Most of my elderly population needs something for pain and sleep or anxiety or all three. Mm-hmm. And they're not walking around high on chc. You're just doing C, B, D. And that's mean when I, when I go and speak to people, I tell them what I do and I say, okay, tell me, look at my eyes. Do I look high to you?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And do I have, and they're like, common. Yeah. And I'm like, I am full of cannabis right now. If you did a drug test, you'd find it. You know, people are amaz. That I am completely straight and able to have a discussion. Yeah. Under the influence of cannabis all the time. Yeah. Welcome to the Mama Chill Club podcast.

I'm Elizabeth mama of two boys and no stranger to the heaviness of motherhood. I face challenges every single day and found that I handled the load so much better leveraging cannabis. Perfect. Whether you're new to cannabis or an avid consumer, join me as I sit down with experts, OGs and mamas, to share stories and education to help make our days just a little more chill.

So my inclination to start every single episode is always, this is a good one. And, I just get really excited about each interview that I'm doing because the education and how much I personally learn from each person. Selfishly, I get so much out of it, so this is a good one. I'm so excited to share it with you all.

It's a good one for. The skeptic, it's a good one for the person that thinks th h c is what makes the magic of cannabis versus C, B, D, and it's just a really good one to take a look at what you're doing for yourself and how well you know yourself. And what you can do to improve your everyday health and what you can do to start setting yourself up for success when you are aging, and how you can introduce cannabis to someone that is aging or that's older, maybe more opposed.

It's just a good conversation. That will set you up for success and give you some tools in your tool toolbox. Don Marie Stra has always found a way to serve her community and advocate for her patients. She has owned and operated one of the very first Maryland assisted living homes for over 20 years, caring for elderly and vulnerable psychiatric patients.

Discharged from hospitals in the early 1980s. She has also been a highly effective bedside nurse since 1996. Don Marie's specialty practices include skilled rehabilitation, sub-acute care, orthopedic, cardiac, pulmonary ventilator management, brain injury, palliative care. Hospice and community health in the public sector in caring holistically for her patients, she noted many issues with communication lacking within the healthcare system, and patients frustration in not accomplishing goals in treatment as a passionate advocate for those who seek out her care.

These specialties have dovetailed into her current consulting practice of cannabinoid Therapeutics with Entourage Consulting Services. She has been approved by the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission as a clinical director for dispensaries and works directly to help care for her patients who have chosen to utilize cannabis for treatment for distressing symptom management.

As a founding board member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association and Cannabis Nurses Network, Don Marie is a pioneer in the new emerging aspect of healthcare. With over a decade of experience with hundreds of patients, her objective is to teach and assist both patients and peers working in a collaborative effort with dispensaries and staff for best practices and patient outcomes as legalization efforts for cannabis.

Adaptogens increase. She was the founder of the National Clinical Director Consortium working to bring all clinicians together in assisting patients in their utilization of cannabis as an herbal ancient medicine for national standards and treatment. I really hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I had with her.

She is a wonderful human being. And without further ado, here's my conversation with Don Marie. I was listening to a podcast last week. Um, you know, Gabby Reese, the Professional Volleyball. She talks about a lot of mama stuff and she was talking to another mom who is mama boys, and as a fellow boy mom, I'm sure you can appreciate this.

They were talking about how when mothers talk about their young sons, it's always like, oh, he's so sweet, or Oh, he's so wild. And when they talk about girls, they're always like, oh my gosh, the attitude. Or like, oh, she's a teenager and I know that you have three and I have two. And I wanna know, does the sweetness carry on?

Because, yeah. I got dirt thrown on me a bunch of times today. We're trying to sleep train a little bit. He, the littlest one just turned two, so it's like, oh, you've got little ones. Yeah. Little are so sweet and honest at that age. Trooper. Sweet. Yeah. Oos. Awful. Threes start to get it together when they're four.

Yes, we have it together when they're five. My oldest, he was still sweet at two, so I was expecting this one to be sweet. But this one's more of just more of the crazy of me and my husband, so he's just already terrible twos. It's gonna be a wild three, but you have to keep them wild and let them do all the adventurous stuff.

Hostile. Well, you know, I think you wanna teach. And girls nowadays as well. To be brave, to be courageous. Mm-hmm. To go out there and take risks. Yeah, but they need to learn calculating risk, in my opinion. Mm. Like the broken bones and everything happens because they didn't calculate the risk before they went down that hill on a skateboard.

Exactly. Or jumped off that roof and broken arm, not realizing that, hey, I can handle a 10 foot drop, can't handle a 20 foot drop. You know what I mean? It's Mm. Crazy stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. For my toddler right now, he's so top heavy with his head, so it's like if I run full speed downhill, my head's gonna go first.

Right. He's learning how to catch himself now, finally. But I'm still holding my breath all the time. When does, well, I can tell you. I can tell you, in all honesty, my boys are now 40, 39 and 33. Mm-hmm. Or 30. And they are some, uh, the one thing I know for a fact is that all of my boys have a very good heart.

Mm-hmm. They're, they're fully stabilized men at this point, capable of doing anything they want, and they still are so tenderhearted about everything. Mm-hmm. I consider that a win-win for me. You know, if my boys have good hearts. That's all I really wanted in the big picture. Looking at the world today. Um, I wouldn't want a boy that's too much of a hard ass or a girl that's too much of a hard ass, you know?

You still have to have passion and caring and loving for people. Yeah. And bigger than yourself. Caring and loving that sort of thing. And my, all my boys have that, and they gave me some serious runs for my money. Mm-hmm. We had alcohol problems, we had addiction problems, all that stuff. But in a way, I almost think, and this is gonna sound terrible, but I honestly think that the more you care and the more sensitive you are, the more possibility you have of ending up with an addiction.

Mm. Um, most people who have addiction problems in my experience are very emotionally bent, caring people with very good hearts. Mm-hmm. Don't meet a lot of people who are nasty, horrible people you know, that have addiction issues. I've never thought about it that way. They may, they may act like they're horrible and nasty, but deep down there's something burning within them that they can't handle.

