"Marijuana made me mellow": Mike Tyson opens up about his pot-themed resort, and why he's no longer "cranky"
It has been over a decade since Mike Tyson hung up his boxing gloves, with the former heavyweight champion turning his sights to the burgeoning marijuana industry in California.
In a bid to conquer the market, Tyson established Tyson Holistic in 2016, a company that offers customers a wide array of marijuana merchandise, as well as premium marijuana strains, extracts, and edibles.
Then, to further establish himself as a kingpin in the industry, Tyson unveiled plans for what is essentially an unimaginably large marijuana-themed resort that will come up in the middle of the California desert.
The Daily Mail reported that the resort, which will cover 418 acres (Two short of the magical 420) near Desert Hot Springs, will house numerous tourist attractions, including a luxury hotel, glamping tents, the world's largest lazy river that will take a full hour to cross, and even a Tyson University that will teach cannabis cultivation techniques to future farmers.
The resort is already turning plenty of heads, and in an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), Tyson explained what inspired him to get into the business and how weed changed his life for the better since he started using it.
"After I retired from boxing, I would experience a lot of physical pain," he revealed. "I got tired of taking prescription pain medication because they left me feeling tired and cranky most of the time. I smoked marijuana from time to time because it made me feel better."
"I suffered for years from mental illness and marijuana always helped mellow out my anxiety," he continued. "I noticed after I smoked I had less pain so I started learning more about the health benefits associated with marijuana and was blown away at all the different ways it can help people."
Tyson, who has become an outspoken advocate for marijuana over the past few years, had previously spoken about how his vision was to educate and engage the public in the healing properties of cannabis and CBD.
A view that he once again stressed on to MEAWW. "There are great healing benefits associated with the plant," he explained. "There is CBD/hemp that doesn't get you high but has so many healing remedies. We put it in our Copper Gel product. It helps with inflammation as well as many other things."
Tyson is not a man of half-measures, and he has taken every step to ensure that the marijuana and marijuana-themed products — including CBD dog treats and hemp-oil muscle-rub — he sells live up to the high standards he expects from them.
While he doesn't grow or produce any of the marijuana himself, all the strains available at the resort must be cultivated indoors, harvested based on maturity, cured over 30 days to ensure natural flavonoids, naturally derived, hand trimmed, pesticide-free, and lab tested.
No guest will have any qualms about smoking as per their heart's desire inside the resort — they can light a joint anywhere in the park, save for areas where liquor is sold.
It's a kind of freedom that most citizens can only dream about, considering only 10 states currently allow for recreational use of marijuana. Illinois recently passed legislation that will legalize recreational marijuana in the state when Governor JB Pritzker signs the bill into law, but hurdles remain as far other states are concerned.
"Education and conversations are what's going to change the stigma," Tyson told MEAWW. "The stigma of cannabis being a bad thing was primarily led by politics. The pharmaceutical companies have a monopoly on politics because it's big business."
"Marijuana plant is a natural substance and you can't put a patent on a natural substance so that's one of the primary reasons why it's been considered so taboo. However, we are living in a paradigm shift and the way we see marijuana is changing because people are becoming more educated and want alternatives for pain relief."
The 52-year-old's plans to become a big-game player in the industry will not stop with the resort in the Desert Hot Springs that already broke ground as far back as 2017. There are suggestions that another Tyson Ranch could be constructed on the border of Florida and Georgia, despite neither state allowing for recreational pot.
Tyson clarified that despite his recent push to bring the attention of the general public to the benefits of marijuana and cannabis, he was by no means asking "everyone to go out and start using marijuana."
"Now, just because I'm an advocate it doesn't mean I'm saying kids so go out and smoke marijuana," he said. "Just like I wouldn't say for a kid to go drink alcohol. It needs to be used responsibly if for recreational use by adults."