Weed Week: Can cannabis help alleviate gridiron injuries?

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Former NFL players Calvin Johnson and Robert Sims are teaming up with Harvard University to study the effects of medical cannabis on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a common injury for gridiron players.

A raft of data has emerged in recent years about ex-NFL players suffering CTE caused by repeated blows to the head landed during their careers.

Now the pair will work with the famed university to see if medical cannabis can help alleviate the worst pains associated with the condition.

“We’re actually going to be able to do clinical trials on CTE and with pain management,” Sims said according to the Detroit Free Press.

“Very quickly we went from being washed up athletes and very quickly turned to something that will really help people.”

The pair said it’s especially rewarding to get into the business now because they can contribute product for the research and help athletes before they’re totally debilitated by the game.

“From our point of view, 99 per cent of football players have some form of CTE,” Sims said. “It’s a big deal because we can now represent a group of players who are alive and fighting for a treatment for themselves.”

Let’s hope the data comes back positive — but using cannabis to help manage CTE symptoms isn’t a new idea…

The facility will include a 160,000sq.m growing area under a giant high-technology glasshouse. When operating at full production, the company aims to produce 160 tonnes of medicinal cannabis per year.

When completed, it will be one of the world’s largest medicinal cannabis facilities, with the company promising it will create more than 400 jobs a year for the Greater Shepparton area and beyond.

While the company is looking at export markets, a local supply wouldn’t go astray.

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Cannatrek said an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Australians buy cannabis on the black market each year in order to self-medicate.

Trials of legal, medicinal cannabis are currently underway in Australia with nearly all medicinal being imported, making it expensive.

As of July 2019, authorities in Australia have granted approximately 11,500 approvals, under the Special Access Scheme, for the legal use of medicinal cannabis, with almost 10,500 of those authorisations being approved in the last 12 months alone.

So what have the pot players been up to this week?

Botanix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:BOT) handed down its FY19 report — it wasn’t particularly pretty.

While its loss of just over $17m was put down to increased investment in its business, it also took a 16.5 per cent haircut on revenue from continuing operations, down to $194,808.

Meanwhile, CropLogic (ASX:CLI) had a raft of resolutions waved through by shareholders at its AGM — 13 in all.

Creso Pharma (ASX:CPH) sent its first shipment of high-quality CBD isolate from Colombia to Europe — you can read about that here.

Elsewhere, Dotz Nano (ASX:DTZ) bagged $296,000 in support from a private equity firm to finalise the development of its technology for the medical cannabis sector.

ECS Botanics Holdings (ASX:ECS) was in a bit of hot water, drawing an Aware notice from the ASX after its shares went from 7.2c to 8.7c within three days on increasing volumes — the company denied any funny business.

Engage:BDR Limited (ASX:EN1) had over 10.5 million shares leave escrow.

In more exciting news, Medlab Clinical (ASX:MDC) completed a phase 1 trial of its Nanabidial product.

MGC Pharma (ASX:MXC) was able to bag commitments for $4.75m from a placement at 4c per share.

RotoGrow (ASX:RGI) now has a new CEO after the company and Adam Clode were able to agree on an incentives plan.

Stemcell United (ASX:SCU) tied up a memorandum of understanding with the University of Malaya on a research collaboration deal.

And YPB Group (ASX:YPB) had a deal to issue $2.5m worth of shares ratified by shareholders.

That’s it — check back next week to see what the ASX’s potstocks have been up to.

Take a look at how ASX stocks with exposure to cannabis did on the table below:

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While MGC Pharma and Creso are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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