How it all began…
One fine afternoon during my sophomore year of college, I had some time to kill before my shift as a computer lab tutor. A buddy of mine and I got baked in his car in the school parking garage. I went to my work shift after my buddy went to class, and for the rest of the afternoon, when I wasn’t helping students, I was TOTALLY hyperfocused and got ALL of my reading assignments and some paper writing done before my work shift had ended. I was like “Cool, is this a thing? Can pot do this? I just thought it made you silly and made you order pizza!” And that marks the beginning of my Magical Weed Journey! I had tried it a few times before then, but I count that day as the day my eyes started opening to all of the different ways cannabis can be a great addition to your wellness routine and manage mental and physical health issues. Every experience I’ve ever had with cannabis has always been associated in my mind with some sort of relief. Relief from tendonitis, relief from stress, and having a restorative sleep are all things I remember feeling when I used cannabis casually. It seemed worth it to invest in a medical marijuana card when I moved to Arizona and began graduate school.
More about me and my favorite weedz
I’m a graduate student at U of A who has lived here for 3 years and, and I’ve been an MMJ patient for over 2. In addition to learning how to use it in my wellness routine – for physical, mental and emotional benefits – I’ve also had the experience of being a “bud tender” for about 6 months.I think my perspective will be helpful because I’m not a cannabis expert, I’m not a doctor or a botanist with fancy lingo, I’m just a person with some experience whose tried a lot of things. I’ve been on all sides of it. In addition to my experience working at a dispensary, I use cannabis for a range of different things– recreational purposes, medically, etc. Because I am naturally curious, I found time to learn about different terpenes (the characteristics which describe and how different hybrids of sativas and indicas affect me, etc….links below for more information on terpenes) I continued to learn after I stopped working at the dispensary. Doing this allowed me to see patterns in my favorite cannabis strains and the types that I tend to gravitate towards, which ones I find helpful for particular things, etc..One of my goals for this site is to find a creative way to share that information here!
I use cannabis to manage symptoms of ADHD — including to help tease out that creative, hyperfocused superpower that ADHD brains have, anxiety, tendonitis, as an appetite stimulant and for nausea when it hits. I love smoking a nice bowl or a big fat joint (I suck at rolling, sorry), but I mostly use concentrates – cartridges with distillate, or dabs. My favorite cannabis smells are pine/cedar, diesel, hops, cheese, berry and floral. I use CBD as well, especially as a topical for my tendonitis. My beautiful little Falkor dog Juno always has CBD treats in her section of the pantry. Edibles are my favorite things to share with friends.
Working at the dispensary certainly gave me perspective on the wide and varying range of people who are interested in cannabis, who uses it regularly, and the types of questions they have. It showed me how much things have changed and made me feel optimistic that things will keep changing for the better – I honestly think we will see cannabis be federally decriminalized in the next decade. The old arguments that it’s a “gateway drug” are just not holding up because there is overwhelming data and personal experiences that say otherwise. It’s an exciting time to be alive!
The cannabis industry is growing, more cities and states are decriminalizing it and the stigma is starting to fade away and get drowned out by the positive ways that cannabis has been a part of so many . It’s about damn time! With all of the new stuff on the market, and more and more creative people getting in the industry making awesome products, beautiful pipes I’ve had time to experiment and find out what works for me for different things, and I hope that comes in handy to those of you looking for guidance on different cannabis products, strains, etc. or are simply curious and are looking for more perspectives.
I hope that my posts are just as useful for beginners who haven’t ever been inside a dispensary as much as it is for more “seasoned” cannabis users.
LINKS
https://www.analyticalcannabis.com/articles/the-difference-between-cannabinoids-and-terpenes-311502
https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/terpenes-the-flavors-of-cannabis-aromatherapy
