Links mentioned in episode:
Hemp Guitar Giveaway Link: https://www.lamkinguitars.com/registration
The Canna Mom Show: https://www.thecannamomshow.com/
Josh Lamkin Guitars: https://www.lamkinguitars.com/
We dive into episode two of Mommy's New Medicine, focusing on breaking cannabis stigmas with Joyce from The Canna Mom Show.
Joyce, a pioneer in cannabis podcasting, shares her journey into the world of cannabis and podcasting, which began with a visit to Colorado. This trip opened her eyes to the professional and regulated side of the cannabis industry, challenging her preconceived notions. Joyce's revelation about cannabis to her children, particularly her son Josh, who joins the conversation, marks a turning point in her family's approach to cannabis.
Josh's highlights the normalization of cannabis in their household and its impact on his upbringing. He contrasts this with the typical stigmatization surrounding cannabis use, suggesting that a more open and educated approach can lead to a healthier relationship with the plant.
The conversation shifts to the broader implications of cannabis legalization and its potential benefits, especially for women and mothers. Joyce emphasizes the importance of crushing the cannabis stigma and advocates for a more informed and compassionate approach to cannabis use, both medically and recreationally.
Monica and Joyce explore the challenges and opportunities within the cannabis industry, particularly for women. They discuss the potential of cannabis to offer alternative solutions to traditional pharmaceuticals and alcohol, advocating for a shift in perception towards viewing cannabis as a viable and beneficial option.
The conversation about cannabis is encouraging a shift towards more open and informed discussions about its use and benefits. Advocacy can be done by bringing elected officials into the conversation as well.
In our next episode, we will delve into the intersection of cannabis use and managing ADHD, further expanding the podcast's exploration of the multifaceted relationship between motherhood, mental health, technology, and cannabis.
[00:00:05] Presenter: Welcome to the pioneering podcast at the intersection of motherhood, mental health, technology and cannabis. It's Mommy's New Medicine. Here's your host, Monica Olano.
[00:00:18] Monica Olano: Welcome everybody to episode two of Mommy's New Medicine. Today we are going to be meeting with Joyce and her son. The name of today's episode is Empowering Moms Through Alternative Options: Breaking Cannabis Stigmas with Joyce from The Canna Mom Show.
Before we dive in with Joyce, I just want to do a few quick housekeeping items from episode one. I want to thank everybody that took the time out of their day to download it, listen, and especially reach out. That means a lot to me. I had a lot of questions on, is this a postpartum, is this a mother's show? Is this a marijuana show, sobriety? What is it? The truth is, I don't 100% know. I just felt very empowered getting my story out and cannabis was one of the items that helped get me through.
Yes, we are going to talk about cannabis, we're going to talk about a lot of other things, but today is completely cannabis-focused. I'm so honored to have Joyce from The Canna Mom Show. She is the OG, I would say, of marijuana, cannabis podcasting that I know of. I'm excited to share her journey. She has her son here as well. I do just want to share a few quick notes that I got from the last episode because they were very meaningful to me.
Someone I went to high school with that I haven't talked to in 20 years sent me, "Monica, thank you so much for sending me the invite to your Facebook page and podcast. You are absolutely speaking my language for 2024. I can't wait to hear more from you and feel like I am not alone in a very similar journey as you." Share this with your friends, anyone you know, you never know what people are going through that they're too afraid to talk about out loud. I will be that face for everybody and just keep sharing and listening.
Okay, house items done. I'm going to introduce Joyce who I just let her know a little bit. We're going to talk today about cannabis, parenting, stigmas, advocacy, how to empower women. I'm really excited to have her son on the show because he has a really special item he made to support his mom's podcast, as well as I'm just on the journey of cannabis and I'm only on the journey of parenting.
My oldest is three. My other two are 19 months. No clue how I'm going to talk to them about cannabis because it was just outlawed in my house. We didn't talk about it. We didn't do anything. Joyce has been through the ups and downs and the evolvement of that in her parenting and her household. I'm excited to have her talk about that. Joyce, I'm going to give you the floor and go ahead and introduce yourself and what you want to tell the group.
