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Topics: Mike Tyson, Boxing, Boxing News
Jack Kenmare
Former boxing world champion Mike Tyson has explained why his family urged him to start smoking cannabis again, just five days after taking a break from the psychoactive drug.
Tyson, who founded the cannabis brand Tyson 2.0 in 2021, is not shy about his regular use of the substance. In fact, he says the drug changed his life. “If I didn't smoke, I would have a bad day," he said. "I'm a real moody guy without it."
The 59-year-old has spoken at length about his cannabis use in the past, and on a recent appearance on the Confidence of Champions podcast, Tyson explained how his wife Lakiha Spicer and children "got scared" when he quit weed for less than a week.
While sitting down with hosts Billy White and Peter Lee Thomas, the former heavyweight champion of the world reflected on how the substance impacts his personality in comparison to alcohol.
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"I was drinking, I didn't smoke weed," he said of his former lifestyle. "I should have smoked weed, because I was always crazy. That's why I was knocking everybody out."
"When I'm drunk, I'm making a fool of myself, but that's 'not bad'. Smoking cannabis and being cool is [considered] worse than drinking and being a savage," he continued.
"Listen, you get you get a bunch of gang members, right? You get a bunch of liquor, they're going to kill each other. You get some weed, they start taking selfies. That was the peace pipe."
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Tyson then revealed what happened when he once "took five days off of smoking" the so-called peace pipe.
"My wife and my kids would get scared," said Tyson. "'Please smoke, daddy'. Not that I did anything, [I was just] too intense not high. People walking by me, just looking, 'Wow'. It’s just a whole different person."
The former world champion has previously claimed that he makes his way through about $40,000 (£30,280) of weed each month.
Speaking on his Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson podcast in 2019, he made the outrageous claim while speaking to co-host and former NFL player Eben Britton.
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"What do we smoke a month?" he asked Britton, "Is it $40,000 a month?", to which Britton replied: "We smoke 10 tons of weed at the ranch a month."
"Is that crazy?" Tyson then asked.
"That's a lot of weed," said rapper Jim Jones, who was the guest on the show. "That's nonstop, every second weed right there."
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Tyson previously revealed how he took a hiatus from his weed habit in the build-up to his boxing fight against Jake Paul in November last year.
"Right now, I’m living my life disciplined," he told Forbes last year.
"It’s been six weeks that I haven’t gotten high or had sex. I haven’t done that since I was a little kid. I hate not being able to smoke, but I’m doing it like I love it; I hate not being able to sleep with my wife but I'm doing it like I love it."