Why Did Travis Maldonado from Tiger King Love Weed So Much?

The show also revealed some of the many things wrong with America. But I want to focus on one aspect today that struck me from the show: Why Travis Maldonado, one of Joe Exotic’s husbands, loved weed so much.

Travis, a 19-year-old and known straight man, somehow fell deeply in love with Joe when they met. But Travis was apparently struggling with his addiction way before he even met Joe or moved to the zoo. 

The 7 part documentary also details how Joe shockingly keeps Travis in the zoo by feeding him an endless supply of meth and cannabis. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Travis was in a very dark place before he met Joe, so the outcome could be seen as predictable when the two got hitched. But those around him thought that working with animals would save his life and end the drugs.

Now we know that meth takes one into a dangerous downward spiral and having a mental condition would make things even worse. BUT WHY WEED? 

Well like other drugs and even booze, weed is known to reduce inhibitions. We know its safe and doesn’t have any major physical side effects but like other mind-altering substances, being high is helpful in removing mental filters that force you to conform to what is normal. It allows you to express who you really are, and your deepest thoughts are brought to the surface. Perhaps the very same reasons why cannabis works so well for people who are depressed and anxious may be the same reasons why people like Travis Maldonado relied on it so heavily to cast smoke and mirrors mentally over his current reality.

Also after doing some more thinking another possible reason why Travis may have enjoyed weed so much was to assist him in his transition from straight to gay and the pain that comes with new homosexual sex so it may have been used to make sex with Joe Exotic less painful and more pleasurable.   

Putting things simply, it seemed that Travis relied on cannabis to dull his pains – mentally and physically.