Bling:
Bumper Intro:
Hello my friends,
Today you’re going to hear the story of a woman, a mother, a castaway, and a patient… and I’m going to warn you right now… what she says is so shocking that it triggered me into PTSD.
As soon as I realized what she was saying, I had to stop listening… while we were recording!! I had to try to not listen while she spoke, distance my hearing world even further with strong discipline… and “peek” back in with a quick listen while protecting myself as best I could…
She was also having a moment relating the story… so I couldn’t stop her and didn’t want to or it may have hurt the therapy she was receiving at that moment… it would have been very awkward… talk therapy is essential for recovery and sometimes we even find relief on a podcast conversation.
Now, it’s been a couple of weeks since we spoke but I had to put some distance between myself and hearing this again… several times as my podcast process dictates… I’m in the first leg of editing and bursting into tears and hiccuping sobs… before I made myself come back to now… but there’s that moment in production.
So I called Bonnie and told her I was really triggered and that I felt it was necessary to warn my audience who may also have this kind of tragedy in their past… and may need to protect themselves from hearing this shocking part of her history. Well of course she understood and asked if I should remove that part… but friends, this is what happens to real people who don’t deserve this kind of suffering.
I’m going to stop the recording and give you a chance to skip ahead a couple of minutes if you’re easily triggered by incredibly traumatic stories. And you’ll still hear the rest of Bonnie’s incredible life and wonder how she’s done it.. because we’ll continue the saga next week as well…
Here comes the life and times of a professional healer and Woman in Weed in 2023… Bonnie Drake…
right after the intro…
Intro
Honey Smith Walls 0:00
Welcome to season four of the Cannaba Verum podcast, the cannabis truth podcast.
I speak the language of cannabis freely and uncensored while educating my audience on safe use of this live plant therapy. You should know what’s in your cannabis…what’s good and what’s not.
It does not come with an FDA stamp of approval yet. Using cannabis mindfully as medication is a different concept in Western healthcare philosophy, specifically of the past 100 years. There’s a lot to learn and reconsider.
The information you’ll find here comes straight from scientists and clinicians doing the work and reporting their findings in real time through various live online outlets.
The scientific truth of cannabis is finally getting out and is wide open for all to see at respected medical sites like pubmed.gov and JAMA, the Journal of American Medical Association… and I’m right there in the thick of it with all those titans of medicine… as a fly on the wall.
Because I’m not a doctor, nor did I go to med school. But I did take dozens of private cannabis courses and still engage in continuing education offered by cannabis expert scientists over the past few years and slowly began to see and understand the bigger picture.
Now I talk to people all day long about cannabis and hopefully inspire them to research the facts as we know them today. Cannabis is an amazing alternative in health remedies. It can reportedly alleviate typical disease problems and troubling side effects, even those caused by synthetic prescriptions.
This is Honey Smith Walls, a 21st century cannabis shaman, not a doctor, not a scientist, raised by nuns and wolves in the verdant cattle pastures of the Oklahoma oil fields. I’m here to amplify the truth of this great big story of cannabis in historical, political, scientific and spiritual terms, so you can make educated decisions about the medicine you choose to ingest.
Seg 1
Honey Smith Walls 6:07
Hey, it sounds like I might have Bonnie… Hello. Hi, how you doing?
Bonnie Drake, RN 6:15
I’m doing okay, I got a little bit of a cold but you know, that’s what grandkids are all about. I told my little four year old now, Kai… I know you love to share things. But you can keep your cold to yourself next time.
Honey Smith Walls 6:32
No kidding. Our sweet babies. I know. I haven’t seen mine in way too long. I’ve got four of them. One just got through Navy boot camp. I know. I really enjoy hearing stories about that togetherness and all that juicy baby love.
Bonnie Drake, RN 6:53
Oh yeah. Yeah. And it was so hard to be in Michigan and have them all down here in Florida. So I was just really starting to go through withdrawal. I’m telling you…
Honey Smith Walls 7:09
I know how that feels… mine are up in Michigan. Are they? Yeah, up in Shelby Township… that’s 30 miles north of Detroit.
Bonnie Drake, RN 7:17
Okay. All right. We’re out by Hillsdale College. Oh, so I grew up out in that area.
Honey Smith Walls 7:28
And so and you came chasing the kids down here?
