A couple weeks ago I was involved in a car accident. After a three hour drive home in my mangled Tacoma, an hour long conversation with Geico, a two hour trip to the ER and a CT Scan I was finally free to ‘relax’. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, but food was the furthest thing from my mind. My entire body ached, my head was throbbing, I was still in shock, I felt nauseous – everything you would expect after a serious collision.

As I’m driving home with my parents from the hospital I couldn’t convince my dad to eat enough of my Oregon Burrito. I begged him “Please take half, I don’t even want it”, to which he continually replied, “I only want a bite”. (If you know my dad you know how hard it is for him to turn down food. He must have felt really sorry for me.) Just looking at the Muchas Gracias bag that housed my burrito made me want to vomit. I didn’t want to eat anything. Besides, I already had plans. I had a date with cannabis.

And the moment I exhaled that first hit, in the blink of an eye, everything felt better.

Suddenly my head didn’t hurt so bad and my body didn’t ache so much. With my new found physical wellness I was able to think back and reflect on the accident and my shock subsided. And that Oregon Burrito that was so nauseating just minutes before? Well, as my father described it, “You ate that whole thing like a savage. I didn’t even get a bite!”

Can cannabis really do that? Can it relieve headaches? Physical pain? Shock? Nausea?

You bet your ass it can.

I left the ER with a prescription for Zofran, a pill that is supposed to prevent nausea and vomiting. I never filled the prescription. My mother gave me a bottle of 600mg Ibuprofen pills that are supposed to reduce inflammation. I never used them. No Tylenol, no Unisom, no nothing. I have taken no pills in the aftermath of the accident and I don’t need to. All I need to make my recovery bearable is this one amazing plant we call cannabis. And what an amazing plant it is.

Cannabis is a weed. It can literally grow anywhere with little to no care at all and flourish. If you toss cannabis seeds out the window while driving on the highway you’ll return months later and see cannabis plants growing on the side of the road. You can use every part of the plant; the bud, the leaves, the stem, the roots. You can use it to make some of the strongest fibers for rope and clothing. It’s a great food source because it’s packed full of vital nutrients essential to good healthy living. You can make paper out of it stronger than the paper we currently make from wood. It can be converted to biomass and used as an alternative source of fuel to oil and gas. Henry Ford made a car partly out of hemp, so did Lotus. You can make a house out of hemp. It has an almost limitless number of uses that could improve our way of life.

Thank god for Washington and Colorado. Those legalization wins are incredibly important. Before, if I didn’t have my medical marijuana card I would have no protection from breaking federal law, and not everyone had that luxury. If you’re looking for a new job you shouldn’t have to stop using cannabis so you can pass a drug test. If you’re sick you shouldn’t have to stop taking your medicine because you’re in public. And most importantly, you should never be locked in cage for using a natural herb. If you don’t have a medical marijuana card you aren’t protected the same, but Washington and Colorado residents won’t have this problem moving forward.

I sympathize for people who can’t get a medical card so much more after this car accident. Hell, a lot of people don’t even have a medical marijuana program in their state, I feel even worse for them. This accident negatively affected almost every aspect of my life. Since the crash cannabis has helped me feel normal again, and it did so without any negative side effects. How could that be illegal?