CONNOR’S COURAGE

Three years ago, teenage racecar driver Connor Sheffield was in a sprint for his life. Plagued since early childhood with a progressive disease that rendered him unable to digest food, Sheffield approached his 13th birthday at a withered 74 pounds. But his is not a tragic story. The tale of 16-year-old Sheffield is one of a young man driven to win against overwhelming opposition. It’s a story of survival, of the strength of family, and of beating the odds. It has racecars, heroic budtenders, inspiring speeches – and more racecars. And at the center of it all is Cannabis.

DRIVEN BY A DIAGNOSIS

Sheffield and his family spent his childhood struggling with the fact that he simply couldn’t eat.

“We thought it was just normal,” said Tricia Sheffield, Connor’s mom. “You know, like someone has acid reflux or something. But as Connor got older, things just kept getting progressively worse.”

Connor wasn’t thriving and despite their best efforts, the experts at esteemed medical facilities couldn’t offer hope. The doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital diagnosed him with Gastrointestinal Motility Pseudo Obstruction and Dysphagia, a progressive disease that has no cure or treatment plan.

In and out of the hospital, he underwent several procedures and had to have portions of his bowels removed. He had to be put on a feeding tube and when that stopped working, he had to be fed intravenously.

Sheffield couldn’t find hope. Then, at the age of nine, his parents suggested racing.

“When I was younger, I played baseball, I played football, I was going to get into lacrosse,” Sheffield said.

“But because my medical conditions were getting worse and worse, I couldn’t perform. I couldn’t participate. We didn’t know that racing required a lot of strength and endurance – so we got into it, and then we found out.”

In a life marked by fatigue and struggle, racing drove Sheffield forward.

“I love the speed, the competition, the people you meet – everything,” said Sheffield. “I even love the stress that comes with it … There’s something about going to the track.”

LIFE-SAVING MEDICINE

Though driving a racecar helped, hope sustains the mind, not the body.

Racing, which was far more physically demanding than the Sheffields predicted it would be, started to take its toll. Connor considered quitting.

“We thought that if he gave up on racing, that he would give up on himself,” Tricia said.

It was then that a friend named Bobby Windsor directed them to his medical Cannabis dispensary in Perryville, Maryland – aptly named Nature’s Care and Wellness.

“She had come to her wits end,” Windsor said of Tricia. “I just said, ‘You have to come in. You have to give it a try.’” The Sheffields were doubtful.

“At first I was against it,” Tricia said. “I didn’t think it was medicine – I thought it was a way to get high.”

After Windsor’s urging and a little research, they paid a visit to the dispensary.

“Connor was so sick that day, he could barely keep his head up,” Tricia said. “He was falling asleep at the table. They had someone who worked at the dispensary who also used Cannabis for (gastrointestinal) issues. They told me, ‘This is going to help him, and he’s going to get better.’ And I was like, ‘You can’t tell me that. Because he’s dying on me, and you can’t tell me that. We’ve been to hospitals and doctors all over, and they couldn’t help us. So how can you help us?’”

The budtender answered their questions and the Sheffields procured a Cannabis tincture from Windsor’s shop. To hear the Sheffields and Windsor tell it, the change was miraculous.

“After about 25 minutes of him taking it, he started pepping up,” Tricia said. “He was like a wilting flower and he just started coming to life. He told me he was hungry and wanted to eat.”

Sheffield’s first solid meal in years was a cheeseburger.

“I don’t want to say we saved his life, but it’s a good feeling,” Windsor said. “I cry every once in a while, thinking about it.”

Off the track, Connor strapped in for another contest. This time, he was fighting to allow Cannabis medicine in schools.

SURPASSING THE STIGMA

For the first month of Cannabis treatment, the Sheffields kept Connor’s medication a secret from everyone – including his doctors, for fear of backlash.

“At 30 days, we brought him in and they were like, ‘Wow, he’s doing great,’” Tricia said. “And that’s when we decided to tell them that he was using medical Cannabis. They said, ‘Wow! Really? Well, whatever it is that you’re doing, we’re going to tell you to keep doing it.’”

It was a turning point.

“For the first three months or so, I didn’t want to believe that it was working,” Connor said. “But I felt the improvements and I saw the weight gain. And I went and saw my doctors, and then I saw them less and less, and now I only see them every six or seven months if I have issues.”

