Cannabis provided the gift of sleep

For Avery Jordan, sleeping through the night is a gift. “Since I started using cannabis, my sleep is so much better. It has worked wonders for me,” he says. Avery lives with a birth injury that damaged the nerves from his neck down through his right arm. He lives with pain and has limited motion in his arm. “Just hanging my arm down hurts, and I can’t sleep on my right side,” says the 31-year-old from Galloway. After high school, Avery attended a technical school for electrical engineering, but eventually moved to California to study cannabis horticulture at Oaksterdam University. 

When he returned, he explored cannabis to help his own nerve pain. “The problems are similar to any trauma,” he says. “I could not sleep on my arm or lie on my side because of the pain.” Avery now works at the Compassionate Care Foundation, a medicinal marijuana dispensary in Egg Harbor Township. At home, he grows vegetables and herbs to learn more about the growing process with the hopes of one day working in cannabis horticulture. “Growing cannabis is like growing an herb or any plant — but one with medicinal qualities within,” he says.