Fortitude: Turning Tragedy into Action
A podcast by the Parent Action Network (PAN), a division of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), dedicated to amplifying the voices of parents whose lives have been devastated by the harmful effects of marijuana. Each episode features personal interviews with parents sharing their heart-wrenching stories of loss, addiction, and the impact on their families. Through these powerful narratives, PAN aims to educate, inspire, and mobilize listeners to take action against the widespread dangers of marijuana use.
Fortitude: Turning Tragedy into Action
From Addiction to Advocacy: Linda and Kobe's Journey with Marijuana
When Linda Wolf realized her son Kobe was experiencing psychosis, walking the streets and claiming to control volcanoes, she faced a nightmare no parent is prepared for. What she couldn't understand was why nobody had warned her this could happen from "just weed."
Linda and Kobe join the Fortitude podcast to share their remarkable journey through cannabis-induced psychosis, multiple hospitalizations, and ultimately recovery. Their story reveals a truth many refuse to acknowledge: today's high-potency marijuana can trigger devastating mental health crises in vulnerable users, particularly young people.
"I scoured the internet looking for somebody else who had gone through this," Linda explains, describing the isolation she felt until connecting with other parent advocates. Meanwhile, Kobe offers rare insight from the user's perspective, detailing how marijuana use that began in high school gradually evolved into daily consumption and addiction before triggering psychosis. "The psychosis I experienced was very severe—I wasn't aware of what was causing it because I wasn't aware of anything," he reveals.
Now 23 and cannabis-free, Kobe is transforming his harrowing experience into purpose by studying psychiatric nursing. "I want to help people going through what I did," he says, "because I think there's a lot more people that have the potential to go down the same path I went down."
This mother-son conversation offers both warning and hope—showing how cannabis can devastate lives, but also how families can recover with proper support, boundaries, and persistence. If you're concerned about a loved one's marijuana use or struggling to understand cannabis-induced mental health issues, this episode provides invaluable perspective from those who've lived it.
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Hi, good evening. This is Chrissy, the director of the Parent Action Network, the grassroots division of smart approaches to marijuana, dedicated to amplifying the voices of families whose lives have been devastated by the harmful effects of marijuana, and I like to mention that I gave this podcast that title Fortitude, because fortitude means showing courage in the face of grief and adversity, and I couldn't think of a better word to exemplify the parents and families that stand up, despite their pain, to fight big marijuana and the false narrative that marijuana is a safe and harmless product. I hope that each of these episodes leaves you with a profound understanding of the urgent need for awareness, better regulations and the power that community support can have in addressing the challenges posed by today's marijuana products. Now I'd like to introduce you to tonight's guest, and we have a special edition because, as most of you know, we normally interview just our parents, but tonight we have a mom and son.
Speaker 1:So we have Linda and Kobe Wolf from Montana joining us tonight, and their claim to fame is that they've been featured on the Dr Phil show, an episode featuring also the Bacchuses and Aubrey Adams from Every Brain Matters, and if you haven't seen the episode, I highly recommend that you do so. It is a very, very empowering episode about this industry and the harm that can be caused to lives from today's products. Linda and Kobe hail from Montana and they have a very powerful story which they are going to share with us. Thank you, guys for being here with me. I'm really happy to have you. I'd like to begin by just talking a little briefly about and again, like either one of you can answer, I'm asking you this Linda initially, but Kobe, please pipe in whenever you want and you can play off each other, but we'd like to hear a little bit about what life was like before marijuana became a factor and a problem in your lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so everything was fine before we realized Kobe was smoking weed. And when he, you know, was smoking weed and when he, you know, went into a psychosis from that, everything was fine and we didn't realize he was smoking weed like he was. We knew that he'd smoked it a couple of times and when we found out that he did, we took the truck away, we broke the pipe that he found. We, you know, threatened that he could never have the truck back. I mean, we just did all kinds of things to try to make sure he didn't ever smoke weed.
Speaker 2:We didn't want him smoking it and then, we realized his grades were going down, he was acting weird, things were getting really hard to get along with him. He was really defiant and the next thing, you know, it was like a train wreck hit us. It really was. It was terrible. We realized he was in a psychosis, that there was something really wrong with him. We didn't know what it was, what it was from, we didn't know anything about why he was acting like this, but we knew that he needed to go to the hospital Probably. We just couldn't know, didn't know how to get him there. We we did. Finally, when it got so bad, he was out of his mind, walking around on the street. It was that's when we knew we needed to get him to the hospital. That's when we've involuntarily committed him and the doctor told us that it was cannabis induced psychosis.
