Hudari “Coach” Murray

Photo Credit: Joe Budd

“Weed, for me, it’s a medication.”

My name is Hudari Murray, aka Coach Murray. I'm born and raised here in San Francisco, California.

I’ve coached all levels around San Francisco. I've coached high school basketball, football and track. I coached Pop Warner, the youth football league. I also own the semi-pro football team here in the city called the Golden State Giants.

I suffer from sleep apnea and would wake up a lot in the middle of the night, unable to go back to sleep. Somebody told me, "Man, hit the blunt before you go to bed and watch how it help you." I'm like, "No, I ain't doing that. I don't like that.” I didn't like smoking weed. Weed was only an occasional thing for me.

One night I just hit it before I went to bed, and I slept through the whole night. I was like, "Oh, shit." I woke up energized and I was like, "Man, let me try this again." I tried it again and slept the whole night and I couldn't believe it. Next thing you know, I'm looking like if I don't get it before I go to bed, I'll wake up in the middle of the night and it's hard to go back to sleep. So I hit it every night before I go to bed. Marijuana become my best friend because it helps me sleep.

Growing up it was considered a drug to the point where you weren't supposed to have it. When you bought it, you were buying it illegally and people went to jail for it. Being from the inner-city, I know a bunch of people who went to jail for it.

Now, fortunately it’s been legalized. I believe all the people that's been put in jail for it need to be set free. I think if you can smoke a cigarette and if you can drink a bottle alcohol you should definitely be in control of your weed. The federal government need to realize what this cannabis does for people and how it helps people, how it helps get people back their appetites, and all that sorts of things.

The way it helped me, I know it could help other people and I'd like to share that with the world. I would just like the world to know that weed is not so much of a drug. I think it's more of a medicine and should be looked at in that way. Once somebody bans something, they make it illegal, and people see it as bad. Weed is definitely not bad and I wish people would look at it not like a drug but, but definitely as a medication, because for me, it's a medication