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 Dreams to Despair: The Real Cost of Medical Marijuana in Pennsylvania
What happens when marijuana addiction tears through a family's peaceful existence? Monica's powerful testimony reveals the devastating journey her family has endured since her son first encountered marijuana in high school.
Before marijuana entered their lives, Monica's son was thriving—an athletic hockey player with excellent grades and ambitious dreams of becoming a mechanical engineer for Formula One. His transformation from a motivated, engaged student to an aggressive, struggling teen happened with alarming speed. Monica shares with raw honesty how she an her husband witnessed the decay of their only son's life and their happy existence as a family.
The podcast delves into how marijuana legalization messaging permeates the school environment, with her son repeatedly bringing arguments about marijuana's supposed safety to the family dinner table. Monica exposes how the system failed her family when her underage son somehow obtained a medical marijuana card without parental knowledge or legitimate medical need, highlighting serious regulatory failures that put vulnerable youth at risk.
Perhaps most heartbreaking is Monica's description of their family's retreat into isolation: "We as a family end up like oysters... It's no birthdays, no Christmas, no parties." The conversation illuminates the profound loneliness parents experience when navigating a child's addiction, and how connecting with other affected families through advocacy networks has become Monica's lifeline.
After years of struggle including homelessness, car crashes, and jail time, there's cautious hope as her son at just 20 years old, is now three months clean and preparing to enter a sober living facility. Monica leaves listeners with urgent advice: "Open your eyes, understand this business and the implications... Pay attention, check the backpacks of the children, have conversations."
Have you witnessed how marijuana is affecting families in your community? Join Parent Action Network to share your story with legislators and help create meaningful change to protect our children's futures.
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https://learnaboutsam.org/
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Greetings, listeners. Welcome back to another episode of the Fortitude Podcast. And as some of you might remember, I am interviewing parents from Pennsylvania because recreational legalization looming. And we've been working very hard with the Pennsylvania Family Institute to fight against this legislation and bring awareness to the realities of why legalizing recreational marijuana would just be a disaster for Pennsylvania. I'd like to welcome Monica. Monica, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, and thank you for the work you do. Parents Action Network has been instrumental for me to walk with you and other people that are just learning so much about the tragedy that is over us. Yeah. I'm very grateful, and I just want to share my experience and hope it's helpful for so many other parents.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and we are so glad to have you, Monica. And for our listeners who don't know, Monica was able to join us at our most recent Hill Day. So we had almost 30 parents that were able to connect in person with each other, which is always a very powerful experience. And Monica came into this very frustrated with not a lot of knowledge, and yet she did a wonderful job of advocating on the Hill. And she is so readily available to advocate with us. So it is an absolute pleasure to have you here to tell your story and how this journey has evolved for you. Before we get into your story and what's gone on with your son, I always like to begin by hearing a little bit about what your life was like before marijuana became a negative issue in your life.
SPEAKER_01:That is a very beautiful question because the idea is to keep positive and keep in the memory of the heart all the beauty and meaning of a child in our life. My husband and I we married late in life. We never thought we would be parents, but a few months later, after our wedding, I got pregnant. And there was a beautiful baby that grew up in this family full of love and from Colombia. My son has cousins, aunts, uncle, grandparents in Colombia still alive. My parents are alive. He grew up as a very active boy, very mischievous boy that kind of spirit full of life, activities, funny, hacky player. I was one of those moms cheating for the boy at the rink. He was a boy full of promise, full of life. He was very self-conscious of the dream of being a boy in America, very greedy, very active. Our life was perfect with the up and downs of normal life. Some complaints at the school with discipline. He went to Catholic school for his one to seventh grade, and everything was okay. He was a good student, beautiful handwriting, dedicated. I never had to fight with him to do homework or for him to be engaged at the school. He was very engaged, very engaged socially, very engaged with teachers, full of like kids with all the up and downs. Very good in math. This boy grew up happy. We thought he was happy. We came back from a very beautiful trip in the summer of 2019. And he was a full of dreams, and he has his own lay-down future. Looking forward to study mechanical engineer in Northampton, England, a school I never had in my life. And also, he wanted to be a mechanical engineer to work for Formula One team. That was the dream of our child.
SPEAKER_02:And how old was he at that point in 2019?
