"Education Through Entertainment" - that's CannectedTV's mission. The cannabis channel can be found as an app on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV and Google Play. Their big news is the debut of "5th Quarter," a medical cannabis talk show hosted by former NFL player Marvin Washington. The first episode premieres on Thanksgiving Day.
"I like talking to other athletes," Washington tells CelebStoner. The episode features Boo Williams, a former NFL player who's struggled with the symptoms of CTE, a brain injury caused by repetitive physical stress that football players experience from head collisions.
"Those injuries is something I had to deal with after football," explains Williams, who was a wide receiver with several NFL teams (mostly with the Saints) from 2001-2008. "Brain injuries, body injuries. The NFL wasn't too great at treating injuries. As treatment, we've always been introduced to pharmaceiticals."
Williams says players were using cannabis as an alternative to pain and anti-inflammatory meds routinely administered by the teams' medical staffs. "As athletes, we always knew that cannabis was the way to go. When I'd leave practise I'd have a joint rolled up in my ashtray, so had something to decompress. Most of us need our brains to slow down in order to live a normal life.
"A lot of my friends on the team used cannabis, so I was OK with it. At least 70% of the guys smoked league wide. Guys use cannabis to take the stress off the everyday life of of playing in the NFL."
During his first season with New Orleans in 2001, Williams failed a drug test and was placed into the NFL's substance abuse program for two years.
Post career, Williams hit his lowest point and decided to commit suicide by laying on railroad tracks. Two homeless people saved him. Next, he went to rehab: "I ended up staying for nine months."
Ultimately, Williams returned to cannabis, smoking flower like he did as a player, and it continues to benefit him today.
Eddie "Boo" Williams: "Guys use cannabis to take the stress off the everyday life of of playing in the NFL."
The first season of "5th Quarter" has four episodes. The next two episodes feature discussions with cannabis nurses Heather Sobel and Juhlzie Monteiro. The fourth episode is a compliation of interviews Washington has conducted over the years.
CannectedTV has big plans. Programs like "Nurse Talk" and "Faces of Cannabis" will launch in 2022. The channel is also home to Cannaguide, an advertising marketplace for products like Curved Papers and The Original Jack Herer.
Washington, a defemsive lineman who played in the NFL from 1989-1999 and won Super Bowl XXXIII with the Broncos, is looking forward to Season 2. "I'd like to take it on the road," he says. "My aproach is to ask athletes about their experiences with cannabis and pyschedelics like psilocybin, ibogaine and ayahuasca."
Launched in April, CannectedTV is produced by 420Media, a company founded by Kerri Accardi. "I left New York in 2013 on a mission to educate people about cannabis," she comments. "2022 is going to be a big year for us."