Mm-hmm. They, they fall on that crutch, whatever. It's, that's just my own experience from everything I've seen all these years. But I worked with psych patients for many years on my own. Psych issues are very, You know, they try to, you know, consolidate 'em into a tiny little, you know, you can't put them in buckets.

What we have nowadays, my God, you know, it's so hard. It's so hard to manage. I can't imagine being a parent trying to keep my kids these days. Very deep challenge. Yeah. It's so hard. And that's why I ask you that, because bringing that vulnerability piece out, I know Brene Brown has made that so mainstream.

Mm-hmm. But I think that's so important because. Yeah, I want them to keep a level of sweetness, but the balancing act of all of the things, and I think the most important part is just keeping them wild. Mm-hmm. And letting them run around in rough house and just be there to make sure they don't take it too, too far.

But like I know for my seven year old, if we do a mile walk in the morning, he's gonna have a better day sitting at school when you Oh yeah, of course. You know, another thing I did not do, which I should have done, and it probably would've saved a lot of issues when my kids were. Is because I was taking care of psych patients in my home as lo as well as my kids.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I didn't have that concentrated, um, that concentrated attention to my children. I should have. I think kids absolutely need routine. They need that constancy of routine. They need to, uh, know what to expect. There's a word for it and I can't. Place it off the top of my head. Well, when they're pushing boundaries, knowing what to expect, even with that, because Right.

That's exactly where I'm at. Yeah. You need, you need to say what you mean in me, what you say as a parent. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Do not get into the 1, 2, 3 routine of one, you know? Don't do that. I tried that with my oldest, but he's such a numbers kid. I used to try the 1, 2, 3, cause that's what my parents do with me and I remembered that.

And so I'd count, he'd go 4, 5, 6, he would count. Oh, see, I would do the two and a. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? Cause I didn't wanna, and you know, I never spanked my kids. I, my, my youngest son was in a terrible, terrible accident and I almost lost him. Oh my God. After that, I just could not bring myself to swat my kids anymore.

And boys sometimes need a good swat on the bottom. I don't care who you are. Mm-hmm. You know, if you discipline your kids, you know, they. Do ridiculous things when they're older. Yeah. You know, and I don't mean abuse your kids, but you know, spot on, you know, get your point across. Doesn't hurt. No, it doesn't.

Cuz they need that toughness. But I didn't believe in spanking, you know, but, you know, as a parent of two little kids Yeah. You know, I, I was doing it a lot just to try to keep 'em in line. But after my accident with my youngest, I just could not, could not lay a handle on any of my kids after that. It might have been to my detri.

You know, later in life maybe. I don't know. There's so many ways to discipline though. Like with the toddler right now, if he throws something out of anger, cause that's his thing right now, he'll pick something up and just throw it. Mm-hmm. And we'll spend a good 20, 25 minutes standing there while he's crying, asking him to pick it up and he doesn't want to.

And he'll just sit there and tears are flowing. He's so upset. And then after like 15, 20 minutes, he'll walk over, pick it up, and then it's like hugs. And it's like, thank you. Like good job because, Suffered through the discipline. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Basically. But if you're, you know, you have to be consistent.

Consistency. That's what I was looking for. Yes. You need to be consistent. Don't punish them one time and let them get off. Mm-hmm. Cause you're just too tired another time. Mm-hmm. And that was another thing I did, you know, I would, I would punish them once. It would be successful, then they'd do it again.

And then I'd be like, oh God, I'm just too tired. I can't do this and lose everything. Well, you're you're balancing a lot too. Always. Always. You're And my husband, my ex-husband wasn't around. Mm-hmm. A lot. So, so you're his mother, father. Mm-hmm. You know everything, a lot of times to my kids. So it was tough, you know?

No kidding. It was tough. But all my boys at this age, they all have tremendous. They all have amazing worth, ethic, ethics. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they saw you busting out every single day. I mean, the last time I talked to you, I told you you're, you are a modern day hero with everything that you've been through and how big your heart is to give back to everyone.

And I wanna get into your story, and I know that you're. Your husband now calls you a Mother Teresa. He does, yeah. I mean, what a great example for the boys to see, because sometimes I feel guilty for things that I do like working out outside, like swinging a kettle bell while I'm trying to get him, but I'm like, no, this is a really good example of me taking care of myself and I should not feel bad that he is entertaining himself or wants attention and I'm saying no because he also needs that example.

The example of worth ethic, I mean, translates to them. Now they have great worth ethic because they saw you build something out of nothing, which is what I want you to tell us about your, your backstory, what you've done as far as like the elderly and the women in your home, and the accidents that you had and how you've powered through all of it.

And then what led you to cannabis too. So if you'll tell us your story. Okay. Go all the way back to the. Um, when I first got married, the first time I was, was I 18? Yes. I was 18 years old when I got married the first time I got pregnant within three months. Wow. I had one son. I got pregnant again within three months, and I moved into a home and the home had extra bedrooms.

At the time, it was my best friend's. Um, home that I bought and at the time she had been taking care of, um, elderly people from her mother's church. As a result of that, I ended up utilizing the same space in the 1980s in the, in the early eighties, they were looking to close down a psych hospital, not far from me, and I was trying to think of a way to stay home and raise my children, cuz I had two children and a waitress mentality.

Okay. Yeah. That's all I had. Yeah. And my husband worked full. So I'm like, how can I make money and stay home and raise my kids? And I wrecked my brain and I came up with this when I read in the paper that they were trying to close down a mental hospital and there was no place for these people to go. So I said, you know, bring 'em to me.

I'll take a couple, you know, some elderly ladies and you know, cuz where else are they gonna go? Mm-hmm. I don't wanna see people in the street. Mm-hmm. So the state had a program set up where I could have them come into my home. At the time it was like 800 a month per person for everything. Okay. Wow. Food, lodging, everything.

Yeah. What They're making $4,000 a month now, doing the same thing I did back then. Okay. But I did not know, did not have a business acumen, so I, I took care, I took people in who were, who had mental issues and I learned a lot about the mental. Illness industry that way as well. I found that, you know, my ladies that I took care of were probably on the light edge, a lot of them.