Bonnie Drake, RN 7:31
Well, I’ve kind of got a history with Florida because as soon as I graduated from from college, I left the small town that I lived in. And I came to Florida and I ended up down here for about eight years.
I went through the University of Florida and got my nursing degree… my first job was at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Oh, wow. And I was down here for eight years, but I was taught a valuable life lesson when I was 25.
I was working two jobs and dating a gentleman that was an intern or resident at the hospital where I worked and I had pneumonia and we were trying to treat it ourselves.
I didn’t do well on the antibiotics and it just blossomed into a bilateral viral pneumonia. Oh my gosh. Then I went into the hospital and I ended up having a cardiac arrest.
I was on a ventilator for a week. They had to let my mom and dad know in Michigan that I may not be there, but they needed to get to Florida as soon as possible. And I yeah, I mean, I pulled through that but over time.
Honey Smith Walls 8:58
Oh my goodness.
Bonnie Drake, RN 9:00
But when you’re born with a congenital disease such as scoliosis like myself, it affects so many other things in your body that you’re not aware that it will. My scoliosis was discovered not even by my own mother, who was a seamstress. She just knew that every time she went to hem a skirt for me or something… It was always three inches longer on one side than the other.
Well, when I was in seventh grade, they measured us by sitting us on the floor and you put your feet out in front of you and they noticed right off the bat that my right leg was at least three inches shorter than my left and my left shoulder drooped real bad.
So that’s when we started looking forward to see what exactly was going on with my back and we went through a chiropractor. I only saw a chiropractor once and he scared me so bad. I never went back to one.
So I went with an orthopedic surgeon and they put me in a Milwaukee back brace that went from my chin….I had a headrest connected to a metal bar down the front, connected to two metal bars down the back, and a leather pelvic girdle that wrapped around my pelvis… and they put a three inch lift on my right shoe and I wore corrective shoes in high school.
With that back brace I was in it 24 hours a day. I was allowed to come out for an hour and I had to be on the floor and doing exercises. I could not participate in any physical education. So at school they sent me back to Home Ec and taught me how to do laundry. I had to have an elevated desk and the school thought it would be a good good idea that the guys in the shop class that were my age, they needed to build me a desk because I couldn’t look down… so they had to carry this desk between my classes. And you know, the harassment I got from those kids that I graduated with. I couldn’t wait to get out.
Honey Smith Walls 11:26
Gosh, you must have felt like a monster.
Bonnie Drake, RN 11:29
Oh, of course I did. Of course I did. And so when I came to Florida I didn’t think I’d ever go back to Michigan but then after my near death well my my literal death experience… It just it made me realize that if I’m going to die I want to die closer to home next time and I moved back to Michigan.
And I… you know… went on with life and married an old highschool sweetheart. Oh, I had two nice little babies. It took me five surgeries to have two children. Oh my gosh. Because I had endometriosis so bad. Oh my Lord… they took the left tube and left ovary out and gave me a 30% chance of ever having children. Oh my gosh. So I got through that and I had a two year old and a three year old.
Bling
Honey Smith Walls 12:24
Friends… stop listening here and fast forward a couple of minutes to pick up this story on the other side of this tragedy coming up, especially if you’re really sensitive to this sort of thing. It’s quite traumatic.
Seg 2
Bonnie Drake, RN 0:00
I lost one of them in a farming accident.
Honey Smith Walls 0:03
Oh Bonnie!
Bonnie Drake, RN 0:06
Well, I tell you I need a ghostwriter. I could write a book.
Honey Smith Walls 0:10
Bonnie! This story!
Bonnie Drake, RN 0:12
He was born in 1986… he was soon to be four years old. And Daddy was backing up a piece of equipment and told the two kids to stand next to that tree and one of them did and the other one didn’t. And I had been out mowing hay and I was in the shower and he was watching the kids while I washed the shaft off me.
I had just gotten a pair of shorts on and a surgery shirt. And I hear screaming… screaming… I ran over him!! I ran over him!!
I had to give him CPR with my two year old in my face. And as a respiratory therapist and a nurse… and I couldn’t save him. It destroyed me. It just literally took my nursing, competence, confidence and just threw it out the window because there was nothing I could do.
Bonnie Drake, RN 1:11
So and that was that.
Bonnie Drake, RN 1:13
But that wasn’t the worst part of it all. I mean, there were some marital problems in the marriage. Because the man was married to his dairy farm I wasn’t expecting after this happened. Within a week after the funeral. I was served divorce papers.