SPEAKER_01:In 2019, he was just 15 years old. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:What dreams? Yeah. Formula One. That's super cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, he was very, very athletic and very into conversations with friends, asking questions about girls, asking questions about dating, no dating, doing reasoning. Oh, I think it's a stupid to date, things like that, like a boy 15 years old. And that summer was beautiful. That was our beautiful last summer. After that September, he went to ninth grade high school in our town. And we were very surprised because Antonio always did his homework. Antonio always did reports, homeworks, he and we noticed that he was spending a lot of time outside with friends and going to the river and going to the park. And for us never was a red flag. We just thought that everything was okay. But no, it wasn't. He barely finished ninth grade. I think he barely passed ninth grade and he started to become aggressive, confrontational, spending a lot of time in the street with friends or in the house or at the river or hanging out in Wawa. And he became aggressive with his father. One day he slept over in a place we don't we didn't know a friend. He also stopped hanging out with the same friend or with one friend. He became a network person. He became popular, but one friend here, one friend there, pick him up by somebody, pick him up from another one, and no tolerant to questions. We couldn't question his behavior. And from there we trickle down to a tragedy of misbehavior. He became aggressive with his father, he assaulted his father. And the history is very tragic. That is basically the story. We start to smell marijuana in his clothes. We start to see the decay on him and laziness and lack of purpose. devastating for Antonio. Hacking finish, school finish, and the addiction to the phone. I think the addiction to the phone starred and opened the door for another vices. We gave up a cell phone to Antonio when he was 13 years old. I was a mom at home for 13 years of his life.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I had that luxury. It's important.
SPEAKER_01:I know. I know, but it's like uh we never know. We we always fail. Whatever you do, we fail. We always lack something. I went back to work when he was 13 years old, and I gave a cell phone number a cell phone to be in contact with me because at that time in 2017-18, when I went to back to work, I was in office. And I think the phone with internet, with a boy full of hormones, full of curiosity, marijuana came to his life like a part of the agenda. There is something very sad for me. Is when he went to ninth grade, he every day came from school with very impositive ways to bring to us the topic about marijuana. And he said it, I'm going to smoke marijuana, marijuana is legal. It's more dangerous the glass of wine you are having at home for dinner than the marijuana I'm smoking.
SPEAKER_02:But what's interesting with him saying that is we know that Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016. And again, that's medical marijuana. And that's and and and forget the whole argument that we don't condone medical marijuana. But plain and simple, medical marijuana was released with particular conditions for being able to obtain, and this is originally in 2016 because it's become a mess in Pennsylvania. But originally there were a handful of conditions that would allow you to get a medical marijuana card. And that has just exploded. So also he was 17, regardless, or younger, right? But what but he was below 21, but technically it was not legal for him no matter what.
SPEAKER_01:That is the issue, and I appreciate that you bring that because one of the most important things we suffered or happened to us as a family, and I say it to my son, you got brainwatch at the school, and you wanted to brainwatch us. Right. And you are in a mission of brainwatch us. But I'm going to tell you, marijuana is wrong always. Marijuana opens doors to other drugs, marijuana makes you lazy, poor, and violent. And that is clear since before I was born. Right. I know marijuana, what is doing. But the issue is all those aspects of legalization of marijuana and the aspect of medical marijuana, our sonbroeder to our dining table all the time just to try to get from us the approval. And he always says that our age and the differential in generation, because we are all the parents, is the problem for that reason he couldn't enjoy and smoke marijuana more. And one of the things that is very indignating for me is to see that my son, out of the blue, I don't know how, with what doctor, got a marijuana car. He is a user of marijuana because he has a marijuana car. Now he's smarter. This is a joke. We live in a joke place.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Antonio never asked me, or we never went to his paediatrician to ask for marijuana car. He just told us on our face, I have a marijuana car. I use a marijuana car. And guess what? He became the useful idiot bringing in his car or going in other cars with other children to New Jersey or here around in Pennsylvania to get marijuana for other children. Because my understanding is like he was one of the only ones that has marijuana car. Because he used his leadership, his capacity, he interpreneered mind, he was his way to get a marijuana card. The issue is not the age, he does everything in his way. Because of the corruption of the system, he got a marijuana card. Absolutely. Say again?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely, because of the corruption of the system, because again, you have to be 18, you have to check a box online to say, I am 18 to get a medical marijuana card in Pennsylvania. And it is one of the worst states, has the worst reputation for giving out marijuana cards across the board. We have multiple families in Pennsylvania with these horror stories.
