Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
She was an international model. He was an NFL star. Both from Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Jessica VerSteeg said Tyler Sash was everything a girlfriend would want – handsome, athletic, funny, with fashionable style.
But Sash was also in constant pain. Years of football at the University of Iowa and then with the New York Giants had torn up his shoulder and dealt him several concussions.
Desperate for relief, he asked VerSteeg for a favor.
"He asked me if he could smoke marijuana for his pain. I had never smoked it before and thought it was bad," VerSteeg said. "I didn't know he was addicted to painkillers that NFL doctors were giving him."
That moment and the tragic days that followed before Sash's accidental overdose death in 2015 propelled VerSteeg to alter her life course and enter into the medical marijuana business in California.
It was an effort, she said, to bring relief to others like Sash who suffer from debilitating pain.
More: Tests show former Hawkeye Sash died from mix of methadone, hydrocodone
But members of Sash's family have not embraced VerSteeg's venture. They've asked her to stop using his name in her business, saying they don't want his legacy tied to marijuana.
"I wish she would just leave us alone," said Megan Wieland, Sash's sister and spokeswoman for the family. "My brother is not here to defend himself."
'Sleeping 15 hours a day'
Sash suffered his fifth concussion in 2013, and the Giants released him from the team.
With his football career over, the couple moved back to Oskaloosa.
That's when their relationship started to run into trouble.
"He was sleeping 15 hours a day, forgetting things, depressed, and just doing strange things," VerSteeg said. "I told the NFL and others, and they told me that it was normal because he's had concussions and needed time to heal."
Over the next year, things got worse, even as VerSteeg became the 2014 Miss Iowa.
She said Sash became aggressive and increasingly ill. It got to the point where she was cleaning up vomit daily and finding undigested pills in it.
"I don't know why, but you do those things when you love somebody," she said.
She read about the signs of aggression and confusion online and began to tell others what was happening, fearing he was addicted to painkillers.
But Sash was the hometown hero, and "to say those things, I was the devil," VerSteeg said.
Eventually, she left him and moved to California.
'You were right'
VerSteeg settled in San Francisco and began researching painkillers and other methods of treating pain.
She looked up marijuana and how it could help, and began thinking of starting a company to distribute it.
"I had an ego. I was an international model, and he was an NFL star," she said. "I wished I had told him, 'You were right.'"
Sash died a year later, in September 2015, of an overdose of the painkillers methadone and hydrocodone.
His brain revealed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when examined later by experts at Boston University.
"I regret it. I thought it was the pills. I didn't know it was CTE," she said of the progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma.
VerSteeg said she became depressed after his death, with thoughts of suicide. She felt guilty.
A month later she was picked to be a contestant on the reality-TV show "The Amazing Race," which she said snapped her out of the funk.
"I couldn't sit here and feel sorry for myself about the NFL or the pills," she said. "I decided I could take my knowledge about marijuana and give it a clean image."
She launched AuBox as a box subscription, using upscale packaging for a less shady image.
Subscribers could get pre-rolled joints, boxes of edibles and other samplers for a monthly or yearly fee, delivered to the subscriber's home. VerSteeg was featured in major magazines such as Vogue with her new marijuana line.
At first, she worried how peddling dope could tarnish the image of a former Miss Iowa.
"When you become so passionate because of losing him, it just didn't matter. If they wanted to take my crown, they could take it. I didn't care anymore," VerSteeg said. "I wanted to help other people, so I stopped modeling and did this."
'Leave Tyler out of it'
She launched another business this month called Paragon to help people in legal marijuana states conduct business around federal restrictions, but not before hearing from Sash's family.
Wieland said family members told VerSteeg to stop using his name.
She said her brother had never mentioned marijuana, even though he was open in talking to her about dealing with pain and he had discussed other drugs with her.
"My family's opinion is that pain medication should be regulated more by the NFL. To me, that's the bigger issue," Wieland said. "Having my brother die of pain medications, obviously combined with CTE, is the problem.
"If she wants to have a business that's fine. We just wish she would leave Tyler out of it."
VerSteeg has persisted.
"I kept quiet for a long time, but after over a year in therapy I've realized that it's not healthy to keep my life a secret if it can help someone else's life by knowing what I've been through," VerSteeg said.
'Maybe if you win the Super Bowl'
VerSteeg, 30, met Sash in seventh grade when she moved to Oskaloosa to live with her divorced father, Scott VerSteeg, who returned to his hometown after retiring from military service.