Speaker 2:And that's when we realized that it was from weed. We didn't know at all that we could do this. We had no idea until it happened like that and it was absolutely god awful, it really was.
Speaker 1:And about how long a period of time was it from the time you first started seeing or noticing that something wasn't right, like how long did that last before you said we have to do something about this?
Speaker 2:was mentally off. He was completely out of his mind, walking around on the street talking about controlling the volcanoes and Yellowstone. He was talking about being a messenger from God. We knew we were scared. We were scared. We knew something was really wrong.
Speaker 2:So when we knew, we got him, got into the hospital. That's when the doctor told us that it was cannabis induced psychosis and in a way we were really relieved because we knew then that it was something that was not going to be permanent. We didn't think that we didn't know what it was, but we were just glad that it wasn't like he lost his mind or something and he just the doctor said it was just cannabis induced psychosis and that he would never be able to smoke weed again or this would keep happening. So he could never smoke weed. He stayed there for three weeks with medication and got him to a baseline. He seemed to be doing pretty good. He came home and so that was probably about. From the time we realized it to the time he went into the hospital was probably a couple months. It wasn't a really long time from before he went into a psychosis, when we realized it that he was smoking a lot of weed, that's what it was, wow.
Speaker 1:Kobe, could you tell us a little bit, since we're so lucky to have you here with us? And something we don't hear from so much is, we always hear from the parents what this looked like for them, how scary it was for them. But what we don't know from, and what a lot of parents actually still don't know, is like was there something that led you to using these products? Was there some kind of emotional trauma? Was it just peer pressure? Was it the perception that it was legal and okay, that it was harmless? You know, give us a little bit of your perspective on that us you know, give us a little bit of your perspective on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I think one of the main reasons why I started smoking um had to do with kind of the uh, anti-culture um rhetoric it had behind it. Weed was a very you know um. It had behind it Weed was a very, you know, cool thing to be doing, and I think it's more so now. A lot of the people I was involved with had already started or were, you know, kind of on the path to start smoking, but it seemed just kind of like a cool thing to do. I see a lot of people do it. It was all over, you know, the internet, social media. It was kind of popping. And then, yeah, so, like high school, it kind of started off in there around my sophomore junior year and, you know, grades started to fall. I started losing a lot of friends, but the desire was still there At that point, I think, around when I graduated and started getting to college, it definitely became an addiction.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of people still have the belief that weed is not addictive. I think that's pretty much proven false at this point, um, and so, yeah, it was just kind of a a very steep slope downwards from there. Um, yeah. So when I got into college it became a daily use habit and um I I inevitably started experiencing psychosis. That didn't happen for the first like four years of me smoking, so it was after a lot of continual usage that the symptoms started to show up. So, yeah, I think that's kind of the scariest part for me is is that I I didn't expect that to happen. I hadn't really heard much about that, but the psychosis is a very big aspect of why I now advocate why people shouldn't be smoking unless they have a medicinal reason to do so, and in that case it's pretty rare.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:So you say that you were using these products in your teen years for four years, before your parents even realized it?
Speaker 3:So when my parents found out, I think they they knew I was using it, but they didn't know to the point I was using and that it was an almost everyday thing nearly, and it started off not like that, where it was pretty rare. I think it was probably around 2016 where I started and it was like a once in a blue moon. Couple months go by and I didn't really think about it. But then, right, with the different friend groups getting involved with the different type of people that naturally would happen if you smoke, then it starts devolving into more and more and more and it starts devolving into more and more and more and so, yeah, I'd say it was probably about two years with, like, my parents maybe finding me like once or twice being stoned or having some sort of weed on me or something like that. But yeah, they didn't really know the to what extent I was doing it at, especially towards later in the years.