I had a few complicated cases, but generally speaking, I saw that women were put in mental hospitals for like hysteria Mm. Or menopause back in the day. Oh my gosh. Um, alcohol issues. Mm-hmm. Um, there were some awful experiments that were done on people and back then I just wanted to. Society and I, you know, I, it ended up working out fine as far as, you know, I, I took care of three ladies at a time and as time went on, I would, you know, if somebody left, I would be more conscious of who I was bringing in.

Um, but I had a constant flow outta that mental hospital of people. I had over 12 ladies I took care of in care of private. Plus I took care of my great-grandmother who passed away in my home at 103 and a half. The most peaceful passing I've ever seen. Yes. As a, as a nurse for hospice nurse in general.

Mm-hmm. So once all that dissolved, I lost my marriage, my business, everything. In one year. Wow. In 20, I wanna say 20 2001. 2002. I lost everyth. And I had to revamp. So I just basically worked independently as a nurse cuz I did put myself through LPN school after that or before that and became a nurse like in 1996.

So fast forward single mom raising teenagers, bad relationships, cuz I still had to learn all the lessons from my marriage. Mm-hmm. And in 2011 or 2010, I went through, um, a breast cancer. And I dealt with that between me and my mom. Actually. My mom came with me for all my treatments and things. I got through that and I started dating again after that.

But I was really, really, um, self-conscious, you know, about the way everything was. Mm-hmm. They didn't reconstruct or anything like that. And I met my husband to. Online. You know, we went out and we started dating and we got very serious, very fast because we just clicked on every single when, you know? Yeah.

I had given up on men by that time. We clicked like perfectly. This is a year outta my cancer. Five months after meeting him, he took me to a patient's health time conference, Arizona. Now mind you, I didn't even know what he did for a living. He used to work in basement and I thought he was a computer guy that just knew himself, had no.

He had like farm pictures of people threshing a field, but you were put two and two together. So he takes me to this patient's out time conference and I, I mean, I had smoked cannabis when I was a kid and I knew that it was on the only thing on God's green earth besides my mother's Valium that I used to steal.

Once in a while, that would fill me out cause I wasn't a drinker. Mm-hmm. First time I drank to excess, I got violently ill, so I stayed away from it. After that cut out, I would smoke cannabis on occasion. And I knew that it was something good instinctively, but at the patient's op time conference, I learned about how it was prohibited.

The prohibition rhetoric. Mm-hmm. Everything that happened with Aner Anslinger and the uh, narcotics Bureau Schedule one and plus, right before I had gotten my cancer, I had been dealing with hospice and cancer patients in my field when I was nursing. And I knew that the four medications we have as a hospice nurse do not.

For everybody. And it was so frustrating as a nurse that I could not get my patient out of pain or they were knocked unconscious by morphing the whole time and their family's trying to talk to them, you know, until the very moment that they passed. So I realized that what the heck, you know, how could they do this to people?

And I became pretty much a rabid advocate after that. You could not shut me up after that. I was so infu. By the way, the government had taken away this natural, right. I mean, it's a God-given plant for goodness sake. Mm-hmm. Who has ever died from it overdose. Yeah. This is ridiculous. If it was a brand new discovery, it would be like, it would be a breakthrough discovery in health and, you know, mental, mm-hmm.

Mental health. If it had been discovered, I totally would've. When I found out, um, Mary Lynn Mathy happened. Mary Lynn Mathy is the person who runs patients out of. And she was getting together. All of the nurses that were attending that day, there were about 36 of us, and she sat us down at lunch and she said, I wanna start an association of nurses specialize in cannabis.

We're all like, we're in, we're in. And the American Cannabis Nurses Association started literally pretty much with other nurses besides her board of directors, other nurses in the public started that at that conference, at lunch that. So I've been involved with the American Cannabis Nurse Association since it even started, and I was on the organizational board from 2012 to 2015.

Once that started, then, you know, I went whole hog into my education and that's the one thing I warn every patient about is, please, please, please take your education and measure doses. Cause literally, I got sick because I was just, you know, you eat and eat, eat this stuff, and eventually you're just. Throw it all back because you just can't deal with it all.

It's so much. And then I had to weed through to find the good resources and I had to weed through to find the people. But back then it was just kind of a beginning thing. Find everyone. Yeah. You had Americans for safe access, you had patients out of time. If you go back about 10 years, you'll find the original founding educational resources.

I have certain resources that I prefer, which we'll talk about near the end of the podcast. That will definitely give you a good education in a short period of time. So I did that and then I found, I actually got involved with Americans for safe access. I learned how to advocate properly instead of just, you know, stating my opinion.

Mm-hmm. Um, I learned how to advocate properly to legislators, to write testimony, to give testimony. I wrote, I gave testimony. I went down to the legislative offices and talked to people. I did, um, the volunteer lobby work that ASA does in dc So I learned how to handle myself. Mm-hmm. And, and, and to channel all of that angst that I have for, you know, the government.

Yeah. For what happened with cannabis. Once I did that, then I learned about advocating to my own legislature in Maryland, and our program started to come up. So when our program started to come, I was like in the hot seat as far as I knew enough that I could actually make a difference. So I advocated for clinical directors in every dispensary to talk to patients, to help guide patients in their journey.

Cuz a lot of people give up or they even really start because they take too much or they have a bad experience. Yep. Doesn't happen to help them. But sincerely, if a patient is sat with and taught basically the process of how. Titrate yourself, people would be coming back Totally. If they understand how it works.

Yeah. And the tools to keep going with it too, whether it's journaling or in an app or something to keep continue to learning yourself. Right. That's the biggest part is learning. In the beginning, we didn't have the apps depending, and in the beginning we didn't have the clinical directors in Maryland either.

They actually put it on hold for three years. So that's a bad situation because our dispensaries were set up with no clinical direct. Except my own at the, at that point, cuz I had my own dispensary at that point, tried to make myself a clinical director of my own dispensary. Mm-hmm. To be that leg up.

Other people and some dispensaries still really, really advocate for the medical piece. A lot of people are terrified of giving medical advice. Right. But here's the situation we have, we have set up cannabis industry in the United States and in the. Without any kind of education to doctors. They're just beginning to have education for doctors.

