It’s been quite a few years since former NFL players and Oakland Raiders rusher Frank Hawkins was roaming the field with the likes of Marcus Allen, clearing running lanes for the Hall of Fame running back.
Hawkins enjoyed success during his career in the National Football League and with the Oakland Raiders, highlighted by a Super Bowl victory in the 1983 season over the Washington Redskins.
But as the glory days of the NFL are getting put further and further behind into the past, Hawkins has started a new career in Las Vegas that has nothing to do with green football fields.
Instead, it has to do with the green colors of marijuana.
Hawkins opened the first medical marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas and is now thriving in the business.
Hawkins’ business struggled until legalization was approved for Nevada back in July of this year.
“We started out losing $50,000 a month,” Hawkins said in an interview with High Times. “We suffered for a long time.”
“Back when I was growing up marijuana was a bad word,” Hawkins explained.
“Now it’s a household name.”
Hawkins is willing to help former NFL players with life after football, including helping them get into the marijuana business and sharing his expertise on how to start and succeed in the market.
“Most of them wanted to know how they could get involved or get one in their city or state,” Hawkins said.
“I told them any state you’re in I’d be more than happy to come and invest my time and money and get another store opened in their communities.”
Hawkins also trumpets the medical benefits of medical marijuana.
“You got a headache, they give you a pill,” Hawkins said. “You got shoulder pain, they give you pain pills. Whatever your problems are they gave you pills.”
“The beautiful thing about the marijuana plant is they don’t have to smoke it to get in the system and they don’t have to get high,” Hawkins said. “They can use the CBD part of the plant and not the THC part of the plant. It can be put in soaps, eaten, in mints, you name it.”
Hawkins also is excited about the medical benefits of medical marijuana.
“Folks who have PTSD to trauma to football injury or have cancer it works on all of them,” Hawkins said. “And it’s certainly better than the opioids they give players.”
