Welcome our First Freelance #KushSmokers Author! - Why I left academia to teach people about cannabis - By Emily Earlenbaugh, PhD (My First Steem Article!)

in #kushsmokers7 years ago

kushsmokers_intro_emily

Why I left academia to teach people about cannabis - By Emily Earlenbaugh, PhD (@emilyearlenbaugh)

People often ask me why I left academia to pursue a life of education in the cannabis industry. For me, the answer is simple. Cannabis changed my life - and helping others find the same transformation is more fulfilling than anything I was doing in the academic world.

Before cannabis, I felt sick on every day of my life. With multiple chronic pain, anxiety & fatigue conditions, the best way to describe my health is that my body is on high alert… all the time.

My childhood was painful. With constant anxiety, and an overactive immune response, I was nauseous every day - not to mention exhausted, with a tense, aching body, unfocused mind, allergic responses like runny nose, sore throat and acne, and a seemingly unending line of recurring flus, colds and mysterious illnesses. As I got older, it only got worse.

I grew up on the east coast, in New Jersey, where cannabis was not a medical options at the time, and was put on several heavy prescription medications by my doctors to manage my symptoms. These helped but after a few years, the prescriptions stopped working. In fact, they stopped working and started giving me even worse symptoms than I started with.

Unfortunately, I was chemically addicted to the medications at that point and I couldn’t stop them without going through a lengthy and painful withdrawal process. If I stopped taking these medications abruptly, I put myself at risk for potentially deadly seizures.

Luckily, by the time these prescriptions had stopped helping, I had moved to California for graduate school, where cannabis was an option. With help from cannabis, I was able to replace and withdraw off of the dangerous and addictive prescription medications completely.

Cannabis was completely life changing. I went from being so sick, I was unable to get out of bed most days, to working full time and still having enough energy to spend time with my friends and family.

However, during this process, I found there was a huge learning curve, before I was able to figure out which cannabis products actually worked for me.

Sometimes the cannabis would work incredibly well, and other times it seemed like it was making things worse, giving me negative side effects like anxiety or headaches. It was a learning process that involved a lot of uncomfortable highs and money wasted on the wrong strains.

Eventually, I started to utilize some of the tools I had discovered through my academic research. My doctorate and academic expertise is in the philosophy of science and specifically research methods used to study subjective internal states like happiness, well-being, or pain. With cannabis, I was needing to track my own subjective reactions to different types of cannabis.

So, I created simple methods to research my own cannabis experiences and track the different variables involved. Soon, I had narrowed in on the strains, methods of consumption and environmental factors that worked well for me, and those which did not. When approached mindfully, it wasn’t very difficult to find what worked best.

Now my experiences with cannabis are positive every time because I know exactly what I need, and when I need it. I know what works with my biochemistry, and what gives me negative side effects.

After finding so much benefit from the cannabis plant, personally, I felt called to work in the cannabis industry and help others navigate the process of using cannabis to enhance their own wellness. I educate through writing articles at publications like the San Francisco Chronicle, Cannabis Now Magazine, and Dope Magazine, consulting and creating online courses that teach patients about how to better utilize their medicine. While my work in academia was interesting, my life in cannabis is both fascinating and much more fulfilling. Now, I not only see how my life was changed, I get to see many lives changed on a daily basis.

Now, I’m going to start bringing more education about cannabis science and culture to the Steemit community. There are so many aspects of cannabis to discuss. I may cover its use for specific medical conditions, how to customize your cannabis regimen, getting started with cannabis or how to navigate cultural norms in the cannabis community, just to name a few.

//What cannabis topics would you like to discuss and learn about? Comment below!


🔥🔥🔥 Emily is our first freelance @KushSmokers author and we hope everyone enjoyed her first Steem article. She is new to the Steem community and was introduced to it through the #KushSmokers onboarding program, so please take a second, follow Emily, as she will be posting on her own account as well as under the @KushSmokers handle, alongside many other new high quality authors such as Emily in the near future!🔥🔥🔥

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Thanks for posting @kushsmokers! And thank you to the steem community for being so welcoming! I am excited to learn more and share more with you all.

