May 30, 2023 • 54 mins
Michelle and Dr. Safiya are talking about marijuana! Dr. Safiya is a licensed Integrative Medical Cannabis & EM Physician. She talks about the positive benefits of medical marijuana despite some of the stigmas that exist around the drug. She also shares how her Jamaican culture and working in an ER led her to working with medicinal marijuana. CHECK IN to this episode if you’ve been considering healing in a different way!
For more information, visit: https://askdoctorlyn.com/
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Instagram: @MichelleWilliams
Twitter: @RealMichelleW
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. All Right, now, y'all listen.
(00:21):
Ain't no judgment on this here episode. You hear me.
I am tackling a topic that I've been kind of
afraid to talk about because all right, it's my upbringing, Okay,
And isn't it amazing that even stuff from my upbringing
still affects me today. And I'll be forty four in July.
(00:42):
It's like, come on, I'm grown, right, But this is
a topic that I'm excited to talk about. And we're
going to talk about cannabis, y'all. Yes, we're going to
talk about weed.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm excited because we have a medical cannabis expert that
is going to share. There is no agenda today. I'm
kind of curious because she's also an emergency medicine physician,
like she works in a medical hospital, but she is
also tackling the area of marijuana and kind of breaking
the stigma as it relates to this plant from the earth.
(01:16):
All Right, are y'all curious? Just as curious as I am,
because listen, on my mental health journey, I was introduced
to CBD oil in twenty nineteen and it has changed
my life. So I've been telling everybody about it, not
only for depression and anxiety, but for me personally. I
even felt inflammation leave my body. So I can't wait
(01:40):
for doctor sophiel In. She's coming up next on checking
it y'all. It is an amazing day today. No it
is not for twenty, but I do have someone on
here who it's well, maybe it's four twenty for her
clients every day. All right, Thank y'all so much for
(02:03):
checking in. This is gonna be an episode that I
rarely talk about. I rarely discuss, but I think it's
so important to talk about this. Our next guest is
a medical cannabis expert Okay, she's on a mission to
educate the public about the benefits of marijuana. She's also
(02:24):
a practicing emergency medicine physician, which is why I'd definitely
trust her in this topic. Please welcome all the way
from Miami.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Doctor Sophia Lyn, thank you, and it's my pleasure and
honor to be here. Michelle, thank you so much for
sharing your platform. Checking in with Michelle and Black of
PAX Network. Happy to share my knowledge, my experience and
my fumbles. This has all been a journey, you know,
and we're all learning in the process. So hopefully my
experience can be learned with the audience and they can
(02:54):
ask questions, we can get into it. I'm an open book.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Absolutely absolutely. I have a cousin who is an emergency
medicine physician as well in the Illinois area, but he
works at a Wisconsin area hospital and his father is
a family practice position, and so they're both of them.
They're doctor Charles Washington, and if they're listening, just shout
(03:21):
out to you guys. And doctor Chris Pullan's in Arizona.
He is a family practice physician at mail Nice.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I love it, but it's a small community of African
American physicians, so we definitely hold a different level of
stress and priority. And it is always great to meet
others in different areas and to be able to refer
clients and patients and family to them specifically. So I'm
happy you were able to love their specialties and availability
(03:54):
in other areas because it's good to have a little
network of us.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It is so good and it is so more hilarious
at family dinners, you know, I would hear certain initials
at the table, like what is a ABC?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
What is a HY?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
My mother text me something the other day and I
don't think she realized it as a registered nurse. She
typed something to me in medical terminology, yes, And I
was like, you do know you're talking to your daughter
(04:29):
and so it had something to do with I don't
know anything, but it was just like too a S
so oh oh no US for ultrasound And I took
medical terminology, so I knew what she was talking about.
But I was cracking up, like she really she thinks
she's doing dictation or something.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know what. Sometimes your rape brain and your left brain,
you know, don't connect and you're like still in the
work mode and narrowed in and everybody gets the heat
across the board. You just you just kind of revert
back and forth. So at least you already in girls,
you already had the background, so you were able to
yes yes.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Which makes me be a bootleg doctor. Now I diagnose
everybody thereby right sometimes exactly there you go, y'all, let's
get into it. Doctor Lynn. You are in Miami, right.
I am just so excited about the feel that you
are in. So tell me about So you know, there's
(05:33):
a stigma in mental health right right, but we're having
more and more conversation about mental health, so it's becoming
less of a topic where people are ashamed to talk about.
And you are trailblazing in the area of cannabis and
trying to break down the stigma. I know your journey
(05:53):
because we had to research you. So can you give
our listeners a tinch about you know, how you're doing
both because you're still practicing emergency medicine physician.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Correct, Actually, just yep, exactly, Thank you so much. Yes,
a journey it has been. I'll just tell you briefly
starting out, I'm from Jamaica, born in New York, raised
in Jamaica, and my love and my understanding and appreciation
for cannabis started culturally at home and through that, my
(06:25):
family used cannabis as a tincture, as a solve, as
a tea, in different delivery ways to treat certain amblements,
whether you had a headache, a belly ache, a skin rash,
you know, whatever it was. There were different ways to
deliver cannabis and it wasn't traditionally in the smoking method.
For those who did not participate in the smoking or
Rastafarian culture. My uncle is it about Rastafarian and vegetarian,
(06:49):
and you know he never partook in that aspect of
the religion, but learning and understanding the medicinal benefits of
it from early and seeing how it influenced our culture
in such a positive, beautiful, spiritual way. I had a
deeper appreciation for cannabis prior to even having the opportunity
(07:10):
to prescribe and recommend cannabis in the United States. So
that's my initial marriage with cannabis and medicine and understanding
how it can impact your life. Now fast forward here
we are graduated from a hairy medical college. Knew I
wanted to do emergency medicine Nashville, Yes, from the Harry
(07:33):
Yes long legacy of amazing physicians. I'm the first physician
in my family, so this was all new in getting
into medicine. No one ever really practiced medicine or had
any background in medicine. I just knew it was something
I wanted to do, so made my way to Tennessee,
finally got out of there, thank god, and then ended
(07:56):
up in New Jersey at more Sound Medical Center for
Trauma and Emergency medicine training and after New Jersey, those
three years were amazing. I moved to Florida. So many benefits,
the weather, the taxes, different opportunities to build and to learn,
and coming down to Florida during my early years in practicing,
(08:20):
I realized that this is totally different beasts and regionally
and city wise, and location breeds different dynamics and issues
in medicine. For example, Miami being a heavily traveled state
with visitors and international guests, we suffer from different issues
(08:42):
as opposed to more remote suburban areas. So we have raves,
we have concerts, we have large events. You know. The
amount of trauma and different kind of concerns that you
see in a metropolitan city were very different from practicing
in New York New Jersey area. When I was down
here in the er, I was seeing so many overdoses,
(09:05):
so many kids. They would come down for spring break,
they would come down for holiday weekend, and they would
just go crazy with the indulgence, you know, and the
overdoing of alcohol, of drugs, the availability of different things
that they weren't accustomed to or could tolerate or handle.
And it was during a very prevalent era of Malian
(09:26):
designer drugs, bas salts, all those things that we were
hearing about over the last couple of years, K two, spice, molly,
different combination drugs that people were ingesting that we didn't
know how to fix. We could only support them when
they went into respiratory arrests, or when they went into
heart attacks or ended up brain death and different things.
(09:48):
All we could do was support them because we didn't
know how to reverse it. There was no antidote for
these designer drugs because they were combinations of whether it's benzos, opiates, narcotics.
So when they overwhelmed your system and your organs, it
was very hard for the medical community to be able
to treat you and reverse it and get you back
to baseline. So unfortunately, many people suffered long lasting injuries
(10:14):
and sometimes even deaths that they couldn't come back from.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So I was in the position of now being a
new attending calling the parents, calling the family members, and saying,
your twenty three year old just overdose down here in Miami,
you know, explaining to them what happened, Explain to them
why we're unable to get them back, Explain to them
that they might have lost their child, different things like that,
and it was starting to have an emotional tear on me.
(10:39):
So I was tapping into how do I compartmentalize this
in order to be able to be functional and exceptional
in my position and continue to move on and work.
But in addition to that, how do I tap in
to my patients and understand what is the baseline for
why you're doing this? Do you have addiction, do you
(11:00):
have trauma? What is it that you're searching for that
you're reaching for. So as I started to get deeper
into that conversation with my patients, I was understanding a
little bit better than the reason behind why they chose
the path they chose. And in that understanding of addiction
and different issues that they were managing, I needed to
(11:22):
have alternatives. I needed to have other ways to help
control and treat.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So wait a minute, so you were you're a doctor
that has actual compassion.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Oh thank you, thank you, Because.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Some people feel like, as a physician, if you've been
trained to just not be emotional, you just got to
deliver the bad news and it's onto the next patient,
next patient room, ain't no time for compassion.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Excellent question. You are not trained with empathy, and you're
not trained with love and compassion, and that's something that
most physicians tuck away and compartmentalized in order to be
efficient in their work and to move from room two
to room seven to room nine, from the ankle sprains
to the colds, to the heart attacks to the strokes,
(12:14):
you know, because one thing about the er is it
doesn't stop for your bad day. It continues to go
and you're expected to continue to work at the same
level and capacity regardless if you just lost the patient
five minutes ago. You know, the next patient still wants
to get diagnosed and get out. So that emotional aspect
(12:35):
of it and how to manage and deal with that
was something that either developed through your experience, through watching
other physicians who were more senior in their activity, or
through therapy, and also your personal development and journey. So
my early practice years and my training from a hairy
(12:58):
medical college is what help me build empathy, and that
I cannot say is universal in medicine in general, and
it has a lot to do with you know, your
seniors and how you watch and experience their engagement and
interaction with patients. And one thing that's special about HBCUs is.
