Fortitude: Turning Tragedy into Action

Shattered Vows: How "Medical" Marijuana Destroyed a Veteran's Marriage

• PAN & SAM • Season 2 • Episode 18

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A steady marriage, a decorated service record, and a belief that cannabis could help—until the household began to fracture under the weight of rage, paranoia, and sleepless nights. We sit down with an anonymous wife from Hawaii who once backed legalization and even held a medical card herself. Her perspective shifted as dispensary “choice” replaced dosing guidance, and her husband’s PTSD collided with high-potency products like dabs, vapes, and edibles. What began as evening use grew into a constant drip of THC that reshaped personality, strained friendships, and forced a separation for safety.

We walk through the pivotal moments: the ransacked bedroom that signaled a tipping point; the confusion over whether cannabis could really cause such volatility; the attempts to seek help through the VA, Mar-Anon, and Thrive; and the hard-earned lessons about boundaries and enabling. Along the way, we explore how today’s cannabis marketplace blurs the line between “medical” and retail, offering potency without standardized dosing, minimal counseling, and branding that speaks louder than warnings. For veterans already navigating trauma, anxiety, and complex medication profiles, that gap can be devastating.

This story isn’t an attack on research-backed cannabinoid medicines for narrow conditions. It’s a clear-eyed account of what happens when policy and marketing outpace clinical guardrails—when families are told “it’s natural” while dosage, potency caps, and drug interactions remain afterthoughts. If you care about mental health, veteran well-being, and honest public health messaging, you’ll find both urgency and empathy here. Listen, share with someone who needs it, and help push the conversation toward real oversight and safer choices. 

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SPEAKER_01:

Greetings, listeners. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Fortitude Podcast. This is Chrissy Grohnwieger of the Parent Action Network, and we are 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. As many of you know, normally I introduce our guest and the state that they are from. And in today's episode, we are going to keep the identity of our guest anonymous for her own protection, as there are some very scary aspects of this story, and we we have to protect her. So I will say that our guest is from Hawaii. She is here to talk about a story involving her husband, who is a veteran of the armed forces. This is a story not of a parent and a child's journey, but of a marriage and how marijuana is destroying this marriage. Thank you so much for being here. I know this is scary, but we're here every step of the way with you. And I'm so very thankful that you are brave enough to be here and tell us your story. So thank you for being with us.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

I like to begin by talking about what your stance was and what your life was like before marijuana became a factor in it.

SPEAKER_00:

Honestly, with uh didn't have a problem with marijuana. You know, I I smoked it quite often in college, and I thought that the the concept of it being used for medicinal purposes was really promising. I know a lot of people like to take holistic routes, and I guess medical marijuana became a little bit more attractive. Um, I did at one point too, did have my medical card, but um I stopped using it because it was having um adverse reactions with me, like making my anxiety worse, my sleep issues worse as well. But in the beginning of all this, I I honestly was pro-legalization and was trusting the system that they had their patients' best interests at heart, but um that's turned out to not be the case in my situation.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And and as you said, you were using it for your own anxiety. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I actually do struggle with depression. Um, I have a nurse that prescribes me my antidepressant, and I did talk to him at length about it. Um he wasn't against it. He just he he was probably the only one that really gave me any proper forewarnings of the potency. That's when I kind of started to get a little bit more information about it and just using it very sparingly. But, you know, when I went to get my card, I had a doctor that I met with, and I was in and out of that room like in about five minutes, wasn't properly instructed or coached or taught how to use it, the potency, none of that. I was even more astonished the first time I went into a dispensary on my own and having some 20-year-old kid. Yeah, one of the first questions he asked me is if you want a body high or head high. And I'm thinking kind of an odd thing to say to a customer. Yeah. Um so yeah, in the beginning, I was definitely for it. I saw it being very promising. I remember seeing something on CNN years ago about Charlotte's Webb, a little girl that would have, you know, constant seizures. So I thought, hey, it's it's promising. This might be a wonderful alternative for a lot of people. Right. And that's the story I was going off of.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And of course, for our listeners who don't know, there are forms of marijuana as medicine used for childhood epilepsy. But again, those are prescribed by a neurologist for that very specific seizure disorder. And if you get prescribed that medication as a child from your doctor and you go to a pharmacy to pick it up, if you go to a pharmacy in Hawaii or New York or Timbuktu, it doesn't matter. You're gonna get the same prescription because it is prescribed medicine. A medical marijuana card is not a prescription.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's not. Um, my first experience with that dispensary was like uh a kid in the candy store. You know, different potencies, different strands. I mean, I didn't, I really didn't know a whole lot about it. I just didn't. And once again, I was assuming that it was, you know, the same pot that I smoked 20 years ago in college to relax you, put you at ease. But um, it definitely is not the same marijuana from back then.

