My cannabis use began when I was a senior in high school. I had a really great friend, Lauren, who wanted me to explore cannabis with her. She had smoked for several years, but I was always a good boy: I had straight As and parted my hair and wore colored t-shirts. I never broke the rules, but for some reason I really trusted Lauren. I knew that she wouldn’t expose me to something that was dangerous. Her way of introducing me to the plant was for us to go get stoned after school, before our rehearsal. While I didn’t use the term “medicinal,” from day one, cannabis was already in my eyes something that was used to elevate and propel you forward. I fell in love with the plant immediately. In fact, we choreographed a piece together that we ended up performing at the Kennedy Center in front of the president. I became what’s now called a YoungArts member and a presidential scholar.
Right away, it was like, Okay, cannabis equals success. I never saw it as a bad thing, but I didn’t really see it as what I see it as now. That exploration began in college, because in California, I was able to legally gain access to the medicine and to the knowledge. During a dance piece my junior year of college, I fell and hurt my back. A chiropractor suggested I get my medical license because at that point, I’ll be honest, I was just seeing dealers on campus. And while I knew dispensaries existed, I was still from Texas so that world just seemed like something I’d seen on the TV show Weeds and not a real possibility. But once I had a doctor, an actual person in the medical field, tell me that cannabis would really help with pain while getting realigned, I began to take it more seriously. As someone who grew up on antidepressants, things to help with sleep, and all kinds of pharmaceuticals, finding this natural plant that gave me not only the same benefits but more, it became crucial to me to spread this knowledge.