Cannabis Culture: 12 Athlete Advocates

Who they are and what they're up to

Here are my top twelve 420 friendly athletes

Chris Long

“The point that I’m able to make is — and I’m cognizant of this fact — I’m Walter Payton Man of the Year. People think I’m a community guy. I have a family who I love very much. I think I’m a great father, hopefully because that’s the No. 1 thing you want to be. I was always on time. I always worked my butt off. I was durable. And listen — I smoke weed. That’s just part of who I am. At the end of the day that just came up and I think people took it, for one, they extrapolated that because some players smoke, that I’m in a tremendous amount of pain, that’s why I’m smoking." - Chris Long

Long spent two seasons with the Eagles and won the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2018 for outstanding community service. He played a key role for the Birds during their Super Bowl 2017 season. Long won back-to-back Super Bowls, first with the Patriots in 2017 and then the Eagles (beating the Pats) in 2018.

He started the Chris Long Foundation with the mission of bringing together a community of elite athletes and passionate fans, we relentlessly serve our overlooked neighbors, both domestic and international, by creating solutions for clean water and education access.

VISION

We believe in a world that stands up to inequity to ensure access to clean water and education are considered basic human rights that no person lacks.

Ricky Williams

"I think one of the things I've noticed from my experience is people are dying to listen to and to talk about cannabis in a way where it's not so polarized, where they're having to fight that it's a good thing and it's the best thing in the world or they're fighting saying that it's horrible and it's going to destroy people's lives. I think to have an honest conversation and someone to be truthful about what their experience is. I think it's invaluable because it empowers other people to do the same." - Ricky Williams

Highsman is an appreciation for greatness and an appreciation for cannabis. When I started experimenting with it recreationally, I became very reflective and a lot of the time the things I was reflecting on didn’t feel good to me. But through that inner reflection, I started making changes in myself– I realized that there was more to me than just being a football player, and it created an urge to start developing those other sides of myself. It was, and still is, my appreciation for cannabis that helped me to realize my potential for greatness outside the game of football. 

Eben Britton

“Juxtaposing my experiences with pharmaceutical drugs like Vicodin and Percocet, that made me angry and irritable, frustrated, didn’t get rid of any of the pain, made it difficult to sleep, increased my heart rate and made me feel crazy. On the other side of that there’s cannabis that helped me sleep, put me into a healing state of being where I was relieved from stress and anxiety as well as feeling the pain relief.” ~ Eben Britton

CANNABIS WAS A MAJOR PART OF MY RECOVERY PROCESS THROUGH SIX YEARS IN THE NFL. IN TRUTH, I WAS FOLLOWING MY INSTINCTS. I KNEW IT WAS ILLEGAL, SO I EDUCATED MYSELF ON THE SYSTEM. I LEARNED WHEN TO EXPECT TESTS AND THE WINDOWS IN WHICH I COULD UTILIZE THE ONE THING THAT MADE ME FEEL BETTER. I WAS DEATHLY AFRAID OF TESTING POSITIVE ON A DRUG TEST, YET I WAS WILLING TO USE CANNABIS BECAUSE AS THE INJURIES AND SCAR TISSUE PILED UP IN MY BODY IT SOOTHED MY MENTAL AND PHYSICAL PAIN LIKE NOTHING ELSE HAD. – THE CASE FOR CANNABIS

Floyd Leadville

“For years I relied on opioid pain relievers to treat my hip pain. With cannabis, I find that I can manage my pain and have a better quality of life. We need to give people a safer alternative.” - Floyd Landis

Floyd’s story is that of a world-class athlete who attained both extraordinary peaks (winning the Tour De France) and painful valleys (injury and depression). As a professional cyclist, discomfort was a way of life, along with injuries in an ultra-competitive sport. One in particular—a 35 mile-per-hour crash—changed everything, and resulted in a hip replacement at the age of 31. Floyd turned to opioids, powerful drugs with well-documented side effects, to manage the pain.

Dee Dussault

"cannabis, if the strain and dose are correct for the individual, promotes relaxation. Yoga obviously cultivates relaxation. So, the two together are greater than the sum of the parts." - Dee Dussault
Dee Dussault is an internationally-recognized pioneer in the cannabis-enhanced wellness, spirituality, and sexual health movement.
Cannabis and spiritual wellness are an ancient pairing that started in South Asia several thousand years ago and made its way around the globe to you. ‘Ganja Yoga’ the brand started in 2009. It’s designed to help people of all age, body size, race, and fitness and experience-level find deep relaxation and rad community.