(13:20):
We have a lot of love. We have a lot
of love for our entire community. And patients will let
you do anything. They'll let you, you know, practice, they'll
let you train, they'll give you opportunities to learn their deepest,
darkest inner secrets. As long as you open that pathway
and you make a patient feel comfortable and you build
(13:41):
that trust. So, especially.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Anesthesia, go ahead, I trust you. I trust you, Lynn
at Scalf Please now, yes, you're absolutely true.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
You're like, wait, hold on a secon. I didn't explain
the whole process. Back up, here's a consent, you know.
But yeah, you build a level of trust with patients
that makes them feel as if your word and your
advice is holy grails. So I always teach my students
now that I am teaching I know the medical school,
(14:19):
to the first and second year students, when I talk
about my experience, especially in the er and especially at Harry,
your trust is key in integral to building an honest
patient relationship. And I use that same principle and apply
it to my cannabis medicine as well too. But once
I got into the depths of why patients were doing
(14:39):
what they're doing, and then in twenty sixteen, Florida became
a medical cannabis state, which means that patients had access
to medical dispensaries to be able to gain access to
cannabis for specific medical problems. Some of those include hiva, cancers, glaucoma,
(15:02):
epilepc als, multiple scrosis, chronic pain, intractable knowledge, and vomiting.
So there are fourteen specific disease processes that were approved
for medical cannabis in the state of Florida, and within
those processes there's a little bit of variation for physicians
to say, Okay, this is a similar to these, to
this group and category, you can be a candidate for
(15:24):
medical cannabis. So once I went through that training and
became a legal prescriber for the state of Florida, my
passion grew at a different level because now I am
I not only able to tap in as to why
you're doing it, but I'm able to actually offer you
complementary and alternative ways to manage your health. So you
don't have to feel like your first choice from treatment
(15:47):
has to be a pill, has to be Western medicine,
but you can start thinking about complementary medicine and plant
based medicine as ways to manage your ailments that qualify
for So yeah, that's how we got here.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
You've said so many things that okay, I got Okay,
I gotta remember, she said, so I can ask a
question about this. This conversation is so layered, pivoting back
to what you were just saying about alternatives to pills
and western medicine. I wanted to tell you my psychiatrists
here in Georgia. We were talking about medicine for any
(16:29):
depressants and anxiety. Yeah, and at that time I had
heard so many great benefits of things like CBD oil,
and I just took a risk in asking her, which,
by the way, I know CBD oil is not medical
prescribed marijuana, so let's I just want the listeners to
(16:50):
I'm making the distinction. But I asked her. I said, hey,
a therapist that I know mentioned you know about, you know,
great benefits of CBD. Well, she said, oh, yes, she said,
I have many patients who loves CBD. She went in
her drawer and gave me a business card of a
natural food market to go to and the consultant to
(17:14):
ask for when I got there, and it made me
trust her so much more about things because she wasn't
so quick to be like, no, you can only take
this prescribed medication.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I love that story and stories like that because it
shows that your physician is forward thinking to the point
that if they don't have the answers and they don't
have the knowledge of how to recommend CBD, they've at
least invested the time to make sure they have a
resource for their patients. Right, because Hey, if I don't
(17:48):
know it, and I don't know everything, I'm the first
one to say that's not my specialty, But let me
hook you up with someone who does. Right. We have
a network, and that's why we do that, so that
we can refer out to others who are more well
versed and experienced in that aspect of medicine that can
compliment what you're doing to make your patient whole, because
that's the ultimate goal, right. We just want to make
(18:09):
sure we appeal to every question, every inquiry, every thought
process that our patient has. Because the minute I say, girl,
that ain't for you, that's that's not the move, and
I deter you from something that you're keenly interested in,
I'm going to lose my connection with you. Right Because
you're going to feel like you're going to feel like
why am I? Why am I even you know, bringing
(18:32):
up these fears, these these moments of trust, these inquiries
to a physician who's blocking me and not even taking
the time to investigate why I'm why I'm considering using it.
So as my teaching with physicians goes, I tell them, hey,
everyone doesn't need to prescribe to you, so your CBD,
(18:54):
but what you do need to have is a resource
and language and options for your patients to be able
to tap into to understand a little bit more. Even
if you don't know, at least refer them to somebody
who does. So. Having pamphlets, having cards, you know, websites
like social media has been amazing for me in terms
of gaining new clients and patients because I don't advertise,
(19:16):
you know, I don't have to. Like people end up
seeking me and it's always by referral or hey I
found you online or something like that, which is good
because I know by the time you get to me,
you're so interested in you're just dying and starving for knowledge.
You really just want to learn, you want to see.
Is this even a part of something that I can
include in my daily regiment. And CBD is amazing because
(19:40):
I treat it like your daily vitamin. And that's how
I have patients look at CBD as your daily vitamin
versus THHD as like a tail and all or motrin,
so that way you can understand how to incorporate it
into your lifestyle. We move Florida, girl, but you know,
you know, you know is a low THHD medical state.
(20:04):
As of April twenty ninth, trulya and Botanical Sciences open
the first five dispensaries in the state of Georgia. They
have locations in Marietta, Macon, and Pool, Georgia, and they
just opened about two weeks ago. And I'm actually a
prescriber in the state and they do virtual cannabis interviews
for patients, so I've been able to help patients in
(20:25):
the state of Georgia as well get qualified. And that's
exactly how most medical vertically integrated cannabis programs grow. They
start with low THHD oil, meaning that THHD that has
less than one percent of THHD in the component of
the oil, and they grow from that into faith, into tinctures,
(20:46):
into edibles, eventually into flower. The program grows over time
as it becomes more diverse and accessible in the state
and it builds more patients.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
You like one of my favorite company's Brown Girl Jane.
I saw, honey.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Those are my sisters.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I love you said you love it because you know
the farm, like you just know it's like one of
your trusted So when I saw that, honey, I use the.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Body oil, love, love love.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
What's the song out like a light for me? I'll
say that because we don't know why two ibuprofens knocked
me out. My mom's like, it doesn't even have like
a sleeping agent in it.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It knocks me out.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So imagine thhc.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Cbb ol bb.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I don't know all the but listen so and I
want to tell you, like, I don't know if you
get this ax a lot. But I grew up in church,
like strict, strict, strict church, and it warmed my heart
to hear you say. In Jamaica this was used. It
was as a t if you had a belly ache
like this wasn't And this is not judging parts of
(21:56):
jay board people like I even had to stress out
damn Finn light me one right, But people of faith
might judge the marijuana usage, not knowing no, people actually
use this for medicinal purposes. People actually use as like
you said, as a saff for maybe an injury or something.
Can you speak to that place.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Absolutely. So what we have to always honor is the
religion and spirituality of cannabis, So before we even get
into medical and eventually recreational use, Like the purpose and
the foundation of cannabis was through religion, and in that
religion became noted for its medicinal purposes. So understanding the
(22:45):
spirituality of it and how it has impacted a culture
and a race and a group that has led and
evolved into Okay, now I'm understanding I was actually super
stressed out when I decided to take that hit or
take that put right. So when you backtrack in your
mind and we talk about delayed trauma a lot, especially
in my youth, who don't even think about why they're
(23:08):
doing certain stuff, but know that their go to for
stress management or their go to for PTSD or trauma
or depression is to use cannabis in a flower form
or to hit the vase or something like that. They're
disconnecting the purpose behind why they're doing because they've never
been formally diagnosed with the medical condition. So when I
(23:31):
talk to my kids a lot, especially like my teens
and my young adults, and I'm like, well, what makes
you reach for a joint? What makes you roll up?
And They're like, you know what, I just had a
long day. I'm just tired of the bs, Like the
world's on my back, you know, right, stressed out as
we all have at some point, their anxieties at a high,
(23:53):
all of those things. And I'm like, oh, you know
you're dealing with PTSD, right, you know, like there's a
formal diagnosis for this, there's an actual meta local condition
and diagnosis for this. So helping them to make that
connection with the trauma that seems so normal in their
lives and normalized because it's surrounding them and that's how
they grew up, and helping them to understand, No, it's
(24:16):
not everybody's day to day to watch your cousin get
killed right next to you and keep going and pushing
twelve years old. No, it's not normal to watch your
mom and dad fright and get into physical altercations every
day and the impact that has on your relationship with
men later on. No, it's not normal to have to
go through chemical and physical abortions on a consistent basis
because you're not using birth control. Like, that's a lot
(24:39):
of trauma that you're dealing with, right And when you
unpack that with people and help them to understand the
foundation of that, it makes so much more sense as
to why they're choosing to medicate how they're choosing, whether
it's access, whether it is what they've seen their parents
or other people do, whether it's a distrust in the
(25:01):
community with black physicians or physicians in general because of
the relationship and engagement and interaction that they've had with
other physicians previously, whatever that issue is helping them to
get to the reason and bottom line for why they're
using They all have a medical diagnosis, it just hasn't
(25:22):
been formally diagnosed. So I help patients to really see
that and kind of go through that emotional unpacking, And
that helps helped a lot because it's much easier to
show someone than to tell someone. If I walk up
to you and be like, girl, you're just depressed. You
know that comes off very like ooh me, Like nah,
it ain't me. It makes you feel stigmatized, It makes
(25:44):
you feel weak, it makes you feel unseen, you know,
and when you label people with those things, it's hard
for them to accept and embrace and to move through
in a way that you would like them to use
therapy for their treatment. So it's just really how you
talk to people. It's language, it's communication. And I can't
(26:06):
emphasize enough the importance of the trust that. I'm glad
that you have that with your therapist in Georgia because
that's key to allowing you to be your greatest self.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Thank you, thank you for sharing that, because I was
wondering how you all determined and you were just saying
a little bit. Because remember there was a time where
anybody could get a medical card. Yes, it doesn't necessarily
equate to me just being able to go get a
medical license and practice medicine, but as a real practicing physician, yeah,
(26:39):
how do you differentiate I have anxiety? How do you
believe someone when they, oh, I have I failed down
and broke my ankle and it still swells up from
time to time. I need marijuana.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Absolutely. So there are things like chronic pain and chronic
and terminal disease processes and insomnia and anxiety and stress
and all of those things that fit under the categories
for being approved for medical cannabis. And in determining that,
you look at the chronicity of the issue, the impact
(27:11):
that it's had on their daily life. Are they still
able to be functional, are they still able to enjoy life?
