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In January 2018, rugby player Dom Day was recovering from knee surgery and was looking for something online that could speed up his recovery. The Saracens player has discovered an article on Cannabidiol (CBD), recently removed from the list of banned substances by the World Anti-Doping Organization.
CBD is an extract of cannabis plant derived from hemp, which contains lower concentrations of psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) than marijuana. It has exploded in popularity as a health supplement, with users claiming that it helps them alleviate their chronic pain and inflammation, reduce anxiety symptoms and sleep better. In the United States, sales are expected to reach one billion dollars by 2020, and in the UK, you can buy CBD in large quantities in the form of cannabis oil.
Day recommended CBD to one of his teammates, George Kruis, who started using it while recovering from an ankle injury. They are now regular users. "I spray it under the tongue for a minute or two, then run my things," says Kruis, who explains that he's taking CBD at night to help him sleep and calm him down. . Day, meanwhile, treats it more like a vitamin supplement – taking it every morning and evening.
The problem for athletes is that even though CBD is legal, THC is still banned and that a rigorous process is needed to completely separate the two chemicals during the process that turns hemp into cannabis oil. This year, the US Anti-Doping Agency, Devin Logan, a member of the American Anti-Doping Association, received a three-month suspension for taking a drug test, which she said was based on use of a CBD product still containing traces of THC.
"There is always a risk when buying a supplement bought in stores or on the internet." Simply put, these products are less well-regulated than drugs and you will not know what it's like. is in it, "says Marcus Rattray, professor of pharmacology at Bradford University. "Since these oils are cannabis extracts, which contain more than 80 different chemical components, they will all vary in amount of CBD and other cannabinoids, and may contain impurities."
Kruis and Day founded a company, fourfiveCBD, to tackle this problem – and launched the first cannabis-based product certified as having no cross-contamination by THC. They perform an additional extraction process beyond that performed by other companies. Pressurized carbon dioxide is used to separate chemicals from the hemp plant. "We have gone one step further to eliminate this level of trace," said Day.
In the UK, anything that contains more than 0.2% THC is clbadified as medical marijuana and is illegal, but THC can accumulate in the system over time. FourfiveCBD cannabis oil, which costs £ 74.99 per 1000 mg, contains less than 0.03% THC by weight.
Because they sell CBD as a supplement – similar to a multivitamin tablet – fourfiveCBD does not have the right to medically claim its effectiveness as an badgesic or anti-inflammatory. But it is clear that the CBD is used for this purpose by athletes in a wide range of sports, including rugby, where the excessive and abusive use of painkillers and other over-the-counter medications.
CBD works on a different system of neurotransmitters in the brain, says Elizabeth Phillips, an independent consultant for fourfiveCBD. "It modulates the endocannabinoid system," she says, reducing peaks and lows, but not blocking other body responses, as some painkillers do.
But does the CBD really work? Anecdotal evidence of pain relief from smoking tobacco has been around for a long time, as evidenced by recent legislative changes in some countries regarding marijuana for medical purposes for the treatment of conditions such as multiple sclerosis. Clinical trials have shown that combinations of CBD and THC are effective, says Rattray, but "there are no clinical studies yet on CBD alone (or cannabis oil). ), and there is therefore no valid evidence that it is a painkiller, "he says. .
Andrew Moore, an expert in pain management at Oxford University, goes further. "The higher the quality of clinical trials, the less visible the effects," he says. "It's not unusual, and that's what we see often." He points out that very few clinical trials on CBD are still ongoing, suggesting that pharmaceutical companies are not confident enough to spend a lot of money to move to medical approval. process.
For athletes, the issue is not just about taking a supplement that does not work: missed drug tests can jeopardize your career and the CBD could also be a problem when traveling to countries where is still illegal. According to the UK Anti-Doping Agency, the use of the CBD is "at the risk and peril of the athlete".
Unregistered online retailers may not be as rigorous in terms of cross-contamination as four out of five. "It is certainly possible to separate CBD from THC and other compounds that may cause test failure in athletes, but it will be really difficult to achieve absolute purity, and that would have a cost "Rattray says. "If it were me, I would stick to the anti-inflammatories, which are licensed and whose effectiveness has been proven."
There has been a lot of hype and anecdotal evidence, but not the vast, high-quality clinical trials required to prove effectiveness. "We've already been here with opioids and see how that happened," Moore said, adding that it was proven that very few pain relievers worked well in more than one place. small proportion of the population. "There are no silver bullets, so beware of the bullion vendors."
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