I used to educate nursing groups. When I first came into this, I came up, I actually started a advocacy group called We Can mm-hmm. As in, if they won't do it, we can. Mm-hmm. Because back then, when we were advocating for the program, one of the, uh, key legislators who was a doctor told me, he goes, we're not gonna pay for more training.

We're not gonna take the. This is a no-brainer. We're not doing it. And I'm like, but there is a method that patients need to learn that you need to teach them if you're going to certify them to be able to utilize cannabis. Some doctors took that seriously. Most of them did not. Hmm. Um, so when I had my own dispensary, I went around and I vetted every single solitary physician within a 10 mile radius.

Make sure they at least knew what they were talking about. Equipped them. The right tools. Correct. Yeah. Correct. So I took a lot. Very, you know, critical time. Mm-hmm. Cause I felt it was important to educate the public. So my group of weekend people, which it's funny because at least half of my original group board group that we were organizing are now in long-term cannabis working on stuff.

Oh, very cool. You know, either clinical directors or working with a company or whatever. But we had about 82 professionals in our. Who are willing to go out there and educate. Mm-hmm. Once you understand that knowledge and kind of dip your toes, like there's no stopping, just like with you, like once you experience, like you can't go back from there.

Yeah. You can't. I mean, that's the problem. Once you do that, you can't go back. Yeah. And you know, I would get, for example, I would go speak at a senior center mm-hmm. Somewhere. Mm-hmm. Somebody would see me in that senior center, and I'd have three emails from three other senior centers to come and speak.

You know, back to our, our conversation about the elderly and women. Mm-hmm. You know, women in general and then the elderly is a secondary mm-hmm. Are the biggest growing demographics we have right now in this industry. And these people are looking for the medical aspect, looking to handle menopausal symptoms, hormonal symptom.

Anxiety, sleep disorders. Mm-hmm. You know, all of those things women are looking for, and the elderly are sick and tired of Parley pharmacy. When I worked in long-term care and hospice, my God, I was giving people 10, 12 medications, crushed in a cup mixed with applesauce. I even had breakfast. That's terrible.

And it was terrible, you know, now, As a coming of, you know, the whole thing, full circle. I'm helping elderly patients get off of those medications. Mm-hmm. With their doctor's help and with my guidance and, you know, they're able to live fuller lives, be pain, you know, relatively pain free, if not completely pain free.

And doing what they wanna do. And my hospice patients are able to talk to their families until the very last minutes of life, which is amazing. Like that's a huge gift that you can have both sides. Yeah, I mean, honestly, you know, I've talked to hospices about this. If hospices could just see the difference in one patient mm-hmm.

It would turn their whole, their whole approach. You know, cuz when I worked, when I worked as a, um, home care nurse mm-hmm. After I quit that other job and I had, I was on my own, I actually worked with a patient where when the husband found out about me, he said, you know, is there a way we can try cannabis with her?

Mm-hmm. Um, cuz his brother apparently had had a glioblastoma that had calcified like 20 years. And I said, well, yeah, I dunno how we can do this because it's illegal. Yeah. But I mean for the challenge. And if I don't wanna get in trouble. Yeah. And he goes, well, why don't we just do it between us and see what happened?

And I was like, okay. Then we found out none the nurses when the case would give her the medicine because they were afraid of being fired or single. Yeah. Yeah. So between he and I, we had to be there constantly to give her the medicine in the beginning. Mm-hmm. But we saw a differe. She was unable to speak, but she could tell, she could nod and blink her eyes.

And, you know, within three, three to five days, we, she told us there was a difference in her pain management in a week to 10 days. Her pain management went from 10 to three to zero. That is insane. And we were like, what? And her doctor, her nurse practitioner was like, what? And as soon. The nurse practitioner actually saw what was going on, cuz I, I did share it with the nurse practitioner who was on her case, but I didn't share it with my manager at the time.

And, you know, I told my manager about it and I said, look, I said, this is something that I'm gonna do. Feel free to refer me to people. Mm-hmm. Never happened that way. But this patient has been stabilized for over six years. There has been no progression whatsoever of her disease process. Which that blows my mind.

Mm-hmm. I wouldn't believe. Mm-hmm. Cause I wish we'd gotten to her sooner. Yeah. But to improve the quality this far. Like what kind of regimen did you have her on? I basically was giving her a full spectrum, um, organic, um, CBD oil twice a day, about 20 milligrams twice a day. And cuz that's what I was taking, right?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I had gotten off of all my pain management. Because I had been in pain management since tw the year, uh, 1999. Because you'd been in a, an accident. Yeah. I had been in a bad car accident. I had to get, um, cervical surgery. For five through seven of my, um, spine and my neck spinal surgery and my lower back is still messed up with herniation.

Mm-hmm. But I don't wanna get it operated on. But when I found out, you know, my husband was worried about me being a, you know, dependent on all of the pain medications. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I was taking narcotics, two narcotics, muscle relaxers, sleep aids, you know, like ambient mm-hmm. Of benzodiazepines altogether, which medically you're not supposed to do.

Doctors and my pain management. Thought nothing of it prescribing it like that. They just wanted you to get through the date. Yeah, and, and back then they didn't know my husband was concerned about me because I was so dependent on my pain meds and I had lost my pain meds on vacation once, and I lost my mind.

He said, Don, I really want you to go to this company that I know and try their product just to see. And shores were born within five days. I was like, wait a minute. Within two weeks I was, Oh my goodness. I can like literally cut down on my PRN pain meds just from a cbd, B D tincture, just from the cbd because I look at it this way.

The whole plant was given to us. Let's use it cuz it's harm. You know? There's no harm that we know so far. Within probably six months of starting that CBD, b D oil, I was able to wean off of everything. The hardest thing to get off of was the benzodiazepine for anxiety. But in time I did find a, a tincture that would do that.

So now all I take is full spectrum CBD oil. Hemp derived CBD oil. Twice a day, three times a day. If I'm feeling rough in the afternoon and I take a THC gummy to sleep at night and that is it. Yeah. That is all, that's, that's all my medications. That's amazing. And the fact that it's CBD and not thc, because I know.

As a, as a rookie cannabis consumer, a couple years ago I thought all the magic was in the, the thc. And you need to feel that and you don't, and that's the really cool part because you could be doing CBD tinctures and still reap so many great benefits. I think that's, and this, this is the way that, this is the way I handle my elderly population because there's so many pharmaceuticals that can interact with thc.