[00:03:03] Joyce Gerber: Thank you, Monica. You're doing so great. I'm a big supporter.
[00:03:07] Monica: Thank you.
[00:03:08] Joyce: I sort of jumped into podcasting and cannabis simultaneously. Do you want me to do a quick overview of how I got here?
[00:03:16] Monica: Yes. I know we talked before and you had got into it when you went and visited Colorado and you learned a new side of it. Then you jumped into podcasting because similar to me, you had taken some time off to be with your kids and you knew you wanted to go back into the working world.
[00:03:34] Joyce: They don't raise themselves. Yes. I can do my little quick little bio and then you can interrupt me when you have a question. All right. Again, thank you for having me here. I am Joyce Gerber. I am the host and creator of the podcast. We are now in our fifth season and we're a podcast that is created and hosted out of Cambridge, Massachusetts right here in my daughter's bedroom. [laughs]
[00:03:55] Monica: I love it. I love the background too with the cannabis leaves.
[00:04:00] Joyce: Anyways, when I talk about my own story, I always say that cannabis is not my natural habitat, meaning, I'm a middle-aged lady. I've been married for over 30 years. My kids are in their 20s now. I play tennis. I wear pearls. I really thought that cannabis is dangerous and killed brain cells. I did consume it. I liked it when I used it. the joke is when Josh-- my kids are little, a friend of mine would get a little tiny bit of it. I don't even know where we got it. We go far away, far away from the children.
[00:04:30] Monica: Can’t let ‘em see!
[00:04:31] Joyce: Yes. We come back and drink our wine. That was my understanding of what cannabis was. I live in Massachusetts and in 2016, my kids are teenagers, my husband and I went to Denver, Colorado for fun, just for a little vacation. We decided to take a tour of the cannabis industry. I just thought it'd be a fun thing to do.
[00:04:50] Monica: Very unique to Denver. That is a very good spot to get your feet wet with that.
[00:04:54] Joyce: To see it. We met up with a woman named Goldie Solodar. She has a business she calls City Sessions and she does private tours of the industry. She picked us up and she showed us a dispensary. She told us a little bit about the history and she showed us a grow facility, which was really the thing that blew my mind because it was so professional and these guys who are running it were MBAs. This is a compliance industry, if you know anything about it now. I didn't know that then. I thought it was dudes on a couch eating Cheetos. I really had no idea.
[00:05:23] Monica: That would be the thing that you think when you think of cannabis and you think of marijuana. That's what you think.
[00:05:28] Joyce: Yes. I came back to Massachusetts. My kids are teenagers. I sat them down and I was like, "Kids, everything I know about pot is wrong." They were psyched. [laughs]
[00:05:39] Monica: How old were they when you told them this? When they came home and you told them this, how old were they?
[00:05:43] Joyce: Were you 16, Josh? How old were you?
[00:05:44] Josh: I was 16.
[00:05:45] Joyce: Yes. 16.
[00:05:47] Monica: Before had it been outlawed in your house? It was, you don't do it, you don't bring it home.
[00:05:51] Josh: You can correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure you found my pot stash at one point before you guys went to Colorado, and instead of taking it away, you put more in.
[00:05:58] Joyce: Yes. I gave him a new bong. I gave him a new pipe, I think. Anyway.
[00:06:02] Josh: Yes. I broke it this year, unfortunately.
[00:06:06] Joyce: Anyways, it wasn't like we weren't-- not like now, our life is-- we talk about it more. Anyway, it was a thing, but I wasn't against it necessarily, but I wasn't out there talking about it. 2016 was also the same year in Massachusetts. We voted to allow adult use here in Massachusetts. It was a voter initiative. At the end of 2016, again, like you talked about, I was a woman who has a law degree. I finished law school with Josh. Actually, he was with me. I was pregnant.
[00:06:36] Monica: That's so special.
