By Chris Casacchia, Staff Writer
December 2, 2024
After abruptly ending their successful sports careers, Greta Gaines and Ricky Williams found new callings through marijuana reform and activism before launching their own cannabis brands.
Gaines, the first woman world-champion snowboarder, is a national authority on cannabinoid law and a longtime advocate for consumer and patient cannabis access as a National Organization to Reform Marijuana Law (NORML) director, caregiver and entrepreneur.
Now, Gaines is turning her passion toward treating terminal patients with plant-based medicines.
“Cannabis is the cornerstone of my practice,” said the Tennessee-based clinical herbalist and CEO of the Love + Hemp skin care brand.
“I really shifted my focus to patients out of time and learning everything I could about the makeup of the plant – and everything about the plant that makes it healing,” Gaines told MJBizDaily.
In some ways, Williams followed a similar path.
A Heisman Trophy-winning college football player, Williams launched the Highsman cannabis lifestyle brand in 2021 – nine years after he retired, for a second time, from the NFL.
During Williams’ first retirement after testing positive for marijuana, he took a yearlong exodus from football, began practicing yoga and studying astrology as well as the healing properties of cannabis.
The athlete’s activism led him to lobby on Capitol Hill in April in an effort to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana as a Biden administration decree to reschedule the drug eventually moved to a Dec. 2 hearing.
“A lot of my advocacy work has really been toward pushing for federal legalization,” Williams told MJBizDaily.
“But even deeper than that, my personal journey with cannabis has really helped me live a more meaningful life.”
Williams and Gaines will join former professional basketball player Al Harrington, founder of Viola Brands, and former NFL lineman Eugene Monroe, co-founder of New Jersey-based vertically integrated cannabis company Collective 60, as headline speakers at MJBizCon on Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC).
The panel will showcase how athletes are changing the game by highlighting benefits of the plant for wellness and recovery as well as opportunities for licensing and sponsorships as professional sports leagues initiate more cannabis-friendly policies.
In the zone
Gaines, a pioneer in extreme sports and outdoor competitions, said she would rip bong hits before helicoptering to alpine cliffs during her early training days.
The remote drop-off zones often were as dangerous as the descent down the side of a mountain.
After retiring from snowboarding just a year after winning a world championship at age 25, she realized self-medicating with cannabis helped her dispel fears on the mountain and keep her in the zone.
“You really can’t in the moment think about your fear,” said Gaines, who was among the first athletes anywhere to openly discuss mental health issues, anxiety and the benefits of marijuana in extreme sports.
“I needed something to help me forget what could happen.”
A master class
For Williams, marijuana has been a tool for meditation and self-awareness.
A former running back who led the NFL in rushing and was third in touchdowns in 2002, Williams will bring those worlds together at MJBizCon, where he’ll lead a morning yoga session at 9 a.m. PT on Dec. 5 at The Hub on the LVCC floor.
“Yoga is a great practice of physical self-awareness and being aware of your body and how your body feels,” he said.
“We’re all kind of limited by the types of experiences we allow ourselves to have while consuming.
“That’s why I’m a real big fan of creating experiences for people.”
In his highly publicized journey with cannabis, which included multiple suspensions for failing marijuana tests during his 11-year NFL career, Williams has touted the plant’s benefits for his own mental and spiritual well-being – and how it helped him find meaning beyond his football career.
“The amount of people I’m able to connect to has made all the ups and downs definitely worth it,” he said.
“I’m to the point where I can barely play catch with my son, but touching people through telling my story and what I’m doing with the brand, that’s something I’ll be able to do for the rest of my life.”
Without a net
Gaines, a multifaceted performer, is set to release her eighth studio album next year.
The former TV host on the Oxygen network and ESPN Outdoors show sold her first skin care company, The Hempery, in 2014 before finding a new sport to dive into: professional fly fishing.
The sport allows her to travel and compete with her father, Charles Gaines, the author of “Pumping Iron,” a chronicle of bodybuilding subculture in the 1970s and its influencers, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The outdoorsman also is credited with inventing paintball, one of several fascinating stories from Gaines’ family history.
Greta Gaines credits cannabis for harmonizing a Zen-like experience on the water.
“It just helps me in the moment and slows my breathing down to get one with nature, the river, the sky and clouds,” she said.
“It makes me more able to think like a fish.”
To perform yoga with Ricky Williams and hear him and Greta Gaines discuss marijuana with other sports all-stars, get tickets for MJBizCon today.
Chris Casacchia can be reached at [email protected].