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#3-Cannabis offers CTE benefits.
According to Harvard professor Lester Grinspoon, cannabis could make players more resistant to CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy; a degenerative brain disease that affects many professional athletes. From confusion, rage, nausea, to self harm; CTE poses terrifying obstacles to professional athletes, organizations, and families. The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study earlier this year that found CTE in the brains of 110 of 111 deceased NFL players.
Even worse-the study found that CTE was found in nearly 20% of high school players, and in 90% of college players. As athletes play throughout their life, the risk of developing CTE becomes greater to the point where a diagnosis, which can only be made once the brain can be dissected, becomes almost inevitable. (https://www.civilized.life/articles/medical-marijuana-could-help-the-nfls-concussion-problem-percent-of-nfl-players-will-develop-degenerative-brain-disease-medical-marijuana-could-help/)
While there is currently no cure for CTE nor a current method of detecting it in living people, science suggests that CBD (cannabidiol-the non psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) possesses neuroprotective properties that can protect athletes from CTE. Additionally, THC (the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) stimulates parts of the brain that are involved in healing brain trauma. At this time, there is science that suggests cannabis could not only reduce the effects of CTE, but reverse them as well. During a time where few people understand CTE fully, an embrace of cannabis and cannabis research from sports organizations could potentially save the lives of many current and past professional athletes, and set an entirely new precedent for health and well being across the country.
