Danielle Simone Brand, Author of Weed Mom

Ellen Lee Scanlon (00:00):

This podcast discusses cannabis and is intended for audiences 21 and over. Welcome to How to Do the Pot, a podcast demystifying cannabis for women. I’m Ellen Scanlon. On these short episodes, we share women’s stories about the first time they bought legal weed. I hope they bring a little fun and a new perspective into your week. Danielle Simone Brand is the Colorado-based author of the book, Weed Mom: The Canna-Curious Woman’s Guide to Healthier Relaxation, Happier Parenting, and Chilling TF Out.

Danielle Simone Brand (00:38):

To tell you about my first experience, find legal cannabis, I’d like to read an excerpt from my book. Driving around town, my family began noticing all kinds of advertisements for dispensaries with names like Urbn Leaf and Golden Greens. “What’s cann-a-bis?” my older child asked as we pulled into the Trader Joe’s parking lot. And I hadn’t a clue how to answer. So perhaps it was curiosity, the need to know pure and simple, that led me to place that first order. Not yet ready for a dispensary experience, I studied the dizzying array of products available on the online menus and chose delivery from a dispensary whose web copy felt wellness-oriented. I was pot illiterate. So, with a pang of guilt, I ordered what seemed easy and discreet: cookies and a vape pen. I received my first cannabis delivery while my husband was at work and my kids at school. The delivery guy inspected my ID and handed me an innocent looking white paper bag with a receipt stapled to the top as if it contained items as ordinary as toothpaste and gum.

Danielle Simone Brand (01:42):

I paid cash, wondering all the while if I was doing something wrong. I sure hoped my neighbors hadn’t seen me standing at my front gate and handing the nice non-stoned-looking driver a wad of bills. There I was, a suburban mother of two, a hardworking writer and a wife still struggling in some ways to put her marriage back together, holding a white paper bag full of weed. Errr, cannabis. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I stuffed it in my sweater drawer and tried to forget about it. But I didn’t forget. On an evening alone, I cautiously opened the drawer and inspected what I’d bought. The vape pen enticed me with its clean lines and promise of precisely 2.25 milligrams of THC per pull. I read the packaging from cover to cover, then pried the thing from its case and held it in my palm. Such a light instrument, holding a substance both maligned and revered. Which would it be for me?

Danielle Simone Brand (02:41):

No matter what else is going on in life, a yoga mat has a long been a place for me to come back to myself. So I decided to put cannabis to the test on that familiar purple turf. I rolled out the mat, my heart beating fast. I sat in the middle of it, closed my eyes, put the vape pen to my lips and inhaled. At first, all I wanted to do was sit there. Stoner my mind shouted. You’re wasting a perfectly good evening to yourself! But those thoughts quieted in time and I found myself pleasantly altered. Sitting segued into a flow of spinal undulations, I languorously moved my spine in the six directions, forward bends, back bends, left and right side bends, twists, alternating between organic movements and longer holds seemed like the way to meet my body exactly where it was in the moment. Vocalizations and size escaped my lips, though normally I would’ve felt too inhibited to allow that particular kind of release. I was alone and it felt good. More than good. It felt great.

Danielle Simone Brand (03:46):

Next, I laid down on my mat and was in enraptured by movement that hardly resembled the more classic postures I usually practiced. My lower body felt alive and glowing, and I didn’t want to get up for a long while. When I finally stood, I practiced sun salutations, lunges, warrior poses, and squats, finding the same satisfying ease between movement and long holds. Even as my legs began to shake in horse pose, I didn’t stop immediately as I might otherwise have done. Instead, I wrote out what felt like a powerful movement of energy. My teachers’ voices played in my head around clearing emotional residue through movement and careful attention. The synchrony between body heart and mind felt clear and palpable.

Danielle Simone Brand (04:31):

I was a goddess, purely and simply, on my mat thinking, why the hell haven’t I done this before? From the spread of each toe to the workings of individual muscles as I lengthened and contracted according to what the posture required, I truly inhabited my body. And while I can’t report any profound insight from that night, I am embodied what so many of us who practice yoga hope for. When I notice the question “What’s next?” growing in the back of my mind, I recognized this thought, and with deliberateness, set it aside. On a yellow notepad alongside my mat, I scrawled: NOW. THIS. THAT’S ALL. And it felt true. From that evening, a short jaunt down cannabis lane transformed me from a worried newbie to full-on enthusiast. I learned that contrary to what I’d long believed, cannabis can indeed be used responsibly to promote health, wellbeing, and optimal functioning.

Danielle Simone Brand (05:30):

I learned that with the right intention, dose, and product, cannabis is a tool for self-care and self-awareness. Quite simply, I learned that cannabis is wonderful. So I dove in, researching all I could about cannabis, talking to anyone who would listen about my newfound love of the plant, trying tons of products (many of which I liked, and others I didn’t), getting super comfortable with browsing a dispensary and chatting up the budtenders; learning how to talk to my friends, kids, and parents about cannabis and becoming a cannabis journalist. Along the way. I had to readjust my own assumptions and stereotypes about a million times. And I had to talk to my husband over and over again about what all this meant for him, for me, and for us. I’ve learned more about cannabis and about myself and my family in the past few years than I could have ever anticipated. And I’d love to help you learn, too. Let’s get down to it.

Ellen Lee Scanlon (06:30):

Thanks for listening to this episode of How to Do the Pot. If you’d like to share your story about the first time you bought legal weed, please send a voice memo to hi@dothepot.com or DMS@dothepot. For lots more information and past episodes, visit dothepot.com. And that’s also where you can sign up for How to Do the Pot’s newsletter, which comes out every other Friday. And if you like How to Do the Pot, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps more people find the show. Thanks to Madi Fair, our brand manager, and our producer, Nick Patri. I’m Ellen Scanlon, and we’ll be back soon with more of How to Do the Pot.