The Portland Pickles—a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat team based in Portland, Oregon—will become the first sports team in the U.S. to legally sell THC products at live sports events.

The baseball team announced Tuesday an exclusive partnership with Cycling Frog, makers of hemp-derived THC-based seltzer drinks. The team began selling the infused drinks at Walker Stadium in Portland on June 18. Cycling Frog was founded in 2021 and sells a range of hemp-derived, full-spectrum cannabinoid products including THC seltzers, gummies, softgels, and microdose mints

The Oregonian reports that Cycling Frog’s drinks contain 2 mg of THC and 4 mg of CBG per can and will be available in passionfruit and lemon flavors inside the ballpark.

“The Portland Pickles have a responsibility in the sports industry to take leaps and set a precedent of innovative partnerships,” Ross Campbell, VP of Business Development for the Pickles, said in a statement. “As we saw in 2019, becoming the first team to ever partner with a CBD company, and quickly teams all the way up to the Major League level across sports follow suit.”

Since Cycling Frog’s drinks contain hemp-derived THC, people who purchase them must be 21 years of age or older to purchase. How is this legal? According to a statement, the Pickles have consulted on regulations with the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) and Portland Parks and Recreation, which owns the stadium.

The Portland Pickles play at Walker Stadium when they play home games.

KGW reports that the seltzers will be sold at three different locations throughout the stadium: The Jack Daniels Party Deck Bar, Dillon’s Hideaway Bar and a third standalone pop-up inside the gates. People must be 21 years old or older to purchase. 

Stephen Colbert Name-Drops Portland Pickles and THC Drinks

Stephen Colbert even got in on the action, following the news about the Portland Pickles. During the Thursday episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Toward the end of his opening monologue, Colbert joked about it being the first day of summer, which means baseball.

Colbert joked about the New York Mets, the McDonald’s mascot Grimace throwing out a first pitch at one of their games, and this not being the first time a McDonald’s mascot helped out the New York team.

“Back in 1986, the Hamburglar was their coke dealer,” Colbert said. Switching to baseball’s minor leagues, “and the minor leagues of drugs,” he went on to note that the Portland Pickles have become the first sports team to legally sell THC products at games..

Colbert then said Portland Pickle fans “won’t be sparking up in the stands, you’ll be sparkling up, because instead of smoke-able products, they’ll be selling THC-based seltzer drinks.”

The Portland Pickles X account posted a clip of the video.

Colbert then went on to say that Coca-Cola used to be infused with cocaine, so a THC drink really isn’t all that far-fetched.

That might sound odd, Colbert said, “but remember, Coca-Cola used to have cocaine in it, and ginger ale originally contained the blood of a redhead.”

Cannabis Sales in Portland

Cannabis sales in the city of Portland fell in 2022. According to an OLCC database, Portland, Oregon area pot sales hit the lowest number of sales in three years. However, some experts blame the drop in sales on the temporary pandemic hump.

In June 2022, retail cannabis shops across Multnomah County, the state’s most populous area, made the lowest monthly profit they have since early 2019—hitting just $27,000 on average.

The price of cannabis flower is the lowest it’s been since April 2019. The county’s average gram sells for just $4.29 a gram—quite a bit lower than you’d find in most other states. Some have blamed the drop in value on Oregon’s oversupply problem, while others say the state’s oversupply problem wasn’t quite so bad as reported.

Portland residents bought $21 million worth of flower in July 2020, in the middle of the pandemic—and it was the most cannabis ever purchased in the state in a single month.

In general, cannabis sales increased at a steady pace since they began in 2016, but they skyrocketed in 2020, partly due to working from home and stimulus checks. In the span of only five months, cannabis sales in the county  increased by 79%. On average, cannabis shops raked in $48,000 per month in Multnomah County during the month of July 2020. But sales plunged shortly after, marking the lowest number recorded since June 2019.

Now that cannabis will be available at Portland Pickles games, local residents in the area can now have another way to get THC-infused products.

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)—the organization that administers intercollegiate athletics in the U.S.—is making drastic changes to its drug policy for cannabis.

Changes were announced at the 2024 NCAA Convention that took place on Jan. 10-13, in Phoenix, Arizona. NCAA Division I proposed ending the practice of drug testing athletes for cannabinoids. The NCAA released a news release on Jan. 10, announcing that Division I is proposing removing cannabis from its drug-testing policy and will be voting on implementing the change shortly.