You're doing great work! I was able to visit some legal states last year, and the patient resources are amazing. There are a lot of brilliant minds looking at the science behind therapeutic cannabis use, and I'm glad we have one on Steemit!

Aw thanks @mtgmisfit ! It has been really amazing seeing the transformation in culture as more states legalize - even in california, where it has been legal for years there has been so much change in the last few years for the better. Thanks for reading!

Dr. Emily great job & KushSmokers thank you for posting this. Dr. Emily I'm not sure if you know but there are tons of studies done right out of Israel which our medical community never talks about, or aren't allowed to. They actually lead the research on it. Kudos to you for taking this journey!

Thanks @mrdeerants ! you are totally right! Israel is way ahead of us in medical research, and their amazing insights are mostly ignored by the mainstream over here. They are even so far that they are looking at the effects of different strains of cannabis separately. I'm actually working on a piece about the research challenges for cannabis researchers over here. Maybe I will post something about it here too!

Oh you definitely should post it here! I'm sure the Steemit community will eat that up like an edible cannabis cookie!

I want to talk about industrial cannabis. This plant is amazing. More food than corn and more fiber than cotton in the same acre. This plant is the true solar panel, which is exactly why TPTB do not want us to have it. I think pointing out the complete irrationality of the prohibition of industrial cannabis might be the key to getting folks who don't smoke to understand how much human effort is being wasted trying to stop people from allegedly abusing Marijuana. It makes as much sense as saying doctors can't sterilize instruments with alcohol because some people might drink too much.

Thank you for bringing this up. Industrial hemp is the reason cannabis was made illegal. You can get more oil out a acre of hemp, than a whole lifetime of an oil well.
I was a friend of the late, great Jack Herer. For more interesting facts about industrial hemp read his book , The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Here is a little known fact.
The first cannabis law in the United States was in the 1619. This was in the colony of Jamestown Virginia. The law was that every household MUST grow hemp!!!

Also had to do with the racist Attorney General Harry J. Anslinger who demonized marijuana as an evil drug that would cause POC to attack white women. This created a new class of criminals to feed into the prison-industrial complex where the last bastion of legal slavery still exists.

Thank you for sharing your story with us! I thought it was very interesting. Followed @emilyearlenbaugh and @kushsmokers. Keep it up!

This is just amazing.

aw :) Thanks @novina

Any upvotes would be appreciated in /r/trees!

Thanks!

Andddd shadowbanned, god I hate reddit.

@kushsmokers its part of my daily diet keep up the great work spread awrness and mary jane and its cures for certain ailments

Dr. Emily and @kushsmokers, Thank you to taking more people along on this journey. I am a Soldier who has been reading and following the research on the use of cannabis in the treatment of PSTD. Since you asked for topics to discuss and educate on, please tackle this one.

@theoldguy Yes, such an important topic! I actually just finished a piece on this that is forthcoming in the SF Chronicle, but knowing your interest I will write something about it for Steem as well. I have a lot of loved ones who are veterans with PTSD that have found relief from cannabis, so I am passionate about that topic as well <3 Thanks for reading and making a suggestion!

This post received a 30% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @decentralizd! For more information, click here!

Great stuff! I need to know how best to use it for my high blood pressure or if I even can. All the info that I have gotten so far is conflicting and if you could help me out with that, wow would I be grateful..

Great post, people are finally opening their eyes....

I actually reached out to Emily via her Instragram account and brought Steemit and #KushSmokers to her attention, I will be garnering more influencers in the coming weeks/months as well, stay following! ;]

That's a great idea. Happy to see Steemit and their users evolve.

thanks @brandonk :)

i approve this message ;)

thanks @cryptogang ;) I need one of those right about now! missed 4:20 on a writing binge

Great post, can not wit to see what you do next. I am a big fan of high CBD cannabis. I plan on documenting my efforts to bring new CBD genetics to the LA market.
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#KUSHSMOKERS steem on

Thanks @blackvapor - and great idea. CBD is great medicine and can make THC even more medicinal. It all depends on what you need. Its great to see more CBD products as people learn about it's incredible powers.

