Boxing legend Mike Tyson has admitted to using fentanyl during his boxing career.
Appearing on the Katie Miller Podcast, the boxing champ claimed that he advocates for marijuana today because he thinks it makes him a better “role model,” TMZ reported.
“If I was a role model and an alcoholic and drank liquor, would I want them to do that? No, I wouldn’t want them to do that. I just think from my perspective, using cannabis, that’s safer than using alcohol, cocaine, or anything from that perspective, or fentanyl,” he said.
While Tyson has been advocating for pot for quite a few years, at this point, in the interview, he admitted that he had used the dangerous drug fentanyl in the past.
“I’ve done fentanyl before,” he continued. “In the late ’90s, when it first came here, it was a painkiller, and I used to use it to patch up my toe. It was like heroin, once it wears off and you take the Band-Aid off, you start withdrawing, throwing up, just like if you were on heroin or something.”
Tyson said he used the drug “quite a few times,” but said he was unaware that the drug could get him in trouble with the boxing commission.
According to the CDC, there have been 48,422 deaths from fentanyl this year alone.
The National Institutes of Health further notes that about 73,838 Americans lost their lives to the drug in 2022.
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