These days, I don’t mind being a broken record

I find myself more welcoming to phone calls than I was before the pandemic. In the past, I have had a love/hate relationship with my cellular phone, because ‘always accessible’ feels intrusive. But now I value distractions from the monotony known as COVID-19.

When COVID-19 first forced me to go into hiding (yes, I am a germaphobe), I began looking at my daily operations differently, first and foremost, I had a hell of a lot more time – thank you COVID for making air travel less appealing – so I was able to accomplish more and more of the action items I had been curbing for too long. And then came the slow realization that I was spending too much time taking on “admin” work, like navigating SEO on my websites, setting up the payment processing for the retail line that we had been putting off for far too long, etc.

Now I appreciate the long-lost friendships that have started popping up on my caller I.D., as others reach out, out of their COVID cocoons, I find myself picking up the phone with more enthusiasm. Sometimes the calls are insightful, sometimes mundane, and often, the conversation turns into the cannabis industry as I share what I have been doing in the decade(s) since we last spoke. Today, a very close friend of mine, from Saratoga Springs New York came across my caller ID, since we hadn't talked in years, I was quick to pick up.

"Hey, Stanley, how are you man?! Hows the Family?"

“We’ve been good, Dad’s ok, he’s been dealing with Lyme Disease complications [mostly pain] and some elevated PTSD from the war. We are realizing that retirement and COVID have given dad a lot of free time, and his mind is going towards some dark places…”

I realized a lot about my boundaries on this call [Thank you Kari Kwinn and your Better Boundaries seminars], my duty to inform him about how cannabinoids might be able to help in several areas of his father’s life was clear, but so was the ever-looming fear that the FDA, who is surely listening in on my private calls, would send me a letter for making claims.

I did what any good friend would do and I listened without jumping in to fix things. It wasn’t until he asked me if I thought CBD could help that I offered my opinion on the matter.

SIDE NOTE: As it so happens, I had recently had a customer in Madison Wisconsin, purchase one of our [FS-Origins] Endocannabinoid Booster Serums for their Lyme disease-related symptoms, and as it was explained to me via email, she had “never felt better” (at least since her ailments and symptoms started increasing in frequency) and she wanted to thank me for what we had created. She mentioned that her body traumas and pain associated with the disease were being managed successfully by the CBD Tinctures and CBD Gummies, much more so than with the medications her doctor had prescribed. So, with that little ego boost, I felt I was better suited to assist my friend with his father’s Lyme disease quandary.

So, I did what any good friend and CBD enthusiast would do, and I let that broken record roll. I heard myself shift into a teacher's voice and talked about how

"all animals have this thing called an endocannabinoid system"

and within that system, there are clusters of receptors that require keys [cannabinoids] that help to regulate and maintain the body’s homeostasis. Simply put, I told my upstate New York friend - who has limited knowledge on both the ECS and Cannabinoids - that CBD can influence the human body in numerous ways, and I firmly believed that Pain Abatement and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are two areas in particular that CBD [as well as other cannabinoids] could most definitely help.

For the record, FS-ORIGINS is not making any claims that Cannabis can treat, cure, or prevent any symptoms or ailments caused by PTSD or Lyme Disease. If you are a Vet looking to alleviate symptoms of PTSD with Cannabis or CBD, please consult your doctor first. If you are suffering from Lyme Disease, again, please consult your doctor first!

When you live by proverbs like “Data is King” [pardon the micro-aggression] and “Trust but Verify” it’s hard to point your friends and family towards things like cannabinoids because, in truth, we lack sufficient scientific data to back claims. In time, data will compile, facts will present themselves and a new hypothesis will be established. We can then direct our loved ones towards CBD “medicines” that heal, and CBD balms that “soothe” and CBD gummies that “calm”, for now, our loved ones will simply have to rely upon our experiences. Cannabinoids due indeed heal the ones we love, but if the FDA is asking, we are just trying to sell snake oil!

Aaron Furman, founder of FS-Origins