Golf Legend Greg Norman Slinging CBD Products Nationwide

While the CBD edibles racket is presently getting tuned up in some local and state jurisdictions as a result of vague guidelines issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, CBD-infused personal care products, like pain creams and lotions, are expected to become one of the hottest new trends in the wellness world. And nothing helps sell relief from the aches and pains that active humans of a certain age often experience quite like a full-fledged endorsement from a former athlete.

It is for this reason that World Golf Hall-of-Famer Greg Norman has jumped into the CBD game, entering into a partnership deal with Ohio-based Green Growth Brands to produce a specialty line of wellness products brandishing his name to be distributed in retail chains all across the United States.

The deal was actually carved out under a subsidiary of Green Growth Brands that they have so cleverly deemed GGB Beauty. The company, which has partnered with Canadian pot producer Tilray to its supply, is focused on creating CBD-infused products “designed for active adult men and women.” These are products that Norman himself wishes he would have had on the course during his heyday during the ’80s and ’90s. “I played professional golf for 40 years, hitting more than 5 million golf balls that have caused significant wear and tear on my body,” he said in a statement.

While most average Americans are not out there jacking up their bodies winning international golf tournaments, including 20 with the PGA, that doesn’t mean they aren’t still grunting and groaning every morning when it comes time to get their less than happy behinds out of bed.

Other athletes, like former NBA star Al Harrington, credit CBD topicals with being a salvations wing in the grand scheme of sports recovery. In fact, Harrington loves them so much that he, too, started a line of CBD personal care products last year under the moniker Harrington Wellness.

There is no doubt that cannabis (and hemp) has become the investment opportunity of choice for former professional athletes. Considering that the latest data shows that the CBD sector alone could be worth anywhere from $2 to $22 billion in the next few years, the attraction to this product makes sense.

At the consumer level, it is important to point out that CBD personal care products do not get the user high. Cannabidiol, which is the big, scary scientific word for what most people just call CBD, is the non-intoxicating derivative of the cannabis plant. Yet, it can also be extracted in lower concentrations from industrial hemp.

Incidentally, the latest uptick in CBD wellness is a direct result from Congress pushing a farm bill through last year legalizing industrial hemp production in the U.S. for the first time since 1937. All of the products being developed for Norman’s CBD line will be made with hemp, a representative with Green Growth said. As it stands, CBD-derived from the cannabis plant is still technically illegal under federal law. That is not expected to change until Congress legalizes marijuana at the national level.

Considering the popularity of CBD products in the U.S, one would think that Tilray’s stocks would have experienced an increase upon the news of this deal. But it actually continues to take a dive. Although cannabis stocks are showing a higher performance in general as of the first earnings report of the season, they are not really as impressive as some investors had hoped. There was a belief that when Canada made marijuana fully legal in October of last year stocks would start to become Rockstar additions to portfolios. But that hasn’t really happened. Some of this is due to cannabis consumption being stagnant in the northern nation. A recent report from Statistics Canada shows no increase in pot use nationwide since they put the law on the books. But that isn’t the only reason pot stocks are in a funny place right now. Most of it has to do with these companies being mostly overpriced – meaning they are not really worth what they are on paper – and the market is far from mature.

Something that could help improve the situation is for larger traditional companies to get into bed with cannabis. Developments like Constellations Brands and the Molson Coors producing THC-infused beer contributed to upswings last year. But no significant events have taken place yet in 2019.

TELL US, which professional athlete do you wish would launch a cannabis line?