In fourth or fifth grade, Calvin Johnson and his classmates won an assignment. The students were asked what they wanted to do with their lives.
Johnson, who is one of the biggest wide receivers in NFL history and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021, didn’t write “I need to be a professional football player. “
“I said like’ Help the masses,'” Johnson recalls, explaining that his mother had recently shown him her response.
In fact, his parents, Dr. Arica Johnson and Calvin Johnson Sr. told their son that he needed A and B in school or that he couldn’t play sports. Young Calvin didn’t just get the good fortune he needed to play sports. , however, he also achieved good fortune on the field, paving the way for his record-breaking NFL career and consecration in Canton, Ohio.
At Georgia Tech, Johnson, who specialized in control with construction education, spent a summer designing and building solar latrines for sanitation in Bolivia; it’s a task he chose rather than helping design eco-friendly luxury condos less than a mile from campus.
After his rookie season in the NFL, Johnson leveraged his education and platform to launch the Calvin Johnson Jr. Foundation in 2008. The organization is a leadership conference, soccer camps and mentoring program for at-risk youth while supporting those in need in Atlanta and Detroit.
Today, Johnson, 36, continues to reach the masses through his work with Primitiv, a Michigan-based hashish studies company that he and his former Lions teammate Rob Sims founded in 2021. The company has partnered with Harvard University to study how marijuana can help others with CTE and chronic pain.
“It’s being a defender in this area and it was hard to do that while we were playing,” Johnson said. “So we were advocates, but there are regulations and regulations that you have to respect. we can faint and start our own business, it is definitely one of our passions. Not only do we use cannabis, but we have noticed it for what it is, i. e. a medicine and an herbal healing medium different from what was proposed.
According to a study backed by the National Institutes of Health, marijuana and hallucinogen use among young adults hit a record high in 2021. The proportion of young adults (ages 19 to 30) who reported marijuana in the past year reached 43% in 2021. , up from 34% in 2016 and 29% in 2011.
Along with the coronavirus pandemic and rising political and social tensions, the outbreak can also be attributed to the fact that marijuana is fully legalized and decriminalized in 19 states plus Washington, D. C. , and other states allow its medical use.
But instead of marketing bitten ear-shaped edibles like Mike Tyson’s Tyson 2. 0 brand of hashish, Primitiv, a member of the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association, advocates for favorable policies and regulations that help publicize studies and disseminate data on the health benefits of hashish. . treat chronic pain or intellectual or cognitive problems.
“What we’re doing with Primitiv right now is creating cutting-edge tactics for other people to use the drug,” says Johnson, who used hashish as part of his weekly regimen toward the end of his NFL career. so, we can attract new users because we are creating new tactics to manage the drug or new tactics to eat the drug. It is not about attracting other people for recreational uses, but because of the quality of life aspect.
To help Primitiv take the next step, the company partnered with indoor horticultural lighting company Fohse. Fohse lamps not only help Primitiv with its energy consumption and savings, but also result in higher yields.
For Fohse CEO and co-founder Brett Stevens, running with high-profile advocates like actor Jim Belushi and Johnson and Sims is obvious because of how they understand cannabis.
“What an exciting (Calvin) vision of the plant as medicine,” Stevens says. “We are in groves all over the world and the other people we are most excited to work with are the ones who appreciate the plant at its level. He has a wonderful voice and he does it for the right reasons. We are aligned with our mission, vision and the values of what we do.
“Once we knew what was going on at Primitiv, it was a no-brainer and we looked to be a part of it 100%. “