Pain Relief in a Plant
Several times each day, a nerve in my upper back starts tingling and the tingling turns to pain. The same feeling goes down my arms and into my hands and into my jaw, which locks in place. These symptoms make basic functions I need to do my job—like eating and typing—impossible, and the pharmaceuticals I’ve tried put me to sleep, while others are too expensive to try. Yet I am one of the fortunate New Yorkers who qualifies for medicinal marijuana, which the state legalized in 2014.
For years, I’ve used cannabis in various forms, and in every dispensary I’ve visited, the experience was clinical—a far cry from some guy with a messenger bag biking over to your apartment for “tech support.” In New York’s dispensaries, you’re required to present your ID, medical marijuana card and prescription. No one is admitted without them, which is why it struck me as odd that Forest Hills residents were pushing back against Curaleaf, a licensed medical dispensary, opening in their neighborhood last summer. In a Voices of New York article, Curaleaf’s opening was described as having “shattered the calmness” of Forest Hills.
Calmness is still intact, though, and is why so many individuals use marijuana and hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD), the non-addictive, non-psychoactive compound in hemp as well as marijuana plants. Dorothy Stepnowska, owner of Flower Power Coffee in Glendale, recently began offering a hemp-CBD coffee in her café. Stepnowska suffers from anxiety, so when a friend in Colorado who infuses coffee beans with CBD suggested she add their line to her offerings, she did her research and agreed it would make a good addition.
“It helps a lot of people and it doesn’t have just one benefit,” she said. Her customers were grateful for the new offering and the café’s business increased until New York City announced it would be banning restaurants and bars from adding CBD to their menu items.
“Two days [after the announcement], a health department official came [to the café] and called the fire department and department of buildings.” Stepnowska feels she’s being unfairly targeted because she buys her coffee beans pre-dosed with the CBD from Deez CBD Coffee rather than adding it herself.
Businesses like Flower Power Coffee, and Adriaen Block, a now-shuttered restaurant in Astoria that served CBD-infused cocktails, burger sauce and whipped cream, have been vulnerable to fines, violations or drops in their health grade since July 1. Yet after the dramatic display at her small coffee shop, Stepnowska began working with Robert Holden, the City Council member for District 30, where Flower Power is located, to petition against the ban.
Holden and Council Members Corey Johnson and Mark Levine are demanding answers from Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot. Stepnowska circulated her own petition to end the ban. What she and others find most alarming is that the ban was rolled out with little information or policy to support it. There were no directions for businesses to maintain compliance and no consideration of products like Stepnowska’s coffee, which is already infused with CBD prior to purchase.
The severe reaction New Yorkers—both citizens and policy makers—have had to the legal sale of hemp-CBD and medical marijuana are, often, the result of stigma and lack of education around the cannabis plant. Yet medical marijuana guidelines in New York State are among the most strict in the country. A patient can only purchase marijuana in three forms: a tincture, a vaporizer or pills and gels. The tincture is my preferred form; I can use it alone or dose my food—getting the benefits of THC and CBD while enhancing my mealtime experience.
Like anyone, I need to eat to survive, but I also love eating—chewing each bite methodically, picking out the different tastes and ingredients. Cannabis alleviates my jaw pain, as well as the anxiety and stress that causes it, enough to return to me that singular pleasure of joyfully eating solid food.
However, not everyone who experiences anxiety or stress has a jaw that locks for hours, so they would not meet the criteria for medical cannabis. That’s why the lawful sale of hemp-derived CBD has been an important move for people living in states with no legal cannabis—medical or recreational. For now, Stepnowska has no intention of changing her business model. She’s seen first-hand how her coffee shop benefits the Glendale community, where little else exists to bring a sense of calm to her otherwise jittery customers.
Curaleaf | @curaleaf
Flower Power Coffee | @flowerpowercoffeehousenyc
Deez CBD Coffee
