Last night, I received an emailed response to an invitation I sent for CannabizMD: Cannabis + Innovation and the launch of Tea Pad. The email underscores the desperate need for cannabis education.
My invitation very clearly triggered a reaction from a mother challenged by her son’s drug addiction. Capital letters and missing punctuation underscore the pain this mother is feeling. I get it. She considers cannabis to have been the gateway to the challenges her family is facing. I’m sorry to learn of their struggles but attending any available cannabis focused education events is exactly what is needed as a weapon in the arsenal of tools needed for her family’s focus on fighting their son’s drug addiction.
The very first tenet in my company CannabizMD mission and our goal is educate: “Educate. Build. Engage.” Education focused on medicine – plant based and chemical based medicines – is paramount to anyone making healthcare decisions for themselves and/or their loved ones. This also applies to businesses creating workplace drug policy and drug policy at both the state and federal level.
This mom asked for facts. There are innumerable resources and studies from around the world as well as personal patient stories of how cannabis has gotten them off of opioids; treated Bells Palsy; gave a child and her family their lives back after hundreds – yes, hundreds – of seizures a day; MS symptom management and on and on.
…It (marijuana) doesn’t have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications…. We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.” – Sanjay Gupta, M.D., Chief of Neurosurgery Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia
Cannabis does not work for everyone. It’s not a silver bullet. Not every medicine works for everyone nor the same for everyone. It is important to note that the main issue with addiction disorder is the mental state of the user. Some people use drugs to escape reality and run away from problems without the tools to manage their mental health disorder or crises in more healthful ways.
To the struggling mom who wrote me her pained email, please come as my guest to my events. Be informed. As Nelson Mandela says, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
