Cuttino Mobley wants to bring medical marijuana to Maine

For 11 NBA seasons, Cuttino Mobley served as a quality shooting guard perhaps best known for being best friends with Steve Francis. He was a professional basketball player, the kind of guy who holds down a job for several different teams without looking especially good or bad.

Like many players of this ilk, Mobley retired only to enter another profession: that of the businessman. Except, unlike a player who invests in movie theaters or real estate, Mobley is involved with marijuana. No, it's not illegal. Here's the story from the Portland Press Herald in Maine:

Maine's largest�medical marijuana�dispensary unexpectedly disclosed that the president of a prominent California dispensary chain is the point person for a new financing deal it says will allow them to open its first Maine dispensary "within weeks."

The Wellness and Pain Management Connection LLC was named as the financier of an eight-year, $1.6 million loan, which, according to documents provided to the Kennebec Journal by the Maine�Department of Health and Human Services, will be paid back at 8.5 percent interest per year.

A database search of the Wellness and Pain Management Connection LLC found that the limited-liability company was formed only Wednesday in Delaware, the same day the agreement was finalized.

The collective, according to documents, is comprised of The Farmacy Institute for Wellness of West Hollywood, Calif., and Cuttino Mobley, a former NBA and Maine Central Institute basketball player.

According to Kurt Helin at PBT, other reports indicate that Mobley gets paid back 8.5 percent with other fees. It's a pretty business deal, especially because Maine is made up entirely of lobster and beatific nature scenes. There is virtually no better place to open a marijuana dispensary.

Medical marijuana is somewhat controversial, primarily because it tends to get used by people who don't have legitimate ailments like glaucoma and arthritis. On the other hand, we haven't banned painkillers yet, so maybe abuse isn't grounds to neglect the positive medicinal impact of a drug. Mobley's involvement with this dispensary probably has a political side to it, but it would be wrong to assume that he's only involved because he and Stevie Franchise used to hot-box an Escalade together and talk about how their friendship was the summation of all human history.

Or, I don't know, maybe Mobley is our generation's Tommy Chong. I look forward to his self-aware cameo on "Franklin & Bash" next summer.

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