Healing with Cannabis

I was a 90's D.A.R.E Kid, and my first introduction to cannabis was being told that smoking weed would basically send me straight to jail. The stigma that surrounded weed carried on in TV shows and movies, where characters would smoke weed or eat a cannabis brownie and suddenly were committing high crimes or jumping out of windows a la Reefer Madness. You can see that my resistance to try anything cannabis wise was rooted in a lot of ignorance and fear, and it wasn't until I started to learn more and consume cannabis for myself that I learned how beneficial cannabis would become for me.

My first time was puffing on a joint right out of high school, but I didn't think much of it. It really wasn't until I hurt my back shortly after that I realized how helpful it would be. I'm unfortunately very allergic to a handful of painkillers, if it's an NSAID, I cannot have it without breaking out into hives and my throat closing. That means no Advil, no Aleve..and definitely not their higher dose prescription relatives. I would eventually need back surgery, but managing my pain with pain killers was too risky. I did everything else from lumbar epidurals, physical therapy, yoga, meditating, herbal relief, anything and everything. I had friends that smoked and so I tried a few times at their suggestion and found that I DID have relief from my back pain, but I was also letting down some of my walls socially as an autistic person.

Living in southern California, I've luckily had access to some incredible cannabis and have had the opportunity to really explore what helps me and all of my health needs. As an asthmatic, I often get asked why I used cannabis. Cannabis is incredible because it can be used in many ways, so for me personally, I don't have to smoke anything that may irritate my lungs. Personally, I like to use Rick Simpson Oil, which is a concentrated form of cannabis that doesn't need to be heated and can be consumed just as is, which is very easy. I might put a little oil on a piece of candy or fruit to help me manage my pain for the day. I also like to smoke concentrated forms of cannabis in a rig using a very hot bowl typically made of quartz. This isn't as rough on my lungs as smoking something like a blunt may be, and delivers a strong dose of THC that keeps me going for a bit.

Aside from helping me manage my pain, Cannabis helps me with my mental health too. As previously mentioned, I'm autistic, and there's many things that come with being autistic that impact your entire body. One of the primary ways it helps me is with communication, being autistic it can be difficult for me to verbally communicate at times. My brain is working just fine, but the connection to speak is severed, almost like there's a lock on my teeth and the words just can't come out. Using cannabis can help open the lock and break down the walls to communicate, but also help me line up sentences and words to use sign language or even an App to communicate for me. Sometimes when I'm overwhelmed, my brain scrambles words and letters, so cannabis can help me put things back together and make sense. It also helps me calm down and self soothe myself, but also find some clarity when my mind is a tornado of intrusive thoughts. I also deal with a few gastro issues, including food aversion which makes me very selective about the foods I eat at times. Cannabis has helped me work on my morning nausea and appetite to actually eat more than just once a day at night and late night snacking. It's helped me deal with abdominal pain and given me more of a chance to enjoy life rather than be in pain all of the time. The pain I feel throughout my body isn't gone for good, but cannabis has helped me live with the pain.

Around me, more and more of my loved ones are finding a balance with cannabis and the rest of their medical routine. As more people are open about how cannabis helps them, the more it helps the stigma. My wife herself uses pharmaceuticals for some things, but relies on cannabis for her myoclonic seizures as seizure medications have side effects she personally does not want to risk. Using cannabis has been far safer for her, and has helped her to have less seizures that are further apart in occurrence. She's seen the negative impact of seizure medication in her own mother, and made the choice to work with her doctors using cannabis instead. Neither of us use cannabis strictly, as we've found a balance that works for ourselves using some prescription medications and cannabis. Finding that perfect balance is really helping us to understand and feel alright in our own bodies.

In order to further end the stigma surrounding cannabis, we also need to think about the hundreds of people wrongfully incarcerated for cannabis charges. Most of them simply for being BIPOC, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's hard to consume cannabis freely without thinking of the people who are sitting in a jail cell for doing the same thing. I recognize my privilege to be able to medicate freely where I live without persecution.

If you want to help individuals who are doing time for cannabis, you can visit https://www.lastprisonerproject.org/