Honey Smith Walls 1:49
Oh my god.
Bonnie Drake, RN 1:54
Uh huh…So, you know, Bonnie’s been through quite a bit here.
Honey Smith Walls 1:57
What did you do?
Bonnie Drake, RN 1:59
Well, I went to my mom’s for about six weeks and that didn’t work because she wasn’t used to having a two year old with his hot wheels on her oak furniture and such.
So then I moved in with a friend of mine that was living in her grandmother’s house… which was a 20 by 20 house… and she was a mess. And I needed to find a job. I had nothing. I had been married to a farmer and we paid cash for everything. I had no credit. I had nothing.
Honey Smith Walls 2:30
Oh my gosh.
Bonnie Drake, RN 2:32
So I finally found a job in Lansing and I went up there and found an apartment and I started my life over again. What can you do? Like mine over so many times. I can’t even tell you. So those were my younger years and then my son that lives down here now.. he was my youngest. My oldest son was the one that was killed. They were 14 months apart. So my son and myself and the situation with his father… We are so close. So so so close. And he lives down here now… he works at Pratt Whitney. He’s an aeronautical engineer. Oh my gosh and he is not going to be leaving this area. I don’t imagine… so I’m hoping to be able to be down here even more. There’s not a whole lot that I need to be in Michigan for so I’d like to make a life down here if I can.
Bonnie Drake, RN 3:54
I just feel so blessed to be in this area and you know, have a second chance at trying to get what I want to do done right. Look… back to my story…
Honey Smith Walls 4:08
Yeah, because as we left off from the story… Oh my… I’m not even sure this is the pinnacle of the book yet, but it’s been… so you and your baby left and you got a job.
Bonnie Drake, RN 4:24
Yeah, good. Yes. Oh, yes. Yep, yep. So because I had I worked as the VA nurse for the last eight years of my career… And I had been doing staff… floor work, which is not hard work. I mean, you know, at least you can sit down. Well, I decided it’d be a good idea to go on a day shift because I was working at night. And they put me in the nuclear stress Lab, which is fine. But I was on my feet so much more. Because there wasn’t any place that you could sit down. Yeah.
And I thought I was having kidney problems because my back just hurt so bad. Well, I finally went and got an MRI. And the results were two pages long… things that needed to be fixed in my back. I had spondylosis I had spinal stenosis. I had a facet disease. I had fractures, bulging discs, you name it. This was done at the University of Michigan. And how are we going to fix this?
Well, it’s going to take two nine hours surgeries. One from the front, one from the back two weeks later. And how long will I have to take for recovery? Well, you will probably have to be off work for about a year.
Off a work a year! Are you crazy? I’ve got a kid in college! I’ve got a house! I got a car! I’ll have nothing if I take a year. Oh, are you crazy? Well, it’s either that or a wheelchair mam. You will be in a wheelchair probably within eight to 10 months. Or you may be paralyzed from the waist down because you have so many issues back there that if you don’t get that reconstructed, your life is over.
Honey Smith Walls 6:23
So what happened? What did you do?
Bonnie Drake, RN 6:25
Well, they put me on a waiting list for the surgery. I was on a four month waiting list, which was the worst thing they could have done because my anxiety was oh my god screaming… and then they put me on antidepressants, because if anybody would ask me about my surgery, I would just burst out in tears.
Well, they put me they put me on Lexapro and in three days it’s like… what the heck am I worried about? I got this. Are you kidding? I’ve been through so much in my life. I can get this done. Wow. No big deal. Well, that was the chemicals working in my brain.
Honey Smith Walls 7:02
Wow!
Bonnie Drake, RN 7:05
Clearly…. what I mean…. I couldn’t believe… I avoided antidepressants all my life. They wanted me on them when I was in high school. Yeah, because I formed an ulcer. Why do you think I formed an ulcer? Because these kids were picking on me for hours every day. So yeah…. I get off topic. I’m sorry.
Honey Smith Walls 7:28
No. Oh, I see this. This story is just so huge. It really is. And you’re not off topic at all. But But let me ask you this at this point. You got the baby through college, then what did you do?