[00:06:38] Joyce: I was just one of those women. It's hard to do it all. I was in and out of the world of monetized work, I call it, mostly because kids don't raise themselves. My husband always made more money and had better health insurance. When things went off the rockers and Josh has some good stories, and when things went off, I was the one to step back and let my professional life take a hit.
2016, I'm back in the world of monetized work. I'm in a contract position. I'm working on ends at the end of 2016. Then in 2017, I was just having a really hard time getting a job. I am 58 years old. I feel like I'm the beginning of this generation of women who are told to do everything, just lean in. I got my law degree. I was pregnant. I was married. I was doing all this stuff, leaning in, and it wasn't working. It was not good. I have a whole story. Josh was there. One day, my husband and I were so busy, we both went to work and left the kids at home.
[00:07:36] Monica: How old were they?
[00:07:38] Josh: I was in second grade. I think.
[00:07:40] Joyce: Second grade. He was old enough to be like, "Hmm, this doesn't seem right." I learned that he could take care of him and his younger sister when his father and I are not there. It was also sort of this awakening moment. I'm like, "All right, that's wrong. I should not be leaning in this hard, something is wrong." When I started telling other people about what happened and I was really embarrassed, honestly, everybody had done it. I'm like, moms, humans, these are important people we're supposed to be taking care of. Anyways.
[00:08:08] Monica: I grew up in that generation. My parents were both-- they had us very young. My mom was 19 when she had my brother. She was 22 when she had myself. They worked full-time. They went to college at night. From, I think, kindergarten, first grade on, we lived three blocks from the school. My parents left in the morning. I had to get myself to school. I had to be responsible. That's very frowned upon these days. That's how I grew up.
[00:08:34] Joyce: The funniest part of the whole story is that-- I don't have to go into it. We can relive this later, but you can see the school from our house.
[00:08:41] Josh: Yes. From my bedroom window.
[00:08:44] Joyce: Yes. They could have gone. What they did instead is they walked the dog. They made themselves lunch. [laughs]
[00:08:50] Monica: I one time just skipped school. I was in fifth grade. I didn't go. I was like, "What are they going to do if I don't show up?" I was eating ice cream watching Lifetime when the cops showed up because the school called my parents that I wasn't there. I feel you, Josh. I also took a risk. Let's see what we can do.
[00:09:07] Joyce: Anyway, I did not-- It was fine. Anyways. Also, 2017, I find myself in a position where I had taken time off from the world of monetized work as leaving your kids at home isn't really ideal. I was actually a family law attorney. I knew that was not good. Anyways, 2017, I'm out in the world. I'm trying to find some monetized work. I'm doing all the things I'm supposed to do. I start meeting a lot of other women like me.
I feel like I'm the tip of the iceberg. There's literally a word for us. We're called relaunchers. This generation of women who went out and we're going to change the world and we got our degrees and we worked and worked, and then we had children and we had this epiphany that there are literally no structures in this country to take care of children except for the women. We really were just human and we couldn't do it all.
I will say in my law school class at Northeastern University, more than half were women. One of my classmates is now the governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that's how far we've come. Another half of our class have dropped out because of the caregiving issues that women still focus. That's how I got into this.
I'm having a hard time, things are weird. I can see that law firms are setting up cannabis law divisions. This is new law. You never, ever get to be part of something new. I'm like, "Huh, maybe I could get into this." It was an idea. I didn't just jump in. I took about nine months and I really took-- I looked at it, I didn't know what this was. I heard the word endocannabinoid. I heard about-- learned about Harry Anslinger. I understood why the Marijuana Tax Act existed. I started going back in history and my husband would come home from work and I'd be like, "Oh, my God, did you know this?" At some point, I wasn't sure I wanted to go back into law. During this journey, I was at an event in Boston. I met somebody who was starting up a podcast media company.
I didn't know much about cannabis, really. I didn't know anything about podcasting. I literally get The New York Times paper delivered to my house. I'm very old school, but he hired me to be his executive producer of his podcast. I did that for a year, which is really how I learned podcasting and how I learned about cannabis because of the guests I was bringing on. Then about a year after that, I started The Canna Mom Show.
