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I was this old when I realized just how programmed I am when it comes to managing health and wellness.
One of the best, most affecting things that has come from my time working in cannabis education is how much I have widened my understanding of plant medicine in general.
I burnt my hand. I wanted to find something to soothe the sting of the burn, so I ran upstairs to find an ointment. I found a bottle in the back of the bathroom cabinet; the last time I’d used it was after a sunburn. In the plastic bottle was a bright blue liquidy gel; it was decorated with cartoon palm trees and bright tropical flowers. The back label showed instructions for use as well as an ingredients list. That list was long and was filled with hard-to-pronounce words.
As I opened the bottle to squirt out some of the blue goo on my burn, an odor wafted by me. It dawned on me that it faintly smelled of chemicals, something not quite natural.
Then, the light bulb turned on.
Every time I was klutzy or spent too much time in the sun or had to soothe some irritated skin, I went for a bottle filled with gel. Every time I did that, I walked right by a large, healthy aloe vera plant that has been cohabitating with me for at least 8 years. Every. Time.
Instead of taking advantage of natural, grown-with-care, effective plant medicine that was at my fingertips, I used a processed, altered product from a plastic bottle, complete with added dyes, chemicals, and fragrance.
It’s only been throughout my recent years in cannabis education and history that my understanding of plant medicine has significantly widened. I realized that when it comes to health and wellness, many people (myself included) have been programmed to default to a bottled gel, a pill, or a synthetic. I don’t need to buy processed aloe; I can use the plant. And that’s not restricted to topicals. I don’t need to buy ginger candies or capsules to settle an upset stomach; I can just chew on the raw ginger that’s already in my kitchen.
Over 40% of drugs on the pharmacy shelves are derived from plant medicine. Some of the most widely used medicines today are plant-derived, including Quinine, Morphine, Digitalis, Galantamine, and even Aspirin! Cannabis research has taught me that the majority of folks out there don’t realize that.
Cannabis is plant medicine, plain and simple. It’s a remarkable plant with remarkable properties. When we expand our understanding of plant medicine, we better understand why access to research and to the plant itself is so crucial.
-Angela
Contact Elucidation Strategies for cannabis educational services.
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