No one can expose the absurdity of a situation like John Oliver. Using 17 minutes of his 30-minute program Sunday, the HBO late-night host went deep on cannabis, showing the flawed systems in a state like Kentucky, and the contradictions of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“If you have marijuana right now, even if you are acting completely legally according to your state, you may still be in serious jeopardy,” Oliver warned in his spot-on monologue.
That’s because marijuana remains a Schedule I drug, on level with heroin, while cocaine and methamphetamines are classified as Schedule II. Oliver also showcased how federal policies are still influenced by the remnants of America’s “War on Drugs,” including some seriously backwards thinking by Richard Nixon, and how it does more harm than good.
Oliver really lambasted the inconsistency of state and federal marijuana laws, exposing legislative hypocrisy and idiocy in his monologue. He also called out Sessions’ selective usage of Lady Gaga’s advocacy, brilliantly taking down Sessions for making Gaga into political prop.
“Lady Gaga also said, ‘I believe that men and women deserve to love each other equally,’ as well as ‘Touch me in the dark, put your hands all over my body parts.’ So please, Jeff, if you’re going to live your life according to Gaga quotes, accept the entire canon,” Oliver said.
The more we study the cannabis plant, the more we learn not only about our own bodies and how they react to cannabis, but how they react to plants and chemicals found elsewhere in nature. Terpenes are responsible for the effects we know and love, and they’re in mostly all good-smelling and medicinal plants.
Lemongrass is the first thing many reach for when boosting a cannabis experience with other botanicals. This is thanks to it’s super high amount of the myrcene terpene found in cannabis, mangoes, and many other plants. It’s also got limonene which is known for reducing THC induced anxiety in certain strains, and why smelling fresh bud is so aromatic and lemony.
Experimenting with ways to make them intersect is way more fun than many realize. Thai Tom Kha soup is genuinely one of my favorite things to eat on earth, so I won’t call this concoction that at all out of respect to it’s deliciousness and all Thai chefs who make it. This at-home soup is very much inspired by the milky, bright and sour delight that is Tom Kha, but is a bit more herbaceous and not just from the addition of cannabis.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
Lemongrass Coconut Soup
Danielle Guercio 2013
Serves 4 with leftovers; estimated THC Per serving 7mg
4 c Vegetable broth (mine was homemade, more on that below)
1 c coconut milk
½ oz infused coconut oil
1 Tbs mushroom bullion
1 tsp turmeric
¼ lb ginger, sliced
5-6 Thai basil leaves
2 birds eye chilis
3 stalks lemongrass, cut into segments
1 c cherry tomatoes
1 c diced yam
Half an onion, sliced
1 packet enoki mushrooms
1-2 chopped scallions for garnish
Cilantro chopped for garnish
Red chili flakes for garnish
Photos by Maria Penaloza
First, you need to make broth if you want to make your own, which is a fun thing I’ve been doing in my kitchen for a few months now. I save vegetable scraps from prep that would normally be discarded in a strong ziplock. One bag is for vaguely ‘Western’ scraps like kale and dill stems, mirepoix and herbs/lettuces that were about to die in the fridge, the other for ‘Eastern’ scraps like cilantro, scallions, Chinese celery, mushroom stems, ginger, lemongrass, pepper tops, etc.
When it’s time to make broth I simply fill up a pot with the scraps, top with water, add salt and some other appropriate seasonings, and in one hour you have a fantastic vegetable broth base that you can use to cool plenty of yummy things. You probably don’t have to separate, but I don’t want ginger in cheese soup or dill in my ramen for the most part.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
If using store bought, rock on! Heat broth and add the mushroom bouillon and all of your aromatics the basil, chilis, lemongrass, turmeric, and ginger. Simmer for 20 minutes. Skim ¾ of the lemongrass and ginger chunks so you won’t be fighting them off in the finished soup. You want some in there to continue to release their magic in your leftovers.
Add onions, coconut milk and infused oil and allow to simmer while stirring to combine. Add yams and cook for 10 minutes. Puncture cherry tomatoes so they cook without bursting and their juices flavor the broth. Dunk in the soup and cook until tomatoes are just wrinkled, roughly 5 minutes.
