If you had told younger me that my current career path is being a professional stoner with an eye to women’s health, I’d have probably laughed at you.
In a text conversation with one of my oldest friends–who has always been a stoner, and proud of it–asked me how I hopped aboard “the Ganja Train,” as he put it. I’d like to say I had a nice and tidy response, but it took me a while to think and respond. Eventually I shared it was a combination of two factors: curiosity about legal cannabis and subsequent sobriety from alcohol. It wasn’t that I had never smoked weed before; I had, but I had never bought it or sought it out, having inherited the mixed messaging about weed and alcohol. Alcohol was legal and easy to get whereas weed came with the possibility of a criminal record.I never wanted to mix weed and alcohol together, so when my drinking ceased, my interest in cannabis blossomed.
I feel like I know what you’re going to say: Did you just trade one addiction for another? Believe me, it’s the same question I asked myself at the time. I wish I could tell you how I knew it was different, but it was. Cannabis didn’t leave me with erratic mood swings, potential self-harm, and a need for more and more. It mostly left me relaxed, sleepy, and apparently goofy, if my partner is to be trusted. It made me more present in my burgeoning witchcraft, made me appreciate lazy walks around my city, and it definitely made me happier. I didn’t realize that this was what cannabis could do. I believed all the lies, all the stigma, and was shocked when none of it was true.
I became obsessed with finding cannabis books to read, wanting to know more and wanting content geared towards female smokers as well. I wanted to be part of this plant’s impact on the world, and I couldn’t figure out how to do that. Enter the unexpected good fortune of winning a full scholarship to the Cannabis Coach Institute, and here we are. I am combining my love of this plant with a passion to use it to educate and liberate my fellow folx.
Cannabis inspires me to be my best self. I’ve seen how it can change your life for the better. So here I am, on the Ganja Train as my old friend describes it. I am glad to be here; I’m just sorry it took so long. Would anyone else like to join me?