SPEAKER_01:And I asked him, What is the name of the doctor? Oh, I don't know. How do you get that? I'm not going to tell you. And I say, How much you pay? Oh, I pay like a$200. And I say, And what is the problem you have? What is what is your sickness to get marijuana? And he says, Oh, I told him that I have an accident in hacking and my back is hurting me for life. And he gave me. And I say, You be very careful. I know the name of that doctor. Wow. Because that is other issue. We as a parent woke up into a nasty reality. When we realize that our son is addicted to marijuana, so many things happen already. So many conversations, so many businesses, so much going on. Marijuana tragedy in our home, in our family, jumps on us after we were late to this. We didn't know anything about marijuana. My husband is an ex-navy boy. We are not curious about drugs. We don't care about drugs. Our life orbitates in another way. And we didn't have any interest about learning about drugs or legalization or how much we can get about marijuana. Right. But my son went to school and the environment was there, the conversation was open there. They were trying, they they knew that we'll be legalized, and they knew that marijuana car was available, no matter what age you have.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Wow. You know, I didn't realize that your husband, being a Navy man, is a veteran then, correct?
SPEAKER_01:He's a veteran, he he served the Navy, he's a lieutenant something. I I I'm sorry, I he okay. He has spent seven years in the Navy. How many? Seven or eight years in the Navy. Okay. He's uh he's a good American, he's a very good man, and and we have been test. Our only child just decided, made very bad choices. And and our question, my question, is where we fell, what we didn't do, what we did wrong, that my son wasn't prepared for for this for this moment in history.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, nobody's prepared for this moment in history, Monica. This is not a reflection on parenting, uh, nor should any parent feel guilty or like they've done something wrong here, because this is a predatory industry, plain and simple, an addiction for profit industry that is preying on our loved ones, our youth and young adults, but really preying on society, because this is affecting the elderly population, the disabled population, the homeless population, absolutely everybody. And it does not discriminate. And so it really saddens me when our parents feel guilty because this is no reflection on anything that you've done or had any control of, because the whole industry is just predatory and despicable.
SPEAKER_01:It is, it is, and I think it's an assault in the good faith of parents, no matter what age or what social or education level. I think a parent is a parent that have a devoted love for their children. No parent on earth wants to have an addictive child, and and it's an assault in society, it's an assault, is and as you say it, in just because of profit and making believe that this industry has future, and the base of this business is just getting people addicted very, very young. Addicted no matter what. Get addicted is not my problem. Now he's 20, but younger in starting this conversation. And we have been very open. The conversations in this house about marijuana are open and disgusting, and the attacks to each other and the way we talk, because we try to be civilized, but there are moments that there are a lot of screams, a lot of barrels. And my son was telling me if you were young, if both of you were young, you will smoke him with me. Do you know what is my dream, mom? Then you smoke marijuana with me. And I say keep dreaming because I will never try that disgusting thing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like um it is it is the daily life of marijuana for families. I don't think anybody can describe how sad is the night of a couple knowing that their child is on the street with whom doing what.
SPEAKER_02:Right, right. And even if they are of a legal age, that doesn't mean we don't worry any less, you know. In fact, we probably worry more.
SPEAKER_01:And the glamourization, they gave glamour and certainly status to marijuana because kids than are in media, they say one of the conversations with my son is I can function with marijuana. I'm going to show you I can function with marijuana, and I say function. You barely graduate from high school. Function? Oh, but Elon Musk is function. Elon Musk and Joe Rogan function, and I say function in what way? Yeah. That is not the way, that is a lie, that is part of the business. They are not telling all the truth about the effect of marijuana, and now on the other way, Elon Musk is not my son. You are my son. I don't care about Elon Musk. Right. I care about you, and I see the effect of marijuana in your life. And not talking about other people. I'm talking about my son.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and of course, you know, again, it's not going to affect everybody the same way, and it may not affect everybody, period. Like there are some people that aren't going to be struck with psychosis or CHS or any of the effects that we're talking about. But what we do know is that the developing brain is most vulnerable from childhood through age 25. And definitely everyone in that age category is impacted by this, even if you don't feel the impacts. Your brain is impacted by marijuana if it's in your system. And we do know that. That is just scientifically proven, and there's no arguing it.