Mm-hmm. We, we found a few with cbd, but not a whole. But you know, I can go over their medications with them. Mm-hmm. Tell them what the risks are. I can tell them what the benefits are. And most of my elderly population needs something for pain and sleep or anxiety or all three. Mm-hmm. And they're not walking around high on chc.

You're just doing C, B, D. And that's mean when I, when I go and speak to people, I tell them what I do and I say, okay, tell me, look at my eyes. Do I look high to you? And do I have, they're like, common. Yeah. And I'm like, I am full of cannabis right now. If you did a drug test, you'd find it. People are amaz.

That I am completely straight and able to have a discussion. Yeah, under the influence of cannabis all the time in Drive, I can do everything. It's not something that is gonna impair you. In, in that kind of regard that we have always been told it's going to do. Right. Like you're just gonna zone out, clock out, and the day's done.

It's like, no, cuz I, I can do that too. I can even take a little bit of THC too. But just, I like, I microdose, it is what I like to say and I can function fully and take care of a toddler and a seven year old and fully sober basically. Like I feel good and I'm actually, I feel better when I do it. I wish I'd.

Back when my kids was Oh, I bet. I think I actually, I'll tell you the truth, I wish I'd had this when I had my ladies from the psych ward. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Because I am, cuz I am thrilled about what they're finding out with all time and, you know, disorders of the elderly. I mean, my god, this could be something, you know, with Tika and Ola and Israel, they have done some amazing stuff.

Yeah. How did you, how did you get into supporting the elder? Because that's what I always did as an lp. N that's all you could do in Maryland as an lpn, was going to nursing homes, hospice home call. Yeah. There are, there's only so many things you can do as an LP N in Maryland. Yeah. And so what, what are the main ailments that you're seeing?

I know you said like aches and pains and sleep and anxiety, like are these the main things that you're consistently helping treat with cbd? Like are you seeing anything else that has had a really great reaction to CBD for someone that is aging or like the mom? The mom. We are helping age two, our grandmas menopause.

I have found that if you get the right combo for yourself, I mean, I, I was having terrible hot flashes, having terrible issues with my emotions. Um, you know, the hot sweats and then cold. You're hot and cold. Yep. It's just nuts. I couldn't stand it. I was getting up five and six times a night. I'm trying to work, I'm trying to do everything.

I'm sweating, having to change my sheets. And finally when our cannabis program came up, cuz I started going through menopause perimenopause when I was like 42. Mm-hmm. I'm 60 now. Old doing it. I found that when I started taking this, this CBD tincture that the, uh, hot flashes got. They were still there, but they weren't as powerful.

So then I was trying to figure out how can I sleep through the night and not have an issue. So I started taking this CBD gum, or not THC, gummy, excuse me. Mm-hmm. And sure enough, I got up two times a night, said six, and I don't have a hot flash until it wakes. It wears off in the morning. So I have almost eight to 10 hours.

Now everybody's different. Everybody's uc, cannabinoid system is different. Mm-hmm. But for myself, I was able to, Eight hours, six to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep except for maybe getting up once or twice, which is so important because sleep deprivation is, I feel like where all of our issues come from, especially as moms, like as in, I feel like that's where my postpartum depression came from.

Like I felt great when he was, he was like miracle sleeping baby the first two months and then after that it was waking up every cause I would slept next to him and nursed him to sleep. And so it was like every two hours and that's where I started. To go crazy. It's cuz that's sleep, sleep piece. It's so important.

Well, and the, and the, the really great thing about cannabis I found is if you allow it, you can, you, you can maintain that feeling for a while. Mm-hmm. The only disadvantages, if you have little children and you're a hard sleeper to begin with, you need to maybe not be. Knocked out so heavy with thc because you know, the, the good thing I'm getting back to is the fact that even if you're under the influence of thc, if you're just on that edge of sleepy, you can pull yourself out of that to cope with whatever you have to cope with.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's not like, Uh, taking any other kind of pharmaceutical that when it puts you down, it puts you down and you can't get out of down for the count. Well, you can come out of it if you have to. That's why I remember when I was young, you know, I used to be the DD friends. Mm-hmm. And, uh, yeah, I'd buy 'em the alcohol cuz I could pass for every 18.

Then I would be the dd once you drink or whatever, you can't pull yourself outta that yourself again. Now, mind you, you might still have some red eyes. You might still have a little bit of slowness, but not enough to impair you. That actually happened the other night, so my toddler now sleeps on his own after everyone's asleep.

I have one of those student glasses. Have you seen those? The gravity ones that you can twist and it like pulls? Oh, no. Oh my gosh, so cool. It was so expensive, but it was so worth on like Friday. Just relax and de-stress from the whole week. Pull out the student glass, like I'll send you a picture of it cuz it is the like coolest looking thing.

And so I forgot a little high, but on the monitor I hear. The little one Go Mama. And I look, and in the monitor I just see, just vomit, like he is Oh, super throwing up. And it was like instantly I was like, not high anymore. I was, it's go time downstairs. Ran downstairs, did, did the whole thing. Um, and then I slept in the rest of the night.

But I remember laying there with him, I was like, it is so crazy. Like, I upstairs, I was on a good one upstairs. Mm-hmm. Like, just relaxing. I don't even feel it anymore. Mm-hmm. Like it's, you can snap yourself out of it. Like, it's not like, A zombie or just, well, and I think, I think a lot of that is related to education on how to utilize it properly.

Mm-hmm. As well. Cause I have had a lot of patients that I've had to speak to that they literally are taking too much thc and they're like, well, mm-hmm. I thought a little bit would help, but more would help. I'm like, no, this is the way cannabis is. There's a bell curve. There's this, there's that. You have to, you know, go start low and go slow and titrate.

You know, I start, like I said, with all of my elderly people, I'll start them on a high, full spectrum CBD product, just so they can see the cannabis is not gonna hurt you. The only thing missing from that is high thc. Every other chemical in cannabis right there, so they can see the cannabis is not gonna make you crazy's, not gonna make you nuts.

