High Performance: Why the World’s Toughest Athletes Are Choosing Cannabis

By OG Strain
The Plug’s Pages Magazine

Athletes are supposed to be the cleanest humans on Earth.
We’re talking people who measure protein by the gram, hydration by the ounce, and sleep by the REM cycle. These are the folks who won’t even look at McDonald’s unless it’s to use the bathroom — and even then, they’re stretching in the parking lot first.

So let me ask you something.

Why are some of the most disciplined, elite, violent-on-purpose athletes on the planet lighting up cannabis?

I’m talking UFC fighters. NFL players. Olympians. World champions. People who literally make their living by keeping their bodies in peak condition — and somehow still decide, “Yeah… weed belongs in this equation.”

That should make you pause mid-hit and think.

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From Punches to Puffs: Cannabis in Combat Sports

Let’s start with the obvious: combat sports are brutal.

If you’re getting kicked in the head by professionals for a living, your joints hurt. Your muscles ache. Your sleep is wrecked. Your brain is buzzing like a broken fluorescent light. And Tylenol isn’t cutting it.

Enter Nate Diaz, who famously walked out of a UFC press conference hitting a vape pen like it owed him money. Diaz — along with his brother Nick Diaz — didn’t just use cannabis; they helped force the UFC and athletic commissions to confront reality. These guys weren’t using weed to get sloppy. They were using it to heal, recover, and stay sane .

Then there’s Patty “The Baddy” Pimblett — yes, spelled Pimblett, and yes, he lives up to the nickname. Patty has openly discussed cannabis use as part of his lifestyle and recovery, while still performing at the highest level of competition. Hard to argue with results when the man’s out there collecting wins and post-fight snacks.

Sean O’Malley, another UFC standout, took it a step further — openly embracing cannabis culture and even launching his own strain. Apparently, being relaxed, focused, and not inflamed helps when people are trying to knock your head into next week.

And then there was Elias Theodorou, who made history as the first professional athlete in North America to receive a medical cannabis Therapeutic Use Exemption. Let that sink in. Not a suspension. Not a fine. An official medical exemption because cannabis worked better than the alternatives .

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Football, Pain, and the Opioid Problem Nobody Likes Talking About

If MMA is brutal, football is a slow-motion car crash that lasts 17 weeks.

Former NFL players like Kyle Turley, Eben Britton, and Nate Jackson didn’t turn to cannabis because it was trendy. They turned to it because the league handed them prescription bottles like party favors — and weed worked better, with fewer side effects.

Turley has been brutally honest about using cannabis to manage chronic pain, inflammation, and mental health struggles after football — and how it helped him step away from opioids entirely. Same story, different jersey, for Britton and Jackson, who’ve both spoken publicly about cannabis improving focus, recovery, and overall quality of life .

Funny how “dangerous drug use” starts looking a lot safer when the alternative is a pharmacy receipt longer than your playbook.

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Olympians, Icons, and the Bong Heard ’Round the World

Remember when Michael Phelps got caught on camera hitting a bong?

The world clutched its pearls. Sponsors panicked. Headlines screamed.

Then he went on to become the most decorated Olympian in history.

If cannabis was such a performance killer, someone forgot to tell him.

Then there’s Ricky Williams, who sacrificed millions in NFL contracts because he refused to lie about his cannabis use. Years later, we’re finally admitting what he already knew: cannabis helped him manage pain, anxiety, and the crushing pressure of elite sports .

NBA veteran Al Harrington turned cannabis into a post-career mission, launching a wellness-focused brand after seeing firsthand how much it helped his body recover.
And Marshawn Lynch — because of course Marshawn Lynch — didn’t just use cannabis, he launched Dodi Blunts, because subtlety has never been his brand.

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Why Athletes Actually Use Cannabis (Spoiler: It’s Not to Be Lazy)

Let’s clear this up.

Athletes don’t use cannabis to “check out.”
They use it to check in.

Cannabis helps with:
• Inflammation and joint pain
• Muscle recovery
• Sleep quality
• Stress and anxiety
• Mental focus and presence

For fighters, it can create a calm, tunnel-vision mindset. For football players, it’s pain relief without addiction. For endurance athletes, it’s recovery without destroying the liver.

This isn’t about getting high — it’s about getting right.

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So Why Is Cannabis Still Treated Like the Villain?

Here’s the part that always cracks me up.

Steroids? Eventually accepted.
Prescription opioids? Handed out like candy.
Alcohol? Fully legal and celebrated.

Cannabis? Still suspicious.

For many athletes, weed is no different than taking a Tylenol — except it actually works and doesn’t come with a warning label the size of a cereal box.

The conversation is finally changing, but it’s long overdue.

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Final Hit

When the healthiest, most disciplined humans on Earth repeatedly choose cannabis — despite scrutiny, punishment, and stigma — maybe the question isn’t “Why do athletes use weed?”

Maybe the real question is:

Why wouldn’t they?

And if cannabis can help people who get punched, tackled, slammed, and sprinted into oblivion for a living…
Imagine what it might be doing for the rest of us.

Just something to think about.

— OG Strain