The National Hockey League Alumni Association is offering “hope and help” to its ailing members through a clinical research initiative that includes diagnosis, treatment and the use of cannabinoids [CBD] for pain management.

NHLAA executive director Glenn Healy will unveil the program Saturday in Toronto and has called it “the most ambitious project the Alumni Association has ever done.” The multi-million dollar endeavour is a partnership between the Association and its 3,800 members, NEEKA Healthcare Canada and Canopy Growth, a Smith Falls, Ont., company that produces cannabis-based products.

“We’re trying to get players back functionally integrated into their world,” said Mr. Healy, a former NHL goaltender who noted he has spoken with dozens of ex-players who are struggling physically and mentally. “They’re wounded in some way and they don’t know where to turn. When you finish playing, the [NHL] Players’ Association doesn’t represent you any more so then what? Where do you go for help? Now you have a place to go.”

Canopy Growth will fund at least one study of former players from Southern Ontario to determine how to wean them off addictive opioids, a burgeoning problem shared by retired and current athletes, particularly those in contact sports. Doctors Mark Ware and Amin Kassam are involved in the project. Dr. Ware is Canopy Growth’s chief medical officer. Dr. Kassam is a renowned neurosurgeon associated with NEEKA Healthcare Canada. He is based at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee, Wisc.

Together, the two doctors will help analyse the data collected from the players in a variety of ways. Blood tests will be conducted and players will be put through speech and memory tests. They will also receive a variety of brain scans. This will happen over a 10-week period with 80 per cent of the players taking CBD pills. [CBD comes from the cannabis plant and can create more of a mellow feeling than a high. It has been predicted the CBD market in the U.S. is so hot it could hit the $16-billion mark by 2025.]

As for the remaining 20 per cent of the tested players, they will receive a placebo. Analysis will be done without knowing in advance which player took CBD and which one didn’t.

Mr. Healy said the benefits of a program that identifies and offers post-care treatments “is a legacy project. We’re going to take highly-afflicted athletes and we’re going to have scientific data that says this is what you do. Here’s an app you use. You’re self-medicating with a masking agent? Well, it’s no longer Vicodin or OxyContin.”

It has been suggested the Alumni Association’s work in this area could be a blueprint for the NHL Players’ Association and its treatment options. The NHL is no doubt aware of the potential for the kind of legal action occurring in football. In 2017, the Washington Post reported that more than 1,800 former NFL players had filed a lawsuit against the league claiming NFL teams broke federal laws governing the storing, tracking and distribution of prescription painkillers. The matter is ongoing.