
"I feel like cannabis really saved my life."
Tahsha Bennett, a Licensed Practical Nurse, experienced two car accidents within the past five years, leaving her with severe and intractable pain. But traditional painkillers created serious stomach issues. “I had pain everywhere, but I couldn’t take the pain medications. To be in pain and not be able to take pain killers … I didn’t know where to turn,” Tahsha says.
She was unable to take even over-the-counter pain relievers. Living with chronic pain and the repercussions of two accidents also left her, for the first time in her life, with anxiety. Tahsha started to research medicinal marijuana and sought out a physician who would support her efforts to find a more natural way to heal and to reduce her pain. She found cannabis eased her pain, enabled her to sleep better, and did not have the gastrointestinal side effects of other pain medications.
Cannabis also eased her anxiety. “It’s been such a relief. I have more freedom to do the things I want to do now,” she says. “This is not about getting high.” She takes a different strain at night to help her sleep better. For Tahsha, cannabis means her life is no longer constricted by severe pain. “I feel like cannabis has really saved my life,” she says.