To serve, stack some mushrooms in the bowl and add a ladle full of the vegetable chunks. Fill up with broth until the mushrooms are covered, but still sticking out. Garnish with chopped cilantro, scallion, and red chili flakes.
*Cannabis Infused Coconut Oil
Decarboxylate 3.5g of finely ground cannabis at 225 degrees for 20 minutes in a tightly sealed, oven safe container. Put in lidded mason jar or vacuum sealed bag with cannabis and four ounces of coconut oil. Heat in water bath just under boiling for at least 1 hour. Strain and chill to use in recipes.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
I hope you find this as delicious as I did, it’s fragrant and satisfying, and much more filling than you’d first imagine for a soup with no meat, rice, or noodles. As with most soup recipes, you can very simply tailor this to have tofu, chicken, shrimp, or any meat you choose, just cook it all the way to be safe or add it to the soup par-cooked so that it doesn’t toughen from being boiled. The lighter THC dose will be majorly boosted by the pinene, Eugenol, myrcene, and limonene from the lemongrass, basil, and cilantro, and your nose will rejoice alongside your cannabinoid receptors.
Jerry Jones, the influential and controversial owner of the Dallas Cowboys, wants the NFL to “drop its prohibition on marijuana use,” according to reports over the weekend.
Jones, per a source who heard the comments, wants the league to drop its prohibition on marijuana use. Jones was reminded that the issue falls under the umbrella of collective bargaining, which would require the players to make one or more concessions in exchange for significant changes to the marijuana prohibition.
As the report makes clear, the owners are not able to unilaterally change the NFL’s marijuana policy — the league must negotiate with the players’ union. But the NFL Players Association appears to agree with Jones.
In January, DeMaurice Smith, the NFLPA’s executive director was clear in what the players want:
“I do think that issues of addressing it more in a treatment and less punitive measure is appropriate. I think it’s important to look at whether there are addiction issues. And I think it’s important to not simply assume recreation is the reason it’s being used.”
Marijuana is currently banned by the NFL and a player testing positive can be fined or suspended from the league.
Last season, the NFL fined 20 players a total of more than $10 million for violating its substance-abuse policy — most of those of those violations were marijuana related.
According to an ESPN survey earlier this season, more than 60 percent of players believe the use of pharmaceutical opioids would be reduced if the NFL OK’d marijuana for pain.
In February, the NFLPA said it planned to propose a “less punitive” approach to the marijuana use.
The announcement came just months after the organization revealed it wanted to actively research the cannabis plant to determine its efficacy as an alternative to opioids.
The governors of the first four states to legalize a taxed and regulated cannabis market have fired off a letter to members of the Trump Administration in hopes of persuading the government’s law enforcement hammer not to impose a federal crackdown on legal weed.
The letter, which was specifically addressed to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, asks for the new administration to respect state marijuana laws by maintaining the intentions of the memo designed by President Obama’s Justice Department that allows legal weed to happen without federal interference.
“As governors of states that have legalized marijuana in some form, we ask the Trump Administration to engage with us before embarking on any changes to regulatory and enforcement systems,” the letter signed by Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Insle reads. “The balance struck by the 2013 Department of Justice Cole Memorandum (Cole Memo) has been indispensable ― providing the necessary framework for state regulatory programs centered on public safety and health protections.”
The governors’ letter calls for the new administration to do as they were forced to do and give legal marijuana a chance.
“We understand you and others in the administration have some concerns regarding marijuana,” the letter continues. “We sympathize, as many of us expressed apprehensions before our states adopted current laws. As governors, we have committed to implementing the will of our citizens and have worked cooperatively with our legislatures to establish robust regulatory structures that prioritize public health and public safety, reduce inequitable incarceration and expand our economies.”
Over the past several weeks, Attorney General Sessions has alluded that one of his primary missions with respect to the drug problem in the United States is to put a stop to cartel activity.
Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, who applauded the governors for their brass balls attempt at keeping prohibition in the rearview, says the only way for Sessions to truly accomplish this goal is to continue to allow the existence of legal weed.
“There is no denying that regulated cannabis businesses are preferable to underground markets dominated by gangs and cartels,” he told the Huffington Post. “The regulated markets are creating jobs, generating tax revenue, and taking marijuana sales off the streets. The Trump Administration should be working with the states to ensure the regulated markets are functioning properly and safely, not working against the states to shut them down.”
