Dr. Rebecca Siegel’s book opens to her admission that as a teenager in the 1980s, she was raised on the stereotype of “marijuana,” believing it was only used by unproductive and underachieving “potheads.”
The good doctor said she had to be hit over the head with a frying pan with the knowledge of the benefits of cannabis after listening to her patients’ success stories, prompting her to write her first book, The Brain on Cannabis.
“My life changed while in private practice when one of my patients, I call her Patient 0, opened my mind to cannabis as medicine,” she shared. “After that experience, I was more apt to listening to other patients with similar success in using cannabis for real ailments and disorders.”
As detailed in her introduction, insomnia, depression, ADD, PTSD, and aiding symptoms from treatments for cancer, were just a few of the disorders and symptoms her patients were helped with using cannabis, either by smoking and/or ingesting concentrates.
And while Dr. Siegel still must adhere to the unknown, specifically dealing with the cause and effects of today’s high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cultivars, she’s been enlightened to the plant as a superfood, able to treat a wide range of ailments and disorders.
“We still do not know enough about the effects on the brain of long term THC use for recreation,” she began, setting the tone for the interview and the book. “But I’m still listening and observing my patients, and have taken deep dives myself in research all I can to understand. My work has become an evolving education on this plant.”
Path to Enlightenment
Growing up in what she refers to as the suburbs of New York in New Jersey, Dr. Siegel’s father was a doctor, and she shared she had …
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Author: Sharon Letts / High Times