SPEAKER_01:

It's also interesting. We had a parent once say that she actually felt like she had to become a chemist because it was like mix a little of this one with a little bit of this one, and and you're like, wait a minute, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't do that. I can't imagine an average person doing that with their medication they get from their doctor, right? You go by the susc you go by the prescription and you follow the instructions on it, but even the the stuff you get in the dispensaries, there's no medical label for it. There's not even a warning of do not use while driving, like any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So how is it like you said, it's really not prescribed. Right, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And and so tell us a little bit about at the same time you were using it, or even if it was more sparingly, tell us about your husband and the reasons for his use and how that began.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, he started using it to help um alleviate his symptoms of PTSD. Um, you know, he had some trauma from deployments, being in the military for 20 years, and there was also some trauma from childhood. He started out using it pretty responsibly, um, at least from what I could observe. I was maybe using it in the evenings. I definitely would never see him, you know, high before going to work or coming home. Then after a while, I started to notice like some irritability, but I thought, oh, maybe that's just the PTSD. That's a pretty classic symptom of it. And the behaviors began to get worse and worse. Um, irritability started turning into full-on rage. I guess I could call it psychosis situations too. I had to, you know, get educated on that. There would be times where God, um, there's so many wild stories. There is times where I, you know, I come home from work and he's very irate and screaming at the top of his lungs, covering his ears, you know, thinking I'm yelling at him, am I not? Very paranoid or crazy thoughts. Like, I remember during the pandemic with the COVID vaccines, it's like he honestly thought that like our federal government was putting microchips into the vaccines trying to track Americans. Just really bizarre off behavior, a lot of rage, going out into the driveway, screaming at the top of his lungs. Um, I mean, there's just so many stories, and I just at one point just began I just began to get very concerned for my safety and well-being and also his. Um, but one of the first times I realized, oh, this is a problem now was I uh came home from work one day. I had tried hiding his marijuana, which I guess in some weird way was my way of trying to control the situation, but you really can't ever control it. Uh it set him off. He had called me a couple times while I was at work asking, where is it? Where is it, was screaming and cussing at me. And I just said, Hey, I'm gonna be home soon. I'll let you know, and just kept getting off the phone. And he called once more, and I picked up and he was pretty calm on the phone, you know, apologized for you know yelling at me and using foul language, and he just said, Hey, you know, um, I got really mad and I threw your basket of laundry across the room. I was like, Okay, you know, thanks for letting me know. Came home, went and used the bathroom, started noticing my stuff was thrown off the counter, and I thought, well, that's odd. I picked that stuff up and put it back in its place, and then I headed to our bedroom, and it literally looked like we got robbed.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

The entire bedroom was ransacked, ripped every single one of my dressers, drawers out all over the place. All of my clothes, shoes, anything hanging in the closet was thrown across the room. Perfume bottles, jewelry, all off of the dresser. And I remember thinking in that moment, um, this is not good.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

This is so not good. And I ended up taking some pictures, um, just to, you know, anytime I was recording or documenting things at the suggestion of one of his veterans' friends was to show his doctors at the VA. Um and I just I just remember that day like it was yesterday, felt I just I'm like, this is so not good. What do I do? Um, he eventually came back into the bedroom and he was calm and he's you know, he apologized for it and said he could help me to put this stuff back. And I said, No, that's okay. I, you know, I I've got this. But that was literally the first sign I knew. Something's wrong here, because this is the man I've been married to for about 20 years, and he was always cool, calm, and collective. I mean, so calm, cool like a cucumber. And now he's not. I don't know who he is now. I just don't. It's like living with Jekyll and Hyde. Anything sets him off.