SPEAKER_01:My son just see it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:My son, at this point, he's 20, and he's in a very interesting moment now. Then we hope continuous in a momentum. He's without consuming now for a couple of months, and he says, I waste a lot of time if I just did it differently. If I just kept myself in the school, if I just graduate.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Monica, before you continue about um the good news, what I do want to touch on is we've talked about how your both you and your husband were against marijuana prior to legalization. And but what I wanted to know from you is that, you know, one of the questions I ask parents is once you realized it was a factor, what did you do to find help for your son, but also for you as a family? And I know from your story that your your son was completely resistant to getting any help. So before we talk about this turnaround, which is so positive and wonderful, I just want you to give us a little bit of background about after the assault and run in with the law enforcement, how you number one started to realize and maybe convince others that this was simply marijuana. Obviously, it was a mental health issue due to marijuana, but that there was no prior history of mental health issues, you know, school performance was good, and then all of a sudden you see all these things and you're smelling marijuana, and he's telling you he's using marijuana. So, number one, did you seek medical help for him at all, or was he completely resistant and you couldn't get anywhere with that? And how did you come to find any more information besides your own research? And if you even did your own research. So, how is it that we're speaking here today? Because you you started to do something apparently to find out more about what was happening with marijuana in this country.
SPEAKER_01:That is a very extensive question with a very deep, sad answer because you are seen a movie that you cannot believe. And every second is getting worse and worse. And uh there is a first assault, there is the police involved, there is a girlfriend in the picture a little after or months after, with the challenge that the girlfriend is a strange for us. She consumes marijuana too. In her family, her parents smoke marijuana with the girl. Like a it's a perfect storm that you cannot stop, and you are trying to get out of there and bring your loved one out, and in one moment you just step out and sit down to watch that domino effect, right? Right.
SPEAKER_02:That that's a very good response, you know. Just and it was a lot of questions.
SPEAKER_01:So so the but it's but that I have to tell you something that is just uh the second question of you. The the journey is very lonely, the tragedy is very unique and very personal, it's a lot of chame, a lot of silence, a lot of isolation for us as a couple, as a family. You retreat yourself, you stop to celebrate things, to be with people. We as a family end up very like oysters, it's whatever I say to Antonio. Why would we come oysters? We are no oysters, we are social dolphins, we are animals that love people and jump and have fun. Yeah, let's be that dolphin family. And that is like uh the perfect tragedy because it's no birthdays, no Christmas, no parties, no, he never goes with us to anywhere. He disappeared from our group of friends, and slowly, slowly we disappear also because we are exhausted and drained, and the solitude becomes just a different journey. You keep strong. Magically, you survive this. So many other women didn't survive it, but I believe I'm a survivor. Yes, still I'm healthy, still I stand up from bed, still I take a shower, I talk with people, I laugh, I knew, I pray, I cook. We keep going. My husband keeps going, and we keep going, Antonio. He's alive. The miracle of everything here is he is still alive. Yes, because he has been assault, he has been homeless in Philadelphia, you name it. But that solitude became very good company. Now that other friend I have for launches, I exchanged for Chrissy, Rowan, Jennifer, go to Harrison, let's go to Washington, read this book, read contact Daryl, contact this service, check this. Like uh I by miracle, I don't know how things happen in life, but my first approach with resources was uh every brain matters, yes, and Audrey, and the website and the opportunities, there participating in meetings.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Was open-minded for me. And I realized I wasn't alone. We realized there was things to read, there was resources. And but the resources are very difficult to access. Sometimes understand the dynamic of the resources. Try to put my husband, the wallet, the time, money, everything together is very difficult. And also the person that is addict, my son, never ever wanted help. Saying, why am I going to a psychologist to tell him what he wants to hear? What is the sense? I know I have a problem. I know it's my fault. I know what I did wrong. I don't know what to do, but I will find them myself. You don't need to spend the money on that. And it's a barrel. He's now going to a psychologist here and there, every three weeks, a conversation. I say, Antonio, as much I can help you, I don't have the tools. There are professionals and has the tools. You need more self-motivation, you need to find the groove, you need to talk honestly with other people, maybe explain your trauma, what I did wrong, what you did wrong, what is wrong with our family.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. With you.