[00:11:15] Monica: Oh, that's fantastic. So many of those things still ring true today. Women are still struggling to find, do I go the career route? Do I stay home with my kids? Can I manage both? Especially this whole remote work where now women are working full time from home while their kids are at home. It's insane. There's still not those structures that you mentioned.
[00:11:37] Joyce: Comes back to cannabis. I talk about cannabis. She's a female plant. She's a caregiver plant. This is a new industry. I talk with women in the industry who are building this industry. That's really where my focus is. We could build something that looks different than what business looks like now. If we could build the industry in the image of the caregiver, that's the really most powerful message I think I'm getting from the women I'm talking to who are in this industry because they're healthy, they're healed, which is what you're talking about.
They want to be leaders in this emerging field. That's really where the podcast-- the Genesis was about how you talk to your kids, which we can talk about a little bit, but it's really transformed into elevating the stories of the women who are building this new industry. Again, crushing the cannabis stigma because I was a wine mom. I could literally go into the school, the elementary school with a big shirt that said, "Hey, I'm a wine mom." People would have been like, "Of course, you are."
If I smoked a joint or that was sort of my MO and I was very involved with the school, Josh can tell you, I don't think I would have been so cool. It was a different time. I think cannabis should be just as accessible for moms as wine. I think it's healthier for moms, especially. I think I would've been a nicer parent, maybe, we can talk about that with Josh. I just would've been more present and I wouldn't have been so anxious all the time. I think it would've helped in a way that I think moms should hear that message, which is what you're giving to them because you are a mother of young children. You're in it now. You're in it deep.
[00:12:56] Monica: Yes, I am in it deep. If you listen to episode one, I was in the wine pretty deep too, trying to mask and trying to hide. Just like you said, if I go to these play dates and the moms at 10 AM are like, "Man, I can't wait to have my glass of wine tonight," that just makes us more anxious. They're wanting it because they're tied up and they're anxious. In reality, it's making it worse. Especially in Louisiana, I know Massachusetts is a little bit more open now, it just became medically legal down here.
The THC drinks, the Delta-9 that's over the counter is just coming out. It's still very, very stigmatized down here. Like I said, I'm trying to wrap it all together, so moms can feel comfortable. While we have Josh on here, I am curious to hear his perspective of seeing you evolve through all of this and how it impacted his childhood, what he sees, and what he may want with his kids down the road. I'm just very curious to hear your take on it from the child view, even though you are an adult now.
[00:13:58] Josh: I think because growing up, we saw it as just a normal recreational thing in the same category, it's like, the parent comes home, they have a glass of beer, a glass of wine or whatever. It's just a normal thing. It's not this weird taboo where you want to go out and consume as much of it as possible when you're whatever, in high school because you don't get it at home. You can't have it at home. Then you do stupid shit because you're high for the first time and you don't know any better.
I don't know. It's like what they do in European countries. You teach the kids, they have wine with dinner. It's just part of the culture. It's just one more thing you can consume, drink, whatever. It's not this weird thing you have to go out of your way to get and then do it in hiding. It's just a normal everyday plant.
[00:14:48] Monica: You don't think anything else of it.
[00:14:50] Josh: Yes. It's not like a hard drug. There's no crazy side effects. You don't get a hangover.
[00:14:58] Monica: That's huge.
[00:15:00] Josh: My favorite part of it all.
[00:15:01] Monica: That is so huge.
[00:15:03] Josh: I don't know. We saw it in just a normal, functional way growing up. I don't think me or my sister ever thought of it as really a drug, if anything at all.
[00:15:11] Monica: I know one of my biggest fears being so open about this down here when not as many people are and my kids being younger. One of my fears is that other parents might be like, "Oh, she's the drug mom," or "Oh, she's the weed mom." Did you ever have any reactions like that from your friends' parents that maybe it impacted any friendships?
[00:15:32] Joyce: It helped. [laughs]
[00:15:32] Josh: I can't say I ever did. Yes, I don't know. I think everyone at some level is curious because it is something that's-- it's always been around. People have always smoked weed. It's not new. I think either if you avoided it growing up, your whole life, I have a friend of mine, his parents, I guess they used to be really against pot. He'd tell me all these stories about them never smoking.