It could actually help you. Then once they've adjusted to. Then we'll talk about adding TC to it, and we very slowly titrate up. Mm-hmm. And usually they find they're, they're a sweet spot that if they take too much of that, it makes 'em a little bit dizzy and nauseated. Mm-hmm. If they take just this amount though, they are perfect.

Is that the same with topicals too? Like for arthritis or like aches and pains? Oh yeah. Under aging. Same thing with topicals. Because I know that there's THC and topicals too, but it doesn't affect you Psychoactively, right? No. No. So you could do really as much as you could, which is really strange because you know, I'm still wondering about the patches.

Oh, the transdermal patches. Yeah. I'm wondering how the patches work properly. Those make, those give me the best night's sleep. I have found, I get the longest stages of like slow wave and REM sleep when I do a patch on my foot. It's very strange. So I, I'd like to, I'd like to study patches more and as a, as a nurse that specialized in wound.

Yes, I would love to see somebody develop something with wound care. With, yeah, with t d in it. I mean, there are so many natural medicines we don't even use. Mm-hmm. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, I'm all excited about mushrooms now, and Me too. You know what I mean? It's like you take a combination of cannabis and mushrooms, you should be really good.

I know I have a friend too that will make her own vitamins so she knows she's deficient in like mm-hmm. D and b and something, and she'll. She's just amazing. She'll make her own and then she'll crush up some psilocybin in there too. And like she'll have these pills that she takes and it has helped her tremendously through chronic pain and stuff like that.

Well, I know that with, you know, hospice and death and dying and aging process, there are a lot of things that we live with throughout our entire lives. We just can't need to shake. I mean, I'll, I'll share personally that, you know, I know I, I got postpartum depression after my last son and I've had linger.

Low level depression my entire life, and I can't, I I, I've been through all kinds of counseling, all kinds of Al-Anon, you know, you name it. Yep. And I can't seem to shake this. And I'm like, you know, I really want to participate in a study and do a therapeutic dose of mushrooms to break through this wall.

Yes. Because I really feel I could do it if I had the right tools. So I'm waiting for that opportunity. Oh, oh, do it. I, I know a lot of people that have done journeys like that and it's been, we'll try. Tremendous. Yeah. Yeah. We'll, when it comes to the aging and the seniors, what kind of regimens do you normally have people go on for?

All the common things. You know, the menopause X pains, anxiety, sleep. Well, you know, like things like Parkinson's, autoimmune disease. Mm-hmm. A lot like I've dealt with als, I've dealt with mm-hmm. Um, Parkinson's. I've dealt with cancers, different cancers are tricky because they're finding that certain cannabinoids can aggravate it and certain cannabinoids can kill it.

So we have to be very careful. It's not all about thc, it really isn't. Mm-hmm. Um, then that's the first thing I think the entire world needs to understand is this is not about thc. Mm-hmm. This is about a. It has over 400 chemical components in it, and every one of those components links in with the human body system.

Yeah, the endocannabinoid system. A lot of times, like I said, with a regimen, if I start somebody on a full spectrum CBD product. About 85 to 90% of the time, there's some kind of reaction from that that's positive. It's either a positive reaction or it's nothing at all. Yeah, one or the other. And you're big on tinctures, right?

You've seen I am. Oh, yes. I, on tinctures, yes. Found effects on tinctures and creams. I, I find it hard to, now they're starting to make them okay, so I won't negate 'em completely. I find it hard to find full spectrum gummies. I also am concerned about people with. Yeah, not having that sugar. So tincture seemed to be the easiest way to measure and to have consistency across the board over time with older people.

Yeah, and a lot of times, a lot of the products are hard for them to open. Oh, that's a good point. Cause they're hard already to open. Right. Dispensaries are obligated to do childproof. Yes. Uh, packaging. Yeah. And even I have had to take a hammer to stuff. Oh, same. Or just fix scissors to open it because Right.

Really tough. Like those zip locky ones. Right. You have to, so we're working right now in Maryland for Ryan's law and Ryan's law was passed in California to help terminal. Use cannabis in an inpatient setting. Okay. Whether it's a hospital, a nursing home, any kind of inpatient setting. So we're working on that in Maryland as well, to have full access to cannabis in an inpatient setting, not just terminal.

And it looks like it's gonna pass. So I'm very excited about that. Yeah. How do we set ourselves up for success when we know we're approaching menopause? For example, like my only experience with menopause. Being with my grandmother, and she always had a sweater with her. She always had to have a big purse so she could fit her sweater in it, because if she went inside the grocery store and it was too cold, she'd have to put it on.

And then when she got too hot, she would take it off, put it in her sweater, like what? What are some things that we have not been around menopause? Like what can we start setting ourselves up, carry a fan, whether it's electrical. My aunt used to carry a fan. It was hilarious. She had one of those cute little tiny.

Mm-hmm. And she would run it in church, you know what I mean? Yeah. I personally have got to have some kind of fan all the time, cuz I'll still have a hot flash in the middle of the day cuz I don't take a lot of THC during the day. Mm-hmm. Have a relationship if you're involved with cannabis. Find a clinical director to help you work through that.

Well, let's pause on that. What can you, cuz I think that's a really important point because that was something I didn't know about until I met you, because no one really talks about it and it's not like blatant on a website, like, go talk to our clinical clinical director. What is the purpose of a clinical director?

Does every dispensary have one? And what can you do for patients? Okay, well I know that in about five states mm-hmm. Five states require clinical director. Most clinical directors are pharmacists Tower. I advocated personally to have cannabis nurses included as clinical directors, and I was honored and privileged to be approved as one, along with about eight other of my cannabis nurse friends that I know.

Mm-hmm. Maryland and a couple other states require it. I suggest if you're in one of those states that you go find a clinical director or you know, you can email me. I have other people that I can refer people. And resources to help with your education. Cuz a lot of this is just a matter of handholding an education.

Mm-hmm. Especially with the elderly. I, you can't blame them, you know? Cuz if they take a THC to sleep at night, the last thing they wanna do is fall. Yeah. So you have to educate them, you know, keep some support nearby, make sure you have water next to your bed, you're gonna have dry mouth. Mm-hmm. And, and, and teach them the expectations of what cannabis will do as well as the benefits that it will.

