by Tab Moura
I was up late last week, medicating before heading to bed, when I asked myself a question that was more loaded than I realized. “I wonder if my children will remember the days before cannabis.” While I watched the smoke swirls dance with the light above the kitchen sink, I drifted… I imagined a world where my kids and I had never become cannabis patients— and I had to shake that imagery off fast.
To give context, like many of you, I have a history with cannabis that extends beyond the timeframe that it has been legalized in Oklahoma. We were blessed because before we knew what we were doing, wiser men and women helped us understand this amazing medicine. But what if they hadn’t?
Cannabis found me when I was taking a heart medication. I was told I had a condition called POTS, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, which caused me to blackout and faint if I stood too quickly, or for too long. Now, back then I hadn’t even tried CBD yet. The heart medicine was causing me to faint less, but I was having arrhythmias and migraines as a trade. (Yes, my doctor was aware of this, calling it “unavoidable.”) I had a lot of skepticism around doctors and medicines by that point. I hadn’t yet learned that I was allergic to most medication formulations. So coming from a world where the experts were comfortable with me having painful side effects, I needed what western medicine had never offered me: peace of mind.
I’ve shared a lot about my kids’ patient journeys, but to be honest their process has been a lot simpler than mine. With my history of being sensitive to every pharmaceutical I’ve tried, I decided to attend the Cannacian training courses with Dr. Nelson. I attended my first course before OK passed SQ788, and I’ve now completed every training to become a trainer myself.
Back then I didn’t care that so and so’s cousin’s, dad’s, friend’s boss had cured their cancer with cannabis. It was probably not 100% true, or so I thought. People around me celebrated how functional they were because of western medicine… and I was happy for them, but soon we learned I was not only having arrhythmias, I was having seizures. After carefully tracking my diet and medicine routine, we realized I was allergic to corn and many key ingredients in pharmaceuticals. (Before you ask, no,
my insurance didn’t approve compounding pharmacies.)
I learned to approach cannabis with a healthy level of skepticism. I needed to monitor my intake carefully so I knew what side effects there would be. Eventually, I learned to process my medicine myself, I now have long conversations with budtenders about their growers, terpenes, and the quality of the Bud. I believe medicine should be safe.
I believe medicine doesn’t leave you worse off than it found you. I’m thankful that not everyone lives with as much sensitivity as I do, but maybe you’re reading this and you’ve been down a similar road. You don’t have to trade symptoms for symptoms. Wellness is a deep well to draw from, there is so much more to know… you deserve peace of mind and body