THE WRECK THAT NEVER CAME

After years of racing dirt sprint cars, Connor came on as a developmental driver on the CMI Motorsports team in the NASCAR Advance Auto Part Weekly Series (late model cars). One would think that Cannabis could complicate Connor’s NASCAR dreams.

Early on, the Sheffields recall a race in Texas where they were forced to tape over all of the logos for their primary sponsor, a dispensary.

“We just felt like people were just waiting for Connor to wreck,” Tricia said. “All eyes were on Connor that weekend.”

Connor laughs, “I actually ended up doing pretty well. They didn’t know what to expect. They thought I was going to wreck people. They thought I was going to be high.”

Ever since starting with Cannabis, Sheffield’s strength and skills have improved significantly.

“Connor is one of the kids to beat in the dirt series,” Tricia said. “They come to try to beat Connor. To have people look at him and think, ‘I hope I can beat him tonight,’ that’s a great feeling.”

After a while, people stopped giving him sideeye at the track. The crowds and other racers have even been supportive, and Sheffield’s Crew Chief, Kris Reardon, says Connor has never been stronger.

“People even secretly ask me about Cannabis and ask me how they can use it to help their medical condition,” Connor said.

KEEPING CANNABIS IN THE SCHOOLS

Off the track, Connor strapped in for another contest. This time, he was fighting to allow Cannabis medicine in schools.

“Whenever I felt as though I needed my medication, I would text my parents,” Connor said. “They would drive to school, take me out of class, and I’d need to walk off of school property completely, down the street, take my medication, walk back to the school, and walk back to class. It was a lot to do. It’s even a mouthful to explain.”

The situation was untenable. The Sheffields connected with Maryland State Senator Brian Feldman, a former lawyer for the Department of Justice who sits on the Marijuana Legalization Work Group for the State General Assembly. Sen. Feldman started working on MD HB331, a bill nicknamed “Connor’s Courage,” which would allow the staff at public schools in Maryland to administer Cannabis medicine during the schoolday, as they would with any other legal medicine. “Finding a way to help these kids out was the primary motive for getting into it,” Sen. Feldman said.

Sen. Feldman introduced the Sheffields to Gil Genn, a lobbyist whose office is covered with pictures of him rubbing elbows with the most powerful U.S. politicians of the past 50 years.

“So I got the call from Tricia,” Genn said, “and she described Connor’s Courage, Connor’s Law, and she said, ‘We need help.’ I said, ‘It would be my honor.’”

At the outset, school officials opposed the bill because they worried it would endanger their federal funding. They came up with excuses.

“They said, ‘Aside from all of the liability issues … We have no idea and no training on how to give this medicine,’” Genn said. “They needed to have a task force to train on how to give drops of a tincture.”

Genn said that during the hearing, he provided a list of the various medications school staffers were permitted to administer on school grounds. Then, Genn finished with a flourish – he brought in a bottle of simulated Cannabis tincture and stood there, cheekily explaining to a roomful of adults how to use a dropper.

“I had people slapping their desks and laughing. It just blew them out of the water. That was the turning point, I think.”

Sen. Feldman recalls another tide-shifting moment during the hearing, when a young epileptic Cannabis patient started having a seizure.

“His mother put something under the child’s tongue and he calmed,” Sen. Feldman said. “It wasn’t about smoking, or pulling out a bong.”

In the end, the bill passed both the House and Senate with nearly unanimous bipartisan support.

“At heart, these kids had severe ailments,” Sen. Feldman said. “There was a way to help them go to school. And why would we not allow them access to something that was legal in our state?”

Now, Connor and patients like him in Maryland have safe access to their essential medicine during school hours. And to think it all started with a family taking the advice of a budtender.

“I am so glad that we did,” Tricia said.

“I don’t know what would have happened to Connor, if I didn’t just forget what I’d been taught my whole life about Cannabis being horrible, and just try it. Because now, Connor’s surviving – and he’s thriving.”

Shown here racing for Mindbuzz at Hickory Motor Speedway in Sept. 2020, Connor was recently named Cannabis Patient Advocate of the Year by Explore Maryland Cannabis. Connor and Lobbyist Gil Genn helped pass Connor’s Law.