Caroline Covone | Weed Warrior

BY BRIAN HOUCK

She primarily works with The Grateful Veteran organization which, among many other services, assists veterans by getting them off of addictive opiates and on to medical marijuana to soothe their ailments; she is a Weed Warrior.

Utilizing the discipline she deployed as a U.S. Marine, Caroline Covone wakes up at 6 o’clock every morning in Southwest Florida and makes a piping-hot pot of coffee with a few drops of Girl Scout Cookies tincture in her mug to help with nearconstant pain resulting from multiple unsuccessful knee surgeries. She then makes a fresh, healthy lunch from scratch for her daughter, complete with fruits and vegetables cut in fun shapes.

Before the family wakes up, she tidies the household getting everything ready for the day. When her daughter wakes up, she feeds her breakfast and takes her to school. Caroline then ventures to the gym to work out, followed by physical therapy. She focuses on her physical well-being by maintaining a healthy diet and exercising regularly, believing that if you take care of your body it will take care of you. She smears CBD cream on her leg or takes a few drags from her vape pen to mitigate her pain. An individual with a strong motor, medical marijuana is the only pain relief that allows her to keep her high-functioning fast pace.

As devoted as she is to taking care of herself and her family, she is equally dedicated to helping others. Covone spends her free time volunteering with military veterans. She primarily works with The Grateful Veteran organization which, among many other services, assists veterans by getting them off of addictive opiates and on to medical marijuana to soothe their ailments; she is a weed warrior.

She became adamant about joining the service 18 years ago. Nuns pulled students out of class and ushered them into the cafeteria to inform them that the twin towers of the World Trade Center had fallen and America was under attack. Covone had a friend at the time whose father worked in one of the buildings. She recalls the girl getting picked up by her mother in tears and never seeing her friend again.

That “shook me to my core,” she said, because she couldn’t understand why all those innocent people died. As she got older, she heard bits and pieces about the incident until she was old enough to take to the Internet and fully learn the grim truth. “I just made my decision and said I’m going to do something,” she said.

Unfortunately, during her time in the service, she experienced non-combat mental trauma and still suffers from PTSD as a result. As is the case for many veterans, she was prescribed multiple medications to combat her diagnosis, then more medication to counteract the side effects of the

original. She couldn’t stand the feeling of not being clear-headed and present in the moment.

Around this time, she also had knee surgery. Then she needed three more to correct mistakes made in the first. She was prescribed more medication. During her recovery, she commiserated with fellow veterans about all of their medications and heard that some of them were getting the same pain relief by using marijuana instead. At that point in time marijuana was illegal in just about every U.S. state, shrouded in the stigma that has surrounded weed for decades.

Florida voters legalized medical marijuana in 2016, yet the stigma still plagues the patients who use it simply to make it through the day. Covone not only struggles with that and the judgement that comes with being a mother who uses marijuana as medicine. “I

think people are scared to say anything, especially women, and especially mothers because they know that people still view marijuana as a drug and people think that you can’t function… but that isn’t true in the least bit.

“If it was not for the medical marijuana,” Covone says, ”I wouldn’t be able to get up and do the things that I do.”

In the future, Covone wants to study to become a nutritionist, a desire based in her love for using food to keep her body as strong as possible. She says she will likely never stop helping veterans. As Covone speaks, her passion for helping others is evident. For her, volunteering is a choice but also a compulsion. She seems very aware that though she has her struggles, there are people out there who have circumstances far worse. Worse yet, they are not getting proper guidance and support. In her eyes, the least she can do is volunteer some time and knowledge to help people find the right path for them.