SPEAKER_01:But it's like coming back to that partnership you find in life as a mother or as a family with an uh dict child. Audrey put me in contact with you. Right. Yep. And through you, I've been meeting with other people, I've been talking with other people, people. I went to Washington, and that was a very important experience for me, where I find out that maybe there is a purpose for me as a mom. And I'm very committed with this because whatever happened to us as a family that never ever saw this coming, this cannot happen. This cannot continue to happen in schools to sport kids, to athletic kids, to smart kids. This cannot happen to anybody in America. Absolutely. Because the promise of America is broken. The future of our children is broken and we need to restore. I pray for the restoration of my son, but I want to work for the restoration of our society. Marijuana can not be an agenda.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. Beautifully and perfectly said. And Aubrey sends many parents in her way that are interested in advocating, you know, at that angry point. Aubrey and I talk a lot about how she and I both know only too well that so many parents come to her broken and they're not at the point of advocacy yet. They need to heal a little bit and, you know, be involved with support networks. But then you come to a point. We talk about how it's almost like the stages of grief where you go through the motions and then you come to a point where you're angry and done, and you're like, I have to move on. And that's when Aubrey says, okay, well, I'm going to connect you with Parent Action Network. And that's how how the next phase happened for Monica. So she got some of the support she needed, was able to tell her story and voice her desire to advocate. And then here she is with us now. And again, like we talked about in DC, not only do we give parents the opportunity to speak, you travel in a group. So yes, you speak with other legislators, but you're bound to speak with your own legislator, which is why zip codes are very important to us at Penn, because we want to connect you with your proper legislators. And we had a very positive experience because, again, after DC and the power, the power of that event, because of looming legalization in Pennsylvania, we took a bunch of Pennsylvania parents to Capitol Hill with my partners in the Pennsylvania Family Institute. And Monica had was wonderful. First of all, she participated in a press conference where she did a great job. And not only that, we had a multitude of meetings in the Capitol, and we sat with Senator Santosario's staffer, Corey, who that is Monica's senator, and we had a wonderful conversation, and she facilitated a relationship with Corey where this young man readily communicates with Monica via text and was just so wonderful hearing her story and connecting with her. And so Monica doesn't give herself enough credit, but she has made a huge difference in her advocacy and in Pennsylvania. And we're going to be continuing that. And that is why, again, we're we're podcasting all our as many as of our Pennsylvania advocates as we can.
SPEAKER_01:So you have been very generous. And for me, Meet with Pan is a breaking point, is a start point for me. Don't feel lonely, don't feel uh just devastated or the atham because it's true. The until what point we can be a chain. That has to finish. Just get up, accept it for what it is, and with no pride, with no in this process, we need to be very humble and accept that individuals are very different and choices are very different. And some choices are bring a lot of success, and other uh choices are just a setback. I'm clearly sure Antonio is going to be able to move forward. We believe, I believe, that the opportunity of just being alive is just all the potential is there. No matter how an individual redirects themselves with bad choices, this is the land of redemption, and our children are going to be able to overcome this nasty business that wants to push their lives. And I'm ready. And just to be able, because there are many ways to fight this, but I love this executive way: government, policy, communities, schools, policemen, judges, counties, real executive actions where we defend our children. There are many ways to pray, to do therapy, to do other things, to overcome. But I think this is the most executive way to say basta. No more, enough is enough. Stop to brainwatch our children, stop this business. This is just a business that wants to destroy our children. And I'm ready just to be helpful in any way. I need to learn more, I need to be very well prepared, study more, and be ready just to help. And as I told Corey, come to dinner to my home and see the eyes of my child. Maybe he's not coming to dinner. We are missing so many dinners with my child. But you need to see the reality and the meaning of marijuana in the day-by-day life of people. Yeah. Let's see. Let's see, Chrissy. I am in your hands. Just guide me.
SPEAKER_02:And then again, I'd I'd like to talk about this positive note because I did kind of cut you off. Um, so I want people to be aware that your son is three months clean from marijuana. And just tell us a little bit about how that happened, like how what led him to come to you and say, I'm done with this.
