It has been a long time coming for me to find some form of relief from my mental health problems.
For years I was trying one mental health drug after the next, never knowing exactly when I would actually improve.
Some of the mental health medications that doctors recommend can produce side effects that make one’s mental health even worse than before. We struggled to find good doctors as well when we were living in the small town of Dexter. It’s northwest of Ann Arbor and there aren’t nearly as many doctors in that small town. When my parents moved us all to the city after my dad’s company moved its headquarters, we had access to move doctors to choose from. I was happy to utilize whatever medications were recommended to me, but none of them really seemed to work until I reached 18 and started experimenting with marijuana with my friends. They were getting it from mutual friends who had parents growing the plant and selling it to local dispensaries at the time. Nowadays we’re all old enough to shop at recreational marijuana dispensaries in Ann Arbor and the rest of the state. However, I choose to keep a Michigan medical marijuana card because it exempts me from the state taxes that are charged on every single recreational cannabis sale. Right now that tax rate is 15%, so it literally pays to keep my medical marijuana card active until the state does away with the medical marijuana program in favor of full recreational use and taxation. I’m not a fan of this move, but I understand why they’re doing it logistically.