Last week, Governor Hickenlooper, who now has three years experience running a state with a legal pot trade, said he “would argue to the attorney general that the country has potential benefit to be able to see this experiment through to a natural conclusion.” The governor, who opposed legalization prior to the passing of Amendment 64, continued by saying, “Let’s go a couple more years and see and get more data and really see, “Are we worse off or better off than we were before?’”
As it stands, twenty-eight states have legalized the leaf for either medicinal or recreational use, with some of the latest national polls showing that most Americans (consistently around 60 percent) believe the time has come for the federal government to handle pot in the same way they do with alcohol and tobacco. But so far, the current administration continues to lean on propaganda and alternative facts to base their stance on the issue.
Still, the Trump Administration has yet to say whether it will impose a crackdown or if it will allow the cannabis industry to continue its business unscathed for the next four years.
On Sunday’s episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim underwent a procedure to repair her uterus that was ultimately unsuccessful.
“So there’s a complication with my bladder I had to have a catheter,” said Kim “It’s super painful and frustrating.”
After the surgery, Kim’s doctor advised that having a third child would be too risky for her body. She later tells her sisters Kourtney and Khloé that she and West have already discussed a back-up plan to natural pregnancy.
“After everything I went through, the surgery and it wasn’t successful and didn’t do anything,” Kim explained. “Kanye was really nervous about the surgery … but I know he would want to have more kids. I feel like surrogacy is the only option for me.”
“Whatever is meant to be will be,” she added in a solo interview.
Kim made a rare public appearance on Apr. 2 to attend the Fashion Los Angeles Awards. She wore a dazzling Givenchy gown from the brand’s Fall 2011 collection and explained on Twitter that her look was inspired by her Givenchy wedding dress.
“He’s honestly the funniest person I’ve ever met in my entire life,” she said of the photographer. “I’ve never met a more genuine person, someone who care so much about what’s really going on in your life aside from all the beauty and the fashion.”
Bethenny Frankel Fired From The Real Housewives After This Season
“Bethenny’s time on the show is coming to an end. Nothing bad happened but viewers are getting sick of her and her constantly pushing them to buy her products. This will be her last season for a while. She is expensive and she doesn’t deliver ratings anymore,” sources tell NAUGHTY GOSSIP. “Plus, the only thing viewers want her to talk about – her ugly divorce – she refuses to mention.”
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“God and cannabis.” That’s what members of Alabama’s Oklevueha Native American Church of Inner Light preach. The married couple Janice and Christopher Rushing are co-founders of the church and both regular users of cannabis. They founded the church in 2015 and claim they have a state exemption to smoke cannabis and consume hallucinogenic mushrooms and peyote cactus.
The church regularly gathers to discuss the benefits of cannabis, citing it as a possible cure for bipolar disorder, “an ungodly facial rash,” cancer, and post-traumatic stress disorder. All this is possible because of their traditional Native American spiritual beliefs and they consider their usage “a sacrament.”
All 120 members in the Alabama church carry photo identification, similar to a driver’s license, that identifies them as members of a church that has a federal religious exemption to use natural drugs that are otherwise prohibited by law, [Christopher Rushing] said.
This Birmingham News story comes in conjunction with a recent video showcasing a rabbi, priest, and atheist smoking herb together. In that video, Jim Mirel, Rabbi Emeritus at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, Washington, said that, “If [cannabis] helps you become a better person, if it lifts you up, gives you a new view of life, it’s a very positive thing.”
Cannabis usage remains illegal in Alabama, the home state of anti-marijuana Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But through religious exemptions, that hasn’t stopped state citizens going green it seems.
In the world of craft beer, there are a lot of choices. Plopping down at the bar, you’re often faced with the decision between an IPA, Stout or something lighter. But the choice that often seems most scary to craft beer drinkers is the mysterious Sour Ale. “What the heck is it, how did they infiltrate our otherwise straightforward tap handles and should I ever order one?” These are the questions on the tips of many thirsty tongues. So, let’s get to the facts, shall we? Let’s enter the Sour Ales 101 course we’ve always wanted to attend. And by the end of it we’ll all be on the Honor Roll (aka tipsy).
