Chelsea Smith is the creator of Taboo Talks Series emanating from Southern California. Taboo Talk Series is a speaker series and community dedicated to breaking stigmas around plant medicine in a modern world. Its content spans on everything from sobriety and racism to social equity and equality. Chelsea believes that these are the conversations we must hear to take away the stigma and fear around cannabis. She built her platform as a platform to showcase people who have something meaningful and educational to say about cannabis. Since the spread of COVID-19, Taboo Talk Series has gone digital with weekly Instagram Live sessions.
Chelsea joins me to talk about the many aspects of sobriety and mental health. First, she speaks about her personal experience with cannabis and how it has helped her in recovery. Although we have been taught that Cannabis is a “gateway drug,” we now have research that proves it is not. It has become an exit cure for so many people who have mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and trauma. Chelsea relates to Cannabis as her exit drug and as a coping tool in her sobriety and recovery. As a parent, she also talks about normalizing it in her house.
Finally, Chelsea explains that her goal with Taboo Talks is to create a safe space for women. A place where women are able to educate others, men included, and express themselves without feeling judged or afraid. She is eager to introduce woman speakers strategically as a core aspect of the Taboo series curriculum.
Cannabis as a Coping Mechanism for Sobriety & Mental Health
Chelsea shares with me her experience, strength, and hope by telling me her sobriety story. As someone who is openly in Recovery, Chelsea says that the stigma of being entirely sober off of all substances should not include cannabis. While using cannabis as a cure for autoimmune disease, she found that there was a lot of stigma around cannabis in general within Recovery. Despite having eight months sober, she realized that meetings were no longer working for her. After leaving the rooms, she was able to find her compassion and humility once again. Despite utilizing Cannabis as a tool to help her in her recovery, Chelsea has not struggled with triggers in her recovery very often. With her own sobriety program in place, she utilizes the entire plant of cannabis to keep her running on all cylinders.
3 DANK Points
- The difference between equity and equality in terms of race and gender in cannabis
- 12-steps, recovery and the need to have new spaces
- Why the topics of women, racism, and equity are last to go on at conventions
Links
Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | Stitcher
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