HiBnb’s “Read Hi” section is pleased to announce we have joined forces with eccentric, iconoclastic cannabis influencer and social media guru Jacqui Childs for the weekly column, “Higher Living with Jacqui Childs.” The column will be about… whatever Jacqui feels like addressing, which can run the gamut from stories about her strange relationships to her position on mental health in the Western world to her favorite travel spots and why. In the first column, Jacqui writes about how she was reluctantly lured into cannabis culture and how it changed her life.

 

Jacqui Childs' Cannabis Corner

I’m not one of these people who started smoking weed in junior high, way before it was legal. It was actually my in-laws that introduced me to CBD when they were in their late ‘70s. I have Crohn's disease, anxiety, and depression and at the time I was just taking antidepressants prescribed by my doctor. My father-in-law kept saying, “I think you should try cannabis. If you don't want to smoke a joint, you should try some CBD.”

It sounded funny coming from an educated man who was older than I was. He told me his friends were all trying CBD – and by “friends,” he meant his tennis partners who were in their eighties. I just thought it was snake oil because I was raised on that Nancy Reagan “just say no to drugs” narrative. It was a time when there was this big anti-drug campaign and if you were smoking pot, you were a degenerate. There was an anti-drug TV commercial that showed a hot frying pan and an egg. The announcer said, “This is your brain.” Then, he cracked the egg into the pan and it started to sizzle and crackle and the voiceover went, “This is your brain on drugs… Any questions?”

It was funny, but at the same time, it sort of scared me straight. So, I was kind of programmed by that type of mentality.

“My doctor prescribed pharmaceuticals. I’m going to stay on them,” I told my father-in-law. He brought out some of the oils and some cannabis a couple of times, but I never tried it. I just put it up on top of the fridge for the longest time. And all the while I tried to cope with my depression and anxiety with these pills the doctor gave me.

The problem with drugs like Xanax and Ativan is they’re great to calm you down for a while, but then they don’t work as well anymore so you have to increase the dosage to get the same effect. And before long, you’re taking huge amounts. I felt like I was becoming a drug addict. So, I quit all my prescriptions cold turkey without telling anyone.

Of course, when you do that – which doctors urge you not to – it can be such a shock to your system that it can make you sicker than you were before and sometimes even kill you. So, I started using cannabis. First, it was CBD oil and then I started smoking cannabis with high CBD content. I didn’t feel cured of anything, but I felt better than I was before. Then I discovered that different levels of THC and different strains can affect you in different ways. And that’s when cannabis became a major part of my life.

Four years ago, I was off everything and just using cannabis and I was much happier than I had been before. I was less anxious, less depressed. My Crohn’s disease wasn’t flaring up as often or as badly. My mood swings weren’t as dramatic. I felt more confident and secure. And then Covid hit.