Former NFL running back and now cannabis entrepreneur and advocate Ricky Williams has announced the further expansion of his Highsman cannabis brand by launching his cannabis products in New Mexico.
Through a partnership with Seven Clover, a dispensary chain in New Mexico, four Seven Clover dispensary locations in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, in addition to a Grasslands Cannabis in Tucumcari also owned by Seven Clover, are now stocking three different Highsman cannabis flower products; Lime Rush OG, Play-Action Purple and Primetime Punch. The products use football terms to categorize the products, with “Pregame,” “Halftime,” and “Postgame” translating to sativa, hybrid and indica dominant products, respectively.
“He has a great story behind him, with going through college, trying cannabis out and then moving into this industry,” said Johnny Lee Williams III, general manager at Seven Clover. “I think the Highsman brand really captivates lots of different messages that everybody’s trying to push.”
Seven Clover has partnered with celebrity cannabis brands before, including actor Jim Belushi’s to bring his Belushi’s Farm cannabis products to the state over the summer in 2023. Seven Clover also partnered with country musician Toby Keith to bring his cannabis brand into New Mexico.
Williams was recently in Las Vegas, Nevada, celebrating the Super Bowl and a new partnership with Green Life Productions that brought the Highsman brand to the Nevada market. Williams toured dispensaries across the state holding meet and greets with fans, including Cookies Flamingo and at Planet 13, where he announced the availability of the first Highsman-branded product on the state: the Sticky Ricky strain, an indica-dominant phenotype of GMO with a hint of a tropical taste.
“There was no better time to introduce ‘Sticky Ricky’ to Nevada than Super Bowl weekend,” Williams said of the partnership “Together with Steve Cantwell and Green Life Productions, we bring this organically grown cultivar to the Silver State at a time when the world is watching. Steve sees the Highsman vision and shares the same enthusiasm for sports and cannabis as I do.”
“We are honored to work with Ricky on this collaboration and any future projects,” said Steve Cantwell, CEO of Green Life Productions. “Ricky is one of the most prominent cannabis athlete advocates of our generation. Ahead of the game he has sacrificed more than most to shine a positive light on this plant as medicine. Thank you Ricky!”
New Mexico becomes the 11th state Williams’ brand has expanded too, following the launch in Nevada earlier this year in addition to previous launches in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Florida.
Travis Kelce, current NFL tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, estimated in an interview with Vanity Fair that 50-80 percent of NFL players consume cannabis. Under the NFL’s drug policy, players are tested once annually for cannabis at the start of training camp.
“If you just stop (using) in the middle of July, you’re fine,” said Kelce. “A lot of guys stop a week before and they still pass (drug tests) because everybody’s working out in the heat and sweating their tail off. Nobody’s really getting hit for it anymore.”
Another former running back, Le’Veon Bell, also revealed he used to consume cannabis before playing in NFL games. Bell also had an incident during his career in 2014 where he was arrested for possession of cannabis and suspended by the NFL for four games before having it reduced down to three games on appeal. Former NFL tight End Martellus Bennett echoed the roughly 80 percent figure quoted by Kelce, with Bennett claiming in 2018 that 89 percent of NFL players were consuming cannabis and using it for recovery purposes.