The White Mountain Independent reports that during the NCAA Convention on Jan. 11, a group of panelists discussed the recent cannabinoid drug testing policy updates and what needs to be done in order to incorporate those changes. NCAA Division I leaders decided cannabis is not in fact a performance-enhancing drug and that the organization’s drug testing policy should focus on other drugs instead.

“Cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug, and we determined that the drug testing conducted at NCAA championships should focus on substances that impact competitive outcomes,” said Pat Chun, athletics director at Washington State and chair of the Strategic Vision and Planning Committee. “To be clear, this does not mean that NCAA members condone or promote use of cannabinoids. However, rather than focus on testing and subsequently penalizing student-athletes who use cannabis, NCAA efforts should focus on a harm reduction strategy, similar to substances like alcohol.”

The three panelists are members of the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS), which recommended in September 2023 that each NCAA division introduce and adopt legislation to remove cannabinoids from the association’s banned list.

In order for cannabis to be removed from the NCAA substance list, Divisions I, II, and III must introduce and adopt legislation.The CSMAS committee suggested that NCAA Divisions I, II, and III remove cannabinoids from the NCAA’s banned drug list. Beyond the obvious tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), this would also remove less common cannabinoids, including cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG), and cannabinol (CBN).

Division I programs offer the highest level of competition between the NCAA’s three divisions and is the hardest division to get into and compete in.

The recommendation dates back to a December 2022 Summit on Cannabinoids in College Athletics, which concluded that “the consensus opinion that cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug and that a harm reduction approach to cannabis is best implemented at the school level,” the NCAA wrote in a June 16, 2023 news release.

In February 2022, CSMAS slowly recognized the need for change, raising the THC testing threshold from 35 to 150 nanograms per milliliter and proposing a new penalty structure that incorporated treatment and education plans.

“One of the things we know about college students specifically is that treatment and education strategies work better than penalties,” CSMAS member Nadine Mastroleo, an associate professor in the department of psychology and faculty athletics representative at New York’s Binghamton University. “The last piece of this is really testing within a campus or at the local level. That is the best approach to using and finding individuals who actually might have a problem and could really use some support to reduce their use and to recover from whatever problems they may be having from that.”

According to a 2023 NCAA Student-Athlete Health and Wellness Study, 43% of college athletes are using marijuana in states where it is legal for recreational and medical use.

“Harm-reduction interventions, meaning meeting individuals where they are, are likely to be more effective in reducing cannabis-related health consequences than abstinence-only approaches,” said CSMAS member Deena Casiero, the senior associate athletics director for sports medicine and the head team physician at the University of Connecticut. “We know that randomly testing small groups of individuals at championships is not likely going to be as effective a deterrent as educating athletes about what this substance is actually doing to their bodies.

She continued, “How is this affecting your injury risk? How is this affecting your recovery? How is this affecting your performance? How is it affecting your sleep, your mental health? Pushing those agendas are going to be way more effective than randomly testing a group of individuals and then punishing them when they test positive.”

“So for those of you that will be getting emails from your student-athletes’ parents, we will hopefully be offering the information to you to help with that conversation,” Mastroleo said. “What we’re going to create ideally will be a really good toolkit of opportunities to really help with dispelling myths and also letting them know that we are out there for the athletes. Will we help everybody walk away from it? No, but I mean, how many of us can actually make everybody happy?”

A vote is scheduled to formally implement the drug testing policy change for Division I colleges is expected in June.

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The Kansas City Royals officially became the second Major League Baseball (MLB) team to partner with a CBD company last week. Pure Spectrum announced its connection with the Kansas City Royals as a “trusted wellness partner” on Instagram and Facebook. “Pure Spectrum is ecstatic to announce our new partnership with the @kcroyals. We can’t wait to see you on the field,” the company wrote online on June 6. 

Pure Spectrum also published a statement from the Kansas City Royals as well. “The Kansas City Royals are proud to announce a partnership with Pure Spectrum CBD, a hemp industry pioneer, and a leading producer of high-quality CBD products,” the post stated. “This partnership will focus on educating fans about their endocannabinoid system and the potential benefits of CBD for overall wellness.”

