The Punky QB prefers pot over Percocets with some mushroom caps on the side
After more than a decade of throwing his body all over the field in pursuit of Super Bowl Championships, Jim McMahon’s body and mind took a major beating. While team trainers prescribed opioids to get him back onto the field, McMahon credits cannabis for keeping him in the game for so long.
“I don’t think I would have gotten through all the injuries without it,” he said.
In Illinois this week promoting his MAC 9 cannabis brand at multiple dispensaries owned by the likes of Curaleaf, Green Thumb Industries and multiple newly licensed Illinois retail operators, McMahon sat down (virtually) with Grown In and detailed his love for THC “the happy cannabinoid.”
Below are some edited excerpts from the conversation.
On learning about the therapeutic benefits of the plant
I didn’t know how good this plant was for me until about ten years ago. I met cannabis specialist doctor Uma Dhanabalan who taught me all about the medicinal parts of the plant and what it’s actually supposed to do for you. I just told her “doc all I knew is that it made me eat, it made me sleep, and it made me feel good.” She said “that’s what it’s supposed to do. THC stands for The Happy Cannabinoid because when you’re taking THC you’re pretty damn happy. That’s always been the case.
Imbibing with teammates during his playing days
They would test us at the beginning of training camp, and if you were clean then, the only thing they could bust you for the rest of the season was steroids. As long as you were clean when you came to camp you were fine. The guys that had problems with it were those who tested positive in camp. They had to deal with it all year long.
Most of the guys were smart enough to know that it stays in your system between 30 and 45 days. The reason why it stays there so long is that our bodies have been craving this for so long. We’ve been deprived of it. We’re supposed to be using this plant. We have an endocannabinoid system in our bodies. Why is it there if we are not supposed to be using this plant? Hopefully the NFL will stop testing it so we can put something else in our bodies other than just masking pain.
His explorations with psilocybin
I’ve dabbled in a little bit of that too. It’s always kind of mind opening. In fact, I had a couple of shrooms last night. Slept great. It wasn’t micro. It was actually a nice big cap and it was very good.
On trying to get Mike Ditka high
We never got to do that. We asked him to. He was a big wine guy. He’d show up in the morning’s at practice after having a bit too much wine. He’d always be a little red in the face and a little disturbed during practice. We’d say “hey you should come hang out with us one night and get off the wine. You might feel a hell of a lot better in the morning.” But we couldn’t get him to do it.
His role as a marijuana missionary
We’ve been lied to for over 100 years by our government. That’s all they seem to be doing. I’m glad I’m in the business. Hopefully we’ll open some more eyes and get some people to realize that you got to get out the drugs that are actually addictive and kill people. Cannabis has never done either one of those. I tell people all the time that this is God’s gift to us. That’s why we have a cannabinoid system. We’re supposed to be using this.