SPEAKER_01:There is very interesting things about it. It's a long process. We had been almost six years on this um free fall, and with many up and downs, jail time, homelessness almost very tough moments. He has been in jail two times, and and we let everything happen. We my husband and I, we say he needs to pay the consequences of the choices. We are not going. As much money we spend in lawyers, as much money cost all of this for years and years, and crash cars, and he doesn't have a driver's license, he crashed so many cars. You name it. How he came to this point? And I would like to show you pictures of him four months ago and now. Four months ago, he was homeless. Four months ago he was high. And also I bet with other drugs. He says that he tried so many drugs. He says I try everything. I the only thing I didn't try, mom, is heroin. But uh I try everything, and it's devastating for me because I don't know anything about drugs. Nothing. I never saw it. I never nothing. I never tried it. I'm I'm a nerd, I'm I'm not into that war. This boy needed to come home because he had court. He needed to go to court to decide one case. Then he had a case very to give you an idea. He had two cases in Books County and two cases in Philadelphia. And he needed to come home to be ready for one of the cases in Books County. After he heard the decision of the judge, he was devastated. He is in this moment with four years of probation. That four years of probation, I think, sent him a message and just put him in the reality he is. After he went to court, he came home, he cut his hair, he asked for money to go to the haircut. No, but gets better. To to give you an idea of the function of this family, we had an overseas trip, a overseas trip that was postponed for almost two years and a half. And my husband said, We are going. No more waiting for Antonio, no more we are leaving. And we left. We left the country, and my husband says, Here is the the Uber car to go to court, here is the the refrigerator has food. You need to take care of the dog, go to court by yourself. That's it.
SPEAKER_02:That's that's so wonderful. And I think that's a really great place to end with. Another statement about hope or fighting.
SPEAKER_01:I will say follow your heart, fight for your child. There is a battle warded to continue. We are not still victorious. The only victory here is the opportunity we have because our son is alive. I feel full of hope because I have also people like you, organizations like you, that are fighting for us, and we as a soldiers need to continue fighting. I just will say open your eyes, parents, uh understand this business, and the implication and the language are there in the schools. Pay attention, pay attention, check the back parts of the children, have conversations. And still we are, still we are. We are waiting for a better outcome. Antonio is going to be in a sober house soon, within 15 days. He's going to be in a sober house in Georgia. It's amazing. A place to start over to be uh working and doing treatment, 12 steps meetings, but it's a house with 20 men in the same situation from different ages, and this place has uh two restaurants and one electrician facility where he can learn to be an electrician. Also they offered work in a golf course, it's an opportunity for my son to start over. His level of shame and disconnection with our town is uh so big that he's ready to go, and he says, I want to start over. And every day is a victory if he is not consuming any drug, and for now and on, I'm just living the day, living one day at a time, uh trying to provide to him support. I'm not the best, I'm not the most patient, I'm not the most sweet, but uh I'm trying just to be helpful as a mom, as a sad mom that wants other reality. But I know there is hope. And and that keeps me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, thank you, Monica. And and again, I do just want to mention that the help that Monica is receiving for her son came from working with a fellow advocate and friend of ours, Darrell Rogers from North Carolina. And I want to emphasize again the connections made on our Hill Day because we are going to be sending information out soon enough about our upcoming February Hill Day. So please look out for that. And again, I want to mention that we called this podcast, this podcast Fortitude, because fortitude means showing courage in the face of grief and adversity. And here today with Monica, we have another really great example of that. So thank you, Monica, for being here with us and thank you for everything you're doing, and thank you for being so honest and open about your story. It was really a pleasure to have you. We do this podcast, and we hope that each episode leaves the listeners and hoping those are legislators with a profound understanding of the urgent need for awareness, better regulations, the power of community support, which is most important, in addressing the challenges posed by today's marijuana products. So again, Monica, thank you so much for being here.
SPEAKER_01:I am very grateful. Thank you. I hope I can bring some light and some hope to many other moms. Every family, every child, every tragedy is different with different outcomes and different looks. But uh I want just to be helpful and I'm very grateful also for the support I received from you and the people I met in through these meetings and through internet, through resources. Very valuable people, very professional, and I'm looking forward just to have a victorious story.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Well, again, I thank you so much for being here. Please keep listening to future episodes, and uh, we'll be back soon.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you.