Regardless of the outcome of today’s game, it will be the third year in a row where the Super Bowl winning team is from one of the 24 states with legal recreational marijuana.
Both the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers are from states where marijuana is legal for all uses. California legalized recreational marijuana in 2016, with Missouri doing the same six years later in 2022.
Last year’s Super Bowl was won by the Chiefs, just months after voters approved a legalization initiative. The year prior it was won by the Los Angeles Rams, obviously in the same legal marijuana state as the 49ers.
Super Bowl LV in 2021 was the last Super Bowl without a winner from a legal marijuana state, In that game the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Chiefs 31 to 9.
Currently 20 of the National Football League’s 32 teams (62%) are from states that have legalized recreational marijuana. At the start of the 2012 season, the number of NFL teams located in legal marijuana states was 0.
Travis Kelce, starting tight end for Kansas City Chiefs, said in June that he believes a majority of NFL players use marijuana on a regular basis, with the number as high as 80%.
Earlier this month the NFL announced it was partnering with researchers in order to conduct clinical trials on the safety and efficiency of the marijuana compound cannabidiol (CBD) for treating pain and providing protection against concussions.
“The goal of this open-label, placebo-controlled, dosage escalation study is to learn about the safety of a Cannabis/Hemp Isolate Extract in normal healthy adults engaged in elite contact sport competition”, states a notice announcing the study. The main question it aims to answer is “Are cannabis/hemp-based products with high CBD safe, well-tolerated and without adverse physiological and psychological dysfunction, when administered on a daily basis?”