We were playing in their hometown in Ohio. We're staying with their parents. I was talking to his dad after the show. He's like, "Yes, every once in a while, I smoke here and there." He starts asking me about me growing up and smoking because we've been to their place a bunch of times. We played a bunch of shows in Ohio. I always bring weed with me. I talk about it. I talk about my mom's show all the time.
[00:16:17] Joyce: You're such a good guest. [laughs] I'm so proud of you bringing weed to your family's visit.
[00:16:24] Josh: It's great because the parents are always really intrigued by the fact that my own parent is deeply involved in the cannabis culture industry. They just start asking questions. It always seems like the first time I meet them, they're a little reserved, but they're interested in it because it's new. Every state's legalizing at this point. I don't know. Tennessee is a holdout. Texas is a holdout. Tennessee, it's easier to get weed out of a store than it is in Massachusetts. You can walk into any head shop you want and they just have it, big glass display cases. There's no security. Half the time they don't card you.
[00:17:02] Monica: Okay, but it's not legal?
[00:17:04] Josh: It's not.
[00:17:05] Monica: So much to learn about.
[00:17:06] Josh: Yes, but anyways, I feel like everyone's curious at some level. They always end up-- by the third or fourth time I see them like, "Yes, I had an edible last week."
[00:17:16] Joyce: Oh, yes. Everyone loves to tell me, "I've had an edible." I'm a person of faith. I'm very active in my local temple. I'm on the board of the temple. Whatever. I'm there all the time. People love to come over and say, "I had an edible," or to share with me. I'm like, "You don't have to whisper." [laughs]
[00:17:31] Monica: It's still out there, though. It's still that-- even the messages I got, I had someone call me and they're like, "Are we talking about marijuana?" I'm like, "Yes, we're going to talk about cannabis, marijuana, whatever you want to call it," because it is. It's still just this stigma surrounding it, no matter if it's legal or not legal. It's how do we get past that stigma where I can--
[00:17:53] Joyce: I think it's things like this. Again, this is America, the United States of America. We are representing three different states here. Each of these states is so different. It's really about the culture of the state at some level, about how people understand it or how people interact with it. The culture is just around-- you don't even know it. It's just what people talk about and how they talk about it. You're changing the narrative.
That's literally what you're doing. This is what I talk about. All the women I speak to is what they're doing is these one-on-one conversations, these stories of healing are actually changing people's hearts and minds. That's how we're changing the stigma. That's really how we're crushing cannabis stigma. It's exhausting sometimes, but there's no other way to do it.
[00:18:30] Monica: Yes. Okay, if we were-- another woman, let's just say woman, man, whoever's listening is like, "Hmm, I might want to try this. I might want to dip my toe in," I know for me, I've never been big in smoking. I have tried smoking quite a few times. It hits me too hard, too fast. I don't enjoy the feeling. I've really leaned into the THC seltzers. That is been my five o'clock replacement for my wine. I have one of those or I do an edible. I do love me some edibles. That's my evening, Friday night or Saturday night.
Now, for women or men that are listening, since you guys know a lot more about the cannabis than I do, where would you recommend they start? They don't have to go to the street corner like we did in high school necessarily to get it. Where would they go? What should they start with? How should they test it out?
[00:19:20] Joyce: Again, 39 states have medical programs. 24 have adult-use programs. Places like Tennessee, you can just buy it on the street.
[00:19:28] Monica: I need to go visit Tennessee again.
[00:19:29] Josh: Yes. Wild.
[00:19:32] Joyce: It is wild. What I say to people general-- everyone thinks they should start with an edible. You talked a little bit about smoking. Cannabis will impact you differently depending on how you actually consume it. I am not a doctor. I have a law degree. I don't really know how any medicine works in the body. I don't really know how the human body works, but I can tell you that our endocannabinoid system exists. We have receptors. There are molecules, microbiology. You can actually look into this.
