There have been many misconceptions, misunderstandings, and misinformation surrounding cannabis and your health. Furthermore, some people determine their attitudes towards cannabis based on generalizations that arise from the use of the plant and its products. We invited Jessie Gill, the Marijuana Mommy, to educate us about the controversial and confusing topic of cannabis. Jessie has a background in holistic health and was a hospice nurse who suffered a spinal injury. She reluctantly became a medical marijuana patient then quickly transitioned into an advocate. Jessie is here to challenge the stigma against marijuana and set the record straight.
Video Transcript:
Unknown 0:09
Hello everyone and welcome to our Canna pop up podcast. My name is Robert Allen were exclusively on the cast network. And this is one of our inaugural podcasts for a can of pop up events. We’re very excited about being able to bring you entertainment information, food infusions, networking, all things involving the counterculture for all of you who are kind of curious, and I couldn’t think of a better way to start off our podcast series then with our guest today, who’s the marijuana, mommy. And it’s kind of an oxymoron if you think about that. But we’re going to learn why it isn’t. So Jesse Gill, who’s with us today has a very interesting background and holistic health and hospice care. She’s actually a cannabis nurse, and we’ll learn more about that and her her story and how she came to be the marijuana, mommy. So I want to take this opportunity to introduce you and welcome our guest today, Jesse Gill. Jesse, thank you so much for joining me today.
Unknown 1:29
Hello, Robert. Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.
Unknown 1:33
Well, we’ve been learning a lot about you and in our time leading up to our podcast and I’m very excited to have you part of it because you really do lend a very interesting perspective to to cannabis as medicine in helping people
Unknown 1:53
with what ails them. And And as we’ll learn, you know, marijuana and CBD specially is so magical in a sense, and some of the things that it does. But before we get started into finding out and it’s exposing some of these myths and misunderstandings about cannabis. Why don’t you give our viewers just a little bit of a sense of who you are your background
Unknown 2:20
sure I am. So I remember registered nurse. And about four years ago, I was working as a hospice nurse and I was injured. I suffered a spinal injury that ended my bedside career. And, you know, I started this really complex journey to try to heal and unfortunately, I never quite did, I had a multi level spinal fusion, which made me worse. I received all the standard treatments and pharmaceuticals and I was taking opiates and volume around the clock. So every six to eight hours, and a whole bunch of other pharmaceuticals. And this was about two years ago. And they said, there was nothing else they could do for me. And my mom really pushed me to try cannabis. And I was very, very reluctant. I I honestly didn’t believe that it could help me, you know, I was using so many pharmaceuticals. And I was like, those didn’t help, how could a plant help and my mom really, really encouraged me and the day that I tried it, I was able to stop the opiates and the volume that same day and then slowly able to stop my other pharmaceuticals. And you know, it hasn’t healed me I’m not magically better. So I have tons of challenges and issues. But it
Unknown 3:34
it is way better treatment than anything else I ever tried. And I tried a lot so I was kind of blown away. And, you know, I knew that if, as a nurse, as a hospice nurse, as a pain specialist, that if I didn’t, you know, understand how beneficial this plant could be. Then there were a lot of other people out there who who needed the knowledge and you know, I figured my story could help and that when I started marijuana, mommy to help share my story and to help teach about medical marijuana. Well, I
Unknown 4:06
commend you for that because really it you know, we know that we really can’t claim that this treats or or cures anything, but the anecdotal evidence is is there I mean, you know, we see people being helped. And I think now more than ever, we need to be in control of our own health care. And there are things that are perfectly legal right now that can kill you. And yet there’s a relatively harmless plant that can do a lot of help and and yet, we can’t have access to that. And I think a lot of that is about misunderstanding and myth. So why don’t we start off by the basics right, let’s talk about what is the difference between hemp and marijuana? Where does the distinction line
Unknown 4:57
sure so you know, that’s that’s a common question. So it’s kind of like
Unknown 5:03
all marijuana is hemp, but not all hemp is marijuana. So they’re, you know, they’re members of the same group of plants, they’re very similar. But when we think of it in layman’s terms, and what we refer to in the industry is hemp tends to be products that contain less than a certain percentage of THC. And when we can think about marijuana, it tends to be the person the plants that have a higher percentage of THC. Now
Unknown 5:36
THC is the most popular and famous, cannabinoid out of all the cannabinoids. It’s the most well known, but it’s not the only one, there’s one over 100 over 113 different cannabinoids that have been identified. And they’re not even all named yet. So it’s just one of the many. But hemp itself contains many cannabinoids. It just doesn’t contain that much THC. And, and what’s it you know, you said something very interesting because we’re really learning all the time about how this can help and, and the types of things that it’s able to, to treat. So it does a lot of that come down to the science because we talked about that, you know, there are certain strains that are helpful for certain things, or certain times of day, right. Because when this is being used as medicine, and I myself use this after hip replacement versus the bottle of opioids that my doctor handed me as I left the hospital, so you know,
Unknown 6:42
you need to, to have this medicine in the morning
Unknown 6:48
in the afternoon in the evening. And if you are using the THC component that can affect how you are. So talk a little bit about how it from the medical perspective, different strains are dialed in for different to treat different things.
