Five years ago I would have called the person I am today something snide and demeaning, “stoner” perhaps, or maybe even the all encompassing “Loser.” The fact is, I get called these names each and every day by people just like the old me, those that remain blissfully unaware of reality. When you take into account the fact that marijuana has become a daily medication for me, Im sure you can think of all the rude things people say in judgement. For those of you who may not understand why I do what I do, Id like to shed a little light on the subject.

I grew up in a staunchly religious community, one where talk about marijuana was absolutely avoided. Lucky for me, a child of a broken home, I had the opportunity to witness two worlds coinciding next door to each other. My mother enrolled me in private christian boarding school, while my father took me to rock concerts and let me hit the joint before everyone else. The two lifestyles brought an interesting perspective on society and drug use, one that I carry with me to this day. I experimented, lightly, with marijuana in my teen years. I remember sitting in a circle behind the gym with three of my closest friends, punching holes in the tops of pop cans and snickering uncontrollably.

Marijuana was an intoxicant back then, as it can still be for me to this day. It wasnt until four years ago when I was re-introduced to the substance that I started to explore and eventually understand its traditional use as a medicine.

When I was fourteen and puberty came full swing, I started a downward spiral into the hazy and sinister world of chronic pain. Prior to my re-introduction to marijuana, I spent seven entire years of my life in a drug-induced stupor trying to quell that pain. Diagnosed with everything under the sun, from fibromyalgia to severe depression, I bounced from specialist to specialist. I spent years in treatment for syndromes I didn’t have. I lost weeks of time between the pain pills and the sleeping pills. I was a monster, to my family and to my friends and most apparently, to my children. I did unspeakable things in the name of narcotics, treating my intense pain with the overflow of medication my doctors prescribed. I took uppers and downers. I took sedatives and stimulants. I took anything and everything they recommended. I drugged my body with any pill I could get my hands on. As my dive into doctor-approved addiction worsened, so did my life. I faced a failed marriage and eventually divorce. I went through custody battles, where my parenting was publicly scrutinized. I lost family and friends to the relentless pursuit to just for one minute, relieve the pain I felt. The pain that only increased as my doctors prescribed more.

This cycle is a hard one to break, and I cannot say that I will ever be without the dark and heavy chain around my neck. During one of the good times, when my pain had subsided enough to function, I applied and received a rather prestigious job at a local internet company. Empowered by the possibilities, I kept myself clean for nearly five months. In the light of sobriety, however daunting it might have been, I entered a relationship with a coworker. Immediately, he let me in on the secret. He smoked marijuana, and he wasnt going to stop, for anyone, ever.

I watched his lifestyle carefully in the following weeks, and noted that the stereotypical “stoner” I had always envisioned, was nowhere to be found. This guy was motivated, intelligent and successful at his job. He had a seemingly good relationship with his family and had intelligent conversations with his friends. He had flaws, mostly a raging case of alcoholism, but that seemed flexible enough. After our first few dates, we went to his house and did what in the eyes of the law, we shouldn’t have done.

Now Ill tell you, this was unlike anything I ever smoked with my father. It was much stronger than I had ever thought marijuana could be and left me feeling overtly drowsy. So drowsy in fact that I questioned the integrity of the person smoking across from me. At this point, it was purely recreational. We would smoke after work, to unwind from the day. We would smoke on the weekends, when we had nothing better to do. But before I knew it, I didnt need the sleeping pills anymore. In a matter of weeks, I had stopped calling my doctors for refills on most of my medications. Within three months, I could wake up and sleep on my own schedule, no longer at the will of the little white pills.

Within a year, I was finally given the correct diagnoses of Rheumatoid’s Arthritis. With all of the pain out of the way, my doctor was able to perform one simple blood test to diagnose what hundreds of ER trips and CT Scans could not. After much discussion with my doctor, he suggested I “try out marijuana” for my pain relief, knowing full well that was what I had been doing for much longer. The good news was I no longer required any narcotic pain relief, I was simply treating myself with marijuana. The bad news was, the choice I was making was currently illegal.

I understand now the position many people take, that all use is medicinal. I didn’t know it then, sitting in my boyfriends room smoking blunts and talking politics, that I was healing myself, but I was. I was healing my mind, and my body as well, while I relaxed from the day. I didnt drink, after ten surgeries I couldn’t seem to process alcohol and suffered intensely draining and increasingly painful hangovers. The boyfriend quit drinking at my first request, and has since been sober nearly four years. We smoke together now, to protect our bodies from the onslaught of daily life. To relieve stress we feel as people, and to relieve the pain we feel as patients.

You see, the information I was given all those years of my life was just plain wrong. There were lies told by so many people, people that didnt even understand the repercussions of their dishonesty. The truth is much easier to understand, when you get right down to it. Marijuana is medicine, it has been medicine for thousands of years and it will continue to grow as a medicine as our knowledge about it’s wonderful properties is further explored. Marijuana has psychoactive properties which, given a chance to get out of hand, will only allow you to sleep one hell of a good sleep. Chronic pain sufferers lack many things in life that are necessary for comfort, and for me, sleep was the first thing I lost when illness would strike. Now, with a simple and painless cure, I sleep like a baby while waking up refreshed and energized.

