Marijuana, popular drug among youngsters, is banned by many nations, if necessary, a license is issued for its use. One such licensed user is the famous former American football player Jim McMahon, who disclosed that he uses marijuana to get rid of the pain post undergoing 18 surgeries.

McMahon gives credit to the drug for helping him break his habit of taking prescribed painkillers. He told that once he had lots of painkillers, but now he can do without them. The former footballer is accustomed to fighting pain and surviving on pills, which came with his career. “Back then it was painkillers. I played my whole career on painkillers, I was using about 100 Percocets a month when I retired and I knew I had to get off that stuff, I quit all that cold turkey and I moved out to Arizona and I got my medical marijuana license”, he said.

McMahon stated that he doesn’t smoke marijuana all day long; he starts his day with marijuana, which helps him get out of bed at his age of 56. He even claims that there are no side effects of the drug on his body and he functions smoothly in everyday life, doing what he likes. One of the biggest damage that came to his back and neck was from a play against the Packers in 1986, when Charles Martin slammed him to the ground.

In Arizona, McMahon is prescribed medical marijuana to treat arthritis and chronic pain. But such conditions don’t qualify for medical marijuana in Illinois. So he decided to stay in Arizona to get rid of the painkillers. An advisory board is recommending adding the chronic pain McMahon sufferers and seven other conditions to the marijuana eligibility list in Illinois. The recommendation needs acceptance form Governor Bruce Rauner.