My History With Cannabis

I actually tried cannabis pretty late, at least compared to the rest of my friend group at the time. Early on, I hadn’t really known too many people that had tried it (or so I thought) and I fell pretty deep into believing things like “Weed is a gateway drug” and whatever else they liked to tell us in the 90s.

One day, I was hanging out with a group of friends and they wanted to smoke. I finally decided to give it a try and, well.. I enjoyed it. Sure, I enjoyed the initial euphoria from the THC, but as time went on and I continued to do more, I realized there were so many more benefits to this plant... This plant, which for some reason was made.. illegal.

Over the years, I became very interested in cannabis. I don't mean just smoking it of course, but learning about it and researching uses and benefits. As more people pushed for the legalization, there have been so many more developments and advancements in this field. This has always fascinated me enough to at least try and keep up with the information.

In 2010, I had the privilege of participating as a VIP Judge at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. This had been my second time in Amsterdam, but through both visits I learned so much during tours, museum trips, and special events where we would actually see entire production processes. It really opened my eyes to, well... a lot of things.

In 2021, I was able to get a job in the cannabis industry working at a medical dispensary. I joined the industry with a base knowledge, but during my time there I have learned and absorbed even more information, especially when it comes to the medicinal side of things. It's always amazing to me to hear things like "Your recommendation really helped with X, Y or Z last time, thank you so much!"

Early in 2023, I had a little extra money at one point. Don't get me wrong, money was still tight (as it had been for a while now), but that month we had an extra pay period due to the way the calendar days fell and it allowed for a little bit of flexibility that month. I had mentioned to one of my coworkers about wanting to start making candles, as it was something I had always wanted to try. Instantly, he was like "You know, I'll bet you could make candles with CBD in them," or something similar to that effect, and that's when I really knew I wanted to go through with it. Sure, I could use that little bit of extra money to try and get ahead financially, which is something I had continuously been struggling with since I lost my job during the covid lockdown, but between depression and finances always on my mind, I needed to add some sort of way to bring joy and relaxation into my life.

That's exactly what I did. I ordered supplies to teach myself the basics of candle making, bought some real full spectrum CBD, and immediately went to work. I'm not sure exactly when I went from "I just want to make candles" to "this is now my life," but what I can tell you is I haven't been this passionate about something in a while. I had a theme, motivation and I was ready to go. I spent a lot of time testing various products, vessels, formulas and so much more. The better part of this year (2023) was spent working on my craft. If I wasn't actually making candles, I was doing more research or picking up extra hours with Uber in order to buy more products to test more candles.

As I'm writing this, it is currently the end of June, 2024. I am very proud of the progress I've made, everything I've learned and taught myself, but most of all I am confident in my products. I am incredibly excited to begin this journey, grow as a person, grow as a business and hopefully become a part of your lives during the process. If you've taken the time to check out my website, purchase one of my products or just simply read through me rambling on this section of the page, I appreciate you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

- Dustin