Versteeg said she and Sash would swim at the pool and catch tadpoles in the creek together before she moved away again – this time to finish her school years in Oklahoma with her mother.
After that, her modeling career took her across the globe, landing jobs with companies such as Nike and on the pages of fashion magazines and Sports Illustrated.
While at Iowa, Sash reached out to ask her to a Hawkeyes game, she said. She told him she was too busy.
"Maybe if you make it to the NFL," she said.
After he signed with the New York Giants, he called her.
"Maybe if you win the Super Bowl," she told him.
In 2012, Sash and the Giants won the Super Bowl. By chance, they ran into each other on a break in the year after that, she said.
She kept her promise. They were inseparable after that.
They lived together for a time in New Jersey, and she attended his practices until the Giants released him from the team in 2013. The couple then moved to Oskaloosa, the beginning of a painful descent.
'I saw all those problems'
VerSteeg's AuBox marijuana business was fraught with peril. She became terrified of skirting complex, varied laws and being charged with a crime.
Marijuana is legal for recreational use in eight states and the District of Columbia, and 29 states have versions of laws allowing medical use, including Iowa.
Yet even in San Francisco, where it is legal, she faced restrictions on selling it in other California cities.
Because there are federal laws against marijuana possession and use, and it is listed as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, its distribution can be a federal offense.
That also means it must be purchased with cash, and those working in the industry must be paid in cash. It heightens the risk of robbery, she said.
"I saw all those problems and realized I couldn't grow AuBox outside of San Francisco," she said.
That's where VerSteeg's husband, Egor Lavrov, comes in. She married him last April.
He became a tech multimillionaire at age 16 and helped her build a new platform for a new company called Paragon. It's a so-called blockchain for the cannabis industry, from seed to sales to delivery.
Blockchains allow sharing of a digital ledger for exchanging cryptocurrencies.
Information is logged on a block that provides the source of the marijuana, its contents and soil tests where it was grown and other contaminants. It includes ways to track medical prescriptions, she said, without breaking privacy regulations.
It also allows for transactions by using ParagonCoin, which are digital "tokens" like Bitcoin.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Tyler Sash's legacy: Family objects to tying name to marijuana venture
Author: Mike Kilen
Contact: Customer Service | Des Moines Register
Photo Credit: The Register
Website: The Des Moines Register
Jessica VerSteeg said Tyler Sash was everything a girlfriend would want – handsome, athletic, funny, with fashionable style.
But Sash was also in constant pain. Years of football at the University of Iowa and then with the New York Giants had torn up his shoulder and dealt him several concussions.
Desperate for relief, he asked VerSteeg for a favor.
"He asked me if he could smoke marijuana for his pain. I had never smoked it before and thought it was bad," VerSteeg said. "I didn't know he was addicted to painkillers that NFL doctors were giving him."
That moment and the tragic days that followed before Sash's accidental overdose death in 2015 propelled VerSteeg to alter her life course and enter into the medical marijuana business in California.
It was an effort, she said, to bring relief to others like Sash who suffer from debilitating pain.
More: Tests show former Hawkeye Sash died from mix of methadone, hydrocodone
But members of Sash's family have not embraced VerSteeg's venture. They've asked her to stop using his name in her business, saying they don't want his legacy tied to marijuana.
"I wish she would just leave us alone," said Megan Wieland, Sash's sister and spokeswoman for the family. "My brother is not here to defend himself."
'Sleeping 15 hours a day'
Sash suffered his fifth concussion in 2013, and the Giants released him from the team.
With his football career over, the couple moved back to Oskaloosa.
That's when their relationship started to run into trouble.
"He was sleeping 15 hours a day, forgetting things, depressed, and just doing strange things," VerSteeg said. "I told the NFL and others, and they told me that it was normal because he's had concussions and needed time to heal."
Over the next year, things got worse, even as VerSteeg became the 2014 Miss Iowa.
She said Sash became aggressive and increasingly ill. It got to the point where she was cleaning up vomit daily and finding undigested pills in it.
"I don't know why, but you do those things when you love somebody," she said.
She read about the signs of aggression and confusion online and began to tell others what was happening, fearing he was addicted to painkillers.
But Sash was the hometown hero, and "to say those things, I was the devil," VerSteeg said.
Eventually, she left him and moved to California.
'You were right'
VerSteeg settled in San Francisco and began researching painkillers and other methods of treating pain.
She looked up marijuana and how it could help, and began thinking of starting a company to distribute it.
"I had an ego. I was an international model, and he was an NFL star," she said. "I wished I had told him, 'You were right.'"
