Eugene Monroe, the NFL player who cures himself with CBD

American soccer players don't spare their physique: they take a lot of hits, and their bodies have to juggle - or even get used to - the pain on a daily basis. Just like our rugby players, American footballers come out of an NFL career all battered and bruised. Eugene Monroe, a player with the Baltimore Ravens, is the first player in the league to use medical marijuana as a painkiller.

Read also: Should the NBA allow marijuana use?

He also made a donation of $80,000 to a laboratory. to find an effective treatment from medicinal cannabis against chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease diagnosed post-mortem that indicates numerous contusions to the brain caused by shocks, which can affect memory, behavior and above all life expectancy.

«This sport inevitably causes physical pain, your job is to tackle the other as hard as possible.»

Eugene Monroe, like many former players, is proposing that the NFL remove cannabis from the list of substances banned by the league and use therapeutic cannabis to complement and, above all, reduce the prescription of painkillers. Many of them end their careers addicted to these opioid-based drugs.

The player says he is concentrating solely on research using CBD. CBD is an effective cannabinoid as an anti-inflammatory, painkiller, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic. It has no psychoactive effect like THC.

Eugene Monroe highlights on his website the fact that 90 % of ex-NFL players have died from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Roger Goodell from the NFL assures that opioid-based treatments remain the safest for professional players and their health. Along with a cocktail of steroids, of course.

If CBD ever proves to be an effective remedy for the aches and pains of NFL players, This treatment could be extended to all contact sports.

Theo Caillart