Speaker 1:And then, once they figured that out, it was kind of too late, right, but it really wasn't too late because, thankfully, they did get help. For you, linda, can you talk a little bit about because, while you did get them into treatment and while you did mention some of the behaviors, can you talk a little bit more about how this started to affect your lives that had gone from a normal, regular life to now chaos?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was a train wreck. That's the only thing I can liken this to. It was like a train wreck. It was absolutely. Everything was wrong, everything. It was bad, bad, bad, bad. And he was defiant. He was weird. He would laugh at you, he would mock you, he would hide in his room and play games. He would sleep. He was just completely different and he never. So he never did go to treatment. He never really had to go into treatment. What he did was hospitals and medication three times him into a like life coach, with all of us together working together, knowing full well that if he didn't get control of this and absolutely stay away from weed, that he was not going to live here, we're going to have boundaries and blah, blah, blah. You know we had to do all that and that worked.
Speaker 2:It was like a life coach that we had that we worked together with, but it was, you know, think that he, he could have died. He, you know he left to go to that california that time with that bad man. That was a criminal that topped kobe and driving down there smoking weed the whole time. He lost two cars. We had to go down to California to get him out of the psychiatric hospital. The second psychosis because the man stole his car. He didn't have a way. I mean it was terrible.
Speaker 2:The first car was stolen or given away, I don't even know for sure At the homeless shelter, the first psychotic break that he had and it just went. You know, you can't believe how bad it can get until you go through it. Calling the police 19 times in a week is what I say, and it was not that much of an exaggeration to say calling the police 19 times in a week because you want them to help you get him to the hospital because he will not be okay walking around on the street out of his mind and they don't understand and you try to explain to them and then you have to explain to the hospital and the doctors, but thank god we had a doctor that understood it and and he helped us. You know, we we were so lucky that he helped us to understand what it was, and then getting him into a psychiatrist and that was a doctor.
Speaker 1:That was a doctor in Montana. Yeah, that understood this. Yeah, he did. Wow, that's shocking and surprising to hear, because we hear so much that you're told everything. In fact, we'll talk about that a little later, but this week's webinar, this month's webinar, is on the fact that everybody likes to tell you it's not the weed and it is the weed. So you're one of the first parents that have actually voiced that you found someone that knew exactly what this was. And was that your first try, or had you gone to other doctors?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the very first doctor that he saw from this was a psychiatrist at a psychiatric hospital. He was the doctor that he saw and he's the one that told us what we had, what was going on, and he'd seen it a lot and he knew exactly what it was. So we were very lucky to have somebody that knew about it, that told us what to do, told Kobe what to do, and Kobe needed to listen to him, but didn't listen to him the first two times, but then Right, but yeah, we were lucky that he did.
Speaker 1:Wow, and and Kobe, tell us a little bit about that. So in the beginning did you accept that this was the marijuana, or you know? I think you said earlier that you actually knew it was like because you had been smoking for some time with no ill effect. You know just the usual in your mind, right, and then all of a sudden you start changing, so to speak. So were you aware of that as well?
Speaker 3:I experienced that in all seriousness like the first psychotic break that I kind of experienced. I wasn't really aware of what was causing it because I wasn't really aware of what I was doing and where I was pretty much anything. So I really want to just emphasize that the psychotic break eye experience was very severe. I mean I'm sure there's similar cases, but I think most of the times it's a lot smaller, more insignificant, different types of symptoms. But yeah, I mean I really wasn't aware of what was causing it because I just wasn't aware.
Speaker 3:I was in it and then, when I got out of the hospital the first time, I kind of came to believe that the medications they had me on was doing it. But then I was mixing it with the weed, so the weed was still in play, and so that still led to the second, and then by the third one, I had already been through so much that it pretty much couldn't have been anything but the weed, but I still had this kind of urge. You know that I still have. I still am addicted, but I'm not using it anymore, Right? So that's the big difference.
Speaker 3:But when I was, when I was in the last of my episodes, I think, yeah, it just had to have been weed because there was nothing else that could have been. Um, yeah, and, and I, I, I would have fought for years to just blame it all on the pharmaceuticals that they had me on. But you know, and in in all honesty, I think those are the only reasons I really got out of it, especially as quick as I did. Um, cause I think what happens if people aren't, you know, treated correctly when they're in that sort of state, they won't figure out that it is the weed, or they'll just be ignorant of the fact it is. And I think there was a lot of that.