And the things that you do. Do you require proof
In the state of Florida, they do want to see
prior medical records that show your diagnosis. And for a
lot of people who don't have that, it's just helping
(27:32):
them understand, well, do you realize you were bribed clonazepan
for the last twenty years, Like if you understand what's
that for? You know, understanding the reason behind some of
the diagnoses that they have that they might not have embraced,
you know, all this time, and helping them tap into that.
But in Georgia and every state is a little different.
Every state has their own program, whether it's medical or recreational.
(27:52):
In Georgia, you do not need medical documentation, nor do
you need an in person patient interview, as opposed to
the State of Florida. So everyone has their different nuances
and just as long as you're falling within state requirements
and accordance and you have an established relationship with your physician,
and your physician is committing to continuing to care for
(28:13):
you for the next two years, which is the length
in the term of the medical cannabis card in Georgia.
Then you're fine. You're good. It's not for me to
prove your issue. That's not my goal, not to validate
your issue. My goal is to correctively guide you in
(28:34):
the recommendation process. Because it is an art to it.
I can't tell Michelle and Lindsay and everyone else it's
two puffs every six hours, use as needed for stress management.
It is not a regimented recommendation. It is definitely an
art that's designed per person, depending on the end goal
(28:56):
for each person. Right, So I got to customize what
we're doing in accordance to your lifestyle, in accordance to
how is the best form for you to medicate. Before
we got on air, one of our participants was saying
that she had a tumor in her lungs. Having a
tumor in your lungs, it is not the best choice
for you to use flour or bait because those are irritants,
(29:18):
mochial irritants that can magnify the discomfort of the tumor,
and you don't want to do anything that is going
to have a negative impact or side effects that is
going to turn you off of the process. So some
of the things to think about are other delivery methods
like microdos and edibles, like using tinctures, like using topicals
(29:39):
to help with muscle spasm and different areas of pain
and discomfort. So when you consider how to customize a
medical cannabis recommendation for a person, you have to look
at the entire person. You know, you have to be.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Wofinite that would definitely be a be a client, a
patient of yours. I was taken aback a relative of mine.
I just certain topics. I love integrating personal stories or knowledge.
And they had a horrendous accident and ended up with
(30:17):
some nerve pain or damage due to an injury. And
they were prescribed your traditional.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Like pain narcotics, and they had me cracking up.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
They were like, since I was seeing like spiders jump
off my wall and I don't have spiders. And they
work in ministry, and so it was time for them
to be drug tested, and they were saying how certain
oils that were THHC hit their nerve pain in a
(30:58):
way that even the metal the prescribed pill did not.
And I think they were like put on some type
of not probation on their job because of the TC.
And I just felt so bad, Like so, if the
prescription pill turned up in your system, you probably wouldn't
(31:20):
have been put on probation, but with THC, I was
just like, I felt like we were a little backwards.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
It's ass backwards. Absolutely. THHC is comes from a plant
that's grown in the ground as opposed to a pill
that's manufactured and you know, a company that is a
composite of many synthetics to create an effect for the patient.
So because of the schedule of THFC, it's considered a
(31:50):
Schedule one narcotic, which is deemed pharmologically as having no
medicinal benefits Schedule one drugs. Therefore, it is not allowed
to be used in a medical fashion on a federal level.
And that's why so many people have had backlash from
being tested positive for THHD because if you look at
(32:12):
drug probation handbooks for many corporations, cannabis is still including
now some of the companies that have made groundbreaking decisions
like Amazon, like Apple, different companies that have intentionally decided
to not test for THHD in their drug recently the NBA,
the NFL. There are different chips and bargaining agreements that
(32:34):
the players have made collective agreements with the organizations to
not test for THHD during season or during certain time
periods and certain amounts of levels of THHD in your
blood and then your urine testing because they know that
such a great majority of players are using it and
it's been helpful in a way that traditional medicine hasn't
(32:58):
been able to manage them and treat them and improve
their quality of life. That they had to come to
some kind of negotiation. Even though federally uniformly it's still
Schedule one per state, they are programs that make it
legal for your patients and your players to be able
to use. So why are we not adopting our new
(33:20):
culture and standards to be more inclusive of something that
is nationally recognized and discussed and talked about and has
seen improvement in people for you know. So it takes
that change and that shift and the destigmitation of THHD
in cannabis in order for people to catch on, because
(33:42):
if you don't, you're going to be a hide in
the wave. You know, you're going to lose great people unnecessarily,
so it just really doesn't make sense. But still a
lot of people are adapting this new wave of thinking
and understanding the scientific benefits behind it is what solidifies
its placed in the medical community, which makes companies and
organizations more inclusive of it. So we just got some
(34:04):
work to do. We got some work to do on
the federal ltical, on the you know, on the scientific side,
and descheduling you know, cannabis school allow us to make
leaps and balance in terms of our research and evidence
based medicine.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I was going to ask a question about paranoia and
anxiety as it relates to taking cannabis, and okay, y'all,
so I gotta tell you all the story now. It
may be different now because if I'm intentionally I probably
wouldn't be paranoid if I'm going to take something for anxiety.
Just to all right, I don't Klanizapan was definitely prescribing.
(34:42):
I had actual children's dose of that where dissolved under
my tongue.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
You're so sensitive, yeah, very.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Sensitive, y'all. Please believe me when I tell y'all sensitive.
No judgment on anybody that participates. I love to see
you when I love to see you literally sore.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
That's right, so listen.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
So y'all, this was in like two thousand and four,
two thousand and five, my birthday party, and there were
some brownies passed around. Yes, doctor Lynn Lassiter, those brownies plural,
We're so good. They tasted like cake. I tasted the butter.
(35:27):
It didn't taste like heart fudge. I loved my brownies
to taste like cake. I feel like these were baked
for me.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
They were intentional.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Now what was horrible is no one told anybody that
there's marijuana and these brownies, so I didn't know. You're
not even supposed to eat a whole one. You're supposed
to eat like a sliver, a corner, a little chunky
chunk on you.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
I had two, and you probably have them back to back,
like girl, give me another one.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I was high from maybe I know it was forty
eight hours that stuff was still running through my vanks.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yes, definitely, I was.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Like someone said, I was walking around my room just praying.
I said, well, at least I knew who.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
To call on, like the one and only.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
When you are high or drunk. What's in you is
what's gonna come out. So I was faithful that I
knew who's name the call, and I was, oh, I
was so parannoying, And people are like, well, just drink milk,
go to the steamroom, go to the tie, drink orange juice.
All I could do. I said, I'll see y'all in
(36:51):
eighty two hours.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I'm going to bed exactly.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
So that is my hilarious story. But there is a
term or why people should not eat it, like all
of one bite. What's the term for it? It comes
in waves or something.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
We were talking about microdosing and the importance of taking
small amounts of THHD so that you build slowly and safely,
because if you go too fast, too quick, you'll have
adverse effect, like how you experience with the paranoia. Right,
with the paranoia, the palpitations, the sweating of the diphrasis,
the enlarged pupils, the you know, the nause of the vomiting,
(37:33):
all of those things can have adverse effects and make
you feel ten times worse. Now, what you did was
consume a large amount and a person who is technically
THHD naive, right, so you didn't have any experience or
any guidance or any basis of THHD use. So you
(37:56):
didn't know how your body was going to react. You
didn't even know that's what you were actually doing. So
you consumed a large amount in a very short amount
of time that was quickly metabolized in your system. And
you probably had just assuming a combination of alcohol and
a little bit of food in your system and other
things that magnified the experience. Right.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I felt like I was on a roller coaster that
only had loops going upside down girl, the floor, the
starting to look like the ceiling. Oh oh, it.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Was bad, worst feeling ever. And I always tell patients like,
keep a bottle of CBD with you, Pure's extract CBD
because CBD is an antidote for for THHD. It'll help
decrease your symptoms. So I always tell them if you
start to feel that way, or if you start to
feel any negative side effects, take a tea spoon CBD,
you know, so that way you can start to counter
some of that. But the way you avoid getting to
(38:54):
that space is knowing that you got to start low
and go slow, and everything influences what medications you're taking. Yeah,
what food and beverages you're having at that time, are
you mixing alcohol, what environments are you in? Have you eaten?
You know at all? All of those things influence how
(39:15):
your body is going to respond to THHD and doing
too much too fast. It's absolutely going to leave you
on a bad, negative trip and you're going to be
deterred from ever trying it again. So that's where I
really cautioned my patience to take your time.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Now, what do you say? Because I thought there was
something there was someone was like, it's been fifteen minutes.
I ain't failed nothing yet.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Oh that's the worst thing you could do. That's the
worst thing you could do. Especially I think we're talking
specifically about edibles. You know, edibles is the one that
has that delayed onset of action.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
That's where we were going delayed on set. Okay, that's
where I was. That's where I was trying to I
was trying to remember what it was, so I was
waiting on you to say.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
It, girl, it's metabolized through your gut. So remember if
I just had a huge staking baked potato meal or
some curry chicken like whatever it is that you just ate.