SPEAKER_01:

And at that point, did you suspect the marijuana yet? Or you just I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, it was I think with the bedroom incident, yeah. I started leaning towards that. Um, you know, he'd been on and off of his you know, medication that the VA psychiatrist had given him. But then also, too, I didn't know, well, you know, there's a lot of trauma there from childhood in the military, but you know, I still just you know, there are points where myself or our friends were thinking, well, maybe he's using another drug, like marijuana is supposed to make you chill. It's supposed to make you chill, giggle, get the munchies. It's not supposed to have this side effect to it. Right. So I I I was kind of on the fence. But um I just started seeing the frequency was going up more and more. I started seeing other things coming into the house like dabs, which I had no idea what dabbing was. Um, I started seeing changes of him, you know, carrying a vape pen around with him or gummy. So he would be smoking, you know, before going into work and maybe a few times during the day, and then again, you know, in the evening or at night, but he was also, you know, doing puffs of the vape pen throughout the day. And I'm like, that's a little bit too much. So I slowly but surely started to think, wait, it has to be the pot. It just so has to be. Um, and then that's where at one point I kind of came across different groups, um, like Marinon for support and thinking, wow, there's actually a marijuana's anonymous. Yeah. This must be a really big issue if it's marijuana's anonymous now. And just started looking up stuff, and and that's how I came across um Aubrey Adams and and and her group and realizing, oh, wait, this is definitely what's going on. This is definitely what's going on. And I didn't feel crazy anymore.

SPEAKER_01:

