Former NFL player Kyle Turley has long advocated for the medicinal and health benefits of marijuana – even opening his own cannabis dispensary in California five years ago. But he says the impending legislation to reopen the U.S. government contains an easily overlooked provision that could ultimately cost lives.
The bill includes strict new rules for hemp products that critics say threaten to outlaw mainstream drinks, creams, gummies, oils and vapes. Hemp is a plant related to marijuana that produces the active ingredient (tetrahydrocannabinol, often abbreviated as THC) at a much lower level.
‘This bill here is going to completely devastate the hemp industry,’ Turley said in a recent interview with CNN. ‘Unfortunately there’s a lot of things in there that’s going to take a lot of people out of work. And more importantly, it’s going to criminalize American citizens for things that they are participating in (for) medicinal use.’
The new law lowers the amount of THC allowed in hemp products. Even products not marketed for their THC content may face legal limbo.
Turley, 50, credits marijuana’s medicinal benefits for saving his life after developing what he called a ’20-year addition to pharmaceuticals’ he took to alleviate the pain accumulated over his career playing football – which included nine seasons as an offensive lineman for the New Orleans Saints, St. Louis Rams and Kansas City Chiefs.
He told USA TODAY Sports in a 2020 interview shortly after opening his own dispensary that marijuana has cured him of vertigo, seizures, light sensitivity, pain and numbness in the feet and uncontrollable rage.
“Because I chose cannabis as an alternative and to understand it the way I have, it saved my life,’’ he said. “It kept my family together.’
The new legislation – and its impact on the sale of hemp products – brought Turley to Washington to lobby against the provision, which Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says will protect children from intoxicating products.
Turley disagrees: ‘This is not killing kids. This is saving kids. I’ve seen this save the lives of young children, from seizures to cancer.’