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Hulk Hogan, 70, Swaps Opioids and Alcohol for CBD
Muscle and Health interviewed Hulk Hogan and dove into the topics of getting off of alcohol and opioids, and getting on CBD.
Hulk Hogan, real name Terry Gene Bollea, is done with painkillers and alcohol, swapping the two for CBD, which is being studied for its role in battling addiction. He revealed the switch in a candid interview with Muscle and Health magazine.
A legend in professional wrestling, Hogan underwent some 25 surgeries over the course of his career, getting loaded up with opioids prescribed by doctors. But Hogan said he continued taking the opioids long after the physical pain was gone.
Now at age 70, he revealed that a combination of opioids and alcohol spelled a decades-long relationship with addiction. Going sober meant dropping vices that felt destructive. Muscle and Health Editor-in-chief Danni Levy sat down with the wrestling icon to discuss a variety of topics.
“I’ve had a lot of practice drinking because I wrestled for about forty years, so those guys have a beer every once in a while,” he told Muscle and Health. “But about seven months ago, I decided not to drink any more alcohol. I was at a New Year’s Eve party and saw a bunch of stuff that I didn’t condone or like. I saw myself in this environment, and I went, “You know what? I don’t know how I got here, but I’m done.’ It was just that one thing.”
It was then he realized it was a negative thing he didn’t want. Being around people who believed and behaved differently than he did, he decided he wanted out. And he says it feels much better to be clear-headed and that he’s no longer tempted to drink alcohol.
Hogan explained how going sober meant losing some friends and gaining others. “I’ve had certain wrestlers look at me in the face and go, “If you don’t have a drink with me, you’re not my friend,” Hogan said. “Well, I am your friend, but I’m not going to drink with you. What are you going to do about it?”
Some consider the 1980s as the glory days when American pro wrestling was at a peak. In the October, 1981 issue of High Times, writer Chester Patton wrote about the history of American professional wrestling, from Clarence “the Kansas Demon” to “Animal” Steele, eater of turnbuckles. Wrestling led to blockbuster cameos and more for Hogan.
Like other high impact sports, wrestling injuries lead to surgeries and subsequently, painkillers. Opioids proved to be equally devastating, creating another dilemma. “I had doctors writing me prescription after prescription, and all of a sudden, it became a vicious cycle,” Hogan added. “I was hitting the pain pills hard because I’d had to endure twenty-five procedures, including ten to my back, facial operations from being kicked, knee and hip replacements and abdominal and shoulder surgeries.”
Most recently, the wrestling legend has been talking about Hogan’s Hangout, a restaurant he recently opened up in Clearwater, Florida.
Replacing Addiction with CBD
Hogan mentioned last May that he found success with CBD, and that he was planning to launch his own brand. He said it was another wrestling legend who actually introduced him to CBD. Wrestling icon Ric Flair launched a cannabis line “Ric Flair Drip” with Carma Holdings founder and president Chad Bronstein.
“Ric Flair, Mike Tyson and the founder and president of Carma Holdings, Chad Bronstein introduced me to CBD,” he reveals. Those three came at me like ‘The Royal Rumble.’ I didn’t have a chance.”
Hogan may be on to something: CBD can help lower cravings for tobacco and heroin under certain conditions, with research on humans to back it up, Peter Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School wrote. Animal models additionally suggest it may also help lower cravings for alcohol, cannabis, opiates, and stimulants.
“At first, I was confused because I’d never used CBD,” Hogan said. “I didn’t understand the health aspects of what it can do for you as far as energy, sleep or getting off hard drugs or pharmaceuticals slowly and winding down are concerned. It took me a while to figure it out because I am a little slow. I had to do a lot of research and do my due diligence. I figured this was something that really would benefit a lot of people that needed help—and I know it will.”
Hogan also went into a lot of detail about how CBD specifically replaced opioids.
“We’ve found CBD is a logical alternative to prescription drugs that helps people to wind down slowly,” says Hogan. “I’m really focusing on helping people with their health, whether that’s guys coming back from the war, hardcore drug users or people who’ve got themselves into the prescription trap following illness or anxiety. CBD is amazing for sleep and can also help overcome alcohol abuse.”
Hogan’s brand Immortal, coming soon, will feature vapes, cartridges, pre-rolls, and more.
CBD is showing promising results in treating addiction, reducing inflammation, and a handful of other benefits as researchers continue to back it with science.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/hulk-hogan-70-swaps-opioids-and-alcohol-for-cbd/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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