The way that it comes into your body interacts how you experience it. The smoke is the most immediate, that's why the smoking is the most efficient. Some people-- the harshness of the smoke isn't good. We have a lot of different ways to consume it. It's flower, I talk about flower, sometimes I bring my friends who don't know about cannabis into dispensaries and I keep saying flower, and they think that I'm talking about baking, like flour to bake things with, and they don't know what I'm saying.
The flower is the actual flower of the plant, that's what you smoke. Or you can vape it, which is a lighter smoke, which is actually used quite often for medical patients because the effect is immediate and the smoke isn't that heavy. All sorts of, if you look out there, vaporizers. There's also oils, which are actually concentrated forms of just the THC, a lot of people like to start with those, but again, coming back to the plant, this is a plant, we talk about full spectrum, meaning we're using all of the cannabinoids and terpenes and all the wonderful things that are in the plant.
We often reduce this all to just one cannabinoid, THC, which I'm sure everyone's heard of, or CBD. THC is the psychoactive one, CBD is the one for inflammation, and then there are other many, many, many more that we could talk about, but I'm not going to go that nerdy deep. The vape pens are concentrate, so they're just one of the cannabinoids, maybe with other things come in, so they actually, again, impact you differently.
Then you have edibles, and edibles are another thing you need to look for, how is it made, what's actually in it, how many terpenes, how many THC, but it also goes through your liver, which means it is actually literally a different molecule when it comes out, and that's why it impacts you differently, and that's why the high lasts longer, but it starts later, which is why you hear all the stories of people being like, everyone's done it, took one, nothing happened, took another, and it was not a happy experience.
That's the way people think, and then the beverages, which I think are a little bit more fast onset, which are much more social, which is probably why a lot of women like the beverages, and there's so many choices now. There you are. One more thing just to confuse people, beverages are supposed to be only accessible in dispensaries if you live in a state where it's legal, but we have a thing called the Farm Bill, which made CBD legal, which also allowed us to extract the small amounts of THC from hemp, and you can now find beverages which have THC in just places, alcohol stores, and not just in dispensaries.
There's a lot of products out there, and the idea of regulating it and making it legal was to make it more consistent, but now it's just crazy, it's all across the board, a thousand different ways you can use it. Again, if you're just looking for something to try, I know everyone wants to try an edible first, but really, I'm a big fan of flower, whole flower because that's the plant, that's the miracle of it, that's all the different ways that you can-- all the different things that impact your body. Again, I don't know anything about it, but it works with your body in a different way than just the isolated cannabinoid. All right, that was a lot, sorry. [laughs]
[00:22:53] Monica: No, that was great. I just got a little lesson. I knew a little bit about the Farm Bill because I've been really researching. I didn't even know there was this whole world of cannabis out there, so thank you for introducing me to that. You told me LinkedIn's the most open place about it, and man, have I found some amazing things on LinkedIn, and there's so many women in it, and just everything they're trying to do with empowering and advocacy. Thank you.
[00:23:17] Joyce: This is science. This isn't magic, this is science. People talk about cannabis for a long time, it was demonized and voodooized and scary-ized and whatever it was, but this is literally just science. It's how molecules interact with your body, it's biology, it's chemistry, and the story, again, back to culture, we were fed a story for a hundred years. We live in the weird anomaly of history, and now we are bringing it back because you can track cannabis 10,000 years in history. We're changing the culture by talking about it in a normal way and explaining what it really is, instead of being scared and frightened by a made-up story.
[00:23:52] Monica: Yes, and also, one of the things that I'm really preaching with, we need to ditch mommy wine culture, is that was such a marketing ploy. We have lived in that marketing ploy, so the alcohol companies, the pharmaceutical companies, they can make more money, so I'm really happy to hear you give all this information about cannabis because like you said, that hasn't been readily accessible to everybody, and we have been told drugs are wrong, drugs are wrong, and sure, some are, but I think this is one that needs to be looked at in a different light.
