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HIGH NOTES

CANNABIS

Fresh out of high school in 2010, I joined the United States Marine Corps. My time in the service would change my life forever. The war in Afghanistan took its toll on all of us — some more than others. When I returned to the states, I was medically discharged and sent home in 2013.

Home had changed since I left. With my family no longer in Manistee, I decided to move to Indiana, where I had a solid support system. I spent the next several years focused on my education and healing. The introduction of recreational cannabis in Michigan in 2018 piqued my interest and, the more I researched and read, seem like an opportunity that could help me further both.

When I got the chance to get in the door of the cannabis industry in my hometown, I jumped at it because by then I knew the benefits of cannabis firsthand. It enabled me to drop my reliance on a significant amount of prescription drugs and allowed me to lead a more functional life. It has had an enormous impact on my PTSD, calming my brain so I can better rationalize my emotions and triggers. Not only has it helped me mentally but also physically, dissipating the chronic pain I have throughout my back and knees within one or two hits.

The impact cannabis has had on my life has played a major role in my mission to educate other former service members about its benefits.

I don’t see my position at Dunegrass Co. in Manistee as a job. I see it as a vital part of cannabis activism, especially for our country’s veterans. I can speak from a shared experience: Finding a place in your healing process for this plant can improve the way you approach and experience life after service. If you’re worried about the psychoactive properties of cannabis, that’s OK; there are other components of this plant that could be beneficial to you and spare you from relying on prescription medications.

The stigma of cannabis needs to be broken. Every person — veterans especially — should have the freedom to access all forms of medications and therapies that can safely give them a better quality of life. - Corporal Aaron Metheringham, USMC

www.dunegrass.co Adult-use locations in Manistee, Big Rapids, Cadillac and Marquette PIPPIN

Book by Roger O. Hirson Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz Directed by Matthew Lindstrom

tickets.interlochen.org

Friday Nov. 19 • 7:30 p.m. Saturday Nov. 20 • 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.