With the twin goals of promoting safety of combat sports athletes and striving for the advancement of clean sport, the Association of Ringside Physicians (ARP) recently issued a position statement based on the available body of evidence regarding cannabis. ARP members oversee combat sports including boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, fencing, pro-wrestling, judo, karate, taekwondo, and jiu-jitsu.
- Use of marijuana or synthetic cannabinoids (CBD) by combat sports athletes is discouraged due to unproven benefits and many known adverse effects. Acute use can impair cognition and complex motor function, which likely leads to reduced performance in combat sports. Chronic use can increase risk for heart and lung disease, several cancers, schizophrenia, and can reduce testosterone in men and impair fertility. Benefits from cannabis in most contexts, including athletic performance, have not been proven.
- Use of topical purified CBD is neither encouraged nor discouraged.
- Since acute cannabis intoxication can impair complex cognitive and motor function, any athlete suspected of acute intoxication at the time of competition–based on clinical judgment–should be banned from that competition.
- Wide-scale regulation of cannabis based on quantitative testing has limited usefulness in combat sports, for the following reasons:
- Cannabis is not ergogenic and is likely ergolytic.
- Concentrations in body fluids correlate poorly with clinical effects and timing of use.
- Access to testing resources varies widely across sporting organizations.
Source: Stellpflug SJ, Stolbach A, Ghorayeb J, et al. Cannabis in combat sports: position statement of the Association of Ringside Physicians. Phys Sportsmed. 2024 Jul 9:1-12. doi: 10.1080/00913847.2024.2375788.