1. There Are Entire Breweries Dedicated To Sour Ales
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In Portland, Oregon, for example, Cascade Brewing Barrel House specializes in tart, barrel-aged Northwest sour beers. “Pucker up and join the sour revolution!” the brewery’s web site eagerly states.
That there are entire entities devoted to sour ales, means something’s brewing – er, happening. Some of the options on tap at Cascade include a 7.2% ABV Apricot Sour and an 8.5% ABV Blueberry version.
2. Sour Ales Were The Original Beer
When the brewing process began many hundreds of years ago, all beers were sour to a degree. Before cleanliness was prioritized (aka pasteurization), cultures would enter the brewing process and ferment the brew to such a degree that it would taste overly acidic and puckery.
3. Typically, Sours Take A Long Time To Make, But There Are Shortcuts
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE_fSXFFqLL
“Kettle sours,” made in brew kettles, different from traditional Old World wild sours, are becoming more prevalent. Found in many breweries today, kettle sours take only two weeks to create but use the same sort of bacteria as Old World (traditional) sours.
The brewing method is different, though: with traditional sours, microbes that turn sugar to acidity are added after the beer has fermented; in kettle-souring they’re added before, then the mixture is boiled and the souring agent is killed, making this process even safer for neighboring beers. But kettle sours, many say, are weaker and less nuanced. In other words: cheaper.
4. Yogurt Can be Utilized In The Brewing Process
Yep! During the 3rd Annual Portland Fruit Beer Festival, The Commons Brewery made a sour ale using black currant puree. The brewery’s Master Brewer, Sean Burke, soured the beer with lactobacillus, but cultured the bacteria from yogurt by taking a spoonful of Nancy’s Greek yogurt and pitching it into the sour’s starter.
5. There Are Many Versions Of Sour Ale
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Including: Lambic (sour wheat ale, some come fruited, others sweet and low ABV), Flanders Red (made with reddish-brown malts, tart and aged for years), Berliner Weisse (tart, cloudy wheat ale – similar to the original beer), and Gose (dry).
Three good sours to try: Lindemans Lambic Framboise (a low alcohol, dessert sour, perfect for after diner), Duchesse De Bourgogne (a Flanders Red and entry-level sour for anyone curious to try the style), and Lagunitas’ Aunt Sally (a smooth, hoppy sour).
6. Sour Ales Make Your Tongue Do Twists It’s Not Used To
So be prepared. Even when you’re expecting the flavor, Sour Ales are not what you’d expect once they splash over your tongue. In other words, they’re often an acquired taste. Worth acquiring, but brace yourself nevertheless!
There’s an old “Saturday Night Live” sketch that parodies a Cool Whip commercial. Cast members Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner argue over whether Shimmer, a new product, is a dessert topping or a floor wax. Turns out Shimmer is both! It tastes great but it will also leave your floor shining.
Higher Vision Super Oil is no floor wax, but its applications are certainly diverse. Super Oil can be applied to a joint, it can be used in a vapor pen, it’s dabbable with a rig, it can be applied as a topical oil on your skin and it’s edible. Now that’s an all-purpose cannabis product!
Adam Lustig, the founder of Higher Vision, explains that Super Oil is a blend of pure THC distillate and live cannabis terpenes. It’s derived from the same, single source with nothing added. “We’re proud of Super Oil’s universality,” he says. “We wanted to create a product that’s healthy and allows consumers an array of choices for its use. The standards for cannabis products to be contaminant-free have become more stringent. We’ve worked very hard to make sure that Super Oil is free of all pesticides, mycotoxins and residual solvents.”
Super Oil made its debut last July, but is already widely used by cannabis chefs. It will be widely released to consumers late this spring. Adam says, “We’re expanding to include all things cannabis-related. Our mission is to bring about health and healing.”
At Waska Farms in Mendocino County, verdant fields of organic, sun-grown cannabis surround the kitchen where Waska cannabis drinks are produced. Carey Grafmiller, the creator of Waska, grows a number of highly coveted sativa, indica and high-CBD strains. Following harvest, the raw cannabis flowers are frozen.