“The Kansas City Royals are proud to be just the second MLB team to form a partnership with a company like Pure Spectrum,” said executive vice president, chief commercial and community impact officer of the Kansas City Royals, Sarah Tourville. “For this organization, this opportunity gives us a chance to support a brand with Kansas City ties and to educate the community on the benefits of CBD.”

The partnership also included the launch of the Pure Spectrum Lodge, which opened on June 2 at the team’s Kauffman Stadium. “Equipped with fans and misters, the space is designed to give fans a place to relax and watch the game while learning about the positive effects of CBD,” a press release stated.

According to Startland News, Pure Spectrum’s CEO Dan Huerter is a native to the area. “As someone who grew up in Kansas City, this partnership with the Kansas City Royals is more than a ‘dream come true’ for me,” said Huerter. “To be able to work with such an iconic organization and to be a part of promoting health and wellness in my hometown community is an incredible honor.”

The first team to partner with a CBD company was the Chicago Cubs in April. “When MLB opened the CBD category for its clubs, it allowed us to explore new partnership opportunities and offerings,” said Alex Seyferth, Chicago Cubs vice president of corporate partnerships. “We’re proud to be the first club to partner with a CBD company, but what was more important to us was making sure that the brand was the right fit. MYND DRINKS is a Chicago-based company that promotes overall wellness and helps ease the stressors of everyday life, just like a Friday 1:20 game at Wrigley Field.”

The partnership included multiple signage within Wrigley Field, international marketing rights in the United Kingdom later in the year.

The MLB removed cannabis from its list of “abused drugs” in December 2019, just five months later after Los Angeles Angels athlete Tyler Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room due to an opioid overdose. “The opioid epidemic in our country is an issue of significant concern to Major League Baseball,” said Dan Halem, MLB deputy commissioner and chief legal officer. “It is our hope that this agreement—which is based on principles of prevention, treatment, awareness and education—will help protect the health and safety of our players.”

In February 2020, the MLB announced that players were allowed to smoke cannabis but couldn’t be sponsored by cannabis companies. 

Other sports agencies such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) have also embraced new cannabis policies. As of April, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association are working on a deal that would remove cannabis from its list of banned substances and also allow players to promote and invest in cannabis companies.

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The first professional baseball team officially inked a deal with a CBD company this week.

On April 7, The Chicago Cubs announced a partnership with MYND Drinks, makers of wellness and recovery beverages, which allows the hemp-based product to be the “Official CBD Partner” of the Cubs and the first CBD partner of any Major League Baseball (MLB) club. It marks a historic milestone when professional sports are beginning to embrace hemp and marijuana.

“When MLB opened the CBD category for its clubs, it allowed us to explore new partnership opportunities and offerings,” said Chicago Cubs Vice President of Corporate Partnerships, Alex Seyferth. “We’re proud to be the first club to partner with a CBD company, but what was more important to us was making sure that the brand was the right fit. MYND DRINKS is a Chicago-based company that promotes overall wellness and helps ease the stressors of everyday life, just like a Friday 1:20 game at Wrigley Field.”

The partnership opens doors in the world of sports where unapproved drugs and supplements are typically strictly forbidden.

The partnership will include various in-ballpark signage elements including on-field baseline signage at Wrigley Field and “several in-game features” International marketing rights are also expected in the United Kingdom for the 2023 regular season, a first for the club. MYND Drinks won a 2022 World CBD Awards winner for “Best Cold Beverage.”

To kick off the partnership, the Cubs will be releasing a guided meditation on YouTube narrated by Cubs radio play-by-play announcer Pat Hughes as well as a “Sounds of Wrigley Field” Spotify playlist today.

“We are so thrilled and honored to announce our partnership with the legendary Chicago Cubs, and that they share our vision of health and wellness in major league sports,” said Simon Allen, CEO of MYND Drinks.

CBD is Regulated Differently Than Marijuana

Professional baseball is slowly embracing CBD. The 2018 Farm Bill opened the door to CBD sales because it finally allowed the government to differentiate between hemp, which has no psychoactive properties in its natural form, and marijuana. This makes it possible for major sports leagues to open the door to CBD endorsements.

