On the latest edition of the DDP Snakepit podcast WWE Hall of Famer and current AEW manager Jake “The Snake” Roberts spoke about his early days in WWE, and how Vince McMahon’s decision to ban marijuana led to a lot of wrestlers turning to hard drugs and alcohol. Check out Roberts’ full thoughts on the subject below.
Says that alcohol causes way more problems than marijuana:
“I don’t think marijuana is a gateway drug. I think alcohol is. I’ll tell all the folks out there, I’m pro-pot, you know? I never got in a fight when I was smoking pot. I never got in trouble when I was smoking pot. I never wanted to do cocaine when I was smoking pot. But you give me a few Jack Daniels, brother, I want to fight and I want some s**t to go down and I want some goddamn cocaine right now.”
On Vince McMahon eventually banning marijuana in WWE at the time:
“My routine, in the beginning, was beer, a little pot, a little sleeping pill. And then Vince came along and cut the pot out. Man, when he cut that pot out, that was tough, because we didn’t have a go-to thing to relax us now. We had to double up on the beer. Then a lot of us started taking different pills and that leads to problems. When start mixing your drugs, you’re going to kill yourself. That’s gotten a lot of guys. They start mixing them. They take a pill, they have a few beers, they pass out, and they wake up and they think ‘wait a minute, I didn’t take my pills!’ And they take more. That’s your danger zone. That’s when you’re flying into the fire, you know?”
Explains why McMahon banning pot was detrimental to a lot of wrestler’s health:
“For Vince, the worst thing he could’ve done was take marijuana away from us. Because that was everybody’s go-to thing, to relax. Of course, it was one of the worst things to get out of your system. Whereas cocaine would be out of your system in three days, marijuana would stay in your system for 30 days. So you’re screwed.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)