If you're on a full stomach, your processing time for
ingestion is much longer than it is taking it on
(40:18):
an empty stomach, you know, So it's important to understand how, when, why,
and everything else that's going on around you in terms
of how your body will metabolize. Because it's processing through
the gut, there are delayed on sets of action and
everyone hits a little bit different depending on your chronicity
and experience. So if you've been using for a longer
(40:40):
amount of time, you already have a reserve of cannabinoids
in your system, so your response might require a higher
dosing As opposed to a naive patient who doesn't use
on a consistent basis and or has never used, your
response might be much greater with much lower doing right.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah, please be responsible. Please be also, do not have
an event where you are passing around food and you
don't tell nobody because I missed the.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Memo, like's not safe. That is not safe at all.
You have to label your products. You have to make
sure patients are aware because you don't know what other
people are doing outside of your party, right, and.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
It could have been laced. So then that's the other
thing you know you've seen, Like you said so many
overdoses and so many things. Amazing years of practice, you know,
And so thank you for being a responsible person that
is prescribing them and then telling us how we can
be safe. And there probably has to be a part
(41:50):
two apart three for this because I didn't want to
get into there's so much stuff to get into science, statistics, facts,
CBD versus see there's down there cb G del Hones, y'all,
there is a lot, so please study, you know. I
(42:12):
love seeing where people are saying that, even at you know,
coming from a strict background that was kind of in
strict religious background, which was more so in tradition, not
because it was even necessarily biblical world anything God said.
I just when people say alternative medicine has helped them
(42:33):
with inflammation, or they're able to tolerate cancer treatment, whatever
eases a person's pain and makes them and makes them
comfort to go through it already tough journey, you know,
And so thank you for being a part of this movement. Now,
last question for you. You've been absolutely amazing. It's been flowing
(42:54):
like a conversation, like I haven't had to ask you
a lot of questions because you've been answering the questions
with in just you sharing. So thank you so much
for that. Think what are some areas that you feel
people don't recognize cannabis as a therapeutic product besides say
like cancer, glackoma, an anxiety.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
So you have your big five, you have your most
common traditions and ailments that we have seen THHD appreciated.
And for example, everybody goes back to the movie Friday
that glaucoma, that THHD has been useful for my glaucoma.
A lot of people with intraocular increase pressure like glacoma
can benefit from THHD as well. So that was one
(43:36):
of the first areas for the connection between medical and
THHD appreciation in the black community, because we were seeing
that in film early two thousands. Right here we are
fast forward. We are now seeing appreciated in other film aspects,
for example The Best Man, where the wife was dealing
(43:58):
with her cancer treatment and she was using flower to
help with her nausea, to help with her pain. The
open dialogue and discussion and appreciation for cannabis has now
integrated into mainstream in a way that it has opened
up conversation for so many families, especially for parents to
be able to talk to their children about because you're
(44:20):
seeing it on the big screen. You can't avoid the
conversation anymore, right, you can no longer use the Nancy Reagan.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
We've been seeing it in music talked about. We have
been seeing it, you know, like you said, on the
big screen.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
We've been seeing it so prevalent that it almost becomes
normalized for kids. So helping them to understand that distinction, like, yeah,
there's still legal ramifications for your use because it's a
federally illegal substance. So helping people to understand that aspect
of it, because you see so many people in the videos,
(44:56):
in the movies just smoking and partaking as if it
is a quote unquote cigarette, right, So you're seeing the
likeness and the accessibility and the use of it being
plastered everywhere. But you have to always keep in mind
that there's legal ramifications. There are corporations that if you
want to end up doing firefighter, if you want to
end upplying for a paramedic position or to become a position,
(45:20):
there are steps in the process that require you to
have drug testing, and if you do come up positive
for that, there is the possibility that you can lose
that opportunity because they don't accept or appreciate cannabis for
its medicinal aspect yet, and it is considered illegal and
it's a part of their drug policy that if you
violate their policy you could lose access to be able
(45:42):
to work there. So we can never negate that.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Can never negate it. And like you said, we're having
this free conversation, and like she said, please look at
your employer's policy. Nay, John, They told us on checking
in we could smoke.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Hooding right exactly.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
So and last question about brain health and cannabis is
that a myth that, Okay, you lose brain cells in
just marijuana.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
So there isn't a formal scientific study that has measured
brain cells. What it measures is capacity. For most of
the journals and the things that are examining cannabis use,
and it's uh, how chronically you use, how frequently you use,
all of those impact the long term engagement and interaction
(46:35):
on your body and your brain. So when you think
about capacity, capacity is diminished over time. We start out
in our you know, our infancy stage, we build to
adulthood where we're reaching our maximal capacity, and then at
some point we start to transition where we plateau in
our ability to learn new ways of thinking, to learn
(46:56):
new processes, and then we eventually start to decline as
we get older. So that's just capacity in general going
on that hill and that and that curve. And you
have to look at how does canvabis influence that a
lot of people will say at certain periods in your life,
it unlocks a different creativity that allows you to be
(47:16):
more open and to be more focused and intentional on
your work.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Now, don't own up that can because I've already had
you on for an hour.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Oh my god, So you can't mens her creativity. So
that's a different kind of engagement.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
What about the person then that says y'all and then
we got she's got y'all, she's got to go. So
don't have me ask them a question. The person that
says I cannot create or work without it. I write
better songs, I write better scripts. What do you say
to that person that feels like you have to be
in another world to create.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
So THHD has the potential to unlock that for a
lot of people because of it is its ability to
unmask you for sensation. So it allows people to go
deeper and it allows people to be more present in
the work and in the space of what they're doing.
But there is a borderline with addiction. So when you
(48:13):
hear people saying I can't wake up without having a drink,
I can't wake up without taking a hit, I can't
wake up without doing exit doing why you have to
think about those signs of addiction as well too, Because
PhD does have the ability for someone to become addicted
to it. So how why when you use you always
(48:34):
have to be understanding of its impact on you. So
when you start getting to the point that you can't
work effectively without using THHC, then we have to really
tap into the purpose and the intention behind your use
and make sure that we're using the minimal amount of
medication to get maximum benefits and relief. And we're always
(48:54):
microdosing so that we're not over indulging and we don't
have negative side effects. Yeah, it's been great, it's been
a journey, But I as a physician, I always emphasize
the safety of it, and I can't tell you that enough.
It's not for everybody. Like Jay said, it's not for everybody.
CBD is not for everybody. They have side effects as
well too, So you have to just be educated in
(49:17):
the process and you know, be open to go on
this journey with your position together, because it's not gonna
work the first time either. We're gonna have to do
this a couple of weeks, maybe even months, till we
find where your sweet spot is, where you're using that
maximum amount of efficacy with very minimal amount of gholstin. Y'all.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
Doctor Sophia len Lassiter has been absolutely amazing Doctor Sephia Lynn.
I'm sorry I went on what I saw.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
No, you're good. You're good. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
Yes, y'all. Y'all can find her literally on Instagram at
ask doctor Linn l y N and ask doctor Lynn
dot com is her website, y'all. She's like since in
South Florida. She's less than a Florida period.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
California yep.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
And Georgia.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Welcome Georgia, it's our new estate. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Do you think you'll ever do your own product?
Speaker 2 (50:15):
I've been approached many companies many times to do my
own product, whether it's a CBD line or a THHD
strain or stuff like that, and for me, it's just
about trust and relationship and making sure that it is
an organic development, you know. So I just have to
make sure I'm doing it with a production company and
a entity that I believe in. So when the right
(50:36):
opportunity comes, we welcome all those all those chances, but
it has to be the right fit. So once I find.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
That her skin is skinny, the hair is hairing, that's
our brown girl, Jane faith soal sarum, that's my brown girl.
Jane's srem It's amazing, her body is amazing, her perfume.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Is about out. Yeah, she's got everything than Malaika and
nia r.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yes, yes, yes. So until then, y'all, thank y'all so
much for like I said, you know, I tiptoe in
this world and in this conversation because I'm not an expert,
and y'all already heard me tell of a story of
what happened when I didn't have experts around, right, So, uh, doctor,
thank you so much. I'll be in touch. Can't wait.
(51:25):
My best friend lives in your area, in the Florida area,
so I'll definitely see you soon.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Thank you on checking in with Michelle Williams. It's been
a pleasure. Black Effect Network. This has been an honor,
and I look forward to collaborating more and getting the
word and information out there. Thank you for choosing this
topic to address because it's so important and a lot
of people do stare away from it and are afraid
to discuss, and your honesty and your transparency and your
personal journey and family members and close friends helps it
(51:53):
to be more relatable. So I appreciate you. Thank you
so much, Michelle.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
You're the best. We'll see you again. Definitely, what an amazing, enlightening,
informative conversation. She just flowed and again, like I told her,
you know, she flowed so well into the questions that
(52:18):
I was going to ask. I love conversations like that.
So I'm gonna let my mama listen to this episode,
and maybe my mama will change her mind. I will
never forget in the latter years of my father's life,
when he would be in so much pain and I'm like, mom,
they opened a dispensary here, and she would be like,
(52:38):
I do not want to be standing in line waiting
for no weed. And so to this day I crack
up about that, you know, But to each his own,
you know, And so I just I'm going to continue
studying the benefits of it. I'm not out here campaigning
and touting, but I think everybody should do their own research.
(52:59):
I also think think that you should you be speaking
to your own doctor about what is best for you. Again,
this episode is not campaigning. It's not telling you to
do it. It's not telling you not to do it.
I know the benefits of actual of CBD oil. There
(53:21):
are some CBD oils that do have THC, and some
CBD oils it's just straight CBD oil, so it does
not give you the effect of feeling like you're high.
