Advocating for Cannabis & Mental Health

With NFL playoffs underway, it’s important to shed light on prevalent issues that current and past athletes are enduring.  Athletes like retired NFL icon and super bowl champion Darrelle Revis, are sharing their journeys with PTSD and the profound effects cannabis has provided.

Darrelle Revis, played 11 seasons in the NFL with the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs, with career highlights that include a Super Bowl championship, 4x First-team All-Pro and competed in 7 Pro Bowls.  Shortly after retiring, Revis revealed he was diagnosed with PTSD, which changed his perspective on mental health.  Normalizing the conversation, Revis joined Brandon Marshall, Chad Ochocino, Channing Crowder and Jared Odrick, on the I Am Athlete Podcast, to talk about his journey,  mental health and the pivotal role plant based modalities are playing in his life.

“The transition (to retirement) was tough for me, to be honest. Like, I was diagnosed with PTSD, so there’s a lot of things, you know..There’s a lot of things I didn’t do that I’m actually partaking in now, just from the mental health standpoint. I’m partaking in marijuana. Certain things that you deal with, you know, chronic pain, other things. I’m taking mushroom gummies, trying this thing out — it’s just something that, researching and studying it, it does wonders. It clears brain fog, it clears certain things…”

-D Revis, IAmAthlete Podcast

I Am Athlete Podcast Host and retired NFL athlete, Jared Odrick, is also a cannabis advocate, investing in Fire and Flower, Wholeplants, and currently is producing a documentary focused on CTE.  Jared played six seasons in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars with career highlights that include; Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year, Big Ten Co-Defensive Player of the year and was selected to be a First Team all American. Quarterbacking the conversation, Odrick pushed Revis to expand on his journey with PTSD as well as mental health in sports.

“To be honest, I think from speaking to my doctors — your doctors can kind of get into therapists, too, because they try to dig deep on trauma as well — childhood trauma, things that you grew up dealing with that still lingers and still hangs with you… And I think we don’t realize that enough, that we do deal with a lot. It’s kind of like, we were built for toughness, like you’re not supposed to speak up… It does affect us, man. It’s so much pressure, man, to go out and run through that tunnel and, you know, you’re playing [in front of] 85,000 people and if you don’t score a touchdown or make an interception, they don’t see the inside, what we’ve got to deal with when we deal with the coaches and things like that… But the pressure of it itself is strenuous, it’s a lot, you know what I’m saying?”

-D Revis, IAmAthlete Podcast

For years PTSD patients have been saying that Cannabis helps provide relief.  The debilitating condition causes individuals to deal with chronic problems like panic attacks, flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about past events.  In recent years, new research has suggested that cannabinoids may help PTSD.  In a study shared by the NIH, findings showed that cannabinoid systems may have potential pharmacological targets in the treatment with excess fear and anxiety.  Unfortunately due to years of red tape and bureaucracy, cannabis has been stifled and more research is needed to help athletes and individuals find a suitable treatment plan.