NFL Legend Jim McMahon Drops Painkillers for Cannabis
On the 30th anniversary of the 1985 Super Bowl win, former football player Jim McMahon announced his support for medical cannabis. Many years ago McMahon left Brigham Young University for a bountiful career for the NFL, including playing for the Chicago Bears, San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns and the Green Bay Packers.
“I’m old-fashioned. I like to put it in my pipe and smoke it,” McMahon told ABC7’s Ron Magers.
A 1986 injury changed everything for McMahon, and he slowly became addicted to painkillers as a result. “Back then it was painkillers. I played my whole career on painkillers,” he said. “I was using about 100 Percocets a month when I retired and I knew I had to get off that stuff.”
A swift sack from former Packers’ Defensive End, Charles Martin, sent McMahon to a hospital, and ended his 1986 season. “My C1 and 2 are twisted 25 degrees from the old Charlie Martin hit. My C6 and C7 are cracked and compressed, so I had a broken neck at some point in my career and nobody told me about it. So I’m lucky to be walking,” McMahon said.
McMahon, who suffers from a variety of concussion-related health problems, is suing the NFL for the mishandling of concussion cases. A study indicated that 87 or 91 former NFL players tested positive for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE.)
McMahon joins other former NFL players that have showed support for cannabis, including Nate Jackson, Kyle Turley and Chris Kluwe.
Chronic pain, like the pain that McMahon suffers from, is one of the eight conditions that the state of Illinois coincidentally rejected on January 29th. Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, told the Chicago Tribune. “As patients have just started purchasing medical cannabis, the state has not had the opportunity to evaluate the benefits and costs of the pilot program or determine areas for improvement or even whether to extend the program beyond its pilot period. At this time, it is premature to expand the pilot program before there is the ability to evaluate it under the current statutory requirements.”
McMahon’s preference is the indica strain due to its higher THC content, and claims he is able to keep a sharp mind without any of the “fuzziness” he would experience from his past narcotic pain medication.
