At Prime Wellness of Pennsylvania, our expert team of growers combined with cultivars amassed from across the country contribute to our handcrafted, premium-quality therapeutics with a wide range of potential benefits. In addition to supplying Commonwealth dispensaries with our prime line of products, we are committed to equipping patients and caregivers with the education you need to navigate the many medicinal offerings available on store shelves. Our Prospective Patient Perspective newsletter offers insights into the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program’s resources and product options available for patients living with one of 23 qualifying conditions. Each edition outlines hypothetical profiles of prospective patients – detailing their qualifying condition and addressing the questions that might arise during their certification and dispensary visits.
In today’s installment, you will meet “Anisa” – who has Tourette Syndrome. Read on to learn about her journey living with this condition and medical marijuana’s potential to help.
Meet Anisa: Nothing makes Anisa feel quite as focused or accomplished as when she is busy writing clean, useful code. On most mornings, and sometimes late into the night, she can be found in her happy place – test-driving new software on her computer, with a steaming mug of tea on her desk, and her loyal tabby cat resting beneath it. Working as a programmer for an emerging tech company, Anisa has a full plate that demands her attention and ability to manage several tasks at once. She finds joy and empowerment in creating functional code and keeping it all running smoothly.
Things have not always been simple and manageable for Anisa, though, when it comes to her journey with Tourette Syndrome. Like many persons living with this nervous system condition, Anisa was diagnosed in early childhood,– when she began exhibiting tics in her grade school classroom. Categorized as either motor or vocal, tics are random movements or sounds that an individual makes, often repetitively. Anisa has experienced complex tics throughout her life that made it difficult to accomplish daily parts of her routine: remaining present during work meetings, coping with nervousness in new social situations, and even settling down for a night’s rest. Some of Anisa’s more common tics, like repeatedly clenching her fists, can result in pain and muscle tension.
While Tourette’s has no cure, Anisa has seen a noticeable improvement in her condition with the help of medical resources, developing useful coping skills in cognitive behavioral therapy and balancing her nervous system responses with SSRI medication. After careful consideration with her primary care physician, Anisa has registered to receive her medical marijuana card in Pennsylvania. She is hopeful that this powerful therapeutic may serve as another resource in her journey to improving her daily quality of life with Tourette’s.
Meeting Anisa’s Dispensary: As a beginner in the Commonwealth’s medical marijuana program, Anisa is not sure which dispensaries are in her local area. The Prime Wellness of Pennsylvania website features a useful “Where to Buy” page, which patients like Anisa can use to locate the stores in their region that carry our prime products in addition to a variety of offerings from other grower/processors. Simply entering her zip code, Anisa can narrow her search for the right dispensary by location.
Once she selects a dispensary, Anisa might find it intimidating to make her first in-store visit to obtain medication. Living with Tourette’s, new social situations like this may trigger certain tics. In the interest of avoiding potential triggers, Anisa can minimize her time spent in the store by visiting the dispensary’s online menu and placing her order for pickup. To simplify her product selection, Anisa can reference our custom batch notes for each prime product available in dispensaries. Prime Wellness team members write custom batch notes for each product shipment that leaves our facility, detailing how processes like live-plant extraction or careful curing may shape the characteristics of the finished products we ship to dispensaries. These batch notes outline product details such as variations in concentrate color and texture, as well as flower structure and aromas. Anisa can access prime batch notes from our website or by asking her dispensary pharmacist.
Meeting Anisa’s Medical Needs: Due to the nature of her condition, Anisa’s medical marijuana needs may vary greatly from day-to-day. When experiencing motor tics, Anisa’s fine motor skills may be temporarily impacted. It is important that she chooses a form of medical marijuana that is simple to dose and consume, as well as potentially faster-acting, to address the quick onset of her symptoms. Anisa might want to discuss prime live resin cartridges with her dispensary pharmacist. Handcrafted with no synthetic ingredients, our 100% cannabis-derived live resin cartridges have the potential to provide patients with discreet and immediate access to relief. Terpenes – the aromatic compounds found in essential oils of the cannabis plant that may work with cannabinoids like THC – may also be a helpful starting place to identify which products may best benefit Anisa. The terpene linalool – which can also be found in lavender – has demonstrated a potential to reduce pain that could potentially assist Anisa in managing the muscle pain caused by certain motor tics. If her condition hinders her ability to get a good night’s sleep, Anisa may want to explore products with the terpene myrcene. Also found in basil and mangoes, this terpene has been studied for its potential sedative effects. Both linalool and myrcene can be found in batches of our prime cultivar Florthern Lights Haze #11, dubbed our waffles pheno for its distinctive aromas of maple syrup and chives.
