I come from a typical GenX broken home, and my parents divorced in 1979. My cannabis use started in 1987, and got me through a school violence incident my Junior year, on my 17th birthday in 1988. Cannabis helped me get through the rest of the school year, as well as LSD. Back then, I didn't know what strain I was smoking, but I just knew it helped. (Except for those wild sativa strains in the 80s that increased my anxiety.) LSD, though, was magical. I dropped on my way to school my entire senior year, until I had a bad trip on the 10th anniversary of Sid Vicious' death. (That's the kid I was!) I never touched acid again after that, until many years later. In 2004, I got sober from alcohol, and quit everything, including cannabis. I stayed sober like this for 8 years, until I donated a kidney. My kidney recipient's kidney failure was due to 800mg of ibuprofen for a few days to treat a migraine. As a kidney donor, I can't take ibuprofen for pain, which I've had since middle school as a gymnast and cheerleader. As a sober person, I had heard about medical marijuana helping. This was 2011, and there was finally some buzz around the plant and its medicine. I researched as much as I could, and told myself "I am not doing this to get high. I am doing this as medicine." I lost a lot of AA friends, who wouldn't listen to reason and science. I had stopped going to meetings several years before, but still had a lot of AA friends. In 2012, after a couple years of doing social media for small businesses, I pivoted into the cannabis industry and dug deep on the compliance of marketing in cannabis, hemp, and psychedelics. (We call these "emerging" industries.) I loved being a part of something new, and being one of the first in my field in the industry. Now, I help others to learn about the benefits of cannabis, hemp, and psychedelics (HOORAY for mushrooms!) so they can use plant medicine to feel better. At 53, I can't imagine getting through the stresses of life without them. #TogetherWeAreCanMar

Posted by Amy Donohue at 2024-10-04 16:15:26 UTC