Speaker 3:But the medications definitely helped, especially with the quick term getting me out, and those obviously had their own kind of side effects, you know, being like depression and all that, but still a lot less than what weed was causing, which was way worse than even just the major depression or anything like that could have been, just because of that disassociative kind of uh feeling, and it's a terrible feeling that I wouldn't really want anyone else to experience, Um. But having experienced it like multiple times um it, it definitely scares me to think that like it could happen again if I do smoke. So that's why I'm I'm really kind of here advocating um for that, just because I don't know. There's for sure other people out there and, you know, younger adults that have yet to experience such a thing, if they are still using.
Speaker 2:And you know, I want to add to that because when he came out of the hospital with the medications that he was on, with the severe heavy duty medications to get him out of that psychosis, what were like lithium and three different medications to keep him, to get him out of that they wanted him to stay on it for a couple of years but he didn't. He I think about eight months he stayed on, but it did help. It helped, but it was hell. That was the whole other hell that you go through is the medications to get you out of psychosis. Yeah, Because you have to have them. In my opinion. I think you need them for a while until you get out of that psychosis and then get kind of baseline for a good long chunk of time. And then we don't wean off the medications. If you can. If you don't need them, great. If you need them, fine. But you have to have them for a while, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:And when he was on those it was terrible. I felt so bad for him and it was just this constant depression and freak out and, you know, scared and what's happening to me and you know just like he hated it and he couldn't sleep right and he couldn't function right and it was like this is even worse. You know, it's almost as bad, if not worse, to go through that. It was really hard to watch that and I just said you got to do it, you got to do it, you got to do it, you got to stand it and finally he, he got off of that, the last third, that third episode, and he knew, he knew that he didn't want to do that ever again. He had enough of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, the the whole medication while while you're still and okay, he was probably off the marijuana, but the whole using a medication to treat this marijuana, that scares me as well, depending upon what it is, because, again, we don't know enough about the interactions with all these other meds and chronic marijuana use.
Speaker 1:You know, and it's one thing with Delta nine but it's a totally different thing with the Delta eight and all those other analogs, because those are all lab created. So that presents so many other problems, you know so. So the whole medication thing is just scary anyway. But I do think in the mental health world that people dealing with psychosis and schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders and things like that have to have some kind of medication. And many of these people have ended up with their psychosis from marijuana as well. So it is a crazy balance that you have to come to get used to at some point and it's some trial and error. So I hope, as time goes on and we out marijuana addiction and take it seriously, that they will find the proper medication balances to help wean someone off marijuana and psychosis at the same time.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to let you know too, that Kobe doesn't have to take medication anymore and he doesn't have schizophrenia. He doesn't have. We're not sure if you have bipolar I don't know if he has bipolar even but but he's doing fine without it. And there there, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. If you go through these psychosis episodes, that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel, it just takes some time to get through it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what you lead me to the next question. Yeah, linda, you were saying that Kobe is doing well and that he is one of the lucky ones. That is for sure he's doing so well. So my question for you is how come you keep doing this? Kobe is in a better place, your lives are less chaotic, so how come you keep doing this work and keep fighting this?
Speaker 2:We'd really like to hear about that. Well, I am really really strong about getting the word out because, honestly, I couldn't believe how horrible of an experience this was because of just weed and like, why doesn't everybody know about this? Why am I the only? I feel like I was the only one that knew about this, and I scoured the internet looking for somebody else, you know somebody who's gone through that. I had to really work hard at finding people to help me and that's what I needed was somebody else who went down that path so they could tell me about it. And there were people that helped me and I was on that path to learn about it and that's what I wanted to do for other people, because it is the worst thing to go through as a parent.
Speaker 2:They suffer in silence because they don't know who to talk to and they don't know what to even believe. It's like you can't believe that it's weed. You think it's something else, you think it's this, you think it's that, but really it's the weed and it's what it is. It's the weed that does it. Yeah, some people are more susceptible, I guess, than others, but it's becoming more and more where a lot of people are susceptible to this and they can't keep doing this without having people explain what the truth is, and I want people to know the truth.
Speaker 1:Right. Can you tell us what year it was when you first started research to find other people who were experiencing this and how that helped you by connecting with them? I think many of us know I think you're talking about Aubrey Adams initially, and I don't even know if she had Every Brain Matters yet or if she was just a mom out there doing what she was doing. So can you tell us a little bit about that and how you came to find others experiencing the same thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think it was in 2020 or 2021. Yeah, about 2021. It was when it was kind of we were in the throes of of this horrible, this horrible thing going on. He was in a psychosis and I remember going to a park with my granddaughter and thinking I was just at my wits end and I didn't know what to do and I was super sad and really depressed and not knowing what to. You know just who to talk to.