In June 2022, MLB CRO Noah Garden said there are two things required if you want to do a deal in the CBD category: An NSF Certified for Sport® designation—which requires a relatively long process—and an approval from the Commissioner’s office.

In this case, Mynd Drinks’s Elderberry Passionfruit, Orange Mango and Lemon Ginger flavors met “the highest safety standards” and received the NSF Certified for Sport® designation.

MLB Removes Cannabis From Banned List

MLB announced in 2019 that it will remove cannabis from its list of abused drugs, but added they will continue testing for opioids and cocaine.

Tony Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said that the league’s players “are overwhelmingly in favor of expanding our drug-testing regimen to include opioids and want to take a leadership role in helping to resolve this national epidemic.”

The change was prompted by an opioid-related death of Los Angeles Angels’ Tyler Skaggs that rocked the MLB community. It was announced five months after Skaggs was found dead in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas. Skaggs, who was only 27, died after choking on his own vomit, and was found by an examiner to have alcohol and two opioid-based painkillers, fentanyl and oxycodone, in his system.

MYND Drinks are currently available on the website and at select Chicagoland retailers.

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The MLB stated in a conference call on June 21 that CBD is now an “approved category” which means that teams are now allowed to sell CBD sponsorships as long as the brand has received an NSF certification (a verification that a product has no THC).

According to Sports Business Journal, MLB Chief Revenue Officer Noah Garden explained the reason for the change. “We’ve been watching this category for a while and waiting for it to mature to the point where we can get comfortable with it,” said Garden. “We told the clubs if you want to do a deal in the CBD category, it will require two things: One is NSF certification—and none of them are there yet, although around three to five [brands] are in process. The other is to get approval from the commissioner’s office…Our fans are very much the kind of customers they are looking for, and we like being first. It’s a good opportunity for us and the clubs. The last few companies that came to see us about this, the process of NSF certification was embraced. That gave us a comfort level to be able to move forward.”

Recently, analysts shared that CBD could generate up to $4.9 billion across the globe in 2022, with a projection of reaching $47 billion by 2028.

The MLB “patch program,” which began in March 2022, allows each team to feature a brand and logo on their team uniforms for on-field players. The San Diego Padres was the first team to embrace this new sponsorship by partnering with Motorola. With this in mind, Garden added that a CBD brand could possibly be featured in a patch deal too. “We are open-minded to doing a patch deal here, depending on the brand and what that brand represents,” Garden said. “It has to have a brand that represents sports.” 

It’s a landmark milestone for CBD in the MLB, but the conversation spans most other sports organizations as well.

NBA athlete Kevin Garnett said in an interview with Sports Business Journal last week following his attendance of the Brand Innovation Summit that was held in Chicago, Illinois on June 13-15, “I think with the emergence and where CBD is going, not only are you going to see a deal [in the NBA], you are going to start see the sponsorships on the jerseys.” Garnett continued, “You are going to start to see a more active role of CBD products actually signing players, both women and men. And then I think you’re going to see the education come out a little more because we’re all looking for it now. I think CBD is here, it’s a disruptor, it has disrupted pharma, as it should, and it’s a great, different solution. If people are not using it, I recommend people to go out and have your own testimonials and your own experiences with it. It really does work.”

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Vice President of Global Partnerships Grant Norris-Jones also spoke at the event on the topic CBD and its benefits for athletes. “It’s a better alternative to addictive products, like pain killers, opioids, and sleeping aids,” said Norris-Jones. “The big problem has been the different standards and practices by our various broadcast partners when it comes to CBDs…In the U.K., [UFC sponsor] Love Hemp is sold in the equivalent of Walgreens and CVS. Here, their activations have to be outside of ESPN currently. So it’s been a lot of digital, social and a brand ambassador program with our athletes.”

The MLB first made waves towards allowing cannabis consumption for athletes over two years ago. Following the events of baseball player Tyler Skaggs who died of an opioid overdose, the organization announced in December 2019 that it would be removing cannabis from its list of “abused drugs” (but would still test for substances such as fentanyl and cocaine).

However, the MLB still said in March 2020 that players may receive punishments for appearing under the influence of cannabis at any practices or games.

The NBA was next to make history when it announced in October 2021 that it would not be testing its athletes for cannabis during the 75th season, which began in October 2021 and ended in May 2022.

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