One Woman’s Journey To Get Off Prescription Drugs Using Cannabis

Kate Sullivan Broke both her neck and back multiple times.

She was on 13 prescriptions taking 550 pills a month: fentanyl, Dilaudid, Zanaflex, Valium, Ambien CR, Ativan,  you name it, she was on it.

Kate was bedridden, in a wheelchair, and gained so much weight she was unfunctional. When she found out about medical Marijuana she decided it couldn’t be worse than the drugs she was on and she gave it a try.

Kate made an incredible recovery. Here is her story.

Tell us Who You Are?. 

I am Kate Sullivan. Medi-Kate. We’re here at the women of cannabis conference.

Tell Us Your Story?

Yes. In 1999 I broke my back. While rehabbing my back I broke my neck. With all the pharmaceuticals and the steroids they gave me I was in a wheelchair forever.

That was all in Colorado. I ended up back in Illinois because I was bedridden and I weighed 200 pounds and couldn’t do anything. So my family took care of me. My husband would leave for work and my mom would come over. Then my best friend would come over and make food, you know, shit like that. 

Basically we heard that Illinois was going to allow medical cannabis. So I started reading about everything. I was already on 13 prescriptions, taking 550 pills a month. I thought, there’s gotta be something different. I had stopped breathing twice on regular everyday pharmaceuticals. So, I thought, shit, cannabis can’t be worse than this.

Long story short we packed everything up. My husband and I sold everything and moved to Colorado and within the first, probably three months of using cannabis, I could walk again. 

I really couldn’t walk before, I couldn’t do anything. 

 I want to say March 29th I got on a plane and in my backpack were 13 prescriptions, a pair of underwear, and a pair of socks.

We stayed with our friends in Castle Rock, they opened up their home to us. Zach and Casey. We stayed with them and I basically was upstairs in a bedroom and had edibles and concentrates. Anything I could get. I detoxed off of everything. I was on fentanyl, Dilaudid, Oh gosh, you name it. Zanaflex, Valium, Ambien CR, Ativan, you name it. I was on it. 

What products did you use to Detox? How did you use them?

Edibles! While detoxing I went through about a gram and a half of concentrates a day, just dabbing constantly because of the shakes, and then edibles. I tried suppositories a little bit later and that worked because when I would vomit I couldn’t keep anything down. RSO in the butt was just as good as anything. I don’t know the exact percentage, but it’s like 83% absorption because of the gland there and it gets through the body. You don’t get the head high, you get the body high. 

So What brings you here to the women and cannabis conference? 

We have a t-shirt company, well, we have a friend that had a tee shirt company and then he wanted a cannabis line. So we joined with him and started a cannabis line of t’s and we both work in the industry. We do everything from labels, posters, I make isolate, distillate, white-label CBD, you name it, we do it. 

Yeah. Instagram is @Medikate67 

Do you use cannabis day today? Still medicinally? 

All-day. Every day. I had a broken back – three times. Broken neck, three times. Chrones, PTSD, chronic pain syndrome. Every initial that a doctor can bill you for, I have that little code. 

When I was coming off of all the narcotics, I did not really know about RSO at that time, so I was just doing anything that I could to get in my body.

I just consumed anything and everything because I was shaking and vomiting so badly. It was rough. It was a lot rougher without cannabis. Back in Illinois, I thought I was dead for sure. But then with the cannabis, it was hell, but it was tolerable Hell if that makes any sense. 

I’m a huge whole plant advocate. That’s all I talk about. I don’t care if it’s CBD, whatever it is, I want all of it because that’s what helps me. I was doing a gram of day in Colorado of RSO and then a gram of concentrates. And since we got here (Las Vegas) in this weather, I can do maybe a half a gram of RSO and maybe just 10 dabs.

What’s one thing that we’re not asking? Or something that you’d like to express to the greater world out there? 

I tell everybody since day one, since being on cannabis, it was my last choice and it should be your first choice, not your last option. If I knew the medicinal aspect of weed, I mean, I was smoking weed since I was 11 years old, but I didn’t know it was medicinal. I would do anything to get anybody off of anything because of all the shit I was on. You can come off of that. You can pretty much come off of anything