Former NFL player Rob Sims spent the last five years of his football career with the Detroit Lions, where he met his teammate and Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson. After years of playing together, the two decided to venture into cannabis with a new brand, Primitiv.

It’s not your usual celebrity cannabis brand. According to its website, Primitiv is a “cannabis research company dedicated to compassionately serving medical marijuana patients throughout the United States.”

The company wants to shed light on the healing powers of cannabis and hopes to improve the overall wellness of its consumers.

Primitiv ensures it receives the utmost modern, reliable, and thorough research by teaming up with institutions like Harvard University for findings on how cannabis can treat cancer and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Prmitiv is headquartered in Webberville, Michigan, and sits in a vast 12,000 square-foot facility. Recently, the company donated $25,000 to the Detroit Homegrown Fund alongside other companies like Eaze, Kiva, and Mary’s Medicinals.

“Similar to the NFL, I feel like the industry and the opportunity in cannabis found me,” said Sims. He added that cannabis had always been there to help treat pain and anxiety, especially since the “NFL is a very demanding job.”

He thought maybe cannabis would be a healthier, less addictive, and safer alternative to prescribed medications like opioids and muscle relaxants. “I didn’t see guys having pleasant experiences with that. There was an opioid epidemic breaking out,” Sims explained.

During the height of his NFL career, Calvin Johnson realized how playing professional football and advocating for cannabis wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. With all the rules and regulations within the NFL, he and Sims could finally break free from their past rules and put their passion into action.

Furthermore, Primitiv isn’t just for the recreational consumer. Johnson and Sims are adamant about ensuring the public knows that Primitiv is a medical-first brand that promotes and shares the health benefits of cannabis.

Johnson said the brand is creating “new ways to deliver the medicine or new ways to consume the medicine.” Interestingly, he added that the brand isn’t just about attracting recreational consumers but attracting people of all walks of life who could benefit from the medicine to improve their quality of life.

The main issue for the company was finding ways to destigmatize cannabis use and help promote its efficacy. This is why Primitiv decided to partner with the International Phytomedicines and Medical Cannabis Institute at Harvard University in 2019.

Based on the reliable research and findings at Harvard, Primitiv creates products geared toward well-rounded medicine for:

• Chronic pain
• Anxiety
• Cancer

For Primitiv, most of its education is based on our research efforts, and many consumers don’t really know which products work for them until trying something new.

With the scientific research behind the scenes, Primitiv wants to help consumers understand which products would work for them before purchasing.