How cannabis changed Mike Tyson’s life

In the middle of the California desert, the groundbreaking ceremony took place on the Tyson Ranch in 2017. It was timed well. Proposition 64 had freshly legalized recreational cannabis in the state. When asked about his corporate vision or business acumen, Tyson inevitably gets personal. He describes marijuana as a medicine that put his life on a better path.

Tyson speaks openly about his past. Both to explain his cocaine addiction as a young man and to show the role cannabis now plays in his health. Tyson grew up surrounded by poverty and abuse – even drinking alcohol as a baby. He tried cocaine for the first time at the age of eleven, and less than two years later, at the age of 13 in a juvenile detention center, he was discovered as a promising boxer. His advisor, ex-boxer Bobby Stewart, introduced Tyson to famous trainer Constantine D’Amato, who saw Tyson as the next heavyweight world champion. When Tyson’s mother died, D’Amato adopted him.

Shortly after Tyson won his first championship, D’Amato died. So Don King targeted a nineteen year old Tyson. King enabled Tyson’s cocaine use, thereby shortening Tyson’s boxing prime. Tyson has always been an intimidating contender, but his technique is obviously deteriorating as his addiction escalated. It was popular before famous fights. He circumvented drug testing by smuggling a child’s piss in with a fake penis. King stole millions of dollars. Eventually Tyson lost his boxing career and went to jail. When he showed up, he was broke, traumatized, and in chronic pain.

Cannabis and the road to recovery

Tyson doesn’t call cannabis a panacea – no drug is a panacea. He credits his third wife, Lahika Spicer, for helping him sober up and become healthy. Together they developed his one-man show, which rehabilitated his reputation, in which he tells the story of his traumatic childhood.

Even so, Tyson describes himself as an advocate of cannabis. He believes education about the medicinal benefits of cannabis will help end the stigma. When he retired from boxing, he began taking prescription pain medication, which made him feel “tired and moody all the time.” Cannabis also helped him manage his mental illness symptoms, particularly his anxiety. So he only has to take one drug (cannabis) to treat both conditions instead of taking two.

Tyson’s story challenges conventional addiction treatment wisdom. Only abstinence says Tyson is still addicted, he just switched his favorite drug. However, addicts often also have other disorders, such as chronic pain or psychiatric diagnoses. (The term for this is “comorbidities”).

Integrated treatment is an addiction approach that takes comorbidity into account. When we can meet our needs and treat ourselves properly, we are less compelled to treat ourselves.

Tyson presents cannabis as the best medicine for its comorbidities. Granted, smoking $ 40,000 weed in a month is a lot. However, addiction has never been defined in terms of how much you consume, but rather in terms of the consequences of consuming it.

Nobody says trauma victims just need a joint and they will feel better. Addiction is not easy, but one thing is certain: treatment requires less shame and more empathy.