In the kitchen, they are blended together and infused into the drink itself, a lightly sweetened, non-dairy hemp beverage, made from shelled hemp seed, that’s smooth and creamy. Carey says, “By blending strains together, we provide a wide range of cannabinoid compounds in every bottle.”
California dispensaries are finding Waska to be a popular purchase. They come in both low-dosage and high-dosage versions and are available in flavors like chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and black cherry. High-CBD Waska is also available. Best of all, you can put Waska drinks in the freezer for up to a year and lose none of its freshness or potency.
As fans of Carlos Santana already know, “Smooth” was the 1999 hit collaboration between Santana and Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. Late last year, the rock legend partnered up with Marisol Therapeutics of Pueblo, CO to release the Santana Smooth inhaler. It’s also a major hit.
For consumers who are unable to smoke cannabis or vaporize, inhalers offer an outstanding solution. They provide a precise dose of medical cannabis. They’re safe and convenient, allowing patients to alleviate their symptoms while also minimizing the psychoactive properties of cannabis.
The Santana Smooth inhaler operates without heating the THC, as a vapor pen does. It works like any typical inhaler, propelling the medicine directly to one’s lungs.
The Santana Smooth inhaler is now available at dispensaries throughout Colorado. Its formal unveiling took place at Marisol’s flagship dispensary last November. Carlos Santana was there to explain its purpose. “We want to affect consciousness with healing and giving people a better quality of life physically and hopefully psychologically. The world needs to know that there’s a difference between medicine and drugs. Humans make drugs in laboratories. Mother Nature makes medicine.”
Argentina’s Senate voted on Wednesday to legalize the use of cannabis oil and other marijuana derivatives for medicinal purposes, the Associated Pressreports. The legislation will establish a system of regulations through which the state will prescribe and monitor the newly-legal medication.
“In history, the big things always come in small steps,” Valeria Salech, president of a private pro-medical marijuana group called Mama Cultiva Argentina, told the Associated Press.
A medical marijuana research program based at the Health Ministry will also be created, where “free access” to the products will be guaranteed to anyone who joins the program. Researchers will be permitted to grow cannabis for research and to manufacture cannabis oils and other derivatives.
While it’s a step in the right direction, Argentina still hasn’t gone as far as its neighbor Uruguay, which has legalized recreational use of the drug.
Eben Britton is a man who understands pain. Within his six-year NFL playing career as an offensive lineman for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears, he experienced major and minor injuries alike, including a torn labrum, a hamstring injury, a herniated disc resulting in sciatica that still ails him to this day. “I can’t feel my right foot on the ground,” he tells me.
Compounding these injuries is the game of football itself, America’s most bone-crushing sport. The crunching tackles and successful blows devastate the body over time. How football addles the brain is a topic the league would prefer not to discuss. “It’s a violent game that I personally don’t think humans are supposed to play,” said Doug Whaley, the Buffalo Bill general manager, last year.
Photo courtesy Eben Britton
This perhaps explains why opioids and other painkillers have infected the NFL at an alarming rate. Former Detroit Lions star receiver Calvin Johnson said painkillers are handed out “like candy,” which contributed to his decision to retire earlier than many expected. More than 1,800 former players filed a lawsuit against each of the NFL’s 32 teams, alleging teams violated their players’ long-term health and federal laws controlling pain medicine. The sealed court documents describe a culture of opioid abuse and were either deceptive or didn’t inform players about the addictive medications they were taking. (A 2011 study claims retired NFL players misuse opioid pain medications more than four times than the general population.) The lawsuit goes to trial this October.
Britton believes there’s another way through cannabis. His last four years in the league, Britton used Adderall regularly to keep himself on the field, but “needed to smoke copious amounts of marijuana just to ease the comedown,” as he wrote in Sports Illustrated. In 2015, the league served Britton a four-game suspension for using Ritalin he borrowed from a teammate. He’d been taking Adderall under the NFL’s therapeutic use exemption (TEU), but the Ritalin wasn’t prescribed, so he received the same punishment as Tom Brady did for deflating footballs. The incident eventually led to Britton’s retirement from the game.
