“Cannabis Saved My Life” Says Ex-NHL Enforcer Larry DePalma
Larry DePalma (Left) and Darren McCarty are two former hockey players who now advocate for marijuana use
While music thumps and people laugh in the background, tough guy Larry DePalma talks about how he tried to kill himself several times since leaving the National Hockey League in a new video called, Cannabis and Concussion.
Inthe YouTube video, DePalma, who played professional hockey for teams in San Jose, Pittsburgh and Minnesota, lays out the facts of his traumatic brain injuries and how the medical use of marijuana stopped him from thoughts of suicide and halted his addictions to alcohol and pain pills. He joins fellow Detroit Red Wing, Darren McCarty, in supporting the current medical marijuana system while also advocating for the legalization measure offered by the MILegalize organization in Michigan. DePalmas interview was taped during one of the MILegalize fundraisers in Detroit.
DePalma and McCarty had reputations as enforcers on the ice, and both men still look like they could put Claude Lemieux face down in the face-off circle with a single punch. McCarty was famed in Detroit as a member of the Grind Line; DePalma is featured on Hockeyfights.com with an amazing 12 notable fights in a single year while he skated for the Minnesota North Stars.
In the video DePalma explains how he suffered eight major concussions and numerous minor ones during his 11-year hockey career; he has been diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury and CTE, another head injury. In a 2012 video for a treatment program, DePalma explained the severity of these injuries.
Ive probably had maybe five major concussions to where I didnt know where I was for a day or two you would miss, maybe, three days (of hockey play). DePalma was diagnosed with TBI and CTE in 2010, and he described his condition at that time.
It was bad. I couldnt talk, my speech was slurred, people thought I was drunk or high or something, he said in that advertisement. It got so bad to where I couldnt even walk, my equilibrium was off. I couldnt stand on one leg for more than three seconds; I couldnt look up, because I would fall right backwards.
That 2012 video for a brain injury treatment program features a clip of a fight between DePalma and McCarty.
Both he and McCarty have described the difficulties of life after hockey- the pain pills and depression, alcohol abuse, destructive behavior and worse.
In the new video DePalma discusses how cannabis has offered solutions traditional medicine could not give. These concussions ruin peoples lives. Me had a gun in my mouth three times, DePalma confesses on the video, and alcohol Finally the cannabis came out and saved my life.
Both men credit marijuana for being a bridge away from addiction and as a healing tool for injury. DePalma claims medical marijuana alleviated his brain injuries, the continuous pain, symptoms of gout, rage, depression and other physical ailments. McCarty makes no secret of his alcohol addiction and the effect marijuana has had in him beating booze.
DePalma and McCarty are both Michigan residents ...