Bonnie Drake, RN 7:45
Well, I went and I got I got my surgery done. Yes. When I was four months postop… off the couch, I couldn’t… I was still in a back brace. I still couldn’t drive. And I see Doberman Pinscher puppies for sale. And I said to my son we’re going to get a dog. What? We’re going to go get a dog. You’re going to have to drive me to this address because I want to go get a Doberman Pinscher. Are you crazy? What in the hell are you thinking mom?
I said I’m thinking that it will help get me rehab and get my butt off the couch. And it did. I went back to work in eight months. Months… woman… because I pushed myself… because when I wore that back brace, my father was always telling me that you can do anything. You can do anything this doesn’t stop you.
And I knew that this was something that I could overcome. However, I wasn’t planning on having to come off morphine first, then OxyContin and then oxycodone. And then hydrocodone. And I couldn’t make it any further than that. I could not get off the Norco.
I could take my heart rate in my back… boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, come on surgery. For 10 years. I sat in a chair and cried every day after I had that surgery.
I lost my VA career because I went back in eight months part time. They let me work part time for about six weeks and then they wanted a nuclear stress test done before they would let me come back to full time. So I went to the University of Michigan and had my nuclear stress test… took one of my nurse friends with me so I wouldn’t have to drive home by myself.
Now I’m on the treadmill. And I’m there to prove that I can go back to work full time and all of a sudden here comes the doctor flying through the door. Get that lady off that treadmill!! She’s having a heart attack!!
And I’m like, what, who!? Who!?
And they slapped me down onto that cotton. They took me over to the cath lab faster than fast and when I woke up, I was told I had 100% blockage of the LED and a 40% blockage on the right side of the heart.
Honey Smith Walls 10:28
Was there anybody there to help you through all of this this horrible day?
Bonnie Drake, RN 10:35
I took a nurse that I worked with and she ended up staying at the hospital with me all night, but other than that, no, I was you know, I’ve always pretty much been on my own. So anyway, I got through that but I lost my career. And because once you have 100% blockage, you’re a liability, let alone 14 vertebrae in my back that are fused. How long do you think I could do CPR?
Yeah, so I lost my house. I lost my car. I lost my dignity, and I had nowhere to go. I went to my mother and asked her if I could move in there and she said no. Therefore, the guy that I had been married to decided it’d be a good idea to build a house right next to my parents house because he owns land. And I moved in with him. Wow. And we’re not even married. And he took care of me for about 10 years. And I mean… I don’t know what I would have done without because he gave me a place that I could at least you know, lay my head.
Otherwise, I don’t know where it would have been. I have no clue. So I lived on the opioids, lived on the benzos, lived on the antidepressants. But by gosh, you weren’t going to keep me down because I trained my Doberman Pinscher puppy to become my service dog. And by the time he was six months old, he’s leaning into me. He’s not gonna let me fall. So then I went and I got a harness. It had a handle on it. There’s my cane. He told me I’d walk with a cane for the rest of my life. I looked at Dr. Graziano and said, just bet me… I am not walking with a cane. Are you crazy? And I never have and I never will.
Honey Smith Walls 12:49
Promo:
Hey Friends,
I’m inviting you to join me on a Clubhouse live stage every Sunday at 8am Eastern for Sunday with Honey. This is your opportunity to ask me questions on my live stage about anything we’ve discussed on the podcast… and also where we speak about the spiritual effects of cannabis and how to find peace through means of calming our minds with tools we’re all familiar with… music, dance, mantras, and using this magnificent plant to guide our hearts into deep reflection and introspection.
Join my little experiment of love every Sunday on the Clubhouse… it’s an app. You can listen from the audience or join in conversation from my live stage on Sundays, 8:am Eastern on Clubhouse… We’ll talk about the many blessings of this live plant therapy in “Sunday with Honey”. Look me up.
Bling
Seg 3
Bonnie Drake, RN 0:03
So I use service dogs… and then I started training service dogs for other people, especially veterans. Because Dobermans are so smart they can train other Dobermans just as fast. I was rescuing Dobermans out of kill shelters… I was rescuing Dobermans off the streets… and turning them into beautiful service animals. I took my dogs to the school. I had them all TDI certified by Therapy Dog International.
Honey Smith Walls 0:34
Oh that’s a tough one too. I know the the stringent tests and all of that stuff for that…
Bonnie Drake, RN 0:43
Absolutely. All my dogs have always been TDI certified. I have a three year old laying here in front of me right now. But I took my dog to their local school and we participate.
