McMahon knows that some of his back and neck pain comes from a play against the Packers in 1986: an interception, then Charles Martin slams him to the ground.
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Former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon was never shy about hiding his hard-partying lifestyle, but nowadays his drug usage is of a non-recreational variety.
Three decades after becoming an National Football League champion with the famed Super Bowl-shuffling 1985 Chicago Bears, McMahon now is a 50-something pothead who gets typically gets high every morning, afternoon and before bed. He has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and frequently experiences severe headaches, depression, memory loss, and vision and speech problems.
McMahon applied for a medical marijuana card in Arizona, where he lives, and has been using since. “It relieves me of the pain – or thinking about it, anyway”, McMahon, 56, told The Chicago Tribune.
There was a Tribune photo of McMahon puffing away on pot when he went to Chicago from out of state, but anybody looking forward to travel with marijuana must be warned that it is risky.
“Guys are actually doing hugely unsafe things that can fry their brain more than marijuana because of how archaic the rules are about marijuana”, he says. “My C6 and 7 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.
When the prescription painkillers became too much, McMahon turned to medical marijuana – something he considers a “godsend”.
The former “punky QB” said he initially tried to get into the medical marijuana business but it didn’t work out.
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His comments come as Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner considers whether to approve eight more medical conditions to add to the list of about 40 that qualify for medical marijuana here.