Sash died a year later, in September 2015, of an overdose of the painkillers methadone and hydrocodone.
His brain revealed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when examined later by experts at Boston University.
"I regret it. I thought it was the pills. I didn't know it was CTE," she said of the progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma.
VerSteeg said she became depressed after his death, with thoughts of suicide. She felt guilty.
A month later she was picked to be a contestant on the reality-TV show "The Amazing Race," which she said snapped her out of the funk.
"I couldn't sit here and feel sorry for myself about the NFL or the pills," she said. "I decided I could take my knowledge about marijuana and give it a clean image."
She launched AuBox as a box subscription, using upscale packaging for a less shady image.
Subscribers could get pre-rolled joints, boxes of edibles and other samplers for a monthly or yearly fee, delivered to the subscriber's home. VerSteeg was featured in major magazines such as Vogue with her new marijuana line.
At first, she worried how peddling dope could tarnish the image of a former Miss Iowa.
"When you become so passionate because of losing him, it just didn't matter. If they wanted to take my crown, they could take it. I didn't care anymore," VerSteeg said. "I wanted to help other people, so I stopped modeling and did this."
'Leave Tyler out of it'
She launched another business this month called Paragon to help people in legal marijuana states conduct business around federal restrictions, but not before hearing from Sash's family.
Wieland said family members told VerSteeg to stop using his name.
She said her brother had never mentioned marijuana, even though he was open in talking to her about dealing with pain and he had discussed other drugs with her.
"My family's opinion is that pain medication should be regulated more by the NFL. To me, that's the bigger issue," Wieland said. "Having my brother die of pain medications, obviously combined with CTE, is the problem.
"If she wants to have a business that's fine. We just wish she would leave Tyler out of it."
VerSteeg has persisted.
"I kept quiet for a long time, but after over a year in therapy I've realized that it's not healthy to keep my life a secret if it can help someone else's life by knowing what I've been through," VerSteeg said.
'Maybe if you win the Super Bowl'
VerSteeg, 30, met Sash in seventh grade when she moved to Oskaloosa to live with her divorced father, Scott VerSteeg, who returned to his hometown after retiring from military service.
Versteeg said she and Sash would swim at the pool and catch tadpoles in the creek together before she moved away again – this time to finish her school years in Oklahoma with her mother.
After that, her modeling career took her across the globe, landing jobs with companies such as Nike and on the pages of fashion magazines and Sports Illustrated.
While at Iowa, Sash reached out to ask her to a Hawkeyes game, she said. She told him she was too busy.
"Maybe if you make it to the NFL," she said.
After he signed with the New York Giants, he called her.
"Maybe if you win the Super Bowl," she told him.
In 2012, Sash and the Giants won the Super Bowl. By chance, they ran into each other on a break in the year after that, she said.
She kept her promise. They were inseparable after that.
They lived together for a time in New Jersey, and she attended his practices until the Giants released him from the team in 2013. The couple then moved to Oskaloosa, the beginning of a painful descent.
'I saw all those problems'
VerSteeg's AuBox marijuana business was fraught with peril. She became terrified of skirting complex, varied laws and being charged with a crime.
Marijuana is legal for recreational use in eight states and the District of Columbia, and 29 states have versions of laws allowing medical use, including Iowa.
Yet even in San Francisco, where it is legal, she faced restrictions on selling it in other California cities.
Because there are federal laws against marijuana possession and use, and it is listed as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, its distribution can be a federal offense.
That also means it must be purchased with cash, and those working in the industry must be paid in cash. It heightens the risk of robbery, she said.
"I saw all those problems and realized I couldn't grow AuBox outside of San Francisco," she said.
That's where VerSteeg's husband, Egor Lavrov, comes in. She married him last April.
He became a tech multimillionaire at age 16 and helped her build a new platform for a new company called Paragon. It's a so-called blockchain for the cannabis industry, from seed to sales to delivery.
Blockchains allow sharing of a digital ledger for exchanging cryptocurrencies.
Information is logged on a block that provides the source of the marijuana, its contents and soil tests where it was grown and other contaminants. It includes ways to track medical prescriptions, she said, without breaking privacy regulations.
It also allows for transactions by using ParagonCoin, which are digital "tokens" like Bitcoin.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Tyler Sash's legacy: Family objects to tying name to marijuana venture
Author: Mike Kilen
Contact: Customer Service | Des Moines Register
Photo Credit: The Register
Website: The Des Moines Register