“My body was, for the most part, in good shape,” Britton says. “I wasn’t dependent on any pharmaceutical pain killers. I wasn’t having to take any prescription anti-inflammatories daily and that’s really because of cannabis.”
Since retiring, Eben Britton has become a strong advocate in cannabis legalization and urging the NFL to study the effects marijuana could have in pain management and neural protection against concussions and CTE. He also co-founded BeTru Organics, which has a holistic line of products, like creams and sprays, that uses hemp-derived CBD to help relieve pain.
I talked to Eben Britton regarding his company, the NFL’s toxic relationship to opioid painkillers and anti-inflammatories, and why cannabis could be exactly what football needs if it’s to continue as a sport.
The Fresh Toast: Can you explain how and why someone would want to use Be Tru pain relief body cream?
Eben Britton: There’s really a lot of pain in the world. We’re dealing with a lot of pain and suffering from a number of things. People have bad knees, people have bad backs, people have bad feet and that’s not even talking about professional athletes or military veterans, or law enforcement, and the fire departments. There’s a ton of pain in the world right now and really the only acceptable answer that our society seems to afford anyone is go to the doctor, get a prescription for one anti-inflammatory or another, whether it’s Cataflam or Indocin or even Advil and Tylenol.
These things taken over long periods of time and on a daily basis really wreak havoc on our systems. They destroy our digestive systems. They wreak havoc on our kidneys and liver, on our heart, on our cardiovascular system, and that’s not a sustainable answer long term. Throughout my football career, I’ve dealt with pain on a daily basis. That was part of my life, dealing with pain throughout my body and having to get up and be able to produce at a 100 percent of my capability day in and day out in practice, and then on the field on Sunday on game days.
Coming from a background of a family that was very holistically minded, food is medicine. Find any natural means possible to heal yourself before going to a doctor to be diagnosed with some ailment that they could prescribe a medication. We just didn’t look at our personal wellness and our family’s wellness in that way.
I think that feeds this intuitive gravitation towards cannabis. I’m using cannabis as part of my process in dealing with some really traumatic injuries from dislocated shoulder to herniated disc in my back that caused sciatica down my leg to a numbness in my right foot, which has lasted to this day. I can’t feel my right foot on the ground. But I feel fortunate to have had cannabis as part of my process throughout my career, and to have had that sort of intuitive knowing that this was something that my body responded much better to than the prescription drugs.
I was amazed reading your essay in SI about how much you and every athlete goes through to get ready for a game. Whether it’s you taking Adderall, different guys taking Toradol, stuff like that. The question is just how widespread, specifically within the NFL, is this sort of opioid dependence?
It sounds crazy and I said this in an interview with Bleacher Report and the guy made a comment like he didn’t believe me. But literally every single guy in an NFL locker room is taking some type of prescription drug every single day to deal with the pain. And there’s a wide spectrum. You have the guys who are very aware, very fearful, very conscious of what they’re putting in their bodies and they’re the guys who are taking like two Advil twice a week, and they’re just kind of grinding it out on that for as long as they can until they have to take something more. That transition happens from training camps through to like week six, week seven, week eight, and you build up your dosing of anti-inflammatories. [Meanwhile,] most offensive linemen, you’re on a daily dose of prescription anti-inflammatories like Indocin, or Cataflam or Celebrex daily, just to combat the muscle aches and pains, the joint pain that you’re experiencing, the pain in your neck and shoulders and that’s not even a full-blown injury.
That’s just wear and tear.
That’s just to combat the wear and tear and then, you have guys who maybe they sustained a serious injury early in the season and they’ve worked their way back, and now you’re talking about guys who are taking Toradol before games daily. I mean, my first three seasons in my career, we were still getting Toradol shots before every game. Every guy would line up in the doctor’s office prior to game day. You pull your pants down. You get a shot of Toradol right in your ass, and it’s the strongest, most powerful anti-inflammatory drug I think anybody can possibly ever take. You feel a wave of armor just crashed over you and you don’t feel any pain. You feel like you could run through a brick wall, and really you can. I mean, until the next day you wake up and you feel like you ran through a brick wall and were hit by a train.
Photo courtesy Eben Britton
Isn’t that creating a worse long term problem masking pain that you as a human should probably be feeling?
