Athletes and cancer patients turn to CBD. Pain relief is a primary motivator

 
"Athletes claim that traumas to the head as well as pain and post exercise recovery can be aided by CBD"

In recent months, we have heard much from athletes including NFL players and a mixed martial arts athlete, who used a CBD pain-relief vape pen in public, on the subject of CBD in sport. Athletes claim that traumas to the head as well as pain and post exercise recovery can be aided by CBD. Pain treatment certainly seems to have support from research, as several studies have looked into CBD and pain, particularly in the context of cancer. 
 

Why are they choosing CBD over THC?

Although the research already cited looks into both CBD and THC for pain, athletes prefer CBD since it will not result in positive doping tests. After all, drug tests focus on THC because it is psychoactive. So far, there just hasn’t been sufficient reason to want to “catch out” those who use CBD. They aren’t getting high, so how is one to say that CBD use can be equated with the use of illegal drugs?

Is performance enhancement at issue, or is it just pain? CBD facts

As yet, it would be impossible to say whether CBD is a performance enhancing drug in the strictest sense of the word. NFL athletes say that they are able to reduce their use of opioid-base painkillers to address injuries, and if opioid painkillers aren’t performance enhancers, it seems unlikely that CBD would be.

Nate Diaz is the mixed martial arts sportsman most recently caught up in a furor about his use of CBD vape post-match: a move that he says helps to limit damage caused by blows to the head. Interestingly, a mixed martial arts website claims that Diaz might just get away with it. After all, he used his vape post-match rather than pre-match. But then the article continues to say that if he had been tested after the CBD use, he might just be in trouble. Our question is: “How on earth could that happen? Drug tests for cannabis focus on THC. Fact!”

There have been athletes who claim that they use CBD prior to training to limit pain and boost their workout, but there is, as yet, no indication on whether this is true or whether they are experiencing a placebo effect.
So far, pain in other contexts has been the focus of studies into CBD. Pain can be reduced, says the National Cancer Institute, which also talks about loss of appetite, nausea and other cancer and chemotherapy related symptoms.

It seems CBD really does reduce pain

With multiple studies already published, including the one that appeared in the journal Clinical Risk Management, and with the National Cancer Institute acknowledging the potential usefulness of both THC and CBD, pain appears to be one of the most broadly accepted reasons for using cannabinoids.

Sadly, addictive opioids remain the popular choice among doctors. Dangerous and addictive though they may be, they are already accepted as treatments. Interestingly, a study found that opioid overdoses were reduced in US states with medical marijuana programs: coincidence or pain management evidence? It would seem that the primary indicator is a reduction of opioid use when CBD can be used for pain. CBD: the new, safer painkiller? Time will tell!