Most professional athletes who advocate for cannabis as an alternative to prescription drugs often given to players battling injuries understand the benefits. Former All-Pro wide receiver Brandon Lloyd was one of them.
Traded to the Denver Broncos in 2009, Lloyd dove into the culture there. “We would smoke three and four different high-concentration cannabis [strains] in one sitting," he recalIs. "We would travel with it everywhere."
Lloyd had his career-best season in 2010, amassing 1,448 yards, 77 receptions and 11 touchdowns, earning the 2003 fourth-round draft pick out of Illinois his only All-Pro selection and an invitation to the Pro Bowl. But even though his cannabis use coincided with improved play, Lloyd decided to cut back because, he noted, "vaping was really affecting my lungs."
He suffered a major statistical drop-off in 2011 and was traded. By 2014, Lloyd was out of the league.
Now, he's linked up with the Colorado School of Public Health for their "The Tea on THC" campaign that focuses on "the facts on high-concentration cannabis." According to their website, "Frequent high-concentration cannabis users are at an increased risk of developing psychosis."
Lloyd has chosen to be their poster athlete, offering such pearls of wisdon as: "Once you break through to other side of the addiction to high-concentration cannabis you'll see that there are way better highs out there and way better uses of your time out there and there's way better connections with family and friends... Being off high-concentration cannabis, there's more positives than there are negatives."
It's a distinctly anti-cannabis campaign.
Wanda James Challenges the Campaign
When "The Tea on THC" campaign was launched last year, cannabis industy veteran and Regent at the University of Colorado Wanda James criticized "the illustrations that went with the campaign." According to Colorado Public Radio, "James felt the campaign was offensive and anti-Black; in interviews earlier this month she told CPR News that they were not acceptable because only dark-skinned, and not white, people were linked to laziness, delays in cognitive development and lower grades associated with marijuana use implied by the visuals." The images of a "dark-skinned child progressing in age... were pulled within days after James complained."
But since James co-owns the Simply Pure dispensary in Denver, the Univerity of Colorado launched a conflict-of-interest investigation.
“As the Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Regents, we have requested an independent review of Regent Wanda James' recent efforts to eliminate certain state funding for the Colorado School of Public Health," Ken Montero stated. "Our expectation is that a full, fair and impartial review will resolve outstanding factual and legal questions.”
At LinkedIn, James recently posted: "This is what institutional retaliation against a Black whistleblower looks like."
She went on:
"The CU Board of Regents has chosen to investigate me, not the project, not the administrators, not the systems that failed, but the only Black woman elected to this Board in 43 years.
"And now, there is growing concern that the very community advisors who were hired to guide this campaign were removed, and that a planned retreat to review the materials before public release was canceled. These actions raise serious questions: Where is the accountability for public dollars spent? Who made the decision to silence the people hired to ensure no harm was done? And why is no one being held responsible for the collapse of that process?
"This is how a public university behaves. And it’s all shameful."
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