So you mentioned Aubrey and EBM, and obviously that's how um Aubrey connected you with Pan and just got you more involved in the network. And I'm so glad that you've found Marinon to be helpful. That's really, really important. You did mention that you were in a a 20-year marriage. I probably should have asked you this first, but your husband's been a veteran for a long time, right? So prior to the marijuana use, um, he had been deployed and he would come home and and he was still the man you married initially.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, I yeah, I mean, I would start noticing the first deployment, which was in the beginning of the marriage, that was to uh Ramadi, and that's when things were still quite bad. This was like in 04, 05. Um, I noticed little things like he might jump if there if a car backfired, that kind of stuff. I noticed some depression, and you know, I was always supportive and encouraged him to talk to his doctors, go to therapy, and say, hey, I have depression. There's help out there, it's don't be ashamed of it. Um and he was pretty responsive to it. You know, go to therapy here and there, would be on an antidepressant. But really, the only things I would really ever notice of him during the marriage when he was active duty might just be some depression, issues with sleep, that kind of stuff, but still never. I mean, this was a man that you just never saw angry. You never really saw him or heard him raise his voice, even as his even his friends would say the same thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm so sorry that this has affected your marriage. You know, we've talked a lot, and I know you love this man, and so I'm really sorry that you're going through this. I also like to talk a lot about what's helped you move forward, but I realize this is still a very fluid situation, and again, why we're protecting your identity at this point and your safety. But I would like to talk a little bit about the things you have done to keep yourself safe and to educate yourself and find support. So tell us a little bit about the things you're doing for yourself.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I am very fortunate to have a wonderful support system. You know, I have a wonderful therapist. So I'm doing a lot of trauma work because um I have PTSD now from what's been going on for the past few years. Um, you know, I still will struggle with some nightmares of flashbacks. Um, so I am actively in therapy. Um groups like Marinon or another one that I came across that I participate in Thrive, that's really helped. Um, you just don't feel like you're alone. You know, all of us in those groups have, you know, um hid the substance, you know, we you just start to learn like how many ways when you think that you're trying to help them, that you're actually enabling them, and you almost become addicted to the addiction, you know, that kind of a thing. And all of us have thought that we could fix them, and you never can. So I'm learning a lot of valuable insight and lessons. Um, I do have some regret looking back at things, but I know in the past I I was doing the best I could with what I had, and it was just all very, just very, very difficult seeing someone that you love so much turn into someone that you literally do not recognize with the you know emotional outbursts, with you know, believing in crystals and tarot to I mean, just just so many bizarre, odd, even just some crazy behaviors. And what do you do with that? And it becomes a struggle to take care of yourself while you're trying to take care of your your spouse who's also a veteran. And uh I ran into some some uh some challenging situations trying to work with some of the VA doctors. Um, and I've gone to some of his appointments, um, and it's pretty much the same thing, them encouraging him to stop using it. Or the last appointment I went with him last summer, this was after he was rushed to the hospital two days in a row. And I'm at his psychiatry appointment, and you know, one of the first things that the doctor asked me as we walked into the room is, is he still breaking things in the home? I said, No, that's subsided, but the rage is still there. And um, you know, she encouraged him to maybe try to stop smoking the pot for 30 days so she could get a baseline if whether his medication was the issue or the marijuana. And um, you know, whenever you try to talk to him, body gets very angry, very, very angry, very, very defensive. And, you know, it's like he listens to the medical advice, so to speak, from his nurse practitioner, who uh, you know, at the end of the day, some of these doctors and nurses, it's it blows my mind still how some of them are legally authorized to sign off on these medical cards. Um, I know his nurse in particular, her background is in palliative care. She's got no background in psychology, nothing. Nothing whatsoever.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Can you tell us a little bit more about that, or is is that something you'd rather not talk about right now? How the system um well, uh a little bit about what you've gone through in the system, because I know that there have been some that have been supportive and as you said, encouraged him not to use, but you've had some roadblocks also with some that have kind of defied you and really that has negatively impacted your marriage.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um, so God, maybe about a year and a half ago, um, I was encouraged by a friend to um report to the Department of Health the adverse reaction, so to speak, that I was witnessing in the home. So, you know, I submitted an anonymous complaint, which the Department of Health has that on their on their website, and uh listed a bunch of things that have been going on, like the anger, the aggression, some violent stuff, um, you know, driving high all the time, going in the work hall, playing out high all the time. And somehow he found out. I don't know why, I thought it was supposed to be anonymous. He came home that day, was very angry at me. I know I tried to play dumb at first, but didn't work out all that well. And uh, so he got really angry saying that I was trying to take away his medicine, and well, now he would have to go in the streets and get the black market weed, and it could be laced with fentanyl, right? And I'm like, I didn't really have much to say because I knew when he would get into that space, is just sit back and kind of take it or listen to it. Um so he found out that I had submitted that complaint because when he went in to renew his card with his previous nurse practitioner, she declined. He then went to another nurse practitioner and she signed off on it. So, from my understanding, and I'm still trying to get a better grasp on it, um, when a card is flagged, so to speak, with the Department of Health, and someone goes in to renew it, um, I believe the nurse or the doctor um can see that flag um and what's going on. But this nurse chose to still renew it. And I did reach out to her not too long ago, and she came across as very defensive, saying, I have no control over how much they use. I'm just a cannabis consultant, which I kind of laughed at.

SPEAKER_01:

I yeah, I love that title.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I explained to her some more things that were going on, and I just was dismissed at the end of the day, and she said, Hey, if you're concerned for safety, make sure you call authorities. And that was pretty much it.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, really not a care in the world.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Are you are you and your husband living in the same house or are are you separate right now?

SPEAKER_00:

