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The country has officially entered into a new age of drug policy in professional sports: the Chicago Cubs have become the first team in Major League Baseball to sign a deal with a CBD company. According to a press release that went out Friday and was reported on by MJBizDaily, the historic marketing collaboration is with Mynd Drinks, which makes sparkling hemp-based CBD beverages in flavors like Lemon Ginger, Strawberry Passion, and Orange Mango.
We know what you’re thinking: Does that mean you’ll be able to sip cannabis bevs while catching a game at Wrigley Field? That remains unclear for now. All we know is there will be “on-field baseline signage” and the ads will show up in “several in-game features,” whatever that means.
All cannabis products associated with the league and its teams must have the National Sanitation Foundation’s Certified for Sport designation, which ensures that the product has been tested for “contaminants, prohibited substances or masking agents, and that what is on the label matches what is in the product,” according to the NSF website.
In case you want to celebrate this banner moment for sports fans with a CBD relaxation moment of your own, the Cubs would like you to be aware that the team’s Youtube page has a guided meditation by announcer Pat Hughes.
Last June, the MLB became, uh, woke when decided to green light CBD sponsorships. Now, the cannabis capitalism game is on fire and more visible than ever. In fact, the league was the first entity to approve of such sponsorships once it secured a multi-year deal with Colorado’s Charlotte’s Web Holdings in October.
(As you may know, Charlotte’s Web Holdings is named after medical cannabis heroine and advocate Charlotte Figi, who lived with Dravet syndrome until her death during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. RIP.)
In many ways, the MLB has led the way among professional sports leagues when it comes to its cannabis policy. In 2019, it announced that it would no longer be testing its athletes for marijuana—and that it would be putting heightened attention, rather, on opioids in the wake of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ overdose on fentanyl, oxycodone, and oxymorphone.
At that time, MLB clarified that it wasn’t going so far as to allow its players to capitalize off of cannabis sponsorships.
Wanna know the PR speak behind the Cubs’ forary into cannabis promo?
“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,” stated Alex Seyferth, the team’s vice president of corporate partnerships. “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.”
Chris Moore via (https://merryjane.com/news/chicago-cubs-are-officially-sponsored-by-a-cannabis-company)
Keep out of reach of children. For use only by adults 21 years of age and older.
