She became adamant about joining the service 18 years ago. Nuns pulled students out of class and ushered them into the cafeteria to inform them that the twin towers of the World Trade Center had fallen and America was under attack. Covone had a friend at the time whose father worked in one of the buildings. She recalls the girl getting picked up by her mother in tears and never seeing her friend again. That “shook me to my core,” she said, because she couldn’t understand why all those innocent people died. As she got older, she heard bits and pieces about the incident until she was old enough to take to the Internet and fully learn the grim truth. “I just made my decision and said I’m going to do something,” she said. Unfortunately, during her time in the service, she experienced non-combat mental trauma and still suffers from PTSD as a result. As is the case for many veterans, she was prescribed multiple medications to combat her diagnosis, then more medication to counteract the side effects of the
original. She couldn’t stand the feeling of not being clear-headed and present in the moment. Around this time, she also had knee surgery. Then she needed three more to correct mistakes made in the first. She was prescribed more medication. During her recovery, she commiserated with fellow veterans about all of their medications and heard that some of them were getting the same pain relief by using marijuana instead. At that point in time marijuana was illegal in just about every U.S. state, shrouded in the stigma that has surrounded weed for decades. Florida voters legalized medical marijuana in 2016, yet the stigma still plagues the patients who use it simply to make it through the day. Covone not only struggles with that and the judgement that comes with being a mother who uses marijuana as medicine. “I
“IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA, I WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO GET UP AND DO THE THINGS THAT I DO.”
think people are scared to say anything, especially women, and especially mothers because they know that people still view marijuana as a drug and people think that you can’t function… but that isn’t true in the least bit. “If it was not for the medical marijuana,” Covone says, ”I wouldn’t be able to get up and do the things that I do.” In the future, Covone wants to study to become a nutritionist, a desire based in her love for using food to keep her body as strong as possible. She says she will likely never stop helping veterans. As Covone speaks, her passion for helping others is evident. For her, volunteering is a choice but also a compulsion. She seems very aware that though she has her struggles, there are people out there who have circumstances far worse. Worse yet, they are not getting proper guidance and support. In her eyes, the least she can do is volunteer some time and knowledge to help people find the right path for them.
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