So AnyWho, I just wanted to tell you all that
and thank you for listening. Thank y'all for being open
and having an open mind. Y'all, please don't judge me
(53:41):
about the story about the edible, all right, do not
judge me. That was a long, long, long, long long
time ago.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Okay, fine.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeartRadio
and The Black Effect. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. All Right, now, y'all listen.
(00:21):
Ain't no judgment on this here episode. You hear me.
I am tackling a topic that I've been kind of
afraid to talk about because all right, it's my upbringing, Okay,
And isn't it amazing that even stuff from my upbringing
still affects me today. And I'll be forty four in July.
(00:42):
It's like, come on, I'm grown, right, But this is
a topic that I'm excited to talk about. And we're
going to talk about cannabis, y'all. Yes, we're going to
talk about weed.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm excited because we have a medical cannabis expert that
is going to share. There is no agenda today. I'm
kind of curious because she's also an emergency medicine physician,
like she works in a medical hospital, but she is
also tackling the area of marijuana and kind of breaking
the stigma as it relates to this plant from the earth.
(01:16):
All Right, are y'all curious? Just as curious as I am,
because listen, on my mental health journey, I was introduced
to CBD oil in twenty nineteen and it has changed
my life. So I've been telling everybody about it, not
only for depression and anxiety, but for me personally. I
even felt inflammation leave my body. So I can't wait
(01:40):
for doctor sophiel In. She's coming up next on checking
it y'all. It is an amazing day today. No it
is not for twenty, but I do have someone on
here who it's well, maybe it's four twenty for her
clients every day. All right, Thank y'all so much for
(02:03):
checking in. This is gonna be an episode that I
rarely talk about. I rarely discuss, but I think it's
so important to talk about this. Our next guest is
a medical cannabis expert Okay, she's on a mission to
educate the public about the benefits of marijuana. She's also
(02:24):
a practicing emergency medicine physician, which is why I'd definitely
trust her in this topic. Please welcome all the way
from Miami.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Doctor Sophia Lyn, thank you, and it's my pleasure and
honor to be here. Michelle, thank you so much for
sharing your platform. Checking in with Michelle and Black of
PAX Network. Happy to share my knowledge, my experience and
my fumbles. This has all been a journey, you know,
and we're all learning in the process. So hopefully my
experience can be learned with the audience and they can
(02:54):
ask questions, we can get into it. I'm an open book.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Absolutely absolutely. I have a cousin who is an emergency
medicine physician as well in the Illinois area, but he
works at a Wisconsin area hospital and his father is
a family practice position, and so they're both of them.
They're doctor Charles Washington, and if they're listening, just shout
(03:21):
out to you guys. And doctor Chris Pullan's in Arizona.
He is a family practice physician at mail Nice.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I love it, but it's a small community of African
American physicians, so we definitely hold a different level of
stress and priority. And it is always great to meet
others in different areas and to be able to refer
clients and patients and family to them specifically. So I'm
happy you were able to love their specialties and availability
(03:54):
in other areas because it's good to have a little
network of us.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It is so good and it is so more hilarious
at family dinners, you know, I would hear certain initials
at the table, like what is a ABC?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
What is a HY?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
My mother text me something the other day and I
don't think she realized it as a registered nurse. She
typed something to me in medical terminology, yes, And I
was like, you do know you're talking to your daughter
(04:29):
and so it had something to do with I don't
know anything, but it was just like too a S
so oh oh no US for ultrasound And I took
medical terminology, so I knew what she was talking about.
But I was cracking up, like she really she thinks
she's doing dictation or something.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know what. Sometimes your rape brain and your left brain,
you know, don't connect and you're like still in the
work mode and narrowed in and everybody gets the heat
across the board. You just you just kind of revert
back and forth. So at least you already in girls,
you already had the background, so you were able to
yes yes.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Which makes me be a bootleg doctor. Now I diagnose
everybody thereby right sometimes exactly there you go, y'all, let's
get into it. Doctor Lynn. You are in Miami, right.
I am just so excited about the feel that you
are in. So tell me about So you know, there's
(05:33):
a stigma in mental health right right, but we're having
more and more conversation about mental health, so it's becoming
less of a topic where people are ashamed to talk about.
And you are trailblazing in the area of cannabis and
trying to break down the stigma. I know your journey
(05:53):
because we had to research you. So can you give
our listeners a tinch about you know, how you're doing
both because you're still practicing emergency medicine physician.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Correct, Actually, just yep, exactly, Thank you so much. Yes,
a journey it has been. I'll just tell you briefly
starting out, I'm from Jamaica, born in New York, raised
in Jamaica, and my love and my understanding and appreciation
for cannabis started culturally at home and through that, my
(06:25):
family used cannabis as a tincture, as a solve, as
a tea, in different delivery ways to treat certain amblements,
whether you had a headache, a belly ache, a skin rash,
you know, whatever it was. There were different ways to
deliver cannabis and it wasn't traditionally in the smoking method.
For those who did not participate in the smoking or
Rastafarian culture. My uncle is it about Rastafarian and vegetarian,
(06:49):
and you know he never partook in that aspect of
the religion, but learning and understanding the medicinal benefits of
it from early and seeing how it influenced our culture
in such a positive, beautiful, spiritual way. I had a
deeper appreciation for cannabis prior to even having the opportunity
(07:10):
to prescribe and recommend cannabis in the United States. So
that's my initial marriage with cannabis and medicine and understanding
how it can impact your life. Now fast forward here
we are graduated from a hairy medical college. Knew I
wanted to do emergency medicine Nashville, Yes, from the Harry
(07:33):
Yes long legacy of amazing physicians. I'm the first physician
in my family, so this was all new in getting
into medicine. No one ever really practiced medicine or had
any background in medicine. I just knew it was something
I wanted to do, so made my way to Tennessee,
finally got out of there, thank god, and then ended
(07:56):
up in New Jersey at more Sound Medical Center for
Trauma and Emergency medicine training and after New Jersey, those
three years were amazing. I moved to Florida. So many benefits,
the weather, the taxes, different opportunities to build and to learn,
and coming down to Florida during my early years in practicing,
(08:20):
I realized that this is totally different beasts and regionally
and city wise, and location breeds different dynamics and issues
in medicine. For example, Miami being a heavily traveled state
with visitors and international guests, we suffer from different issues
(08:42):
as opposed to more remote suburban areas. So we have raves,
we have concerts, we have large events. You know. The
amount of trauma and different kind of concerns that you
see in a metropolitan city were very different from practicing
in New York New Jersey area. When I was down
here in the er, I was seeing so many overdoses,
(09:05):
so many kids. They would come down for spring break,
they would come down for holiday weekend, and they would
just go crazy with the indulgence, you know, and the
overdoing of alcohol, of drugs, the availability of different things
that they weren't accustomed to or could tolerate or handle.
And it was during a very prevalent era of Malian
(09:26):
designer drugs, bas salts, all those things that we were
hearing about over the last couple of years, K two, spice, molly,
different combination drugs that people were ingesting that we didn't
know how to fix. We could only support them when
they went into respiratory arrests, or when they went into
heart attacks or ended up brain death and different things.
(09:48):
All we could do was support them because we didn't
know how to reverse it. There was no antidote for
these designer drugs because they were combinations of whether it's benzos, opiates, narcotics.
So when they overwhelmed your system and your organs, it
was very hard for the medical community to be able
to treat you and reverse it and get you back
to baseline. So unfortunately, many people suffered long lasting injuries
(10:14):
and sometimes even deaths that they couldn't come back from.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So I was in the position of now being a
new attending calling the parents, calling the family members, and saying,
your twenty three year old just overdose down here in Miami,
you know, explaining to them what happened, Explain to them
why we're unable to get them back, Explain to them
that they might have lost their child, different things like that,
and it was starting to have an emotional tear on me.
(10:39):
So I was tapping into how do I compartmentalize this
in order to be able to be functional and exceptional
in my position and continue to move on and work.
But in addition to that, how do I tap in
to my patients and understand what is the baseline for
why you're doing this? Do you have addiction, do you
(11:00):
have trauma? What is it that you're searching for that
you're reaching for. So as I started to get deeper
into that conversation with my patients, I was understanding a
little bit better than the reason behind why they chose
the path they chose. And in that understanding of addiction
and different issues that they were managing, I needed to
(11:22):
have alternatives. I needed to have other ways to help
control and treat.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So wait a minute, so you were you're a doctor
that has actual compassion.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Oh thank you, thank you, Because.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Some people feel like, as a physician, if you've been
trained to just not be emotional, you just got to
deliver the bad news and it's onto the next patient,
next patient room, ain't no time for compassion.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Excellent question. You are not trained with empathy, and you're
not trained with love and compassion, and that's something that
most physicians tuck away and compartmentalized in order to be
efficient in their work and to move from room two
to room seven to room nine, from the ankle sprains
to the colds, to the heart attacks to the strokes,
(12:14):
you know, because one thing about the er is it
doesn't stop for your bad day. It continues to go
and you're expected to continue to work at the same
level and capacity regardless if you just lost the patient
five minutes ago. You know, the next patient still wants
to get diagnosed and get out. So that emotional aspect
(12:35):
of it and how to manage and deal with that
was something that either developed through your experience, through watching
other physicians who were more senior in their activity, or
through therapy, and also your personal development and journey. So
my early practice years and my training from a hairy
(12:58):
medical college is what help me build empathy, and that
I cannot say is universal in medicine in general, and
it has a lot to do with you know, your
seniors and how you watch and experience their engagement and
interaction with patients. And one thing that's special about HBCUs is.
