The champ is here for herb.
According to an exclusive report from celebrity gossip website The Blast, Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion, thespian, and earlobe connoisseur is getting in on California's green rush. Last month, the notorious athlete broke ground on a 40-acre parcel of land that will eventually become Tyson Ranch, a cannabis resort featuring cultivation, production, and sales of the newly-legal plant, as well as luxury camping and entertainment events.
Tyson Ranch will be located in California City, a remote desert town 60 miles away from Death Valley. At least half of the land will be developed into cultivation facilities, leaving another 20 acres for proposed extract and edible production facilities, an amphitheatre, and "glamping campgrounds and cabins."
To kick off the desert town's transition into a cannabis cornucopia, Tyson was joined by California City mayor Jennifer Wood at the official groundbreaking ceremony. During the event, Mayor Wood championed the famous boxer and his investment partners for bringing what she expects to be an economic boom to the tiny town.
"Undeveloped lands are primed to be cultivated," Mayor Woods told The Blast, before describing Tyson Ranch as an "oasis in the desert," as well as a "rebirth" for the entire town.
A controversial figure to say the least, Tyson has been a proponent of both medical and recreational cannabis for much of his life. In his 2013 autobiography Undisputed Truth, the boxer wrote that he often fought under the influence of recreational drugs, including cannabis, and would even go so far as to use a prosthetic penis to fool official drug tests.
Tyson Ranch will aim to pair its fun-and-games focus with programs based on health and wellness. The project announcement also included a mention of "implementing cutting-edge technology to advance the research on the health benefits of marijuana."
Only two weeks removed from the official groundbreaking, Mike's cannabis resort has no official construction or completion timeline. But to show how serious he is, Tyson and his business partners have already locked down a trademark on "Iron Mike Genetics," a brand name that will presumably accompany the cannabis grown on Tyson Ranch.
But as Tyson once famously said, "Everyone has a plan, until you get punched in the mouth." With the initial licensing process still making and breaking ganjapreneurs across the Golden State, only time will tell if regulators will approve Tyson Ranch or hand the legend a right hook back to the drawing board.
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