Thats a wonderful idea! Looking forward to it!

Hi, I'm a active consumer of the cannabis product my safe and I have been having cannabis induced hallucinations... I would appreciate if you can say something on this which could help me manage the situation, thanks

Sorry to hear about that - there are a lot of different types of cannabis so you may be using a strain or method that is causing that. Do you know what type of cannabis you've been smoking? I will write something about how to pick the right types of cannabis for you - but a lot of people find that THC heavy products are more likely to give hallucinations. CBD, as well as many of the terpenes, can bring this down or eliminate it. You might try getting a CBD tincture that you can take when you start to feel too high like that. It can help reverse the effects even once they begin.

Great post. I hope the world ends this insanity when it comes to demonizing cannabis while constantly promoting other more destructive chemicals.

Thx for the support Luke! Much appreciated!

Thanks @lukestokes ! I appreciate the support and sanity :)

This just amazes me the greatness one plant can do and then how much hatred this beloved plant gets from so many mindless fools. i feel this is the greatest plant on our planet it can heal so much and prevent so much that i feel we are just starting to find out what it really can be used for.

It really is an amazing plant! So many ways to help us - and so many people dead set against it. Crazy how that works sometimes..

Thank you @emilyearlenbaugh @kushsmokers for posting and sharing your story. I have a very similar story. Cannabis helped me get off opiods. Which is running rampant... I consider myself a little researcher who catalogs his findings. I am sure I could formulate a few questions... (not in any order)

  1. I have always heard "volume" can lead to paranoia?
  2. Where is the ceiling? There has to be a ceiling?
  3. Will regulation make the products better or will they ruin it?
  4. Is it medically sound that some people just become "stupid" after partaking?
  5. Will the East Coast get some West Coast Lovin?

I love cannabis. It has helped enhance my creativity and also helps me deal with anxiety. Looking forward to your next posts :)

She will be posting on her account and on @kushsmokers seperately: be sure to follow her!

https://steemit.com/@emilyearlenbaugh

Already did!

Thanks @emelyeucebio ! I also find it very helpful for my creativity - such a multifaceted medicine <3

Nice to meet you !
Welcome to steemit!
I am also new to steemit
Checkout my blogs @saurabhgupta related to travelling, tech, poems and India's famous monument I I am sure, you will be interested in all such stuff :)

Nice to meet you !
Welcome to steemit!
I am also new to steemit
Checkout my blogs @saurabhgupta related to travelling, tech, poems and India's famous monument I I am sure, you will be interested in all such stuff :)

Thanks for being an advocate @kushsmokers! I am especially for cannabis for medicinal use for children, as I have shown in one of my articles. The healing properties and its ability to calm the mind and nerves is evident. I do not understand why people are so against it, but it's ok for alcohol and prescription narcotics to be legal. I just don't understand it, really.

Welcome to steemit! I like to follow people all over the world, of all different ages. I read introduction posts and follow people who seem legit and real! You totally seem interesting! Following you to learn more about the world you live in and how you see it from your local perspective! I hope you will check out my posts too now and then!- @sircork - I've up voted and followed you!

Thanks @sircork ! I will check out your profile as well. It's great how easy it is to interact with other authors and readers on steemit

It sure is! And thanks!

For me cannabis its a medicine that I used only once a week instead less its have been a very interactive post about cannabis @kushsmokers

Thanks for reading @venela - It's great to see how interactive the Steem community is.

Welcome to KushSmokers Emily. Looking forward to seeing your content in my feed.

Great to have another convert to Steem educating the world about the benefits of cannabis. Welcome to Steemit Emily!

Thanks @celsius100 ! I am excited to be here in such an engaged and welcoming content community.

