Why I joined the Cannabis Industry: Women in Weed
2002 is the year I joined the fight to legalize Gods medicine, the cannabis plant. This is why I’ve dedicated over 20 years to this cause
I found this in my Icloud the other day and I really want to remember it, read it over and over, and never forget it. I hope you enjoy a tiny glimpse into my heart and the reason I’ve been a “criminal” most of my life to fight for patient rights to this plant. Thanks for reading 🤗
“October 26th, 1996, 10:30(ish) pm, Lawrenceville Illinois. Jack Renee' Hensley took his last breath in the same small town, rural Illinois hospital I took my first breath at on April 29th, in 1984.
I remember how absurdly loud Leanne Rimes was belting out "I'll Be Blue Without You.” I can still focus on my knees and feel the coldness of the laminate flooring as I flung my 14 year old self to the ground and pleaded with God to take someone else instead.
I was very close to my Grandpa, he was the only person I trusted to tell the secret that I was being sexually molested every night, every change this man had, for the past several years. It was my Moms new husband, I was 10 when it started. I had finally worked up the courage to tell my Grandpa earlier that night, but I hadn’t seen him as planned. He was supposed to come watch the Halloween parade I was performing in, but never showed. Now the nurse was saying for me to come into the room and “say your last goodbyes, he’s fading fast”
"I'll do anything!", "He's the only one that loves me!" I prayed to God on my knees in the hallway. "Please take him (my abuser) instead, not my Grandpa, I NEED him!"... minutes later I watched Grandpa Jack squeeze my Mothers hand and then take his last breath as he went to be with the Lord.
Slamming my hands down on the crappy adjustable tray at the end of the hospital bed I screamed, "NO!" and ran out of the room down the hallway. The rest of the night and weeks after are a blur.
The Doctors told us it wasn't the cancer that killed Grandpa Jack, rather it was his weakened state, thinned blood, and frail body…aka the side effects of the prescribed "treatment" for the cancer. I had watched the chemo and radiation wear on my Grandpas usual plump body, he struggled to have an appetite, and who was I to judge after watching him take his daily handful of pills. My grandpa was on so many different pharmaceutical lab made drugs, some even experimental, I’m not sure if they'd even be able to pinpoint which had helped him if they had worked. They’d have no way of knowing which was the winning pill, that’s how many he would take. An unreal amount.
I remember one thing very clearly about that night before bed. I remember promising to myself, my Grandpa Jack, to God, to anyone that would listen, that I would find the cure for cancer.
College Years
First using cannabis in my freshman year of college, I knew immediately it was the secret to helping cancer patients. I subscribed to High Times Magazine (okay don't tell anyone but mainly for the centerfold posters bc you couldn't get sweet bud photography like that ANYWHERE else at that time) and quickly discovered the raids happening on the patients in California, AFTER they had legalized cannabis for these terminally ill people.
I remember reading about Mary Jane Rathbun who was an elderly woman cooking brownies on the low to provide medicine to hurting people. Here’s something about her from Wikipedia,
“popularly known as Brownie Mary, was an American medical cannabis rights activist. As a hospital volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital, she became known for baking and distributing cannabis brownies to AIDS patients”
I was inspired to dig deeper into this plant and why the government would want to keep it from people and even take them to jail over it. It blew my mind that a plant that could help a cancer patient in treatment gain an appetite, would be taken from them and then that human thrown in prison with LIFE SENTENCES! Didn’t they know that person was TERMINALLY ILL?? That honestly still surprises me that another human could be so cruel.
That was the start of my research into the government, the plant, and the cannabis community that I have grown to love over the last 20+ years.
I have fought, and will continue to fight, against the type of organizations and people that brought those first assaults on patients all those years ago. I will persistently show up in the faces of those writing and voting on laws governing this plant. I am proud to show up, speak out, and work doing the very thing I promised myself all those years ago I would.
I may not have found “the cure to cancer”, but thanks to my efforts I’ve helped multiple families have more time with loved ones.
We are all appointed to die once. We don't know when, but it's sure to happen. Does cannabis provide substantial health and wellness benefits the likes of which we are still learning about? Yes! The best part is, unlike traditional man made cancer treatments, the side effects do not killed. Consuming cannabis usually comes with side effects like relaxed muscles in the body, calm or maybe even “creative” mindset, and for me anyways it includes an appetite for snack (aka Munchies).. all side effects that a terminal cancer patient would actually benefit from, and all of which would have given me more time with my Grandpa Jack.
That’s the story, and the real reason I am so passionate about legalizing this plant. That’s why I’ve dedicated decades of my life to growing the culture, community, and education. This is me fulfilling a promise to my 14 year old grieving teenage self, and hopefully helping someone along the way.
-Tara Eveland April, 6, 2020