THE HIGH TIMES INTERVIEW
AFTER A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE THAT INCLUDED FOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH THE DETROIT RED WINGS, DARREN MCCARTY TOOK ON THE FIGHT OF HIS LIFE AS HE CONFRONTED HIS ALCOHOL AND PILL ADDICTIONS. HE CREDITS CANNABIS WITH SAVING HIS LIFE, AND NOW HE’S ON A MISSION TO SPREAD THE WORD.
It’s not often we get to chat with a legitimate hockey legend. And as a four-time Stanley Cup winner with the Detroit Red Wings, you certainly qualify. But of course your battle with substance abuse and your use of cannabis to overcome some of these issues impresses us even more. Could you give our readers a bit of your background?
My story in the Detroit area is very public as far as my fight with alcoholism and pills—and this is post-career. It’s a lot of things that you get into with PTSD and CTE. [But] I got to a point almost four years ago, it was November 11, 2015, where I had to quit drinking or I was going to die. It was at the point where I got sick when I didn’t drink, not when I drank. It had a total lock on my body.
Luckily, at the time, I had positioned myself with some of the greatest people in my life, to this day, that took me and pretty much said, “All right. You’re done. This is called Rick Simpson’s Oil, and