Very cool. Will be following to learn more! Hopefully I can live in a legal state soon haha

Thanks @dismemberedhippy - Best of luck relocating or legalizing in your current state! I know the struggle of living without good legal cannabis options. Always a challenge.

i dont know why i suddenly stopped enjoying the high. CNB makes me trip all time

There is so much variety, and sometimes people shift in how certain strains feel to them. But CBN is know for it's trippiness - fresher weed tends to have less CBN, so at this time of year, until the fresh harvests start to hit, a lot of people complain that they can't get the right high. One of the downsides of seasonal medicine :-/

haha will see about this

Education & prevention, that's what we need. Glad to see such a project springing up I hope to see more from you!

thanks so much @aguayojoshua :) I am excited to be working with @kushsmokers on this new project.

Awesome news! and welcome to the community @emilyearlengaugh .

I tried it when I was a kid and hated it, but I support everyone who does smoke, people shouldn't even get something as little as a slap on the wrist for doing it. I've heard that it's helping a lot of people. I like it when people share the risks and the rewards of cannabis, 100% honesty, no politics.

Thanks @bcoin1 :) I have so much appreciation for people who don't judge others for something just because they don't like doing it themselves. Thanks for the enlightened and open minded viewpoint! I wish everyone thought like you :)

Congrats! I have also used MMJ to help with similar issues. I was prescribed a benzo and am in waithdrawal with the help of cannabis.

Good luck @linniek - It was hard to go through benzo withdrawal but amazing to see how much better I felt after it was over. I found edibles and cannabis tea to be really helpful at relaxing the muscles that were tightening up in my throat during that time (that was the worst part for me). Wishing you the best with that process!

Seems like a lot of effort is going into this!

Thanks @kyungjaechoo :) It feels easy when writing about what I love <3

Saluton Emily kaj bonvenon je Steemit. Welcome on board. powerful introduction. Thanks for sharing. All the best!

Thanks for reading @johano !

Stay Blazed :)

You too @raja15 :)

I was going to clean my room, and then I got highhhhhhhhhhh :)

My first follow :) Awesome info... Praying for the day Africa will embrace this.

Hopefully we can get this legally for everyone who needs it one day.

Great piece, thanks for sharing your experience and love for cannabis

@kushsmokers! Light up! Don't forget to follow us! @candygirl420 @ganjagirls

Thanks. Nice images, too. Here in Florida we just got medical, but from a practical standpoint there's a long way to go. Was psyched to see a plant growing outside someone's house out here in the Pensacola hood over the last week, though. The world is waking up slowly.

Great post! Good luck in the industry. Cannabis is life!!

Welcome to this fabulous community! Now following you! I have ALS and use cannabis oil everyday. I think that it has helped slow my progression. I wish more people took the oil because it is helping people. I post about cryptos, economy, silver,etc. Please checkout my posts to see if they interest you and my policy is if you follow me I will follow you. Welcome again!

You have LYME disease, NOT ALS.

My son has suffered with bipolar disorder and acute anxiety since the age of 14. He has been on a multitude of medications, which have helped little or not at all. The side effects can be terrible. Unfortunately in my state he can only purchase cannibus illegally. This in spite of a large majority of my state voting to make it legal to purchase. It is very frustrating waiting for my state to catch up with Colorado. It is the only thing that helps him calm his mind and he has to risk incarceration to get it.

Awesome looking forward to reading some more of your stuff! @kushsmokers

Love to see cannabis awerness on steem! <3

A big warm Steemit welcome goes out to you Kushsmokers! :-D

Upvoted and High Paw.

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interesting

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please follow me and I'll follow you back :D
http://Facebook.com/JoeyArnoldVN

Interesting Post..!!

Just a suggestion for a Post: Use of Cannabinoids to get relief from Cyclical Stress created by 9-5 Mon-Friday Lifestyle.

Namaste and Welcome to Steem.

I've found that it cannabis is an amazing help in dealing with the mood swings and pains related to endometriosis. Lemon Haze works quite well for me.


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