[00:24:23] Joyce: I think you have to define what a drug is. Alcohol is a drug, alcohol is literally a poison, and I get on my high horse sort of about mom things, so one of the issues I've been finding out is that there are many women out there, we haven't really talked about how moms are using it, but many women are out there pregnant.
They are nauseous and throwing up all the time, and they are offered all sorts of medications, prescription medications, but there is now information that the cannabis plant is very helpful to help with the nausea, but the issue is, we still have states where they're penalizing mothers for using cannabis medication, even with a doctor's approval, so this is a ridiculous-- especially in the state of Massachusetts, where it's legal for adult use, and it's legal for medical programs. Women have to stop being penalized for this. If you're using cannabis to help your body function, that's a bigger issue that I talk about in terms of how moms are being penalized for using cannabis.
[00:25:13] Monica: That's huge because when I was pregnant with my twins, I had never been more sick in my life. I couldn't get out of bed, I was having to go to the hospital, or go to these private IV clinics because I couldn't keep anything down. They wanted to put Zoloft, they wanted to put all these concoctions in my IVs, and I'm like, "This just doesn't seem right." I wouldn't even have known that that was an option out there, and again, I probably wouldn't have done it because I would have been afraid to be penalized, like you said, so I think it's great that you're sharing that because we need to know that.
There's two things I want to do, I am so impressed by you, and so impressed with everything that you have brought to the table, and shown me just in the short amount of time I've known you, and I've done my rabbit hole research on you. I really want to give women a way to feel empowered, and go find a way to advocate for this. Say you were talking to me, and I wanted to advocate further in the state of Louisiana for this, where would I start?
[00:26:08] Joyce: I think just by existing, and being there and talking about people. Again, I talk about how I play tennis, I wear pearls, I don't have any tattoos, I talk about this all day long, I have a law degree, I'm a stable married mother, I'm a member of my temple community, I'm very, I don't know, boring.
[00:26:24] Monica: You're amazing.
[00:26:25] Joyce: I talk about cannabis all the time, and people can hear me-- I think in situations like lawmakers, and people are like, "You know how the rules work," talk to them, and become that opportunity for them to maybe think, "Maybe what I know is wrong." Everyone has to make up their own minds, this is a parenting lesson, and Josh couldn't control anything he did, we can come back to his music world, but, you need to be there to be the people that they can see you, and maybe open up that space where they're like, "Maybe what I know is wrong," and introduce them to what this really is.
I always start with a product because once you feel the relief yourself, you think, "What else is there?" I talk about giving-- my mother was in a nursing home. I used to bring in CBD products for her hands, so some of the pain would go away, and her friend would-- I'd give little samples, and then they'd be like, "What else do you got, Joyce?" Again, just being that person who introduces them, is accessible, and can hear what their fears are because there's a lot of fears-- my mother really thought I was in a drug cartel to the day she passed.
She just could not accept that this was helpful, and sometimes they can't really hear from the person they love, but they can hear from maybe someone else who they respect, and they're like, "Well, maybe the person I know, my daughter, maybe she's crazy, but this person who's a medical professional or something, they know," so just keep talking to people, and being that person.
I know you're in a different state than Massachusetts, but just being there, and being willing to stand up, and talking about it, and helping them heal, that's the other thing I think. If you are talking to lawmakers, and you help them heal, they will be evangelized, or help someone they love heal, and they will be evangelized because they will see what the power of this plant is.
[00:28:00] Monica: Okay, thank you, and Josh, I'm going to bring you back in, I have two things for you. If you could tell any mom or dad out there that is nervous about what stigma this might present to their kids, if they decide to try it, if you could just share on how proud of your mom you are, and how it didn't stigmatize you for your life, and then if you want to go into the amazing guitar that you made for your mom's show, I'm really excited for you to showcase and talk about that.
[00:28:28] Josh: Yes, cannabis use is fine. I think I turned out fine, I have a younger sister.
[00:28:31] Joyce: You're fine.