No. Um, we have not been living together since June. There's been some legal um things going on. Um not to get into it, but um, it is for the best. I'm able to finally feel safe in the home. Um I'm no longer coming home from work and pulling into my driveway, wondering, okay, what version of him am I gonna walk into? Um, so so yeah, um, we have not been together since June. Um it was hard in the beginning, uh, worrying about him a lot, worrying about who he was with, because he doesn't hang around the best people sometimes. Um, but then I just slowly started to learn, okay, wait, you need to start taking care of yourself. And I keep saying to myself, what do I have control over and what do I not have control over? Um I don't hate him. I have a mixture of emotions, I still pray for him to get the help. Um sometimes I feel like this sounds so crazy, but sometimes I feel like um when I try to figure out an addict and how they can just turn the world upside down, lose everything near and dear to them. I I started kind of referring to the marijuana as as the mistress of sorts. Like she can give him something that no person can give him. She numbs whatever pain is there, and she's just gotten a really tight grip on him.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. You know, we we talk about that a lot, um, that there is no other drug out there where people will ruin their marriages, destroy their relationships, defending the substance. Nobody does this with any other drug. No, they don't. It's crazy. And so many of our parents have described it the same way. Uh it's like a love affair with this substance. And it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I think a big part of it is too, is the way it's being marketed. You know, it's I mean, I mean, that's how I got fooled about it in the beginning. You know, it's safe, it's an alternative, not as many side effects as, you know, pharmaceuticals, and and just all of us not realizing the the high level of potency, you know, like my girlfriend kind of says, it's not your cheech and chong pot from back in the day, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And you're going to these nurses or doctors.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We say it's not your grandma's Woodstock weed, you know. And it's not, you know, because like you said, you know, um many people smoked it in the 70s or 80s for a mild high. And and I mean, I think that's part of it too, is like, you know, like you described, you go into a dispensary and they ask you what kind of high you want. Well, that's not medicine. You know, you don't go to a doctor for anything and have him say, well, you know, oh, go home and take two shots of tequila, right? Like that doesn't happen. You know, so so this whole ploy that it's medical, when what what the whole world has some kind of ailment, you know, because whether it's a medical dispensary or a recreational dispensary, everybody's in there with a supposed condition, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah. Oh, the best is when you go in. I remember, you know, you get emails and stuff, and it's kind of like this buy one, get one free kind of a thing. Like the the marketing on it is just so good, and they, you know, the cute little names, and and and like I said, it's just the packaging in and of itself. I mean, they'll break it down to like, like I would see him coming home with, you know, the CBD was like less than a percentage, and then you've got 15, 18, 20 plus percent of THC or Delta 8 or Delta 9 in there. And I'm like, wait, I know Delta 8 or Delta 9's not good. Right. And then you're dabbing, putting resin on top of it. And you got the gummy bears, you got this, this, and that. It's like, wait, I can't see of any other doctor writing a prescription, so to speak, right? Doing it that way.

SPEAKER_01:

And also we don't smoke medicine. There's no smoked medicine. No, you know, we don't really eat medicine either. You know, yes, we swallow it, but we're not eating it. You know, you know, we're not chewing it and and drinking it, where we're taking a pill or a capsule, and okay, maybe sometimes there are liquid medications, but still, you're talking, you know, a dosage, a proper dosage. But yeah, it's it it's just a horrible industry. It's very disturbing what's gone on.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And things are very laid back out here. I mean, you know, as you would say, you know, pocalilla's been around for so long in Hawaii.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But uh even then it's this stuff is just a totally different beast. It really, really is.

SPEAKER_01:

It just at least it's not legal recreationally in Hawaii yet, you know. And no. Sam is fighting that fight with the state of Hawaii, so hoping for the best.

SPEAKER_00:

Knock on what it states that way. Yeah, knock on what it states that way.

SPEAKER_01:

So has your husband taken any responsibility whatsoever, or he is just willing to end your marriage and not even did he try that 30-day break or not even?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, you know, there was once where he tried to not use um, this was sometime last year. He was um starting the intake process. I believe the VA had a program called the STAR program. Um, so he started an intake process, and around that time he voluntarily went back on his med. So I was surprised. I just learned to kind of step back and not really even encourage or push, right? Because pretty much anything could set him off. Um, so that was the last attempt. Uh we had worked with Winded Warrior Project a few years prior to get him into a treatment facility for alcoholism and substance abuse that fell through. Um, you know, I've I've taken him to the ER so many times or over to the V mental health clinic and, you know, you know, trying to, you know, get him admitted. Most of the time he, you know, I guess he kind of had a little bit of a breakdown and was like, no, I'm I'm finally ready to get help. But it's like always this thing of like he would put his foot in it just a little bit and then for whatever reason pull out. I don't know what that's about. Um so there were times, yeah, he could he was really vulnerable and he acknowledged that there was a an addiction to it, a dependency, and he was trying to figure out why. Um he'd say all the stressors of things, the financial stressors, or oh, it's social anxiety, and just still at the end of the day, a lot of the stuff didn't really add up because this was a guy that was very friendly, outgoing, gave his shirt off his back for people, and even to this day, I could say if any of his friends were in the situation that he's in right now, um he would be in there facing, what the hell are you doing?