Speaker 2:And I found Aubrey Adams name and I called her while I was at the park and the for the first time and and she, she told me everything that I needed to know. Like, I know how you feel and I'm really sorry, yeah, this is hell. And and she explained how, um, I have to have boundaries and this is not, this is from weed and he can never smoke weed and, um, you know it, it's a, it's an addiction and I mean all these things that I couldn't believe I was hearing. You know, like this is an addiction and and this happens to other people, and how, um, devastating it was. She told me all of that and she just confirmed everything for me and that was so big, it was so huge. When I finally talked to Aubrey for the first time, I felt like a load was lifted off my shoulders, and that's what I needed. I needed to talk to somebody and it helped a lot.
Speaker 2:And that's what most parents need, I think, is to talk to somebody like that, and that's what most parents need, I think, is to talk to somebody like that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and was that before or after the psychiatrist had told you what this was? You already knew what he's, but you still didn't know anyone else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was after yeah, this was after the psychiatrist. And that's when I couldn't believe what I was going through. And that's when she validated my feelings and she's like you're not crazy, this really is from me. She helped me and she's like you're not crazy, this really is from you. Know, she helped me. It was just so hard to accept that this was happening because it was so weird and horrible to go through it, and she just helped me to get through the whole thing. She really did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that brings me to pan so was it aubrey who introduced you to pan? Yes, yeah, aubrey.
Speaker 2:Aubrey had told me about it mm-hmm and um, and then I I talked to you, I reached out, and then you reached back out and and we got in contact. I think it was just. It was mostly, you know, just trying to connect with people who knew about this, who understood about, who understood it's like a secret, like nobody knows it, and and you talk to anybody on the street or any of your friends or anybody your neighbors, they don't know, they don't understand. And then, when you talk to somebody, who is in the know, who understands it.
Speaker 2:It's like a breath of fresh air to talk to somebody who understands it and who have been there, and that's why you reach out to these people and you, pan, and whoever who can help you to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Right, and so I know that you and Gary are great together and have a great support system for Kobe. How about the rest of your family? Were they aware of what was happening with Kobe and were they supportive of what you were going through, or did you face some aversion, even?
Speaker 2:within your family. No, he has three other brothers and they and they all knew and and our our. You know, my sister-in-law understood it, everybody understood it, but his brother didn't really know how bad it really was, and when I we couldn't have him living here with us, it was my sister-in-law took him. Anyway, a long story short, nobody really knew what to do with Kobe because he was so hard to live with and we knew that we had to eventually get him to the hospital again. So he went to stay with my oldest son and my oldest son said well, it's probably not that bad, it's probably not that bad, he can stay here and things will be fine. He thought everything was going to be okay.
Speaker 2:And then he called me and he goes. Oh my God, oh my God, what is wrong with him? And he goes. I want to punch him in the face. I seriously want to punch him in the face. I can't stand being around him. What is wrong with him? He didn't know how bad it was. You know, until you live with that, until you see it groups.
Speaker 1:Raising your voice and telling this story and raising awareness has helped you to move forward in your journey and again, you're so lucky to be one of the lucky ones where Kobe has overcome this. Is there something you would like to tell other parents and families who are listening, some words of wisdom, anything you have to pass on, and I'd like to hear from you, linda and Kobe you as well, because again, you're a young person who's owned up to this and who is going to continue advocating, and we're so proud of you, so, both of you what message do you have for our listeners?
Speaker 2:uh, well, I can just say there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Um, I would say, don't just put it on the back burner. If you see that there's psychosis from weed, if you, if you know they're smoking weed, um, start, you know, start paying attention. And uh, if they do go into a psychosis from it, you've got to get them to the hospital, in my opinion, and get them on some medication for a while. And then just kind of put your boundaries down and make sure that you don't allow it or enable it, because it's not good for them, it's not good for you, it's not good for anybody to enable that. And then really, you got to know what you're going to do and stick to your guns and do it.
