Cannabidiol stop to be a ilegal susbtance

Welcome everyone again, today we are going continue talking about the Cannabinoids, concretely about the Cannabidiol (CBD). 

As we talked in previous posts, Cannabidiol is one of the most important compounds of Cannabis Sativa. This substance was considered as a ilegal substance until the previous January, 1st 2018, when the new prohibited substances list was announced. This new was announced by the WADA on September, 29th 2017, and was the most important change on the 2018 official prohibited list.

According to the WADA, "Cannabidiol is no longer prohibited. Synthetic cannabidiol is not a cannabimimetic; however, cannabidiol extracted from cannabis plants may also contain varying concentrations of THC, which remains a prohibited substance."

It is truth that antiinflamatory properties of Cannabidiol have been known for a long time (Nagarkatte, P, 2010). Thank to these properties, CBD is becoming a popular alternative to the opiates for elite athletes. Is the chase of the fighter Nate Diaz, who use CBD because not produce secondary effects and it is not adictive although it is taken for long periods of time. Moreover, CBD could reduce substantially the recovery time of athletes due to his antiinflamatory properties.

On the other hand, the fact of this cannabinoid is a great analgesic involve that help with imsomnia and even can help with apetite. That is so important for elite athletes since a better sleep time means a better recovery, and in most chases they have to eat large amounts of food.

This change of CBD in the prohibited list supposed that any athlete could use freely CBD as a palliative or antiinflamatory without worrying about be expelled of competitions or suffer hard secondary effects. 

Why are cannabinoids prohibited? Functioning and effects.

The Cannabinoids are a group of natural substances present in the plant Cannabis Sativa. Chemically they are derivated of dibenzopyrene or monoterpenoids. The Cannabis Sativa contanis about 420 chemical compounds of which the more important are THC, cannabinol (CBN) y cannabidiol (CBD). You can see the molecular form of these substances below.

As happen with the opiates, that they join directly to the endorphine receptors, the cannabinoids receptors join to his specific molecule: the anandamide. The anadamide is involved in the regulation of the mood, memory, appetite, pain, cognition and feelings.

Cannabis is widely use to have the characteristics of mood alteration and relaxation. The lack of scientific evidence about how cannabis could increase the performance is associated with the obvius evidence of their harmful effects over psychomotor skills and the cognosctive function, what could be dangerous in certain sport modalities (sky, motor sports).

The prohibition of the use of cannabinoids in sports is based in the safety concern during training and competition. According to the WADA, cannabinoids samples not are analysed in out competition tests.

The primary effects of cannabinoids are exercised over the central nervous system and cause lack of physical effort motivation and a weakening of the psychomotor system, memory and perception in the short term. Regarding to the physiological effects, cannabinoids cause tachycardia, bronchodilation and a greater blood flow to the limbs. The chronic consumption of cannabinoids could produce the destruction of CB1 brain receptors, giving as a result a blood flow shortening and a decrease in the glucose and oxygen supply to the brain what could produce attention déficit, memory lose and a deteriorated learning capacity.

Finally, it should be noted that since the beginning of 2018 Cannabidiol(CBD) stopped being considered as a ilegal substance by the WADA. We will talk deeper about it in following posts.