fármaka me kánnavi is a project that uses the physical appearance, words, and feelings of Medical Marijuana Patients while also using the beauty of the ancient plant through photography and text.
I have been a part of the Michigan Medical Marijuana community for two years now (2017). Before I became a patient I was very ignorant of anything that had to do with marijuana. Since entering the community as a patient I've also worked within a medical marijuana dispensary which led me to research and become more educated on the subject. Knowledge about cannabis is powerful, especially within a country that continually demonizes the plant. So far 29 states have legalized medical marijuana, Michigan in 2008. Cannabis is still federally illegal and is classified as a Schedule I drug, the same as LSD and heroin. According to the DEA, "Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." This scheduling also makes it extremely difficult to get approval for cannabis research, preventing any progress.
With so much controversy over a plant that has been used medicinally for thousands of years, my project fármaka me kánnavi is meant to be both inspirational and informational; through research about the plant itself and the stories of patients I discovered my own passion for cannabis and its medicinal benefits. My intention is to share that with you by showing the faces of these everyday people and by giving them a platform to share their stories, struggles, and power that cannabis has brought into their lives.
"Research into it before you start judging, look into the medical aspects of it because it has helped immensely for people who have no hope. I think that's just the main thing that people who are very closed minded don't understand."
"I love this industry, I love helping people, I love adding value. I love communicating with others about cannabis, I love learning about it. I love everything about it, and I really do believe that it does help people with their pain and some of the depression they're dealing with, and I really do feel like it does help so I stand behind it."
"My family and I have been at odds for a long time, they do not condone, support, or advocate medical cannabis whatsoever. They think it's strictly for cancer patients and AIDs patients and things of that nature. They don't believe that stress and anxiety are real issues in life for people...my friends have become my family."
"It's actually the fact that we have those stereotypes and stigmas that's actually given me my platform because it's been my ability and my job to convince people to come out of those stigmas and stereotypes by introducing them to a new way of consuming cannabis through everyday meals."
"My family supports me. My mother, she has her card, my father has his card as well. They're both CBD fanatics, they love it, they don't take as many pain pills as they would normally. Especially with the weather being up and down as it's been the last few weeks, CBD has been their best friend."
91 Americans die daily due to opioid overdoses.
0 cannabis overdoses ever.
Why?
"In drug addicts, respiratory depression is the major cause of death." - Oxford University Professor of Anesthesiology K.T.S Pattinson. The pre-Bötzinger complex, located in the bran stem controls respiratory functions. Opioids depress the pre-Bötzinger complex, slowing down or causing breathing to stop.
There are very low volumes of cannabinoid receptors in the pre-Bötzinger complex, unlike opioid receptors. Cannabinoid receptors reside in the parts of the brain that controls cognition and movement (Hippocampus, Basal Ganglia, and Cerebellum). Our body also produces a hormone called prenenolone that reduces the effects of THC, preventing users from getting too high, causing a plateau.
"Having a lot of friends die from overdoses from prescription pain killers and heroin, I knew I wasn't a fan of opiates or pills and I had seen a lot of things about cannabis treating pain."
"I'm not anymore allowed to be a caregiver because I worked at a dispensary and we got raided in one of those gray-area times. So, I was charged with a controlled substance delivery manufacture of cannabis while working in a medical marijuana dispensary. I was kind of confused about those laws and the gray area there. And here we are 2018 and now dispensaries are completely legal. And what I was doing in 2012-2013 that got me arrested and charged with a felony on my record is completely legal now. I pay the consequences for that now and my family has to pay for that too because I can't get certain jobs and I can't live in certain places all because I have a simple cannabis felony on my record. I didn't do anything wrong, I feel. Such cases like mine, in California, cannabis convicts are getting second chances."
"The last time I went to a doctor I wound up on eight different prescriptions and it just made me sicker. I just avoided that and self-medicated. I used a lot of alcohol in Texas as well; alcohol was a daily thing for me before I moved here. Literally about a 6-pack a night is what I budgeted into my pain-relief regimen, because cannabis wasn't very reliable in Texas. Not only did you not know if you could get it, but you didn't know what you were getting, and it might not even be suited to what you needed at all. If you're having anxiety issues and you get hold of a strain with high THC and it exacerbated anxiety, that was never a good thing. So I'd also rely on alcohol to just deaden everything."
"It's been so much better. The change has been better on my body. I feel like I can get up and do stuff, I can exercise, I can move better. When I was taking prescribed pills I just didn't want to do anything, I didn't want to get out of bed, I just wanted to lay there and it was terrible. Medical marijuana is very good on my body."
"To know that it's something I've fought for, gone to jail for, basically could've ruined my life for, and to see that it has that type of benefit and help for people, I know that I'm doing something right"
I want to thank every person who participated in my project, you have all inspired myself and others with your openness about your incredible journeys. For more stories and information about medical cannabis my 100-page book can be purchased by sending me an e-mail.
Won 2nd place in juried exhibition "Biophilia: Love of Life"
Article on "The Art of Cannabis" interactive art event featuring fármaka me kánnavi