Mm-hmm. Um, because most people get afraid cuz they don't know. They just don't know. Yeah. You know, they're, they're like, I'm gonna get high and I'm gonna lose control. God knows. Back to our boys and girls, the last thing the girls wanna do is lose control. Mm-hmm. In any way, shape or form. And men love to have the control.

So the idea that losing control is the biggest thing that I fight against with education of any age. Um, especially people looking to utilize it for health conditions, the educational piece first. Mm-hmm. You know, because you can, if you don't have a clinical director in your state, um, I can certainly refer you around to different people that can do the job.

Mm-hmm. And you can go into a dispensary and speak to the clinical director and have a one-on-one and. What you're looking to solve, right. The law that put clinical directors in Maryland initially was for a clinical director in every dispensary in-house. When covid happened, everything went online. Okay.

So I'm capable of taking care of multiple dispensaries now because I'm online. Got it. Okay. And I depend on the dispensary to refer people to me or for people to get in touch with me through the dispensary. I see. So someone can go in to a dispensary and say, I need more help, or I have a serious issue, please refer me.

And then they would put you in touch. You should be able to go to a dispensary, or go to a dispensary website. Mm-hmm. And ask for one. Okay. At least in Maryland for. Pennsylvania for sure. Um, and I think there's three others. I'm not sure which one, because bud tenders are great based on experience and who they talk to.

But if you feel like it's a deeper medical issue or you want a medical professional, that's when you can utilize this. Well, and the problem is that that, um, dispensary workers mm-hmm. Are not allowed to speak about medical conditions, which I think is kind of interesting. Ridiculous. Yeah. Being that, you know, number one, most products are marketed.

Physical conditions, the entire industry is built upon patients with physical conditions. It seems ridiculous that I can't teach staff what to look for. Yeah. In patient refer to me. So, you know, cuz I don't mind taking that slack off of them. Mm-hmm. But you know, like I said in earlier in our talk, you know, when I was a clinical director of my dispensary way back when, the problem with being in.

Is that literally you can be talking to somebody for over an hour in the dispensary while five 10 patients go past you. Yes. That should have had some help from you. So I think that the online idea of just asking questions or setting up an appointment with me to talk about your conditions after filling out a consult form, I think that's a much more logical approach, especially.

Age of um, the internet? I think so too because having a missed opportunity with someone that was more hesitant or, cause I have a friend that went to a dispensary and didn't have much guidance and took way too much THC in a gummy and really had a bad reaction and Yep. Called me, happens all the time, really scared and wanted to go to the hospital.

Like your typical, like I'm dying situation. Yeah. Having that as an option and for Maryland specifically knowing that there's clinical directors and then possibly in other states, that's something to look for for, for help. Well, and, and I do believe that, you know, education, you know, forearmed is for forewarned is forearmed, you know?

Mm-hmm. If you have the education in your back pocket. Mm-hmm. And I, I've told dispensaries, you know, put over consumption education in the freaking bag with the patient. Um, because they need to know that this is a real risk if you're gonna start utilizing thc. Mm-hmm. They should be taught about cutting up gummies.

Cutting up tablets. Yes. Oh my God. You can't cut up, you can't cut up a capsule, you know, but you can cut up a tablet, you can cut up a gummy, you can cut up a lot of things, cut up a brownie, a gum, you know, whatever. Any kind of edible you can cut up. How many people will eat a whole brownie in one sitting or a whole?

I had one gentleman that got in touch with, He had eaten a 50 milligram thc. Happy. Oh my gosh. And he's like, I don't understand. And I'm like, did anybody tell you to cut this thing up? Mm-hmm. Oh, they told me I couldn't do that. I'm like, oh God. Yeah. I didn't know I could cut up gummies too until someone told me.

And I was like, oh, I guess that makes a whole lot of sense. Logically speaking, because I'm very sensitive to thc. Very, very sensitive. A two and a half milligram mm-hmm. Will make me feel very high. And then it last a very long time. So I have to do like a half of a half of a half in order. Well, now another cool thing about starting people out on full spectrum CBD products, hemp products, is the fact that you have a better tolerance for THC of the money.

Start. But you find you can handle that low. You go a little bit higher and a little bit higher. And like with me, I'm up to where I have to take at least 15 milligrams of THC to knock me down at night. Hmm. But I've been on it for over seven years. I have specific goals I'm trying to do because of the hot flashes and everything else, but I titrated up slowly to get there.

And I, you have to have patience. Mm-hmm. You have to have patience with yourself. You have to take it upon yourself to journal. Journal this. Write down everything you take exactly when it took effect, how long it took, what you see you don't like, because a lot of that can be mitigated with other things, other terpenes or other, you know, there's, there's lots of ways to manage it once you've started, but again, it's education.

It is though, and it's hard work and you have to be willing to invest in yourself. And I think it took. Seven months to figure out what terpenes, like the components in the plant that produce the different effects, which ones do the best? For me personally, and it took a long time of journaling, I would do flour, I would do tinctures, I would do, I would try everything, but now I know exactly like when I'm starting to feel a lot of anxiety or a lot of stress of the day, I know exactly what to reach for.

That's gonna give me the best relief in the quickest amount of time or most sustained. Because I've, I put in, that was a couple years ago that's I started putting in the work. But to know yourself so well is so important. Oh yeah. You have to pay attention to your own body cuz your own body will tell you what you need.

Um, another cool thing that's come out recently, uh, one of my friends is um, uh, Shehar Charice Jackson, and she is actually doing, is involved with something called We Decode. Mm-hmm. Where it looks like a genetic test to figure out. Cannabinoids and which terpenes and all that were body type. So Cool. That sounds fascinating to me.

Although I'm really weird about genetic testing. Sounds super fascinating. That would be really cool because to be able to know what you respond to, so when you know that you're gonna have certain ailments like arthritis runs in my family, so it's like. If I know certain terpenes work, I can start stacking the deck now.

Would you? Right, right. Exactly. Yeah. When it comes to all that stuff, is that what you recommend doing a CBD tincture every day, no matter what ailment you have to like start having that medicine work in your body? Or is it more reactive when you feel something, that's when you should start utilizing it more?

