My Cannabis Diaries

How Bullet Journaling habits helped me get the most from Cannabis

The first time I walked into a dispensary was after I got a prescription for medical marijuana in California in 2006. It was mind-blowing to see all of the product just lined up. Just the smell was the sort of thing that seemed impossible — even though I had been using cannabis for years, I wasn’t ready for the full glory of the dispensary. One of my favorite products were these “breath strips” I used to buy at one of my favorite shops on San Vincente in Beverly Hills. The highest I’ve ever been in my life was at a party for dispensary owners, where I had to step outside because with literally everything infused with cannabis, I actually needed a break. Gone were the days of not knowing the names of the medicine! No more having to worry about ‘dry spells!’

Or so I thought.

In 2010, after years of being a medical marijuana patient, I moved to an illegal state (by accident, I assure you) for several years during which I had some of the worst migraines and panic attacks of my life. I won’t belabor you with the low times. But they were low — as low as you could imagine someone being, when they don’t have access to high quality medication.

Last year, my husband and I decided to set ourselves up in a new area of the world and moved to Oregon by driving across the country.

The change in the amount of products was amazing. So much had been developed and brought to market as more and more states legalized, that it was staggering.

To make sense of it all, I kept an extensive journal regarding the different consumption methods and products that I was using in order to discover what worked for me (how they made me feel body and mood-wise, if they made me jittery or anxious), and as I refined the process, I adopted a lot of the principals from bullet journaling to support my cannabis journaling. I kept track of strains, dispensaries, products, harvest dates — often pulling labeling stickers off and affixing them to my journal’s pages.

Testing has helped bring consistency of product that wasn’t possible when the industry was underground, and is a constant challenge to maintain standards and accessibility of products. The advantages of testing to the consumer are that dispensaries often have terpene profiles available for many of their products, which can help in discovering what terpenes may work best for any given situation.

After a while, my journaling got a bit out of hand (this tends to happen with me!), but ultimately it was a key exercise for me. Though I had been both a patient and a connoisseur for decades, writing about my journey and attempting to extrapolate objective data points was helpful in discovering what products worked for me and which didn’t.

If I had to advise someone on how to begin their wellness progression with cannabis, I’d suggest they begin with journaling. In the least, to get started, jot down the strain and farm for flower or the product name and producer for non-flower products (extracts and edibles), the dispensary or place of purchase, the purchase price, and the effects.