I’m a booze guy, not a weed guy. Marijuana, in my limited but assuredly legal experience, doesn’t do much for me. Joints, vape pens, edibles all kinda fall flat against my expectation of being high as a guy and, mercifully, getting the kind of sleep I once did as a teenager.
But I’m open to trying new things. And since cannabis-infused drinks are legal here in Wisconsin (but neither medicinal or recreational weed are, because this is a state that enjoys hemorrhaging money over the border) that meant giving MXXN a try.
MXXN, pronounced “moon” I’m assured, is riding the wave of relaxed marijuana laws and the increasing popularity of the once taboo substance. It’s also taking direct aim at traditional drinkers, making cannabis-infused bottles to mimic tried and true spirits like bourbon, tequila and gin. At roughly $80 per fifth, it’s priced like an upper class booze.
Can it deliver on that promise? I’m not expecting a ton in terms of taste, but I am diving in on the one tenet I badly want from my cannabis. I want this thing to relax me and, ultimately, usher me off to eight proper hours of sleep.
This is a big deal. I suck at sleeping. Fix me, MXXN. Or at least help me buy in to the idea a little herbal supplement can help.
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But if you’re an elite athlete, you may have to refrain. It makes absolutely no sense, but cannabis remains a banned substance according to far too many leagues and sanctioning bodies.
Late last year, I wrote a piece about former NFL tight end Casey Fitzsimmons, whose career ended with a brutal concussion that left him dazed for years. Anxious, in pain and unable to sleep, he turned to what the league had tacitly said for so many years was the solution: booze and painkillers. He became addicted to both.
Using marijuana was anathema to him, not based on experience with it but the stigma around it. “I didn’t want anybody to think I was a pot head,” said Fitzsimmons, who grew up in Montana and now runs a cattle ranch there.
But he finally found relief once he tried weed. It helped him manage his pain and settle his mind.
In the course of reporting that story I talked to one of Fitzsimmons’ teammates, Hall of Fame wide receiver Calvin Johnson. After using his speech in Canton to reveal how hard the game had been on him and pledge to help others through it, Johnson now runs a cannabis business called Primitiv.
His goal, too, is to deconstruct the stigma around cannabis — which of course is applied in a wholly different way to Black athletes. White people are seen as too liable to listen to long meandering songs when they use marijuana. Black ones, as criminals.
“We need to get people to understand that this, truly, is about healing,” he said at the time.
Congress may very well decriminalize marijuana use at the federal level soon, but pro sports more openly embracing its use would go just as far toward changing the narrative.
The cynic in me says pro leagues will embrace marijuana in the same way, and for the same reasons, they have opened up to gambling companies: There’s ad money to be had.
But the leagues don’t need to be following the market on this. We’ve been writing about the issue for years, with much of that coverage focused on actual players extolling the virtues of cannabis.
They should be heard.
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One of several new ventures entered into by the champion Celtic since leaving his job as a broadcaster with ESPN earlier this year, Pierce’s cannabis products are to be as reliable as the Inglewood native was at the end of games, according to the man himself. “I know we’re going to bring something you can depend on, something you can go to, something that’s clutch,” he said at the promotional appearance Sunday courtesy of local station WHDH.
“Similar to my play,” he added with a wry smile. That’s what my product is going to be.”
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With Pierce helping to lead the charge against the stigma of cannabis use in the city he rose to fame as an NBA player, we can see the former Celtic establishing a new reputation of excellence in another context where his job is represented by a very different sort of green.
“I wouldn’t have won the Heisman without it (marijuana)”
Ricky Williams will forever be a Texas legend after winning the Heisman and becoming the Longhorns all-time leading rusher. One could say that he is certainly high in the record books. Catch my drift?
His method to becoming a Heisman winner and having such a successful football career were different than most.
Since his playing career ended, Williams has publicly been an advocate for athletes using marijuana as a form of recovery. Recently, the former Texas star expressed to Sports Illustrated’s Greg Bishop that marijuana was actually the key to his success when he won the Heisman Trophy.
Williams was blunt about his usage, as he explained to Bishop that sports and society were not as understanding of marijuana at the time. It meant they were not privy to the fact that it could be used for anxiety and as a form of recovery.
Anxiety and recovery were the two primary reasons Williams turned to marijuana. He emphasized that without marijuana, his body would not have been able to withstand the grueling pain after games and practices. Williams mentioned that he also suffered from social anxiety.
Williams is now in the process of producing his own brand of cannabis called “Highsmith.” He has also been vocal about the suspension of track star Sha’carri Richardson, who was suspended due to a positive marijuana test that she took during the U.S. Olympic Trials when grieving the loss of her mother.
The Texas legend knows firsthand about having a career interfered with because of marijuana policies, as he faced numerous suspensions in the NFL. He was suspended five times in his NFL career for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy, causing him to miss two seasons worth of games.
Even with all the suspensions and backlash, Williams amassed 10,000 yards rushing and 74 touchdowns during his 11-year professional career. He believes that these numbers are Hall of Fame worthy, but he cites the NFL’s no cannabis policy as the reason for why he was unable to be elected.
Throughout his last two collegiate seasons with Texas, Williams rushed for 4,017 yards and 52 touchdowns.
The Truth posted clips of himself visiting a commercial cannabis growing operation.
While champion Boston Celtic alumnus Paul Pierce‘s career with ESPN may have gone up in smoke, that’s exactly where the next phase of his post-playing career may be headed. The former Celtic forward and ESPN recently parted ways after The Truth posted a video of himself gambling and fraternizing with exotic dancers on Instagram, and later hinted something else might be in the pipeline (or is it pipe?) after breaking his ties with the Bristol, Connecticut-based sports media outlet.
For the last two weeks, it had been unclear what Pierce might have been alluding to. But, after posting new videos showing the Kansas product traveling to and then in a commercial cannabis growing operation, it seems The Truth may be yet another person making the plunge into the growing industry.
With the rapid spread of marijuana legalization at the state level, public attitudes towards the plant have relaxed considerably compared to its historic status as an illicit substance — and has proven a lucrative source of revenue for state coffers who have since permitted its sale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCoDf37udXE&t=10s
“We’re over in the lab, baby,” proclaims the former Celtic in one of the videos.
Stay tuned for details on exactly how this experiment fits into Pierce’s future once they become available.
While not an advocate for cannabis, Brown recognizes the importance of the NBA changing with the world — carefully.
The NBA recently announced it does not plan on testing players for cannabis use this season, likely to the pleasure of NBA players who have been using it medicinally — or otherwise — on the low.
As a vice president of the Players’ association, the media is increasingly looking to Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown for feedback on such changes to league policy as this, and the Cal-Berkeley product was asked about that development near the end of his most recent press availability session during the NBA’s media week proceedings.
While he doesn’t seem to be an advocate for the use of cannabis per se, Brown offered a thoughtful response to the question.
The NBA has officially suspended random marijuana testing for the 2020-21 season …
“I think that everything is in negotiation,” began the Players Union VP.
“When it comes down to the NBA and the Players Association, and that was something that the world is moving differently on. It’s an interesting conversation and there’s a lot of information as yet to unfold. But in terms of that, I think a lot of guys celebrated that as an outlet to take out stress.”
“There’s still a lot of information that is yet to be discovered and told on that subject, but I don’t have a problem with that,” he added.
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But, as Brown alludes, more research on how best to institute a league-wide policy on what is at present a patchwork quilt of regulation and legal regimes with unknown impacts on athletic performance is also likely in order.
