{"id":4257,"date":"2021-09-29T04:20:33","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T11:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2021-10-04T06:58:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T13:58:56","slug":"steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NFL player Steve Gleason held an audience at a Louisiana committee meeting riveted as he gave testimony recently on how cannabis helped pull him out of a downward spiral that started when he learned he had ALS.<\/p>\n

ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. It impacts nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. ALS leads to the brain losing the ability to initiate and control muscle movement. The condition became known to the general public when New York Yankee player Lou Gehrig received an ALS diagnosis in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

In his testimony, posted on his Twitter feed<\/a>, Gleason wrote about the \u201cdownward spiral\u201d he went through after he received the ALS diagnosis and how medical marijuana helped pull him out of it when prescription drugs could not.<\/p>\n

He said after using cannabis, \u201cI felt good physically and my head was much clearer. I felt free – free from the downward spiral.\u201d Recent studies show that many people feel the same, using fewer prescription painkillers<\/a> in places where cannabis is legal.<\/p>\n

The Side Effects of Prescription Drugs<\/h2>\n

Steve Gleason played for the New Orleans Saints from 2000 to 2006. He famously blocked a punt in a game against the Atlanta Falcons that lead to the Saints scoring their first points since the city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A statue capturing the moment is outside the Superdome.<\/p>\n

Gleason received his ALS diagnosis in 2011. He recently spoke before the state\u2019s Medical Marijuana Commission. The state legislature created the commission to explore ways of improving the state\u2019s medical marijuana law. Recreational marijuana is not legal in Louisiana.<\/p>\n

Gleason arrived in a wheelchair and spoke to the commission using a computer that tracks his eye movements. He said doctors initially told him he could die within three years. Over the next two years, he lost the ability to move or talk. Soon, he started to lose the ability to breathe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experts prescribed anxiety pills and I got more sleep, but during the day I felt like a zombie. I was ultra lethargic, I started to feel purposeless, and I became mostly unproductive,\u201d he said. He said the side effects of anxiety and pain pills – including headaches – helped push him toward a \u201cpsychological downward spiral.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, a friend suggested medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

Cannabis Helped Gleason Improve Significantly<\/h3>\n

Gleason ended up using a cannabis tincture<\/a>. He said using the extract helped him regain his purpose. Gradually, he felt well enough to move out of the single bed where doctors had suggested he sleep. He began to sleep in a king-size bed once again with his wife.<\/p>\n

He also found the energy to expand his foundation, Team Gleason, that has given more than $18 million to care services to more than 20,000 people with ALS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new solution allowed me to ween off prescription pharmaceuticals completely,\u201d Gleason said. \u201cI felt good physically, and my head was much clearer. I felt healthy, I felt energized, I felt free.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later added, \u201cFrom my experience, medical marijuana is a much better solution than pills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After finding out he had ALS, former player Steve Gleason said cannabis helped him cope and pulled him out of a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d caused in part by prescription pills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1172,832,574,168,655,1173],"yoast_head":"\nFormer NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After finding out he had ALS, Steve Gleason said cannabis pulled him out of a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d caused in part by prescription pills.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After finding out he had ALS, Steve Gleason said cannabis pulled him out of a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d caused in part by prescription pills.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dispensaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-29T11:20:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-04T13:58:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/steve-gleason.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dispensariescom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/\",\"name\":\"Former NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-29T11:20:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-04T13:58:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\"},\"description\":\"After finding out he had ALS, Steve Gleason said cannabis pulled him out of a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d caused in part by prescription pills.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Former NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dispensaries Editor\"},\"description\":\"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Former NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis","description":"After finding out he had ALS, Steve Gleason said cannabis pulled him out of a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d caused in part by prescription pills.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Former NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis","og_description":"After finding out he had ALS, Steve Gleason said cannabis pulled him out of a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d caused in part by prescription pills.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/","og_site_name":"Dispensaries","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","article_published_time":"2021-09-29T11:20:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-10-04T13:58:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/steve-gleason.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dispensaries Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@dispensariescom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dispensaries Editor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/","name":"Former NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-09-29T11:20:33+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-04T13:58:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0"},"description":"After finding out he had ALS, Steve Gleason said cannabis pulled him out of a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d caused in part by prescription pills.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/steve-gleason-says-marijuana-helped-him-cope-after-als-diagnosis\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Former NFL Player Says Marijuana Helped Him Cope After ALS Diagnosis"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/","name":"Dispensaries","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0","name":"Dispensaries Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dispensaries Editor"},"description":"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom"],"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4259,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions\/4259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}