Every hero needs an origin story and not every hero wears a cape, these two statements have made Hollywood millions and given everyday heroes the recognition they deserve but growing up I never thought cannabis would be my hero and this is my origin story.
I grew up in a middle-class American family, my dad was a firefighter, my grandparents and aunt were super involved in our upbringing. My family was basically a stew of firefighters, law enforcement and medical professionals. So sitting in DARE in fifth grade, I never once doubted a thing the officer said. I never questioned authority for that matter. Thirteen year old me was in for a huge surprise; I was at a friend’s house and stated clearly that the house smelled like my dad’s bathroom. My friends who all knew my dad were cracking up as they explained to me that the smell was marijuana.
My final summer in college I stayed in the small college town and worked rather than going home. My roommates & friends back home I started hanging out with fellow Waffle House workers. After an incredibly long third shift we all decided to go to the Quarry to relax and I tried a synthetic cannabis product called “K2” which resulted in a 3 day migraine, something I will never do again and advise incredibly against. After I reported that incident to my ex’s father who was an avid cannabis user, he told me how unsafe the synthetic products were and made me promise to only accept natural products.
I smoked here or there after long work shifts when I needed help getting to sleep, but I would not consider myself a regular user until much later. After graduating college, I had begun a journey to figure out what was wrong with me. I had constantly had UTI symptoms but never tested positive for a UTI or STD, doctors were dumbfounded. I was checked for interstitial cystitis, which was their front runner, but tests were negative. All they knew was my kidneys were developing cysts which were bursting causing me pain, nausea, and infections. Years of tests finally made them believe it was an acquired form of Polycystic Kidney Disease and we treated it as such for years. At this point I was in regular pain and given high doses naproxen or oxycodone for the pain which turned out was causing more damage to my kidneys and causing ulcers in my body. My dad who admitted to me that he was concerned about me taking pain relieving medications as my biological mother and brother had addiction issues and that although he didn’t love the idea of me needing anything but that he would rather I smoke cannabis than consume these pills. I slowly started reducing the pain medication and replacing it with cannabis, but this was 2014, Ohio hadn’t legalized it, I was constantly nervous, had trouble finding it, trusting people getting it for me, and was fighting the stigma associated with cannabis culture. I was a substitute teacher at the time, I couldn’t be caught smoking.
As years went on I became more comfortable accepting that cannabis was my medicine, in those years we also learned that I did not have PKD or the other diagnosis of Lupus Nephritis but despite the multiple incorrect diagnosis, we know something caused my body to react negatively and create small build-ups like kidney stones by creating cysts. Multiple procedures later and a sensitive stomach helped me to grow into an advocate for medical cannabis and eventually becoming a licensed medical marijuana patient as Ohio legalized conditions. Now as it was legally acceptable for me to consume cannabis I wanted to learn everything I could. I studied Leafly, Reddit, High Times and cannabis books to help me discover which strains were best for me and other patients I knew. I used notebooks to record my results. I ordered a journal from Etsy which I thought would help but I felt it really lacked some categories I wanted to keep track of as well as the fact that it was tiny and only held 10 entries, something a medical patient would finish in no time, so when you can’t find something on the market to meet your needs, you create your own.
My partner helped me to create the strain guide we use and sell today as well as the S&M brand. We created the idea of S&M after he noticed a neighbor’s monogram flag in their front yard. I jokingly said it wasn’t fair for us to get one as we have different last names, mine beginning with an M and his beginning with an S, being constantly goofy he couldn’t get enough of our initials being “S&M” and it stuck. I wanted to tie it back into cannabis since that’s what our business would focus on and we pulled out Sweets & Medicinal because I love baking, I love making edibles of any kind and I love that they are medicine for people. I love that a doctor can now prescribe an infused chocolate or gummy to help a patient with pain. I love that marijuana is sweet & medicinal.
