This is a Cannabis Disclaimer
Legally this post isn’t allowed to exist without a warning telling you that cannabis is not for everyone. I should also mention that if you’re using cannabis you probably shouldn’t be drinking and driving at the same time, so maybe save the cannabis for when you can be safe. Oh, and if you’re going to be mixing cannabis with other medications, you should probably consult a doctor or a cannabis educator.
End of Disclaimer
WITHOUT cannabis, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be a DEAD woman…It SAVED my life and CHANGED my path forever. – Devon J Hall
Cannabis for me is both medicinal and recreational, but unfortunately for me, I can’t afford to shop at a dispensary and so I have mine delivered from a legal recreational dispensary instead of a medical one.
For many patients who have been using cannabis for more than twenty years, the prices of the legal cannabis market are far above what they can afford and so they are either going without or putting their lives at risk by buying from the legacy market.
Cannabis is so over-regulated that it makes it impossible to have real and honest conversations about the scientific effects of this plant.
Five years ago, I was an emotional mess. In and out of the hospital, unable to focus on anything but the symptoms of my trauma. Today I am a published author, a Certified Cannabis Healer, and I am on my way to making my mark on the cannabis industry.
I have begun the steps of changing my life, and while days are often a struggle due to exhaustion from the trauma, they are exponentially better because I have cannabis on my side.
Thanks to cannabis I have replaced booze with healthy eating, pharmaceutical medications with writing, music and art therapy, and monthly counseling.
I am a part of thriving and very successful writer’s groups, I have friends all over the world and while I still have a long way to go, I’m on the road to a much happier and healthier life than I was before cannabis.
When Joe Biden announced that the entire world was entering phase one of a global pandemic, the first thing I tweeted out was “call your cannabis dealers.” The second thing I did was to get in a cab, go to the train, head into Vancouver, and to the first dispensary, I could find.
I spent $400 and thought at the time that was a huge amount of money on something that I spent most of my teen and early adult years ignoring.
As I’ve said before, stigma and bad marketing conditioned me to believe that cannabis was dangerous.
“Is marijuana ADDICTIVE? Yes, in the sense that most of the really PLEASENT things in life are worth ENDLESSLY repeating.”
― Richard Neville
When I quit my job and found myself with time on my hands, I traveled a little, got arrested, came home, and knew without a shadow of a doubt I needed something to deal with the oncoming onslaught of memories that I knew were unfolding inside my head. Cannabis was the best choice I ever made.
In previous years – before my use of cannabis – I went to 420 events because friends were going, and almost always at the end of the day I was sick and feeling gross, and it’s largely because I was inhaling large quantities of second-hand cannabis smoke without having built up a tolerance for it.
The 420 events that are happening in Vancouver today are happening without the original organizers, and it got me thinking about how much the event has changed over the years. Police are saying that it should be a licensed event because cannabis is legal now, but is it? If the people who need it the most can’t afford it or aren’t having it prescribed because of medical stigma, is it really legal?
If we’re not talking to the people who were jailed for cannabis crimes so that we can learn how to do better in the future, is it really legal? If we aren’t actively fixing the mistakes of the past by doing better in the present, are we really talking about the legalities of cannabis?
Because of more than 300 years of oppression and racism wrapped around the use of this plant, people are still afraid to use it, and I honestly think that the way that those of us who do use cannabis think, is vastly different from those who do not.
I remember visiting a neighbor who once told me I wasn’t ready when I declined his offer of a toke from his joint, looking back I realize just how true that statement was. I wasn’t ready. Cannabis changed my life by helping me to swim through all the memories and forcing me to acknowledge all the things that I’ve been hiding my whole life.
Cannabis introduced me to a community of people around the world who are patients, educators, and legislators. An entire world filled with people who have seen firsthand the benefits of cannabis use in themselves, or those they love, who are now actively fighting for the freedom of a plant that was always meant as a gift to humanity.
Unfortunately because of stigma, fear, and bad medical and advertising practices, the science that could back up everything I am saying is not available to the average citizen and even if it was the average person wouldn’t understand what they were seeing because medical jargon is difficult to understand.
I will finish by saying this. Epilepsy, cancer, dementia, mental health issues, physical pain, and spiritual issues are all things that can be helped by cannabis. Over five billion people around the world use and study cannabis every day because they know what it’s capable of and they are passionate about making sure the world knows what they know.
If at the very least you can’t use cannabis yourself, don’t judge those of us who do, because we use it because we know it’s saving our lives, even as you’re telling us that we’re insane for feeling and being better and healthier versions of ourselves.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 