Speaker 2:And just you've got to know that you've got to do this. You just have to get them through it. You've got to get them off weed. You've got to get them to understand it. And if they don't want to do it, then they can, whatever your boundaries are. But they can't, you can't enable that able that. Um, and just just that you know, once they're off a weed and they understand they can't smoke it anymore, then they have a life, then they can start. You know, like kobe, he can start advocating for you know the good parts of of helping people and like he's in nursing school right now and he wants to be a psychiatric nurse and he's got that whole feel for what they're going through now when, when they're in a psychosis, with somebody's in psychosis, he understands exactly how they feel, which is probably a great field for him to be in. But yeah, I think, I think they just have to be tenacious and really stick to their guns.
Speaker 3:I think if I had any advice or words to give to parents, I would say keep with the conversation, stay updated. You know, reach out, try and talk to whoever is suffering, if it's your kid or brother or sister, whoever it really is. This affects a lot of people and you know, specifically to the kids, I mean, just stay away from it. I think it's better left. You know, you don't want to necessarily start with that. It's not a good way to start off your life and yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of good to be had.
Speaker 3:I'm really glad that I've been able to come over this at a pretty young age. I'm still only 23, so it's not like I'm super old, but yeah, I think people are just really unaware. And so trying to raise awareness of this type of thing, I think it'd be a pretty good idea, because the more people that are aware of it, the more people that can see it when it's happening. And so if that was done with me, I think a lot of the stuff I did could have been avoided pretty fast. Um, and then, you know, don't be afraid to reach out to people. Um, I think you know you can come up with your own rationale or reasoning why something's happening, but it's not always true unless you run it by a lot of other people. And there's a lot more people that know about it now than there were five, six years ago, which I'm really grateful for. But it's also so new that a lot of people are still super out of focus. They have no idea what's going on with it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, they have no idea what's going on with it. Um, so, yeah, right. So I have a question for you, kobe, and it might be a little bit of a tough one. Again, we're so proud of you that you've overcome this. You are still so young, at 23. So you are so lucky and it's so amazing that you chose to go into psychiatric nursing and literally make your experience matter. So I'm curious and right now you're just in school but are you fearful at all that working in the environment could trigger something for you in any way, like if you see this happening to someone else?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not too sure if that's going to happen. I think you know I've already worked in the psych ward that I was admitted to four years ago, so it's not like I'm going to be going in with, uh, no experience. I mean, I kind of see it as like an endearing thing in that they were able to even allow me back into the place seeing how I was acting, uh, as a patient, which I thought was pretty cool that they did that, um. So yeah, I just kind of feel like it's a pretty thing that I get to go back and help people in the same environment, just a different uh role, because I think a lot of people are going to be going through this uh and there's a lot yet to come with it. So this is kind of a story in development, I think a lot of.
Speaker 3:I, so this is kind of a story in development. I think a lot of people have the potential to have the same kind of path I went down and, unfortunately, I think it's pretty hard to prevent that at this point. I think it's more of like how do we deal with it when it makes its wraps, because it's every day there's. You've heard many, probably, stories I'm sure of, like ER nurses or just in general hospitals or jails, whatever you have it, police officers that have interactions with people in psychosis. You know, if it's not just weed, then there's another reason. You know there's many different reasons for psychosis, but I think the weed one is going to be very prevalent and it already is growing.
Speaker 1:So I'll only be there for it. I think that's amazing and, again, we are so proud and happy for you that you're doing so well and I love that you are advocating at such a young age and you're not alone in that, you know. I know that Johnny's Ambassadors is beginning a young person's group and they're raising awareness and meeting with each other, and Pan intends to raise those youthful voices in the near future. I know, kobe, you'd like to join us for a Hill Day and we look so forward to having that happen. Like to join us for a hill day, and we look so forward to having that happen. Um, it's there. Before we end again, is there anything we missed? Anything else you'd like to mention?
Speaker 1:I know, um, there's so much to talk about with these stories and you know, I think it's just very important for people listening to understand that, if you've realized each episode I've done, while there's similarities in a story, everyone is from a different state, so this is happening everywhere across our country and it's a real problem, and I think that's why the Fortitude podcast is so important as well to continue to hear stories that hopefully, our legislators will ultimately listen to as well and understand that this is happening everywhere and it has to stop.