I am a 27 year old mother of three, with a full time auto-immune disease. Currently, I take a grand total of zero pharmaceuticals, for someone with RA, Id say that is pretty damn good. I no longer require 6 Klonapin a day, 20 Vicodin and countless xanax and Ibuprofens. I no longer need the anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications. I no longer need a pill to lull myself to sleep. I can think clearly, for the first time in my adult life. My body is slowly healing from the damage I have done to it, for all of those years, and I have but one substance to thank for this transformation.

Most importantly, my life has been slowly rebuilt. My relationships with family are slowly rebounding to normality and my social life is restored. My children have been my greatest cheerleaders as we are finally able to enjoy each others company and do things we couldn’t previously do together, like a simple walk around the block as a family. I no longer feel lost at sea, six feet underwater, swimming through the drab colors of life without actually experiencing them.

So when I hear the names or get those nasty emails, stating that I am just a drug addict, that marijuana is just another excuse to get high, I cant help but smile. Maybe I am, just an addict. Maybe while getting rid of my pain, I actually enjoy how I feel and maybe that makes me a bad person in your eyes. Maybe my life has been one long education on what ‘not’ to do, but for me and my family, we have made the right choice.

© 2010, AntiSoccermom. All rights reserved to the original author unless stated otherwise.

I woke up that morning with a migraine. You know when they come on WAY before you open your eyes, it’s sure to be a rough day. For me, and thousands of people like me, pharmaceutical medications only make symptoms worse. I groan my way out of bed and head to the local dispensary to get the medication I need to make myself comfortable.

When I got to In Harmony Wellness, I was greeted by name by the same receptionist that’s always there. The Co-owner, Tina Valenti, usually smiles warmly when I pop my head into her office but this time, she frowns and motions me inside. Apparently, I looked like I felt. I step inside the business office and its just what you would expect. A giant whiteboard scribbled with ideas, a foreboding looking safe and a desk riddled with paperwork, where Tina is digging through drawers. She hands me a packet “It’s my last one, but you look like you could use it.” She says, that comforting smile returning to her face. It’s that EmergenC fizzy drink in raspberry, coincidentally my favorite flavor. It promises to deliver 1000mg of vitamin C straight to the chin of whatever is dragging me down.

I slump into a chair as she rattles off a list of things that may help my obvious misery. She offers a couple of herbal remedies, but not the kind you would think. Traditional Chinese Herbs and a product called “Cold Snap.” She slaps down a handful of throat lozenges and reminds me not to use them without eating first. “They can make you sick to your stomach” She warns. I make a meager effort at humor by announcing that she might also have something that helps with nausea, alluding to the room down the hall where jars of high-grade medical marijuana, medicated edilbles and tinctures are stored and dispensed.

Without going into the politics of everything and without standing on any podiums or shouting from any treetops let me say this, I need dispensaries. Unable to grow my own because of allergies and arthritis, I need to utilize the talents of people who are capable of such things. I need to know that there is medication available for me, be it for a wicked migraine or for my auto-immune disease. I need the option to have tincture if I cant smoke or hash if I just need to sleep. I need edibles, a fine art I have yet to master, for when there are young children in the house and smoking is out of the question. I need quality medication and as a patient in Colorado, I need Care-giving dispensaries.

In Harmony wellness has several great qualities that I have yet to find anywhere else. First and foremost, they are consistent. Co-owner Derek Cumings, has unparalleled talent for turning medication into delicious goodies with unrivaled medicinal benefits. Their meds are always great, but more importantly, their edibles always taste the same. The Cannabits hard candies will taste the same today as they did a month ago. The tincture will be the same potency and though the candies inside the brownies may change, the taste and quality never have.

Secondly, they genuinely care about you as well as the community around them. They ask about your symptoms and even recommend specialty products to treat what ails you. They take care of their neighbors with food drives and community outreach programs. (Dont forget to bring in some canned goods for the Windsor Food bank, a drop box is located right inside their front door. )

Lastly, their prices are so fair that you almost feel like you are ripping them off. A rare emotion when dealing with this costly medication.

In short, there is something different about In Harmony Wellness. Something Sincere. I’ve claimed to have a favorite dispensary before, its true. But as they say, time reveals the truth and while I support my former favorites in spirit, I simply cannot rely on them being consistent with their product. In Harmony provides the consistency I am looking for, while retaining the high quality I desire. Reading the bills that have been proposed by Romer and Massey, I think mostly of In harmony. Should legislation take these legitimate, patient focused care-giving businesses out of our community, it will mostly hurt the patients they strive so hard to care for.


Visit In Harmony Wellness at 4630 Royal Vista Circle #12, Windsor, CO. Open from 10:00am to 6:00pm Monday through Friday, 10:00am to 5:00pm on Saturday, and closed on Sunday.

You can reach them at 970-222-5555, or via email at inharmonywellness@gmail.com. Follow them on Facebook by clicking HERE!

© 2010, AntiSoccermom. All rights reserved to the original author unless stated otherwise.