I actually started the Buddy Reading Program. And the kids with stuttering problems and reading problems would literally read to the dog and they wouldn’t stutter words.
So I did that for about 10 years. I mean I had to stay busy because that was me. Yeah. So then my 10 year old service dog in 2018 became extremely arthritic. Oh dear, couldn’t get in the car. Wouldn’t get in the car. Now what am I gonna do? Well, somebody asked me um, you ever heard of CBD? No… this is way before the Farm Bill. No, I’ve been a nurse. No, I’ve never smoked pot. No, I’ve never had a joint No, I’ve never had anything.
Honey Smith Walls 1:41
No you didn’t know anything about the endocannabinoid system that all mammals on the planet have…
Bonnie Drake, RN 1:47
Well they didn’t teach anything. You know, in my day… Nancy said to Just Say No. And we all did.
Honey Smith Walls 1:57
That’s what we did. Some of us.
Bonnie Drake, RN 2:01
Therefore, I started trying to find some information on whatever the CBD stuff was supposed to be. And the only place I could find any research in the United States was Cornell University School of Veterinary and Medicine. So I went offshore, because if you can’t find it here… I might be able to find it somewhere else. And I did.
I found it in Germany. I found it in Italy. I found it in France, and this one name kept coming up. That was in all those countries with product. Yeah. And I thought I wonder if I can get a hold of whoever owns this company and send them a picture my X ray. And I did some research and I came up with the name of the owner. And I found him and I asked him…I sent him a picture of my backups, right? And I said if your products can do what they say they’re doing in Europe, I would gladly promote them in the United States if they work. But I want to know more about this and what it is.
And he did call me… he did send me a strong oil… his strongest oil, which was a 5000 milligram tincture at four milligrams under my tongue the very first time. I trusted him because I looked up his background he’s got nutraceuticals. He helped launch Viagra. He’s a doctor. I’m not scared of his products at all.
So I did. I put it under my tongue. Then I’m sitting there and I’m waiting. Nothing and Jerry sitting there next to me, and it wasn’t five minutes. Oh, hmm. Something’s going on in my back. I can feel as old as the hurt. I said no. No. Are you ready for my new word for pain? How many times have you ever heard anybody tell you their pain was melting?
Honey Smith Walls 4:10
No. Yeah. Wow.
Bonnie Drake, RN 4:13
And I felt that start at t-nine, which is where my fusion starts. And it just slowly worked its way all the way down to s-one. And I couldn’t believe it. I said pinch me. I want you to pinch me… and I said Ouch! That hurt. I said… but wait, it doesn’t hurt my back anymore. My throbbing is gone. It’s gone. What is this crap?
I had to find out. So I had my aha moment and I made a trip to Florida because this company had a lab down here and I came down to Coconut Creek and I spent some days with him so that I could learn this. And then I joined the American Cannabis Nurses Association and through them I started taking more classes and then I joined the American Holistic Nurses Association. And I’ve taken classes out of that program as well. And I started my own consulting business in 2019. Late 2019 and I’ve been doing that ever since.
Honey Smith Walls 5:25
Okay, well let’s back up just a minute to what was in that product.
Bonnie Drake, RN 5:28
What was in what product? The one I put under my tongue? Yeah, it was 84 milligrams of pure CBD tincture and MCT oil… that’s it. It’s the next step.
Honey Smith Walls 5:45
So it was an isolate?
Bonnie Drake, RN 5:48
No, it’s not an isolate. It’s an extract oil.
Honey Smith Walls 5:52
Well. Yeah. But, but Okay, so my question is, was it just the CBD chemical and oil? Or was it full spectrum whole plant with all the 1000s of compounds in the plant?
Bonnie Drake, RN 6:14
That’s always full spectrum. Everything I’ve taken has been full spectrum. Yes.
Honey Smith Walls 6:21
Okay, well, you obviously have found something that works for you and would you mind telling us what your dosing is? Are you taking it like you said… it was 89 milligrams, is that twice a day?
Bonnie Drake, RN 6:41
I started with a high dose because of all the hardware in my body. Yeah. And all of the inflammation was what I was trying to, you know, and I knew I’d have to take a hefty something or other probably to cut the mustard. And so my first dose was the half dropper, which was 84 milligrams of CBD. And it worked. And I stayed on just CBD for about two years. And then I met Mike Robinson. And I’m sure you know, Mike Robinson…
Honey Smith Walls 7:22
Off LinkedIn?