Speaker 1:I don't know if there is a way to reel this in, but I definitely think people are beginning to hear and understand more and more that this is a problem. So I do think that's a good thing and, like I always say, I love my job and I love the families I've had the honor of meeting and I love helping raise your voices, but I absolutely hate that. I have a full-time job doing this. I have a full-time job doing this, you know, and that that is something I say to every, everywhere I speak and every legislator I speak to that I have a full-time job listening to these stories. This is not fake. This is happening, you know, and we have to keep fighting and raising awareness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'd like to add one thing, of course. Thank you, chrissy, for doing this and thanks for, you know, keeping the conversation going. I think it's a really good start. I don't think it'll end very soon. I think there's going to be a lot of ups and downs with, like, the journey of um.
Speaker 3:Weed is, as a whole, uh, in terms of like, legislature and social awareness, and you know, people need to stop glorifying it so much. I think that is one of the biggest downfalls we have right now in society is glorification of bad habits or bad tendencies. There there's so many other things than just weed. I think it's a just a general purpose term to just kind of uh, everyone that like glorifying stuff that is very obviously not good for you is probably not going to end up well Um, especially for people who are young. So, yeah, and it's a real thing.
Speaker 3:People people see stuff online and then there's a lot of the stuff that I got from online on the internet and people see this and it's not like the internet thinks weed is terrible. Trust me, I know I get a lot of people commenting on the internet and people see this and it's not like the internet thinks weed is terrible. Trust me. I know I get a lot of people commenting on the videos of my Dr Fielding saying he's, this kid's an idiot.
Speaker 3:It wasn't weed, he's just a. He's crazy, he's, he's got mental illness and they blame it all on everything but weed. But in reality, I, trust me, I did a trial and error on everything but weed and it was just the weed that did it. So yeah, I mean, and they'll fight to the death for this shit and it's crazy. I think it's seriously like choose your battles, and you know I chose mine and I think it's a good battle because I know it to be very true to myself and that's all I can really stick by and, yeah, just keep the conversation going and I think that's the best that we could probably do at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, chrissy.
Speaker 1:Thank you for doing that, and yeah, and those are very brave words because you know we get it as adults and you know all these moms across the nation here that they're crazy moms and and it's insulting when you know the truth. You know. So thank you for being brave enough to stick to your guns and to spread awareness on this issue and to overcome the hate, because it is awful, you know, and you should not have to experience that. I also want to give a shout out to you, Linda, because this is a big problem and every state has different things going on and, while it is legal at both recreationally and medically, in Montana they are trying to do things to make policies better that in some way protect us. So recently there's been some hearings going on in Montana to close loopholes and regulate these products a little better, and I just want to thank you, Linda, for always stepping up and being ready to speak. I want to thank you for coming to our Hill Day in February and for bringing Gary and for doing a great job and sharing that experience with us, for participating in our webinars and adding to our newsletters and everything you do as an advocate for this cause. So shout out to you and thank you and, of course, keep an eye on our newsletters, because we always try to shout out parents doing amazing things, and thank you so much, both of you, for being here. We talked a lot about how it's so hard to believe that this is the problem and that people are not looking to admit that in general.
Speaker 1:So this Thursday, the 27th, at 6.30 pm we usually do our webinars at 7, but we're doing this one a little earlier. We are featuring Dr Raymond Wiggins, who has written a book, the Myths of Marijuana and he is an amazing doctor who has studied this intently and he'll be speaking on our webinar and will be featuring a Connecticut slash, Florida mom, Amy, who will also be telling her story and how that relates to this whole argument that this is not from the marijuana. So our webinar is called yes, it Is the Marijuana, and again, it's at 630. We are starting right on time to accommodate Dr Wiggins. So please sign up if you haven't already, and it's going to be a good one. And we do plan to have another Hill Day in the spring, we're hoping definitely next February, as always.
Speaker 1:So please keep an eye out for our newsletter, our alerts, our Hill Day alerts and if you want to be a guest on the Fortitude podcast. Send me an email at Chrissy at learn about Samorg. And that's Chrissy C-R-I-S-S-Y at learn about Samorg. And again, just, we need to keep fighting this fight together. So, Linda and Kobe, thank you so much for being here, and the more we bring awareness to this issue, the harder it's going to be for our lawmakers to ignore the facts and finally put public health and wellness before profits. So keep fighting. We'll see you all soon.
Speaker 2:Thank you.