(13:20):
We have a lot of love. We have a lot
of love for our entire community. And patients will let
you do anything. They'll let you, you know, practice, they'll
let you train, they'll give you opportunities to learn their deepest,
darkest inner secrets. As long as you open that pathway
and you make a patient feel comfortable and you build
(13:41):
that trust. So, especially.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Anesthesia, go ahead, I trust you. I trust you, Lynn
at Scalf Please now, yes, you're absolutely true.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
You're like, wait, hold on a secon. I didn't explain
the whole process. Back up, here's a consent, you know.
But yeah, you build a level of trust with patients
that makes them feel as if your word and your
advice is holy grails. So I always teach my students
now that I am teaching I know the medical school,
(14:19):
to the first and second year students, when I talk
about my experience, especially in the er and especially at Harry,
your trust is key in integral to building an honest
patient relationship. And I use that same principle and apply
it to my cannabis medicine as well too. But once
I got into the depths of why patients were doing
(14:39):
what they're doing, and then in twenty sixteen, Florida became
a medical cannabis state, which means that patients had access
to medical dispensaries to be able to gain access to
cannabis for specific medical problems. Some of those include hiva, cancers, glaucoma,
(15:02):
epilepc als, multiple scrosis, chronic pain, intractable knowledge, and vomiting.
So there are fourteen specific disease processes that were approved
for medical cannabis in the state of Florida, and within
those processes there's a little bit of variation for physicians
to say, Okay, this is a similar to these, to
this group and category, you can be a candidate for
(15:24):
medical cannabis. So once I went through that training and
became a legal prescriber for the state of Florida, my
passion grew at a different level because now I am
I not only able to tap in as to why
you're doing it, but I'm able to actually offer you
complementary and alternative ways to manage your health. So you
don't have to feel like your first choice from treatment
(15:47):
has to be a pill, has to be Western medicine,
but you can start thinking about complementary medicine and plant
based medicine as ways to manage your ailments that qualify
for So yeah, that's how we got here.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
You've said so many things that okay, I got Okay,
I gotta remember, she said, so I can ask a
question about this. This conversation is so layered, pivoting back
to what you were just saying about alternatives to pills
and western medicine. I wanted to tell you my psychiatrists
here in Georgia. We were talking about medicine for any
(16:29):
depressants and anxiety. Yeah, and at that time I had
heard so many great benefits of things like CBD oil,
and I just took a risk in asking her, which,
by the way, I know CBD oil is not medical
prescribed marijuana, so let's I just want the listeners to
(16:50):
I'm making the distinction. But I asked her. I said, hey,
a therapist that I know mentioned you know about, you know,
great benefits of CBD. Well, she said, oh, yes, she said,
I have many patients who loves CBD. She went in
her drawer and gave me a business card of a
natural food market to go to and the consultant to
(17:14):
ask for when I got there, and it made me
trust her so much more about things because she wasn't
so quick to be like, no, you can only take
this prescribed medication.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I love that story and stories like that because it
shows that your physician is forward thinking to the point
that if they don't have the answers and they don't
have the knowledge of how to recommend CBD, they've at
least invested the time to make sure they have a
resource for their patients. Right, because Hey, if I don't
(17:48):
know it, and I don't know everything, I'm the first
one to say that's not my specialty, But let me
hook you up with someone who does. Right. We have
a network, and that's why we do that, so that
we can refer out to others who are more well
versed and experienced in that aspect of medicine that can
compliment what you're doing to make your patient whole, because
that's the ultimate goal, right. We just want to make
(18:09):
sure we appeal to every question, every inquiry, every thought
process that our patient has. Because the minute I say, girl,
that ain't for you, that's that's not the move, and
I deter you from something that you're keenly interested in,
I'm going to lose my connection with you. Right Because
you're going to feel like you're going to feel like
why am I? Why am I even you know, bringing
(18:32):
up these fears, these these moments of trust, these inquiries
to a physician who's blocking me and not even taking
the time to investigate why I'm why I'm considering using it.
So as my teaching with physicians goes, I tell them, hey,
everyone doesn't need to prescribe to you, so your CBD,
(18:54):
but what you do need to have is a resource
and language and options for your patients to be able
to tap into to understand a little bit more. Even
if you don't know, at least refer them to somebody
who does. So. Having pamphlets, having cards, you know, websites
like social media has been amazing for me in terms
of gaining new clients and patients because I don't advertise,
(19:16):
you know, I don't have to. Like people end up
seeking me and it's always by referral or hey I
found you online or something like that, which is good
because I know by the time you get to me,
you're so interested in you're just dying and starving for knowledge.
You really just want to learn, you want to see.
Is this even a part of something that I can
include in my daily regiment. And CBD is amazing because
(19:40):
I treat it like your daily vitamin. And that's how
I have patients look at CBD as your daily vitamin
versus THHD as like a tail and all or motrin,
so that way you can understand how to incorporate it
into your lifestyle. We move Florida, girl, but you know,
you know, you know is a low THHD medical state.
(20:04):
As of April twenty ninth, trulya and Botanical Sciences open
the first five dispensaries in the state of Georgia. They
have locations in Marietta, Macon, and Pool, Georgia, and they
just opened about two weeks ago. And I'm actually a
prescriber in the state and they do virtual cannabis interviews
for patients, so I've been able to help patients in
(20:25):
the state of Georgia as well get qualified. And that's
exactly how most medical vertically integrated cannabis programs grow. They
start with low THHD oil, meaning that THHD that has
less than one percent of THHD in the component of
the oil, and they grow from that into faith, into tinctures,
(20:46):
into edibles, eventually into flower. The program grows over time
as it becomes more diverse and accessible in the state
and it builds more patients.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
You like one of my favorite company's Brown Girl Jane.
I saw, honey.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Those are my sisters.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I love you said you love it because you know
the farm, like you just know it's like one of
your trusted So when I saw that, honey, I use the.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Body oil, love, love love.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
What's the song out like a light for me? I'll
say that because we don't know why two ibuprofens knocked
me out. My mom's like, it doesn't even have like
a sleeping agent in it.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It knocks me out.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So imagine thhc.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Cbb ol bb.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I don't know all the but listen so and I
want to tell you, like, I don't know if you
get this ax a lot. But I grew up in church,
like strict, strict, strict church, and it warmed my heart
to hear you say. In Jamaica this was used. It
was as a t if you had a belly ache
like this wasn't And this is not judging parts of
(21:56):
jay board people like I even had to stress out
damn Finn light me one right, But people of faith
might judge the marijuana usage, not knowing no, people actually
use this for medicinal purposes. People actually use as like
you said, as a saff for maybe an injury or something.
Can you speak to that place.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Absolutely. So what we have to always honor is the
religion and spirituality of cannabis, So before we even get
into medical and eventually recreational use, Like the purpose and
the foundation of cannabis was through religion, and in that
religion became noted for its medicinal purposes. So understanding the
(22:45):
spirituality of it and how it has impacted a culture
and a race and a group that has led and
evolved into Okay, now I'm understanding I was actually super
stressed out when I decided to take that hit or
take that put right. So when you backtrack in your
mind and we talk about delayed trauma a lot, especially
in my youth, who don't even think about why they're
(23:08):
doing certain stuff, but know that their go to for
stress management or their go to for PTSD or trauma
or depression is to use cannabis in a flower form
or to hit the vase or something like that. They're
disconnecting the purpose behind why they're doing because they've never
been formally diagnosed with the medical condition. So when I
(23:31):
talk to my kids a lot, especially like my teens
and my young adults, and I'm like, well, what makes
you reach for a joint? What makes you roll up?
And They're like, you know what, I just had a
long day. I'm just tired of the bs, Like the
world's on my back, you know, right, stressed out as
we all have at some point, their anxieties at a high,
(23:53):
all of those things. And I'm like, oh, you know
you're dealing with PTSD, right, you know, like there's a
formal diagnosis for this, there's an actual meta local condition
and diagnosis for this. So helping them to make that
connection with the trauma that seems so normal in their
lives and normalized because it's surrounding them and that's how
they grew up, and helping them to understand, No, it's
(24:16):
not everybody's day to day to watch your cousin get
killed right next to you and keep going and pushing
twelve years old. No, it's not normal to watch your
mom and dad fright and get into physical altercations every
day and the impact that has on your relationship with
men later on. No, it's not normal to have to
go through chemical and physical abortions on a consistent basis
because you're not using birth control. Like, that's a lot
(24:39):
of trauma that you're dealing with, right And when you
unpack that with people and help them to understand the
foundation of that, it makes so much more sense as
to why they're choosing to medicate how they're choosing, whether
it's access, whether it is what they've seen their parents
or other people do, whether it's a distrust in the
(25:01):
community with black physicians or physicians in general because of
the relationship and engagement and interaction that they've had with
other physicians previously, whatever that issue is helping them to
get to the reason and bottom line for why they're
using They all have a medical diagnosis, it just hasn't
(25:22):
been formally diagnosed. So I help patients to really see
that and kind of go through that emotional unpacking, And
that helps helped a lot because it's much easier to
show someone than to tell someone. If I walk up
to you and be like, girl, you're just depressed. You
know that comes off very like ooh me, Like nah,
it ain't me. It makes you feel stigmatized, It makes
(25:44):
you feel weak, it makes you feel unseen, you know,
and when you label people with those things, it's hard
for them to accept and embrace and to move through
in a way that you would like them to use
therapy for their treatment. So it's just really how you
talk to people. It's language, it's communication. And I can't
(26:06):
emphasize enough the importance of the trust that. I'm glad
that you have that with your therapist in Georgia because
that's key to allowing you to be your greatest self.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Thank you, thank you for sharing that, because I was
wondering how you all determined and you were just saying
a little bit. Because remember there was a time where
anybody could get a medical card. Yes, it doesn't necessarily
equate to me just being able to go get a
medical license and practice medicine, but as a real practicing physician, yeah,
(26:39):
how do you differentiate I have anxiety? How do you
believe someone when they, oh, I have I failed down
and broke my ankle and it still swells up from
time to time. I need marijuana.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Absolutely. So there are things like chronic pain and chronic
and terminal disease processes and insomnia and anxiety and stress
and all of those things that fit under the categories
for being approved for medical cannabis. And in determining that,
you look at the chronicity of the issue, the impact
(27:11):
that it's had on their daily life. Are they still
able to be functional, are they still able to enjoy life?