Bonnie Drake, RN 7:25
Right. I know that guy. With Genevieve.
Honey Smith Walls 7:30
He is so precious in our tribe, don’t you think?
Bonnie Drake, RN 7:34
Oh, absolutely. I’ve learned so much from him.
Honey Smith Walls 7:37
I don’t doubt it… You said you met him. That is so cool. Yeah. So he’s like really a superstar in my heart. He just is you know, because his story also, tragically mixed up and opioids and all sorts of shit, you know, not his fault. Right. And just because of the system… the Western system of sick care that our physicians are encouraged to utilize. Yep. And so, yeah, so tell me more. So have you met Mike Robinson and his sweet Genevieve?
Bonnie Drake, RN 8:18
I didn’t meet them in person. I’ve just met him over the air. Yeah, yeah. Zoom with him. I’ve been using him as a consultant going on four years. He’s the one that told me you know that because I because in my classes I started seeing more about CBG CBN, CBC CBl and I wanted to know more. So I was working with him and I added some more molecules to my to my CBD. And I hit homeostasis within probably two months. Yeah, probably about two months. Right now I’m on seven different molecules.
Honey Smith Walls 9:02
You’re a lucky girl that you can get that. Let’s say… Well, let me… I don’t know how to ask you this. Are you a medical patient in Florida?
Bonnie Drake, RN 9:15
I can’t be… I want to be, but I can’t be.
Honey Smith Walls 9:18
Because you’re not a Florida resident yet.
Bonnie Drake, RN 9:20
The government makes it illegal for you.
Honey Smith Walls 9:24
I know. So that’s my point… down here in Florida, we only get a few of those chemicals. Like CBG you can find in the dispensaries. CBN occasionally, but not like you’re talking about. Oh no. You can’t find… I can’t just go out and find seven different you know isolated cannabis chemicals. whenever or wherever I want anywhere.
Bonnie Drake, RN 9:56
But they are out there. Believe me, they are out there. And I mean, I just secured a new vendor that literally is putting their terpene infusions in all of their pain topicals now with myrcene, limonene, and then they’re also adding more Lavender. So if anything, I’m seeing more terpene profiles and that’s what I’m looking for. I want this.
People that think that marijuana is the all time cure for everything and the more THC that you use, the better you’re gonna feel… are all headed down a tragic trail.
Because of what I’m seeing and what I’m hearing right now that’s happening out in these emergency rooms… where people are coming in with toxicity from THC, hyperemesis whatever… and these people don’t know what to do in the emergency room when someone shows up like that.
Honey Smith Walls 11:04
And here comes Recreation right around the corner, probably in 2024.
Bonnie Drake, RN 11:10
Well, I think that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard because in Michigan, it’s out of control, and street names mean nothing. How… as the nurse… can I tell an 80 year old to go to a dispensary and buy Hoover Hash or whatever… Granddaddy Purple…
Honey Smith Walls 11:29
Right?
Bonnie Drake, RN 11:32
No, but if we can work with the terpenes and tell people and educate people that the terpene profile is more important than any THC will ever be. Because THC medically and you know this already anyway, is only proven for seizures and stage cancers. You know, things of that magnitude… but for people with chronic pain, it’s gonna just put them in a state of more euphoria. And they don’t realize that they’re masking the pain with THC. I’m getting rid of “my mind’s gone” if I keep my dosage in my body on an even keel…Honey, I don’t need a service dog anymore. My balance is so much better. Still real powerful. And when you hit homeostasis, you will never feel that you ever can go back to not feeling this way. I don’t know.
It’s just such a different reality that I’ve lived, you know? Yeah. I had a kid come to me. And let’s see… his mom brought him to me in March of 2020. This kid had a blister on the bottom of his foot. He had been getting treated by his podiatrist and then his mother took him back. He went back to school. This was during COVID at Christmas time and they sent him with some stuff to take care of this blister. Well when school lets out then in March came back and it was infected to the bone!
So he goes into the wound clinic and they messed with him for about, I don’t know three or four months on antibiotics, rounds and rounds of antibiotic therapy. And then they said… Now we wait. We do what? We wait. What are we waiting for? To see if it works. Are you freaking kidding?
There was a hole in his foot to the bone so when his mother came to me, I said have you ever heard of Manuka honey? No.