What's I think, I think for health and wellness, because of the life we. Because of all of the processed foods and garbage we're eating because of the environment and the pollution. If this, I mean, I truly believe that full spectrum hemp derived CBD products with a tiny bit of THC can literally help you feel better no matter what's going on.

So I personally believe everybody should be taking it at least twice a day, even a little bit, just to help. Fine tune. Mm-hmm. And ramp up your endocannabinoid system because like the first time or two you try cannabis, you'll notice you don't feel anything at all. Some people can take a 50 milligram gummy the first time and not feel anything at all, and that's scary, but it can happen.

Yeah. But you know, once you ramp up those receptors to know what they're doing, cuz most people in general in healthcare, because they have haven't. Access to this plant for over 80 years are endocannabinoid deficient deficiency that's going on. Absolutely. Almost like having a vitamin deficiency. So the safest, most practical way is to try a full spectrum hemp derived CBD B product, A tincture in particular.

Um, cuz another thing is, I don't think a gummy. Quite metabolizes like mm-hmm. A temperature does No, that's like right under the tongue and Right. You can get the sublingual absorption, which goes straight to your bloodstream. Mm-hmm. And you get the GI absorption through the liver. Well, when you take a tincture, you get a two.

You get a two for one administration method, because, I mean, I'm not crazy about smoking or vaping either. Mm-hmm. But there are people that swear by smoking and that's fine. I'm Terri. I'm kind of afraid of dabs to a degree. I'm seeing an uptick in, uh, cannabis use disorder. Okay. Nationally. And I think, I really feel in my heart that has something to do with patients getting dependent, not addicted, but dependent on dependent, uh, high eye concentrate.

We'll see. It'll shake out. The sign will get out. Right. Because I, I think it's good to take breaks every once in a while too. If, if you can manage it with everything that you're managing. Right. Well, when you take a break, I don't go off completely. Mm-hmm. I take a break with my preferred product and I'll go to a lesser dose of another product so that I don't ever have time without that.

However, I would think that, you know, I've gone as mo as long as like a week without anything, and my pain does come back. I mean, cannabis is not a cure. Okay. Yeah. It's not a cure at all per se. It will give control to distressing symptoms that you have. Mm-hmm. Whether it be pain, anxiety, shaking from Parkinson's, whatever.

Yeah. But if you would stop taking cannabis, and this goes too for cancer treatment, patients need to know this, cuz I recently found this out about two years ago. If you're taking cannabis and you put your cancer in re. You can never go off of cannabis to stay in remission because there are people that when they go off of cannabis, it'll take a while, but the cancer will come back with a vengeance.

You know, cannabis is not a panacea, it's not a cure all, but it will definitely help distressing symptoms as well as, if not better than any pharmaceutical. I like the way that you say it puts you in control. Yeah, because it totally. It takes that uncontrollable pain, that uncontrollable anxiety, that uncontrollable sleeplessness and puts it where you can manage it yourself.

Yeah, and again, like you said, it puts you back in control of your own body, which is our goal. It's our complete goal. As you said earlier, we like to be in control, and that's just one aspect that you can have power of yourself once you know yourself and put in the work, and then you have that control.

What are your favorite resource? That you tell patients to go to, to look at, to research more if someone is new and wants more information. Okay. The very, I, I have a list of resources, like I told you I've got mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Patients out of time, uh, has all of the science for the last 20 years that has been, um, that has been researched.

Yeah. Uh, United Patients Group with John Malanca is a very good resource. Okay. Um, I met John Malanca at the same. And, um, or no, I met him at a later conference, but I've been a, um, national Ambassador three nine patients group for a long time, and there, there is a plethora of legitimate information on the United website, United Patients Group website.

Mm-hmm. Uh, regarding patients and how to utilize your cannabis. There's vetted products that John has gone. Uh, there are resources for doctors or whatever, or nurses you can get ahold of. Mm-hmm. But United Patients Group is a good one. There's put all the links of this in the show notes. Yeah. There's Americans for st uh, for safe access.

Mm-hmm. If you wanna learn advocacy yourself, one of my resources that I go to all the time, if I have issues, like give you an example, when D eight came out and all these was to clarify me, I went straight to Project cbd. And dag on if Project C did not have an article written about, you know, calling out this practice, they're very reliable for calling out the players and also Hitler with Dr.

Lac. If you wanna actually get clinical education or wanna be a bud tender and wanna be a very well educated bud tender, heal. Dot com with Dr. Dustin slac is amazing. You learn from the best at a very reasonable price. And then there's my website, entourage consulting.net. Anyone that would want to do a consultation, I can do a consultation with anybody, anywhere.

Um, it doesn't have to be Maryland, and we can talk 1 0 1 about your case. Well, this has been a wealth of information and I know a bunch of people that I'm so excited to pass this on to already. Thank you for chatting with me. Thank you very much for all your help and, you know, taking the time to do this.

I really appreciate. And if you, you know, I'm here anytime. Okay, well I will definitely take you up on it because this has been really fun and I learned a lot just like the last time we spoke. I learned so much. So, um, I'm excited to put a lot of this into action too. Thanks, Elizabeth. And I know that all of your mamas will definitely get some information from this broadcast.

Definitely. The Mamas, the Grand Mamas, everyone. That'll be perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I had with Don Marie, do me a favor, pass this on to three more mamas that need to hear this information or that just need an uplifting, positive conversation to listen to in their day.

It takes a village. It takes a tribe, and we all need to be there for each other, and this is just one small way that we can help our fellow mama next. I am busy over here having more interviews, putting out more content, and if you are looking for more, head over to mama chill club.com and sign up for the Mama Mary.

Newsletter. It is a newsletter that will go out once a week that will be more content around mamas and cannabis if you're looking for more head there. Otherwise, standby for the next episode. We have some really awesome stuff coming out. Thanks again for being here. I'm Elizabeth with Mama Chill Club, and we'll see you on the next one.

This episode is sponsored by Mono Supply Medical Cannabis dispensary, a premier hub for cannabis wellness and community. Whether you're new or already a friend of cannabis, their staff is happy to guide you through the journey and offers free patient consultations. Mona has two convenient locations in Middle River in Edgewater, Maryland.

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