EDUCATION + RESEARCH
CATCHING UP WITH TARA DEMOND BY JORDAN PERSON
The first time GRAM wrote about Tara DeMond was in our May/June 2019 issue. A year later, we felt it was a good time to catch up with this very busy RN who works as a consultant for medical marijuana treatment centers in Florida, while running a nonprofit she started with her husband, Jeff. Tara and her husband created The Grateful Veteran.1 Their mission is “promoting change through education.” Tara was thrilled to tell us all about the exciting things they have coming up and the changes that have taken place in the last year with Florida’s medical marijuana program. Things at The Grateful Veteran have been extremely busy. “We have a lot of upcoming educational events in the cannabis industry. In addition to providing education to patients and veterans with PTSD, this year we are even more focused on community outreach as a whole,” says Tara. So far, The Grateful Veteran has assisted over 100 veterans with receiving their medical marijuana recommendation. “We help them with the $75 application, we have doctors who donate their services, there are teams of volunteers who make everything we do possible. Thanks to these teams, we are creating future events and fundraisers with local artists,” says Tara. November 8, 2016, medical marijuana finally passed in Florida.2 “When the industry first began, only two routes of administration were allowed. Now, all routes are available. Some patients (myself included), require a topical, a tincture, and a hit of a vape pen at bedtime. That is three routes of administration just to go to bed,” Tara tells us. 8