I said, Well, I’ve got some here from New Zealand and we’re gonna start slapping that on that right away. And then I gave her some hemp serum. And we put that in there. And within about five days, we started to see a new skin starting to form on the outside of that wound. And I have all the pictures to document all the stuff well… and it closed slowly.
It took us about six months and it closed. Wow. And it was all from the power of hemp. I can’t make my stories up because all of these things have happened at my dining room table. And I can’t make the things up when I have an agent orange guy that hasn’t turned his head in 35 years and before he leaves my house… He’s looking from side to side. And he’s telling us why I haven’t felt like this in years. Oh my god, Shirley! Look I can move my head. He called me that night. And I met this guy in the dentist’s office that morning. He came over to my house in the afternoon brought his wife and he wanted to take his first dose at my dining room table. And his wife said, I don’t want you to do it… I’m gonna have to drive home. Oh god.
Bonnie Drake, RN 15:17
Oh, God is right. Well, he flushed. You know, when he took his first dose and he’s sitting there he goes, Well, it’s okay. He goes, Yeah, I do feel like my face is a little hot, but it’s okay. And he’s a vet. A Jersey vet and they’re talking and it wasn’t maybe five or six minutes later he goes Holy crap… something just snapped in my neck. Wow, it felt great. Well, look, I Shirley, I could turn my head. He took his socks off for the first time in 36 years that night.
So what are you going to say? What are you going to say to people that you know… and his golf game now has improved by 50%! All his golf buddies are on this stuff. I’m telling you… word travels fast. That’s all is… just word of mouth. Just word of mouth. So where am I headed now? I don’t know. I’m in transition. I’m trying to get away from having as much inventory and get more intuitive affiliate type programs and be able to lose the merchandise.
Honey Smith Walls 16:45
I was just, you know, you’ve got me, you sent me into my own little daydream. And I’m just following you right along.
Bonnie Drake, RN 16:53
Yeah, well, I’m trying to move into more educating… I love doing ‘Learn at Lunch’.
Honey Smith Walls 17:04
Oh, that sounds wonderful.
Bonnie Drake, RN 17:07
Yeah, for seniors, because I’ve gone to senior citizen centers and they do ‘Learn at Lunch’ up north. Oh, yeah. And the first time I went, everybody said, Well, don’t be surprised. These people are really rude and they’re not gonna listen to you. And I said, No, no, listen to me. I know they will. And she said well, good luck. So I get up to the podium and I hold up my back x ray and I says, Hey, anybody here got a backache? Look at this. This is my back. Right there. All that hardware is right here in my bag. You can’t see it, but it’s in there. I said and guess what? I don’t hurt. And I had, everybody’s captivated. Absolutely. They were coming out of their offices. Wow.
Honey Smith Walls 17:49
That is such a great opening… so funny.
Healer Promo
Friends, I’m just stunned to realize how difficult it is to find trustworthy, high quality CBD products that are full spectrum, whole plant with all the natural compounds extracted from the plant for you to consume as nature provided. Hey, buddy, and I will be back next week with more to her story, and it includes rescuing Dobermans, service dog training, working with exceptional kids and more. Check out the show notes for convenient links to other fascinating places we should all know about and come back next week. You’ve been listening to another Cannaba Verum podcast with 21st century cannabis shaman
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Bumper Outro:
Hey Bonnie and I will be back next week with more to her story… it includes rescuing Dobermans, service dog training, working with exceptional kids and more. Check out the show notes for convenient links to other places.
FINI:
You’ve been listening to another Cannaba Verum podcast with 21st century cannabis shaman Honey Smith Walls about the importance of using verifiably safe products. The process of getting a diagnosis from your family doctor and taking your records to a cannabis specialist can lead you to the correct cannabinoid therapy for those issues. Otherwise, you’re just your own guinea pig looking for answers without any foundational knowledge or ability to determine the best choices or strategies.
To find a qualified cannabis expert in your area… visit www.cannabisclinicians.org.
It is a national society of cannabis experts and you’ll see that link down in my show notes.
Unless otherwise proven by a reputable third party lab test, please be advised that all street weed is contaminated. It may do grave harm to a patient with a delicate immune system who already has inflammatory issues like arthritis, IBS, fibromyalgia or worse.
