I have always been a cannabis consumer, since the age of 17 years old. I am 44 years old now. When I began smoking and consuming cannabis, there was no medical. There was barely hydroponic lol.
I was introduced to cannabis by a friend of a friend while with a group of girlfriends one weekend. It was a strange and wonderful weekend and I liked how I felt when I was stoned. I was a self-conscious girl, bigger than the other girls… the defence line of our squad you could say. I had a lot of thoughts and never said much, cannabis changed that for me.
It helped me to feel more comfortable in a room and more confident to speak up and when I did, I found out I was funny and people enjoyed hearing me speak. Lightbulb moment for me and it didn’t take a brain surgeon to work out that the cannabis was a win for me.
Fast forward almost 30 years and I am newly diagnosed with bipolar II disorder (which went undiagnosed all my young adult life) and, I already have anxiety, ptsd, depression and I am technically obese (although everyone says I’m not, I do think they are being nice lol), I no longer want to risk being caught getting my cannabis through the black market (my friend in town, the government always try make it sound so shady).
So I approach my gp about medical. Now my gp deflects my enquiry with the standard, “I am not registered to prescribe cannabis”. I ask is there anyone in town who is, she is unsure and asks if I will be willing to try medication first? I say I have tried many and had limited success with x (i cant remember the name presently) and she prescribes that to me. (I should mention at this time I had been off cannabis for 12 months in a huge life changing movement… or mid life crisis, whatever, changes had to happen!)
I take the medication and the bipolar medication and just move through the world like an empty vessel. I just went through the motions and was so disconnected from myself and my life. AND I was still having panic attacks and feeling unsafe and having intrusive thoughts so….. medication was effective? I think not.
By then I had met some really great people on Facebook in some fantastic cannabis communities, and there was talk about getting on the medical register and how to go about it, so I thought why not try?
I went with google and typed in medical cannabis clinics and got a list of different ones. Honestly, I looked at 3-5 and compared their initial