Jim Mcalpine

“A picture is worth a thousand words, but athleticism is worth a million words. You can’t refute Ricky Williams was the best, right? You can’t refute Michael Phelps was the fastest man ever in the water or Usain Bolt the fastest man ever on land, and they’re both cannabis enthusiasts. There’s a [meme] of Michael Phelps with his 12 or 15 gold medals that says, ‘Winners don’t smoke weed, champions do.’” - Jim Mcalpine

Jim McAlpine is serial cannabis entrepreneur best-known for his roles as founder and organizer of the New West Summit420 Games, and Powerplant Fitness.

Eugene Monroe

“We now know that these drugs are not as safe as doctors thought, causing higher rates of addiction, causing death all around our country, and we have cannabis, which is far healthier, far less addictive and, quite frankly, can be better in managing pain.” - Eugene Monroe

“On March 9, 2016, I became the first active NFL player to openly advocate for the use of cannabinoids to treat chronic pain and sports-related injuries. It’s time for the NFL to change its archaic standards to better protect its players. For too long, I’ve watched my teammates and good friends battle with opioid addiction and leave the game with a long road still ahead; it’s time to make a change.” – Eugene Monroe

Nate Jackson

"Pain serves a purpose, pain is there for a reason. And for football players in particular, they have to know their pain and know their body better than the average person if they’re going to perform at an optimum level. And for me, pain pills dulled my pain, I felt numb, I felt lethargic, I felt slow. And the same kind of strength that I had under my sober mind left me when I was under those pills. I felt worthless. Marijuana didn’t do that. It re-framed my pain. I could still feel it but in a much more bearable context." - Nate Jackson

Kyle Turley

"We give ourselves a brain disease every hit we take. So if there's something out there that can help slow, prevent and stop the progression of this disease that we're inherently receiving from playing this sport, it behooves everybody that loves football to demand that we research and develop this to the highest level. This needs to be implemented immediately in my opinion, but if we want to really resolve the issues and save football then we need to advance and progress the science on cannabis and not follow any further. There is no excuse for us to say we don't know enough anymore about a plant that is grown from the ground for thousands of years and used as medicine around the world." - Kyle Turley

Life was a rocky road for former Saints player Kyle Turley during and after his playing days in the NFL.  Turley turned to CBD and has opened his own cannabis dispensary in California under the Shango brand ecosystem.

Nick and Nate Diaz

"For the record, right now, I think someone needed to come out and say it: I think smoking pot is good for mixed martial artists. It’s a new day and age, this is, uh, the year…fuck year is it? I don’t know, because I’ve been training and smoking pot like I should, instead of paying attention to other bullshit, which I don’t do." - Nick Diaz

Nick Diaz earned a 5-year suspension from the UFC for repeatedly testing positive for THC. The suspension was lifted after nearly a year and the UFC no longer considers marijuana to be a punishable offense. 

CBD Products Made from Hemp are 100% Legal

CBD products are produced one of two places, medical cannabis or industrial hemp plants. While still illegal under federal law, cannabis is legal in several states but because it has a low THC content (>.3%), industrial hemp does not fall under these same regulations. This allows consumers to purchase and use CBD as a natural supplement without worrying about any legal repercussions.

Many cannabis users who are solely interested in the medicinal value of marijuana find CBD isolate products to be extremely appealing and effective.

Greta Gaines

“In order to keep your head in extreme sports, you can’t think that you might get hurt. And cannabis keeps me in the moment, which I need in order to do my job well.” - Greta Gaines

Greta Gaines is a leading advocate on the reform of cannabinoid law, spending years becoming an authority while serving on the Board of Directors of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Law (NORML); the Board of the NORML Women’s Alliance Foundation (as a Founding Member); and the Advisory Board of Patients Out of Time. Ms. Gaines is well known as an innovator in the use of hemp and developer of cannabinoid-based solutions as a valuable and healing commodity.

Riley Cote

"I truly believe [cannabis] is medicine for all people. No one should be playing God and telling us who can and who can’t use it. Whether you’re an average person with chronic pain or someone going through cancer treatment or if you have M.S. or if you’re an athlete or a veteran, it doesn’t matter in my opinion. Everyone should have access to it. It’s a human right." - Riley Cote

Riley Cote is a former professional ice hockey left winger who played four National Hockey League (NHL) seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers and was mainly known as an enforcer. Upon retiring from the Philadelphia Flyers Riley founded the Hemp Heals Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization that promotes cannabis/hemp as a viable renewable resource, that can help people increase quality of life and perform better. Cote is a co-founder of Athletes For Care, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating a community where athletes can find support, opportunity, and purpose in life after a career in sports. 
Riley Cote is a co-founder of Bodychek Wellness that specializes in organically grown hemp-derived CBD extracts and functional mushroom blends that help flush inflammation,  increase recovery time and optimize everyday performance. The line reinforces Cote’s passion to help individuals discover safe nontoxic methods for pain management and self-healing.

Categories: AdvocatesCannabis

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