[00:28:32] Monica: You seem fine. [chuckles]
[00:28:32] Josh: She just graduated college, she seems fine, it's one of those things where it's like later in life, we found out my mom had regularly smoked pretty much her entire childhood before you even knew, no one knew she was high, so if that says anything about it, you know when someone's drunk, they act drunk. For the most part, a high person is just sitting there eating snacks out of the fridge or something. You're not really going to question it unless you know something's up.
[00:28:56] Monica: They're much more pleasant to be around, to be honest with you.
[00:28:59] Josh: It's much more pleasant, yes.
[00:29:00] Monica: I'm much more pleasant to be around than when I was drunk.
[00:29:03] Joyce: The kids and my friends say, they tell their moms, they're like, "Mom, I think you need to have some of your medicine." They know, they can tell the difference. No one ever tells their mother to go have another martini.
[00:29:12] Monica: Not in a nice way, at least, they don't.
[00:29:14] Joyce: Not in a nice way. It's funny.
[00:29:16] Josh: It probably would have made hanging out with us as toddlers much more fun for you, right?
[00:29:20] Joyce: Much more fun, absolutely.
[00:29:22] Monica: It is making it a lot more fun, I'm going to be honest with you, it is so much more fun.
[00:29:26] Josh: You just got to simplify things down to their level in your head and everything works out well.
[00:29:30] Joyce: Show them the guitar, Josh, do you have it?
[00:29:31] Josh: I don't have it, it's getting--
[00:29:33] Joyce: He doesn't have it.
[00:29:34] Josh: Your promo video is being put together, so I don't have it on me.
[00:29:39] Monica: Tell us about it, and then I'm going to include a link in the show notes, as well as if you go to our website or any of our social media and you comment or you sign up for the email newsletter, I'm going to be pumping it out that way, too.
[00:29:51] Josh: Perfect. Yes, as a way to support The Canna Mom Show and, try to gather some further funding, keep the show going because it seems like it's impacting lives, I see how parents in our community at home in Massachusetts have benefited from it. I have friends who, them and their siblings got really into the channel, and now all of them smoke, I think it's a great educational thing.
We built a guitar. I have a small guitar shop down here in Nashville, and we built it entirely out of hempwood. You can enter to win it through the link that we're going to post. Every donation goes to support The Canna Mom Show to keep the channel going. Yes, it's cool. You can smoke out of it. You can play it. It sounds great.
[00:30:32] Monica: It's amazing.
[00:30:33] Joyce: There's a little bowl on it. He made a video of him smoking out of it and playing it. If you want to see it, it's up there.
[00:30:38] Monica: Yes, I'm going to share it too in the link notes, all my social media. It is really, really cool. I'm excited to pass that along. That's such a great idea to fundraise for your mom's show because, like you said, she is bringing education. She's helping so many people. I think that's great that you did that for her.
[00:30:54] Joyce: He's such a good boy. See, it was worth it.
[00:30:58] Monica: I'm going to have my son call you in 15 years. He's only 19 months now, but-
[00:31:02] Josh: Perfect.
[00:31:02] Monica: -he could learn a few things.
[00:31:04] Joyce: I survived. Yes. We could have a whole nother conversation about surviving Josh's childhood. [laughs]
[00:31:08] Monica: That'll be season two. I'll have you back every season. We'll keep mixing it up on what we talk about, but that would be a good one. I want to thank so much for you guys for coming on the show and sharing all the education and all the knowledge that you have. On our next episode, we will still be in the cannabis realm, but we are going to touch on the ADHD world as well, which I got diagnosed with as I went on this journey.
We are going to be interviewing Britney Brown with Imperfect Inspiration. She is huge on TikTok, all over the place, but she also got diagnosed at 34 with ADHD. It changed her outlook on life, and she has done so much with it. We're going to be talking about managing our own ADHD while navigating parenting children with neurodivergent issues. It's going to be a really interesting episode. Cannabis will be sprinkled in throughout, and we look forward to having you guys. Until then, thank you.
[00:32:08] Presenter: Thanks for listening to Mommy's New Medicine. Don't miss an episode. Follow our show for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're consuming the show right now. Let's keep the conversation going between episodes. Connect with us on social. Just search Mommy's New Medicine.