big thing in my sport and I hope that it lowers the amount of concussions and how we treat them,” said Ashman.
PhD student Jamie White has been supervised in this study by Dr. Patrick Neary for two years. They are part of the first groups to study the effects of cannabinoids on humans.
White addresses why this route of treatment is becoming more explored.
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“If you look at the NFL, if you look at NBA, lots of those players at the highest level also use cannabis. And so now that there is a shift towards a legalization market, it’s really important to understand the actual science behind it, as opposed to just letting it kind of run rampant,” said White.
One concern this form of treatment faces is misuse. While CBD is legal in sports, THC is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in competition.
The risk of using CBD is that many products will contain trace amounts of THC. USports does not test for THC, but any athletes representing Canada can’t use it due to this potential cross-contamination.
Canada Sport Integrity educates roughly 25,000 athletes about this policy, despite advocating for change for years now. Executive Director Kevin Bean says it’s important to inform athletes of these risks, even as he hopes they change.
“THC is a prohibited substance on the WADA, as I’ve mentioned. And from our organization’s perspective, we’ve actually lobbied for the substance to come off the prohibited list, but it’s a global list and it’s determined by the World Anti-Doping Agency. So it is prohibited in sports, remains prohibited in sport despite its legalized status in Canada,” said Bean. “So we continue to have to educate athletes on the dangers of consuming THC in and around competitions that they might participate in. So that’s something that we’re focused on now with that particular substance.”
White shares a similar sentiment on the subject.
“It’s important for these athletes, especially to have an understanding of how cannabis works with the body, how they could use it potentially to benefit them and how can they avoid misusing it as well.”
The field of cannabis science is new and unexplored, leaving lots of work to be done. Because there is so little consistent research, there is no firm conclusion of the effects or potential benefits of cannabinoids in sports and health care.
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