Exactly, yes. I mean because there’s a reason for pain, right? There’s a reason our bodies feel pain. It’s to tell us that something’s wrong. It’s a protection mechanism that our body uses to tell us what’s going on, right? I mean, so masking that, numbing that, and especially in football players, you continue to mask and numb, and mask and numb. Sooner or later, you have these guys like I just read an article maybe a month ago about a guy who played offensive line for the Giants who was taking 120 Vicodin a day. [Ed. Note: Former Giants offensive lineman Shane Olivea was taking 125 Vicodin a day. According to the Associated Press report, he spent close to $584,000 on painkillers.] You think that it sounds insane.
I’ve heard those stories in locker rooms. Guys taking fists full of opioids. At the worst stage of my dealing with pain, I was taking two to four Vicodin on Saturday. Then I was taking two Vicodin before the game and two Vicodin after the game. I was one of the lucky ones. To be a guy who felt comfortable using cannabis and enjoyed using cannabis, I really was able to keep myself from going down that deep dark hole of opioid addiction. Now because of cannabis really, I think it alleviates a lot of the withdrawal symptoms that come with taking opioids. Cannabis was that much more crucial for me.
How much is it, with football in general, a cultural problem? Because it’s this warrior mentality where you’re a football player, you’re going to do whatever it takes to get on the field and then you have this older mentality from the old school where it’s like, “You just need to tough it out,” and “back in my day…”
Yeah
Add that versus the fact every football player is bigger, faster, and stronger and the collisions are getting worse and worse. You were like 310 pounds when you came into the league?
Yes.
And how much do you weigh now?
Well, now I’m 255.
Which is probably more where you should be, right?
Yeah. Oh yeah.
So you’re actually advised to put on all this extra weight—I don’t know, it seems like this circular logic of asking guys to do more and more without considering the repercussions.
I think you’re definitely on to something. I mean, that’s kind of a question of, “Is football going to last?” If something like cannabis isn’t taken seriously, with all of the issues you’re having. Concussions and CTE are just the tip of the iceberg.
I mean, we’re just starting to see opioid addiction. Guys are coming out of the league and they have nowhere to go. They’re losing their minds. They’re losing their families, and it’s really it’s like the last gladiators. In ancient Rome with the Roman gladiators, at least guys were being killed. They died doing what they loved. In football, you come out of it and you’re still a young man.
You still got to deal with it.
You have a ton of life to live. You still have to deal with all the pain and all the injuries. And really, that’s never going to change. The pain, the injuries, the violence of the game. That won’t change because that’s why we love the game of football. That’s why there’s millions upon millions of people watching every single Sunday, all around the world. We have to find the solution that can ease that side of it and I think cannabis can be that solution. If we need to start as slow as possible and from the ground up, that really begins with educating people on what CBD is and what CBD can do for pain management for the concussion epidemic, and really as a preventative for CTE. Because it’s coming. That train is coming for every guy. It’s a matter of what are you doing right now, in today, to keep yourself from going down that hole as fast as possible.
Well, I found it fascinating that last year, Roger Goodell comes out and says that the NFL’s committing 100 million dollars to studying head trauma, but then none of that includes cannabis research.
Right.
At the same time you have someone like Lester Grinspoon, a Harvard psychiatrist, who writes an open letter to Goodell saying that CBD and cannabis has possible neural protective capabilities. And we’re not looking into this at all? It just seems so backwards.
Well, he’s going to choke on that. If he doesn’t start opening his eyes because that’s a dead end street no looking at cannabis. Nothing else is doing that. To say there’s no research to prove that there’s even a chance that cannabis works as a neuro-protectant and can heal the brain after trauma and prevent CTE? The fact that they can still say that with a clear conscience, it’s just bullshit.
Studies have been mounting—I mean, for thousands and thousands of years before the development of Western medicine, before the development of science and research, how did we pass along our understanding of the things that can heal us? It’s through word of mouth. It’s through anecdotal experience. Elders told the next generation, “Hey, this plant that grows from the ground. This has been around for thousands and thousands of years, and we’ve been using it in various ways, smoking it, turning it into tea, cooking it down to an oil.” This is not new.
