- My name's Leah Campbell,
and I'm a 36 year old writer and single mom.
I microdose marijuana to treat pain and anxiety,
and I have no problem admitting that makes me a better mom.
I do want to preface this by saying
that I'm not a medical doctor.
I'm not in a position to advise anyone else
on how medicinal marijuana may help them
or make their lives better.
I can only talk about my personal experiences.
I have stage four endometriosis,
which is a chronic pain condition.
It started about 10 years ago.
I've had five major abdominal surgeries.
Pain has been kind of a constant
in my life for the last decade.
As a single mom to a six year old, that's hard,
especially when my period hits and I'm stuck in bed.
- Hello. (laughing)
- What's your name?
- Josie.
- Josie, who are you?
Are you my daughter?
- Mm-hm, mm-hm, mm-hm.
- Are you my best bud?
I was not the person anyone would have ever expected
to be advocating for medicinal marijuana use.
I grew up in a family of police officers.
My father was a narcotics officer
for many, many years of my childhood.
My whole life I've heard that drugs are bad.
I was 25 years old before I tried it for the first time
and honestly, I hated it.
Smoking marijuana made me wanna sit in a corner
and not talk to anyone,
which isn't a great thing for an introvert
who already kind of is drawn that way.
And I was pretty sure marijuana would never be for me.
So when a friend suggested I try microdosing,
I was pretty against it,
but I happened to be visiting her in Seattle
for another friend's wedding when my period started.
And it kind of seemed like my period
was about to ruin what should have been a really fun time
with people I cared about.
So we went to a pot shop,
and we discussed all the options
and I bought a couple of mints
that came in really low doses,
and I followed the instructions of the employee there,
to basically do no more than
about two milligrams every one to two hours.
For most people getting high on a medicinal marijuana edible
would take five to 10 milligrams.
So I was taking much smaller doses.
I found that it really did take the edge off the pain,
especially the cumulative effect.
So it didn't necessarily kick in right away
after the first pill,
but as I continued going throughout the day,
I was able to be more and more functional
without really being high.
And that was the key point to me,
was that something was taking the pain away
without taking me out of commission.
When I got home to Alaska, I started experimenting
with marijuana more and more,
and I kinda found that my ideal dose
is about 1.5 milligrams, again, every one to two hours
depending on how bad my pain is.
But another benefit came out as well,
and that was that I started to realize
the anxiety I've dealt with my entire life
was leveling off on the days that I was microdosing as well.
And that was huge.
You know, as much as pain can knock me out of my life,
anxiety can as well.
If I'm having a high stress day
or I'm just not in the right head space,
I have a hard time working.
I have a hard time being the friend I wanna be,
the mom I wanna be.
What is that?
- My tooth fell out. - Yeah.
- [Leah] Can I see your mouth?
Did it hurt very bad or just a little bit bad?
- Just a little.
- [Leah] You pretty brave?
- Yeah.
- So for me a bad pain day often means being stuck in bed,
which is hard as a single mom to a six year old
who wants to be going out and doing things.
It's not really fair to her either.
She can sit in bed with me all day and watch movies,
but why should she have to?
I do a lot of things to manage my pain.
Marijuana is really just one tool
in a great big bucket of tools I have.
But in terms of pain management in the moment,
microdosing helps me, not more than anything else,
because honestly, prescription pain killers I've been given
knock out the pain better,
but marijuana helps to take the edge off the pain
while still allowing me to be functional,
whereas the prescription pain killers I've been given
knock me out too and, as a mom,
that's not an acceptable solution.
So these are some of the products I use.
These are really small mints,
and the thing I like about these
is they come in the small doses I prefer.
It's like 1.6 milligrams a mint,
which is usually my preferred dosage.
So this is my favorite product.
I also buy chocolate bars.
These chocolate bars come in 5 milligram dosages per square.
The thing I like about this is
I can get even smaller doses if I want,
just because I can take a small bite
and I could break one of these squares up
into five or six pieces if I wanted.
All of these are kept in my freezer,
in a special box that my kiddo knows is mommy's medicine.
We've talked about it and discussed the fact
that these look like candy, but that they're not.
Hey Josie.
Oh, did you just wake up?
Thank you for joining us, little sleepy head.
(laughing)
Can I ask you a question?
What are these things?
- Mommy medicine.
- And are you ever supposed to touch any of this?
No, how come?
- Because. - Cause it's not for kids?
Love you. (lips smacking)
I think at the end of the day,
we're all kind of just trying to survive
and that may be especially true for those of us
with chronic pain conditions
or mental health struggles.
We just wanna be the best versions of ourselves.
For me, microdosing helps me
to be the best version of myself.
After years of trying just about every solution
and every option available,
it's one of the best that I've found,
and like I said before, it's just one tool
in my toolbox, but yeah, it makes me a better mom
because it helps me to get out of bed in the morning
when I'm having a bad pain day,
and it helps me to clear my head
when my anxiety is spinning me out.
It gives my child the version of me that she deserves,
a mom who is functional and happy
and able to get through the day.
I think a lot of people take for granted
that not everybody has that without the additional help.
Whether I were taking a prescription medication
or this medication that I'm able to buy at the store,
shouldn't matter.
It's something that helps.
It's something that gives me the version of me I wanna be.
It allows me to have relief
and it gives my daughter the mom she deserves.
(gentle music)