And the things that you do. Do you require proof
In the state of Florida, they do want to see
prior medical records that show your diagnosis. And for a
lot of people who don't have that, it's just helping
(27:32):
them understand, well, do you realize you were bribed clonazepan
for the last twenty years, Like if you understand what's
that for? You know, understanding the reason behind some of
the diagnoses that they have that they might not have embraced,
you know, all this time, and helping them tap into that.
But in Georgia and every state is a little different.
Every state has their own program, whether it's medical or recreational.
(27:52):
In Georgia, you do not need medical documentation, nor do
you need an in person patient interview, as opposed to
the State of Florida. So everyone has their different nuances
and just as long as you're falling within state requirements
and accordance and you have an established relationship with your physician,
and your physician is committing to continuing to care for
(28:13):
you for the next two years, which is the length
in the term of the medical cannabis card in Georgia.
Then you're fine. You're good. It's not for me to
prove your issue. That's not my goal, not to validate
your issue. My goal is to correctively guide you in
(28:34):
the recommendation process. Because it is an art to it.
I can't tell Michelle and Lindsay and everyone else it's
two puffs every six hours, use as needed for stress management.
It is not a regimented recommendation. It is definitely an
art that's designed per person, depending on the end goal
(28:56):
for each person. Right, So I got to customize what
we're doing in accordance to your lifestyle, in accordance to
how is the best form for you to medicate. Before
we got on air, one of our participants was saying
that she had a tumor in her lungs. Having a
tumor in your lungs, it is not the best choice
for you to use flour or bait because those are irritants,
(29:18):
mochial irritants that can magnify the discomfort of the tumor,
and you don't want to do anything that is going
to have a negative impact or side effects that is
going to turn you off of the process. So some
of the things to think about are other delivery methods
like microdos and edibles, like using tinctures, like using topicals
(29:39):
to help with muscle spasm and different areas of pain
and discomfort. So when you consider how to customize a
medical cannabis recommendation for a person, you have to look
at the entire person. You know, you have to be.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Wofinite that would definitely be a be a client, a
patient of yours. I was taken aback a relative of mine.
I just certain topics. I love integrating personal stories or knowledge.
And they had a horrendous accident and ended up with
(30:17):
some nerve pain or damage due to an injury. And
they were prescribed your traditional.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Like pain narcotics, and they had me cracking up.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
They were like, since I was seeing like spiders jump
off my wall and I don't have spiders. And they
work in ministry, and so it was time for them
to be drug tested, and they were saying how certain
oils that were THHC hit their nerve pain in a
(30:58):
way that even the metal the prescribed pill did not.
And I think they were like put on some type
of not probation on their job because of the TC.
And I just felt so bad, Like so, if the
prescription pill turned up in your system, you probably wouldn't
(31:20):
have been put on probation, but with THC, I was
just like, I felt like we were a little backwards.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
It's ass backwards. Absolutely. THHC is comes from a plant
that's grown in the ground as opposed to a pill
that's manufactured and you know, a company that is a
composite of many synthetics to create an effect for the patient.
So because of the schedule of THFC, it's considered a
(31:50):
Schedule one narcotic, which is deemed pharmologically as having no
medicinal benefits Schedule one drugs. Therefore, it is not allowed
to be used in a medical fashion on a federal level.
And that's why so many people have had backlash from
being tested positive for THHD because if you look at
(32:12):
drug probation handbooks for many corporations, cannabis is still including
now some of the companies that have made groundbreaking decisions
like Amazon, like Apple, different companies that have intentionally decided
to not test for THHD in their drug recently the NBA,
the NFL. There are different chips and bargaining agreements that
(32:34):
the players have made collective agreements with the organizations to
not test for THHD during season or during certain time
periods and certain amounts of levels of THHD in your
blood and then your urine testing because they know that
such a great majority of players are using it and
it's been helpful in a way that traditional medicine hasn't
(32:58):
been able to manage them and treat them and improve
their quality of life. That they had to come to
some kind of negotiation. Even though federally uniformly it's still
Schedule one per state, they are programs that make it
legal for your patients and your players to be able
to use. So why are we not adopting our new
(33:20):
culture and standards to be more inclusive of something that
is nationally recognized and discussed and talked about and has
seen improvement in people for you know. So it takes
that change and that shift and the destigmitation of THHD
in cannabis in order for people to catch on, because
(33:42):
if you don't, you're going to be a hide in
the wave. You know, you're going to lose great people unnecessarily,
so it just really doesn't make sense. But still a
lot of people are adapting this new wave of thinking
and understanding the scientific benefits behind it is what solidifies
its placed in the medical community, which makes companies and
organizations more inclusive of it. So we just got some
(34:04):
work to do. We got some work to do on
the federal ltical, on the you know, on the scientific side,
and descheduling you know, cannabis school allow us to make
leaps and balance in terms of our research and evidence
based medicine.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I was going to ask a question about paranoia and
anxiety as it relates to taking cannabis, and okay, y'all,
so I gotta tell you all the story now. It
may be different now because if I'm intentionally I probably
wouldn't be paranoid if I'm going to take something for anxiety.
Just to all right, I don't Klanizapan was definitely prescribing.
(34:42):
I had actual children's dose of that where dissolved under
my tongue.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
You're so sensitive, yeah, very.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Sensitive, y'all. Please believe me when I tell y'all sensitive.
No judgment on anybody that participates. I love to see
you when I love to see you literally sore.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
That's right, so listen.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
So y'all, this was in like two thousand and four,
two thousand and five, my birthday party, and there were
some brownies passed around. Yes, doctor Lynn Lassiter, those brownies plural,
We're so good. They tasted like cake. I tasted the butter.
(35:27):
It didn't taste like heart fudge. I loved my brownies
to taste like cake. I feel like these were baked
for me.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
They were intentional.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Now what was horrible is no one told anybody that
there's marijuana and these brownies, so I didn't know. You're
not even supposed to eat a whole one. You're supposed
to eat like a sliver, a corner, a little chunky
chunk on you.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
I had two, and you probably have them back to back,
like girl, give me another one.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I was high from maybe I know it was forty
eight hours that stuff was still running through my vanks.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yes, definitely, I was.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Like someone said, I was walking around my room just praying.
I said, well, at least I knew who.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
To call on, like the one and only.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
When you are high or drunk. What's in you is
what's gonna come out. So I was faithful that I
knew who's name the call, and I was, oh, I
was so parannoying, And people are like, well, just drink milk,
go to the steamroom, go to the tie, drink orange juice.
All I could do. I said, I'll see y'all in
(36:51):
eighty two hours.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I'm going to bed exactly.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
So that is my hilarious story. But there is a
term or why people should not eat it, like all
of one bite. What's the term for it? It comes
in waves or something.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
We were talking about microdosing and the importance of taking
small amounts of THHD so that you build slowly and safely,
because if you go too fast, too quick, you'll have
adverse effect, like how you experience with the paranoia. Right,
with the paranoia, the palpitations, the sweating of the diphrasis,
the enlarged pupils, the you know, the nause of the vomiting,
(37:33):
all of those things can have adverse effects and make
you feel ten times worse. Now, what you did was
consume a large amount and a person who is technically
THHD naive, right, so you didn't have any experience or
any guidance or any basis of THHD use. So you
(37:56):
didn't know how your body was going to react. You
didn't even know that's what you were actually doing. So
you consumed a large amount in a very short amount
of time that was quickly metabolized in your system. And
you probably had just assuming a combination of alcohol and
a little bit of food in your system and other
things that magnified the experience. Right.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I felt like I was on a roller coaster that
only had loops going upside down girl, the floor, the
starting to look like the ceiling. Oh oh, it.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Was bad, worst feeling ever. And I always tell patients like,
keep a bottle of CBD with you, Pure's extract CBD
because CBD is an antidote for for THHD. It'll help
decrease your symptoms. So I always tell them if you
start to feel that way, or if you start to
feel any negative side effects, take a tea spoon CBD,
you know, so that way you can start to counter
some of that. But the way you avoid getting to
(38:54):
that space is knowing that you got to start low
and go slow, and everything influences what medications you're taking. Yeah,
what food and beverages you're having at that time, are
you mixing alcohol, what environments are you in? Have you eaten?
You know at all? All of those things influence how
(39:15):
your body is going to respond to THHD and doing
too much too fast. It's absolutely going to leave you
on a bad, negative trip and you're going to be
deterred from ever trying it again. So that's where I
really cautioned my patience to take your time.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Now, what do you say? Because I thought there was
something there was someone was like, it's been fifteen minutes.
I ain't failed nothing yet.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Oh that's the worst thing you could do. That's the
worst thing you could do. Especially I think we're talking
specifically about edibles. You know, edibles is the one that
has that delayed onset of action.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
That's where we were going delayed on set. Okay, that's
where I was. That's where I was trying to I
was trying to remember what it was, so I was
waiting on you to say.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
It, girl, it's metabolized through your gut. So remember if
I just had a huge staking baked potato meal or
some curry chicken like whatever it is that you just ate.
