Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) has been making inroads in the scientific community as well as the markets, as the company managed to secure a research agreement with the top professional mixed martial arts league on the planet.
The United Fighting Championship (UFC) will be going ahead with a joint study that would evaluate the effects of cannabis and CBD on top fighters and athletes.
In particular, the study would see to what extent CBD can treat the aches and pains that come with prolonged hand to hand fighting in the league. Should the results be positive, which they are expected to be, Aurora could then use these results to develop a line of hemp-derived CBD products that would target elite athletes specifically.
While medical cannabis has always had a role in treating ailments such as arthritis, inflammation, and general joint pain, the results of this study will be watched closely.
Positive developments here would further open up the CBD market to another group of consumers, and even if the size of the said market is rather small, it could also open the door to high-end partnerships with noteworthy celebrities and athletes.
There have been a number of athletic organizations, most notably including the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), which have called for leagues to permit cannabis-based alternatives to traditional painkillers, which often lead to addictions among athletes.
Their efforts succeeded, as the NFL and the NFLPA agreed earlier this year to explore studying the main management effects of cannabis, potentially opening further doors down the road.
“It’s hard to regulate this industry in a way that makes athletes comfortable with what they’re putting in their bodies,” said Jackson during a panel on cannabis use in athletes. “It’s not uncommon to see this of companies [that] are just going for one study to have the marketing to back up a nutraceutical product,” he added, referring to dietary supplements that are fairly unregulated.
Although the total market value for athletic CBD demand would be much less than regular medical cannabis, and substantially less then recreational demand, this would help the industry more in the sense that it would make cannabis and CBD use more mainstream and less of a taboo topic.
In a way, getting athletics organizations to adopt CBD is less about the money and more about the prestige and general image this conveys.
Aurora Cannabis has always been a leader in a number of areas, such as international expansion and sheer cultivation capacity. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Canadian cannabis giant become among the first marijuana businesses to sponsor major athletes.
Shares of the company didn’t react much in response to the news, ending the day down 0.7 percent.