It’s probably changing now. It’s probably starting to shift. I think the avalanche is coming and it’s really coming at an unstoppable rate. People are not accepting their fate any longer, [they’re not] just sitting back and allowing doctors to throw pills at them anymore. [They’re saying,] “Hey, fuck that. I need something that’s actually going to heal me. I want to be here. I want to be here for my family. I want to be here for my kids. I want to be here for my partner.”
Photo courtesy Eben Britton
The NFL—I think they’re missing out on a gigantic opportunity to make a huge impact on the world of medicine, on our healthcare system, on how we view personal healing and wellness. If they don’t accept the fact that the NFL is the vehicle for the most extreme case study of the medical efficacy of cannabis and CBD? It’s right there. Every single team. They’ve got 32 teams that if they took one of them and started giving guys CBD pills before and after practices, before and after games, I bet they would see a huge difference with regards to the effect on brain health, the effect of the amount of pills that are given out, and really on overall well-being and health throughout teams.
Well, is it the league and its own cultural conservativism? Or is this, as you said, a larger cultural stigma with the misinformation being spread about keeping cannabis from being tested and being accepted? So is it the NFL or is it their response in existing within this bigger cultural stigma toward cannabis?
I think there’s both things going on. I think the federal government keeping marijuana as a Schedule I narcotic is just laughable. I mean, it’s a joke. It’s an absolute joke. It doesn’t even make sense. It makes me angry actually. The more you understand this, the more absurd it becomes. So that’s definitely an issue and that’s something that needs to be addressed on the federal level, andI think we’re starting to see a shift in that. Even with Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepping in there, I don’t think anything can be done to reverse what 28 States have done to legalize medical or recreational marijuana at this point. States are going to keep pushing it and then at the federal level, they’re going to have to adjust that. In my opinion, that is totally de-scheduling, that’s 100% de-scheduling marijuana off of any of those lists.
That being said, I think that the NFL has so much power. It’s an absolute juggernaut in our society, in our culture, in this country. It’s just an absolute media-driven juggernaut and I think that if any group, any organization really has the power to make an impact on something like cannabis, the scheduling of cannabis on a federal level, I think it would be something like the NFL that has so much of an outreach. No one in the federal government is going to come and say, “The NFL’s shut down.”
No.
It can be worked out. It can be mapped out. There’s people smart enough or people in the right places on both sides, from the NFL to the federal government that they can map it out on how to create the proper study. I think if there’s any organization or group that can make a dent in the federal government’s position on marijuana, it would be the NFL.
Yes, it seems they should want to do that considering a significant portion of former employees are coming out like you, Kyle Turley, Nate Jackson, Eugene Monroe, and even a current player, like Tennessee linebacker Derrick Morgan who is promoting medicinal marijuana research. And I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to be the vehicle for that especially when the guys who are speaking out against it are the ones who are probably experiencing the most pain playing in the trenches and being physically battered every single game.
Yeah.
So, I’m not sure where it goes from here. Do you think it will change within the NFL first? Or do you think that it will be a larger cultural movement that the NFL eventually responds to?
I think the NFL is actually really starting the hear all of us. I think that their needle is starting to move. I think they’re going to use it as a bargaining chip in the next collective bargaining agreement negotiations.
These people aren’t dumb. These are highly intelligent individuals. I mean the organization as a whole might seem trapped in an old mindset, but these are really smart people who know exactly what’s going on, and they’re not stupid. And they need to find an answer to certain issues ASAP. Especially in this day and age, which is kind of the beauty of social media and the internet. It’s keeping those people in high places accountable, because the truth will find its way out to the surface. And people aren’t going to stand for lies, and deceit, and non-action. People want to see results. People want to see people being taken care of, and people want to see positive movement. I think that we’re seeing it already. The NFLPA has said that they are going to put it on the table as far as at least a lessening of punishment, whatever that means.
They’re going to lessen the punishment for anyone who fails the drug test for cannabis. But I think the NFL, really, needs to move faster than the federal government is going to.
I agree.
And I think they need to move independently of that. Maybe in 15 years, we’re looking at a situation where marijuana is legalized in 50 states and the Federal government still has it scheduled as a schedule one narcotic. I mean I could see that being the case. As hypocritical and as ridiculous as that sounds, I can see that happening.