Subscribe to the Cannaba Verum podcast and become part of a project to understand the effects of cannabis on the public. Your anecdotal testimony is priceless to me. Medical citations are posted on my podcast blog when you visit CannabaVerum.com. That’s CannabaVerum.com. Hey, and one last thing… Would you take an extra second to give my podcast a Like and Review? It’s like Bitcoin crack for the algorithms. Thanks so much. Hey, I hear the cows calling.
MOOOOOOO!!
Sources
Cannaba Verum is Latin for Cannabis Truth. Sourcing factual information about cannabis hasn’t always been easy for a variety of reasons. However now because of modern innovations, it is. My sources are from leaders in cannabis science like:
Roger Adams, U.S. Organic Chemist who isolated the structure of CBD,
Raphael Mechoulam, Israeli Organic Chemist who isolated the structure of THC,
Ethan Russo, Dir R&D International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute
Dustin Sulak, DO – my favorite doctor at healer.com, teaching the art of Cannabis Healing to the world, and other industry greats like:
Rev. Dr. Kymron DeCesare, Ed Rosenthal, Jack Herer, Michael Backes, and Michael Pollen and so many more… plus I use classical sites like: PubMed.gov, JAMAnetwork.com, ResearchGate.com. I listen to several daily podcasts to keep up with the latest cannabis news across the nation and throughout the world like: Dr. Codi Peterson et al on The Cannigma Podcast, MJTodayDaily.com and MarijuanaMoment.net. I trust the CBDProject.org and CannabisScienceTech.com. I watch the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) at: thecannabisindustry.org and many more like: NCIA’s Cannabis Industry VOICE (CannabisRadio.com)
Over past episodes of Cannaba Verum, we’ve listened to some amazing scientists and medical professionals talk about their discoveries and patient successes as hundreds of questionable compounds rise to the public grasp. I am especially interested in the pharmacists movement becoming an integral part of this new medicinal choice.
Watch this machine roll into action through conversations with pharmacy doctors all over the nation like Dr. Leah Johnson and Dr. Codi Peterson out West and Dr. Alan Ao up North. There are so many more getting involved now… these are just a few who have come on my show to explain the situation and it’s fascinating.
You’ll find citations available on my podcast blog at cannabaverum.com
PS: Helping society get past the fear of using cannabis will be a lifelong journey for me. This industry is just opening up and most patients and doctors are seriously cannabis naive and need help understanding where to turn for trustworthy information.
If you need help opening that cannabis discussion with your family doctor, please reach out and grab the Dear Doctor Letter I wrote for this exact purpose. It will explain your decision to try cannabis and ask for their help in monitoring your labs and progress. It will also show them where they can find medical research on the subject of your diagnosis and the effects of cannabis.
You’ll find that letter at cannabaverum.com
My specialist in hormonal help: Dr. Genester Wilson-King, M.D. and Founder
Victory Rejuvenation Center – Orlando, Florida
My Neurologist and Cannabis Expert Medical Marijuana Doctor in Melbourne, FL:
Anthony Mazo, M.D.
Brevard Neuro Center
(321) 733-2711
315 E. Nasa Blvd.
Melbourne, FL 32901.
All opinions are my own and should not be mistaken as medical advice.
(1) Microdosing – https://healer.com/cbd-cannabis-dosage-guide-project-cbd-interview-with-dr-sulak/
(2) Concentrates – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29307505/
(3) Cannabis Helps Dementia Podcast – Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia
(4) Society of Cannabis Clinicians – https://www.cannabisclinicians.org/
(5) Take the Pledge – GreenTakeover.com
(6) Handbook for Clinicians – Principles and Practice – https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393714180
(7) The Cannigma Podcast = https://cannigma.com/podcast/behind-the-scenes-on-cannabis-normalization-with-jm-pedini/
(8) Curious About Cannabis Podcast = https://cacpodcast.com/
Show Notes:
It is my honor to introduce you to a Woman in Weed who deserves more than she’s ever gotten. Bonnie Drake is an RN from up north with a story that’s so shocking in parts that it sent me into an episode of PTSD that took me a half hour to come out of. I’ve never had to warn people about listening to my show but this episode is different… our guest is going to explain how she got here but her whole life’s story is pretty traumatic… so I’ll let you know when you need to fast forward a couple minutes before you get to that part… otherwise… this dear woman has served our country forever… Please honor her life in service by listening to what you can today… and next week when we conclude. As always, thank you for your time and love.
