You just may find yourself with a better awareness of how the plant affects you, a more distinguished palette, and a higher expectation for your medicine. 

For millennia, humans have understood the curative properties of cannabis. Anthropologists have found mummified remains of shamans buried with stores of cannabis for a pleasant afterlife. As recently as the early 1900s, doctors used it for everything from asthma to promoting uterine contractions in childbirth. 

I like growing tomatoes and having their fresh summer fruits, but I really love growing my own medicine. As a registered patient in the state of Washington, I grow at home, sourcing good genetics and grow organically as possible. The process continues to teach me lessons I just don’t learn anywhere else. For many people, the idea of growing for healing is a novel idea. But, as author Michael Pollan reminds us in his book, “The Botany of Desire”:

For the most part of their history, after all, gardens have been more concerned with the power of plants than with their beauty – with the power, that is, to change us, for good and ill.

We live in a day of single compound medicines, synthetic molecules, magnetic imaging systems and genetic manipulation. Many of our great-grandmothers knew volumes more about natural healing than we do. Often we accept that medical knowledge is something that belongs to surrogates and sometimes take a passive role in the process.

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Home growing involves the patient and allows for a greater level of input and control. Jerry Whiting has worked with medical cannabis patients for years. He is the co-founder and president of LeBlanc CNE, specializing in cannabis genetics, formulations, product development and education and is quite passionate on the matter:

It’s important for patients to grow their own medicine to have control over what they ingest. It alleviates fears about unwanted fertilizers and pesticides. Not only does it save money but citizen-farmers play a vital role in preserving vintage heirloom genetics that large commercial farmers ignore. Growing your own cannabis is as important as making your own tinctures, topicals and edibles.

That is why the chance to grow your own medicine is unique. If you are in a position to home grow legally in your state, I encourage you to do so. You may get occasional pests and may even accidentally kill some plants. But in the process, you just may find yourself with a better awareness of how the plant affects you, a more distinguished palette, and a higher expectation for your medicine.