Unknown 7:06
Yeah. So I think that’s one of the most common misconceptions that all marijuana is the same that and I hear this all the time, people will be like, Oh, my doctor said, just go buy a joint and get high and see if it works. And I’m effect that’s not how you do it. Because there are different strains, exactly, as you said, different strains that tend to help more people with specific issues. Now, the one difficult thing about cannabis and treatment with medical marijuana is it’s highly individualized. So how a strain affects me can affect it can affect you totally differently. So it’s really, really important for people to try different things. But we tend to see certain ones, you know, for example, will cause more of a body high of physical relaxation, which can be amazing for pain and spasms. Whereas we’ll see some other strains that you know, can kind of help energize people and, you know, give them focus and energy. And this is often great for patients who suffer from depression. So it’s really, really important for patients to understand that not all marijuana is the same, but that every strain can affect everybody differently. You know,
Unknown 8:20
as a parent, right, we’re parents here, you know, where are concerned? Because as we talk about
Unknown 8:29
legalization for adult use,
Unknown 8:33
and at the age of 21, right, when when people are still developing young, you know, we talked about usage, how we realistically right, in the spectrum of things that are available to us how dangerous is is cannabis?
Unknown 8:51
It’s a good question. So again, you know, we’re very limited by our research, we know that it’s not a completely benign substance. It’s not, you know, obviously, it has physiological effects. That’s why people use it medically, that’s why people use it recreationally. But we haven’t been able to study it for, you know, decades. So we don’t have accurate data to really, really clearly explain it. But the the data that we do have, and the data that’s coming out, suggests that the safety obviously has been the risks have been
Unknown 9:25
the risks have been blown way out of proportion. It’s not nearly as dangerous as it’s been presented. So it depends on which area you’re talking about. Now, there was a recent
Unknown 9:39
It was a cognitive analysis published in 2015, that compared cannabis to a whole arrangement of other substances like tobacco and cocaine and alcohol. And you know, by that, that those estimates alone, it found that marijuana is 114 times less deadly than alcohol, which is just remarkable. So, you know, compared to alcohol is dramatically safer. You know, you cannot die from cannabis, you cannot die from a cannabis overdose 80,000 people a year die from alcohol, right? So compared to that it’s safer, you know, then you do like you mentioned being a parent. And, you know, there are concerns about does it increase the risk for psychosis. So there’s some data to suggest that possibly with if kids use it an adolescence, it may increase the risk of psychosis in adulthood. And as a parent, we want to do everything to give our kids the edge and give our kids the benefit and give them every possibility in life. So we’re going to do everything we can to protect them, you know, at the same time, whereas we see that that might be a risk,
Unknown 10:52
if you look at the research moving and childhood can cause the same risk of the increased risk of saying causes an equivalent to cannabis. You know, it’s a, I believe, a two to 3% increase in risk. I mean, it’s the same for living in an urban development, an urban area dramatically raises the rest. So I mean, compared to other things, it’s not as as dangerous. Sure, there are dangers, right? You know,
Unknown 11:21
right. And, and, you know, and, and the, the word addiction comes up all the time, right. And, you know, if we want to talk about addiction, right, then, let’s talk about it across the board. Let’s talk about sugar addiction, let’s talk about, you know, like you said, tobacco or alcohol, right. So I have to learn something, yeah, we have to learn how to be a control of all of those things, right? We can’t, you know, take this one thing that some people may use, even if it’s just recreationally, much the way someone might take a beer or a glass of wine,
Unknown 12:00
you have to be in control of that of your intake and what you do and how responsible you are. And and, and it’s interesting because one of the things we had just come back from the normal conference in advance of Lobby Day in Washington, and there was a study shown about
Unknown 12:19
driving under the influence and they show the evidence showed that people who were who were under the influence of cannabis versus alcohol were far more cautious when driving and were more inclined to say, Hey, you know what, I’m a little bit too high, I’m not driving, whereas, you know, with alcohol, just the opposite that careless has become so I think putting it all into perspective
Unknown 12:48
and doing that and now when we look at it right of the the consumption of how many people need this medicine whether it’s available in their state as as medical marijuana in American marijuana program, or the necessity of getting it on, you know, what’s known as the black market, right? The Underground from your local drug dealer, right. It’s amazing that we’re forced to do that in this country in this day and age to go put ourselves at risk when I can go to Walgreens or CVS and pick up Tylenol for my headache without having to register for anything or tell anyone I’m using this particular medication to get rid of my headache and I can grow tomatoes in my backyard but cannabis is a very evil plant. You know,
Unknown 13:39
I say all the time as a hospice nurse I was able to walk into any pharmacy or not any pharmacy puts up many many pharmacies and I could walk out within 15 minutes with a bottle of morphine you know with very very little checks and not even a physical prescription and you know the crackdown on a little bit more since then but you know to get medical marijuana it’s a small fortune in New Jersey and you have to jump through hoops it’s it’s bonkers
Unknown 14:05
yes yeah and it shouldn’t be and we are all working towards a common goal of making this medicine available to all who desire it and all who need it and in short order this should not be taken you know it’s interesting normal has been on the scene for 48 years why for the legalization of marijuana to end this prohibition that we’re in and that to me is just pure insanity
Unknown 14:37
so hopefully we will see that all change in short order shifting gears a little bit we are very excited that you will be part of our upcoming pop up event
Unknown 14:49
at the end of September September 27 I encourage everyone to head on over to Canada pop up dot com for more information on that but how can our our viewers find out a little bit more about you and marijuana mommy where where can they go to you can come by marijuana mommy dot com to find
Unknown 15:08
everything right there.
Unknown 15:12
So Jesse, thank you so much for spending the time with us today and helping to dispel some of the myths and and the stigma attached to this because it really does not make a whole lot of sense and I am proud to be aligned with people like yourself who are on this crusade to to end this modern day prohibition and to let more people be helped by this by this plant. So yeah his time that’s that’s perfect.
Unknown 15:45
Thank you. Thank you for what you guys are doing and thank you for having me on I really appreciate it
Unknown 15:49
well it was a pleasure and and we’re looking forward to seeing you at our Canada pop up in Montclair on September 27. So thank you.