Retired NFL player Frank Hawkins was the first entrepreneur to open a medical cannabis dispensary in Las Vegas, and since social cannabis legalization in Nevada, he can sell to anyone over the age of 21. 

Since July 1, the Nevada Wellness Center experienced a boom in sales as it competed for the thousands of customers which occupy the social cannabis market. Before social cannabis sales began, Hawkins said the dispensary was losing more than $50,000 a month.

Hawkins was a player on the Oakland Raiders for six years and initially disagreed with cannabis legalization before he opened his first medical cannabis dispensary in 2015.

The former football player recently used cannabidiol (CBD), a compound of cannabis which has medical properties but no psychoactive effects, to treat blood clots which formed under his knee after surgery.

“The beautiful thing about the cannabis plant is they don’t have to smoke it to get in the system and they don’t have to get high,” Hawkins said. “They can use the CBD part of the plant and not the THC part of the plant.”