NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
Boxing legend Mike Tyson was one of the first star athletes to celebrate President Donald Trump’s executive order addressing cannabis reform on Thursday.
Trump’s order reclassified marijuana as a less dangerous drug, which would ease restrictions to make it easier to buy and sell and pave the way for more research into marijuana’s medical benefits.
Previously, marijuana was labeled as a Schedule I drug under Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regulations, the same category the agency uses for heroin, ecstasy and LSD.
under the new Annex III ClassificationMarijuana is now in a category along with drugs like codeine-containing Tylenol and anabolic steroids that the agency says have “moderate to low physical and psychological dependence potential.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
Tyson suggested the change could help employment numbers by allowing existing jobs to be counted.
“Thank you [President Trump] to reclassify cannabis. This decision reflects listening to people across the country and taking a practical step toward modernizing outdated policies. “Support American workers, families, and businesses, and finally enable more than 500,000 existing jobs to be counted,” Tyson wrote in X.
Tyson added that he hopes more steps will be taken to grant clemency to certain people who have been convicted of non-violent marijuana use in the past.
“A pardon and federal legalization are important next steps. Americans across the political spectrum agree that no one should remain incarcerated for nonviolent marijuana crimes,” Tyson wrote.
Tyson, 59, previously told Pak Gazette Digital in an exclusive interview on June 30 that fighting again would depend on federal marijuana rescheduling.
“It depends on whether or not cannabis ever becomes legal and gets rescheduled,” Tyson said.
Tyson said he accepted his last fight against YouTuber Jake Paul while under the influence of marijuana and that he would not have accepted the fight if he were sober.
MIKE TYSON REVEALS THE STORY BEHIND HIS MARIJUANA REFORM CRUSADE
Mike Tyson, left, slaps Jake Paul as they face off during their ceremonial weigh-in at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on Nov. 14, 2024, in Irving, Texas. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
“I really don’t think so. No, I wouldn’t have done that,” Tyson said when asked about the fight. “Because without cannabis I’m getting too involved in my feelings. With cannabis I’m very objective.”
He added that “it wouldn’t take much.” [cannabis] accept another fight, before suggesting that it depends on the plant’s reprogramming.
Tyson led a coalition of current and former athletes, including Kevin Durant, Dez Bryant and Antonio Brown, who signed a letter to the White House in late June, pushing for federal cannabis reform. The letter called for the reclassification of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, a pardon for “non-violent” marijuana-related crimes, and an end to “discriminatory banking practices” related to financial regulations of the cannabis industry.
Tyson told Pak Gazette Digital in the June 30 interview that rescheduling was the “most important” goal of his letter. He added that he was “disappointed” in the way former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden handled federal marijuana reform, but is hopeful that Trump will take a new approach.
“It was a disappointment,” Tyson said of Obama and Biden’s handling. “Now we have a different president, so we’re talking to him. So it seems very different talking to President Trump than the others.”
Tyson has a long-standing friendship with Trump dating back to the 1980s, during the early years of Tyson’s boxing career and Trump’s rise as a famous New York City real estate developer.
Still, Tyson said he would never invite Trump to consume marijuana with him.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pak Gazette APP
Donald Trump and Mike Tyson attend a March of Dimes dinner in November 1989 in New York City. (Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images)
“No way. No, he doesn’t smoke. He doesn’t believe in anything that can improve the motor skills of your brain. And I respect that,” Tyson said.
A recent study Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco determined that eating edible cannabis, such as gummies, has the same cardiovascular risk as smoking marijuana for long-term users. The risk arises from reduced blood vessel function, according to the study, published in JAMA Cardiology on May 28.