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

What the hell are you doing? And he's not able to really fully see that. Um, and I've I've tried giving ultimatums, you know, threatened divorce, you know, all these different things, but like I said, she's got a really strong hold on him.

SPEAKER_01:

Do any of his friends uh recognize that there's an issue here and have they tried to talk to him?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. I know there was one friend, another veteran friend, he started using medical marijuana to kind of um, because he had, you know, struggles with um alcohol, and he soon found out, well, now there was an issue with the medical cannabis. Um, he's now been sober for about two years. Um because I know some of them um they would try to reach out with them. You know, you check on your battle buddies. A lot of times he wouldn't get back to them, and then I would just start hearing things like, Oh, my friends don't care about me, they don't call and check in on me. And I'm like hearing something very different from them. They would then reach out to me, being like, Hey, just wanted to make sure things are okay. I haven't heard from him in a while.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and then a lot of isolation too. They try to invite him out, and it just didn't work out a lot of the times.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow.

unknown:

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm so sorry for all that you're you're going through, and I know it's an ongoing battle, and you know, we've talked a lot, you know, behind the scenes, and also we've discussed it a little bit here about your safety. And so we our thoughts and prayers are with you. I hope that you stay safe. And thank you. Um, and again, we're here to support you in any way we can, and and it is very, very brave of you to tell your story. And again, you know, I think it's a very important story because while the VA does not and will not condone the use of medical marijuana or marijuana period to treat PTSD, um, it is being pushed by the prof pro the for-profit industry as you know, helpful for PTSD. And so I think it's very important to hear from veterans and family members of veterans who are or who are experiencing these negative impacts so that we can continue to prove that no, you know, today's marijuana products are not what we thought in the past. There is two or three types of medicine as marijuana, but that have to be prescribed by a doctor for very specific conditions. But the stuff that's out in those dispensaries is not proven to be useful for anything, and certainly not PTSD, and certainly not used with other meds, and you never know what else somebody's on, you know, because there's none of that conversation going on.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, I know that was one of the reasons one of the medications that his doctor had um prescribed, it seemed to have like, I guess, wouldn't have any interference with the medical cannabis, right? But still it wasn't, you know, doing anything. Um, and I get so enraged to seeing like this very vulnerable population being taken advantage of. You know, they've done so much to sacrifice for our country, and this industry literally just wants to, they just want to line their pockets. Yeah. That's it.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a really good point. Mm-hmm.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Um, so I know you're still going through this and I know you're struggling to help yourself as it is, but is there any message you'd like to leave with our listeners to other families going through this as well?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh wow, the biggest thing would be to educate yourself. That would be the biggest, biggest thing. Really, really know what is out there. It's it's not the marijuana from 20, 30 plus years ago whatsoever. And when you start seeing these bizarre behaviors, you know, rage or any of that stuff, like pot's not supposed to do that to you. So, you know, um definitely take a look at that because I I was really confused for quite some time and and I drank the Kool-Aid too, thinking that, oh, it's safe and it's it's a promising alternative, but it turned out to not be that whatsoever. And um I'm definitely not anti-marijuana, but I do believe it needs to be regulated. They're gonna be labeling it as medicinal, it needs to go through the proper channels, you know. So if you go to your doctor and get medication for whatever ailment, you know, everything your doctor's gonna sit there and go over the side effects with you. You're gonna get so much of this or so many milligrams or micrograms of it, and not just be given, you know, here's a little script, go into the pharmacy or in this case a dispensary, and hey, have a free-for-all for it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Because that's basically what it is. That's what it comes down to.

SPEAKER_01:

It certainly is.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you again so much for being brave enough to share your story with us. We are praying for you and pray for your safety and your well-being. And and again, Pan is always here to support you. I think you know that. And, you know, we look forward to advocating with you, and we hope that everything works out. And please keep us posted on your story.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll do. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01:

You're welcome. I I just want to end by saying that we really hope that these stories leave everyone with the profound understanding that today's marijuana products are not the products of the past. And we really hope that these episodes leave you with an understanding of the urgent need for better awareness, better regulations, and the power of community support in addressing the challenges posed by today's marijuana products. So thank you again for being with us, and we hope everyone has a safe and healthy week. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you.