May 23, 2017 3 min read

Steelers Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Ham will serve as a spokesman and consultant for AGRiMED Industries LLC, a company hoping to obtain a license to grow medical marijuana near Nemacolin.

Ham, who played 12 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and won four Super Bowls, will work with AGRiMED as an advocate for medical marijuana, connecting patients with the help they need, AGRiMED said in a news release issued Monday.

“I’m not talking about people getting high, doing recreational drugs,” Ham said in the release. “This is about medicine and giving patients an alternative option to manage pain and other medical complications that arise from cancer treatment and other problems.”

AGRiMED announced in March it filed an application with the state Department of Health for a license to grow medical cannabis in greenhouses constructed on 61 acres of land off Thomas Road in Cumberland Township.

The state plans to license 12 growing and processing facilities under the medical marijuana program signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf in April 2016. The Department of Health said earlier it hoped to award permits by the end of June.

Under the state’s medical marijuana law, medical cannabis can be prescribed for 17 medical conditions and dispensed only as pills, oils, liquids, topical ointments or in forms suitable for inhalers or nebulizers. It cannot be dispensed in any form to be smoked.

Ham’s former teammate, running back Franco Harris, is also working with another company that has proposed to establish a similar marijuana growing operation in Braddock.

Many counties are now grappling with addiction and drug-related overdoses. Ham said he hopes “to help people be more aware there’s other options out there rather than continuing to mask problems with painkillers and opiates.”

Though he had relatively few career injuries playing with the famed Steel Curtain, Ham said that for one foot injury, which stopped him from playing in Super Bowl XIV, he wished there had been a legal alternatives to the pain killers he was prescribed.

“I didn’t have any alternatives to consider during that period of time. The medication was almost as bad as the initial surgery on my foot. It didn’t bring me the relief I really wanted,” Ham said. “I can see myself down the road here; yes, without question, taking medical marijuana for any kind of a pain situation I have as I go further in life.”

Ham also spoke about the jobs and economic boost the project will create in the community.

“We’re not talking about jobs in fast food, we’re talking about real careers right now for people,” he said.

AGRiMED said it will invest $25 million to develop the growing operation in Cumberland Township and expects to create at least 62 jobs.

The company was formed by individuals with experience in the cannabis growing industry in other states, Sterling Crockett, chairman and chief diversity officer at AGRiMED, said earlier. If the license is granted, the new company will be based at 270 Thomas Road in Cumberland Township.