“As an LGBTQ+ grower, I’ve had to prove myself in the cannabis community”
Cannabis Health News

Chronic pain patient Grace* says marginalised growers, including those who identify as LGBTQ+, are facing exclusion from both the legacy and legal cannabis communities – and have more to lose by speaking out.   “I’m really proud of what I grow, and I want to be able to share it,” says Grace, 42. “But as someone who is already quite marginalised and on the edges of society as a disabled, queer, trans person, I feel more vulnerable to retaliation.” A former garden designer, Grace has been growing cannabis at home for several years, mostly for their own medicinal use but occasionally providing friends, family and neighbours with oil to ease their anxiety and aches and pains.  Grace lives with multiple diagnoses and debilitating symptoms of their own, including chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS) – thought to be the most painful condition known to the medical profession.  “I’m in my 40s now and I’ve had chronic pain my whole life,” they say. “I can’t remember a time when my body wasn’t in pain.” From their late teens, Grace felt they weren’t taken seriously by medical professionals and sought out drugs to help them cope with the pain. After battling dependencies on heroin and crack cocaine for two decades, a major health scare – which they almost didn’t survive – was the catalyst to them getting free from heroin.  “That was the moment that I stopped because it scared me so much,” Grace says. “I didn’t want to take any drugs at all once I was sober, but as I reduced the opioids I was struggling more and more with the pain. The doctors tried antidepressants and referred me to physio and a pain clinic, but it got to the point where there wasn’t much they could do.” Discovering cannabis as a medicine …

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Source : “As an LGBTQ+ grower, I’ve had to prove myself in the cannabis community”

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