If you're on a full stomach, your processing time for
ingestion is much longer than it is taking it on
(40:18):
an empty stomach, you know, So it's important to understand how, when, why,
and everything else that's going on around you in terms
of how your body will metabolize. Because it's processing through
the gut, there are delayed on sets of action and
everyone hits a little bit different depending on your chronicity
and experience. So if you've been using for a longer
(40:40):
amount of time, you already have a reserve of cannabinoids
in your system, so your response might require a higher
dosing As opposed to a naive patient who doesn't use
on a consistent basis and or has never used, your
response might be much greater with much lower doing right.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah, please be responsible. Please be also, do not have
an event where you are passing around food and you
don't tell nobody because I missed the.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Memo, like's not safe. That is not safe at all.
You have to label your products. You have to make
sure patients are aware because you don't know what other
people are doing outside of your party, right, and.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
It could have been laced. So then that's the other
thing you know you've seen, Like you said so many
overdoses and so many things. Amazing years of practice, you know,
And so thank you for being a responsible person that
is prescribing them and then telling us how we can
be safe. And there probably has to be a part
(41:50):
two apart three for this because I didn't want to
get into there's so much stuff to get into science, statistics, facts,
CBD versus see there's down there cb G del Hones, y'all,
there is a lot, so please study, you know. I
(42:12):
love seeing where people are saying that, even at you know,
coming from a strict background that was kind of in
strict religious background, which was more so in tradition, not
because it was even necessarily biblical world anything God said.
I just when people say alternative medicine has helped them
(42:33):
with inflammation, or they're able to tolerate cancer treatment, whatever
eases a person's pain and makes them and makes them
comfort to go through it already tough journey, you know,
And so thank you for being a part of this movement. Now,
last question for you. You've been absolutely amazing. It's been flowing
(42:54):
like a conversation, like I haven't had to ask you
a lot of questions because you've been answering the questions
with in just you sharing. So thank you so much
for that. Think what are some areas that you feel
people don't recognize cannabis as a therapeutic product besides say
like cancer, glackoma, an anxiety.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
So you have your big five, you have your most
common traditions and ailments that we have seen THHD appreciated.
And for example, everybody goes back to the movie Friday
that glaucoma, that THHD has been useful for my glaucoma.
A lot of people with intraocular increase pressure like glacoma
can benefit from THHD as well. So that was one
(43:36):
of the first areas for the connection between medical and
THHD appreciation in the black community, because we were seeing
that in film early two thousands. Right here we are
fast forward. We are now seeing appreciated in other film aspects,
for example The Best Man, where the wife was dealing
(43:58):
with her cancer treatment and she was using flower to
help with her nausea, to help with her pain. The
open dialogue and discussion and appreciation for cannabis has now
integrated into mainstream in a way that it has opened
up conversation for so many families, especially for parents to
be able to talk to their children about because you're
(44:20):
seeing it on the big screen. You can't avoid the
conversation anymore, right, you can no longer use the Nancy Reagan.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
We've been seeing it in music talked about. We have
been seeing it, you know, like you said, on the
big screen.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
We've been seeing it so prevalent that it almost becomes
normalized for kids. So helping them to understand that distinction, like, yeah,
there's still legal ramifications for your use because it's a
federally illegal substance. So helping people to understand that aspect
of it, because you see so many people in the videos,
(44:56):
in the movies just smoking and partaking as if it
is a quote unquote cigarette, right, So you're seeing the
likeness and the accessibility and the use of it being
plastered everywhere. But you have to always keep in mind
that there's legal ramifications. There are corporations that if you
want to end up doing firefighter, if you want to
end upplying for a paramedic position or to become a position,
(45:20):
there are steps in the process that require you to
have drug testing, and if you do come up positive
for that, there is the possibility that you can lose
that opportunity because they don't accept or appreciate cannabis for
its medicinal aspect yet, and it is considered illegal and
it's a part of their drug policy that if you
violate their policy you could lose access to be able
(45:42):
to work there. So we can never negate that.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Can never negate it. And like you said, we're having
this free conversation, and like she said, please look at
your employer's policy. Nay, John, They told us on checking
in we could smoke.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Hooding right exactly.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
So and last question about brain health and cannabis is
that a myth that, Okay, you lose brain cells in
just marijuana.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
So there isn't a formal scientific study that has measured
brain cells. What it measures is capacity. For most of
the journals and the things that are examining cannabis use,
and it's uh, how chronically you use, how frequently you use,
all of those impact the long term engagement and interaction
(46:35):
on your body and your brain. So when you think
about capacity, capacity is diminished over time. We start out
in our you know, our infancy stage, we build to
adulthood where we're reaching our maximal capacity, and then at
some point we start to transition where we plateau in
our ability to learn new ways of thinking, to learn
(46:56):
new processes, and then we eventually start to decline as
we get older. So that's just capacity in general going
on that hill and that and that curve. And you
have to look at how does canvabis influence that a
lot of people will say at certain periods in your life,
it unlocks a different creativity that allows you to be
(47:16):
more open and to be more focused and intentional on
your work.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Now, don't own up that can because I've already had
you on for an hour.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Oh my god, So you can't mens her creativity. So
that's a different kind of engagement.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
What about the person then that says y'all and then
we got she's got y'all, she's got to go. So
don't have me ask them a question. The person that
says I cannot create or work without it. I write
better songs, I write better scripts. What do you say
to that person that feels like you have to be
in another world to create.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
So THHD has the potential to unlock that for a
lot of people because of it is its ability to
unmask you for sensation. So it allows people to go
deeper and it allows people to be more present in
the work and in the space of what they're doing.
But there is a borderline with addiction. So when you
(48:13):
hear people saying I can't wake up without having a drink,
I can't wake up without taking a hit, I can't
wake up without doing exit doing why you have to
think about those signs of addiction as well too, Because
PhD does have the ability for someone to become addicted
to it. So how why when you use you always
(48:34):
have to be understanding of its impact on you. So
when you start getting to the point that you can't
work effectively without using THHC, then we have to really
tap into the purpose and the intention behind your use
and make sure that we're using the minimal amount of
medication to get maximum benefits and relief. And we're always
(48:54):
microdosing so that we're not over indulging and we don't
have negative side effects. Yeah, it's been great, it's been
a journey, But I as a physician, I always emphasize
the safety of it, and I can't tell you that enough.
It's not for everybody. Like Jay said, it's not for everybody.
CBD is not for everybody. They have side effects as
well too, So you have to just be educated in
(49:17):
the process and you know, be open to go on
this journey with your position together, because it's not gonna
work the first time either. We're gonna have to do
this a couple of weeks, maybe even months, till we
find where your sweet spot is, where you're using that
maximum amount of efficacy with very minimal amount of gholstin. Y'all.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
Doctor Sophia len Lassiter has been absolutely amazing Doctor Sephia Lynn.
I'm sorry I went on what I saw.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
No, you're good. You're good. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
Yes, y'all. Y'all can find her literally on Instagram at
ask doctor Linn l y N and ask doctor Lynn
dot com is her website, y'all. She's like since in
South Florida. She's less than a Florida period.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
California yep.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
And Georgia.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Welcome Georgia, it's our new estate. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Do you think you'll ever do your own product?
Speaker 2 (50:15):
I've been approached many companies many times to do my
own product, whether it's a CBD line or a THHD
strain or stuff like that, and for me, it's just
about trust and relationship and making sure that it is
an organic development, you know. So I just have to
make sure I'm doing it with a production company and
a entity that I believe in. So when the right
(50:36):
opportunity comes, we welcome all those all those chances, but
it has to be the right fit. So once I find.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
That her skin is skinny, the hair is hairing, that's
our brown girl, Jane faith soal sarum, that's my brown girl.
Jane's srem It's amazing, her body is amazing, her perfume.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Is about out. Yeah, she's got everything than Malaika and
nia r.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yes, yes, yes. So until then, y'all, thank y'all so
much for like I said, you know, I tiptoe in
this world and in this conversation because I'm not an expert,
and y'all already heard me tell of a story of
what happened when I didn't have experts around, right, So, uh, doctor,
thank you so much. I'll be in touch. Can't wait.
(51:25):
My best friend lives in your area, in the Florida area,
so I'll definitely see you soon.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Thank you on checking in with Michelle Williams. It's been
a pleasure. Black Effect Network. This has been an honor,
and I look forward to collaborating more and getting the
word and information out there. Thank you for choosing this
topic to address because it's so important and a lot
of people do stare away from it and are afraid
to discuss, and your honesty and your transparency and your
personal journey and family members and close friends helps it
(51:53):
to be more relatable. So I appreciate you. Thank you
so much, Michelle.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
You're the best. We'll see you again. Definitely, what an amazing, enlightening,
informative conversation. She just flowed and again, like I told her,
you know, she flowed so well into the questions that
(52:18):
I was going to ask. I love conversations like that.
So I'm gonna let my mama listen to this episode,
and maybe my mama will change her mind. I will
never forget in the latter years of my father's life,
when he would be in so much pain and I'm like, mom,
they opened a dispensary here, and she would be like,
(52:38):
I do not want to be standing in line waiting
for no weed. And so to this day I crack
up about that, you know, But to each his own,
you know, And so I just I'm going to continue
studying the benefits of it. I'm not out here campaigning
and touting, but I think everybody should do their own research.
(52:59):
I also think think that you should you be speaking
to your own doctor about what is best for you. Again,
this episode is not campaigning. It's not telling you to
do it. It's not telling you not to do it.
I know the benefits of actual of CBD oil. There
(53:21):
are some CBD oils that do have THC, and some
CBD oils it's just straight CBD oil, so it does
not give you the effect of feeling like you're high.
So AnyWho, I just wanted to tell you all that
and thank you for listening. Thank y'all for being open
and having an open mind. Y'all, please don't judge me
(53:41):
about the story about the edible, all right, do not
judge me. That was a long, long, long, long long
time ago.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Okay, fine.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeartRadio
and The Black Effect. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
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