HerCannaLife: Adelia Carrillo, Direct Cannabis Network
Women come to cannabis for a myriad of reasons. Telling our stories is essential to help eliminate the stigma around cannabis that prevents women from getting access to the information – and products and services – they want or need. We’re partnering with HerCannaLife.com to bring you women’s stories about their personal cannabis journeys.
Meet Adelia Carrillo, Direct Cannabis Network
Excerpted from HerCannaLife.com
Hoping to improve her quality of life motivated Adelia Carrillo to try cannabis. Pregnancy complications sent her into a health spiral with internal bleeding, emergency surgery, and an array of prescription medications including painkillers that left her sick, dizzy, and unable to walk to recover from her surgery.
After some trial and error and testing out different forms of cannabis, Adelia found her cannabis use not only helped her with pain after surgery, but it also helped her with the anxiety and depression that followed her pregnancy loss. She dove into researching more about cannabis to learn why it worked. Her personal interest led her to start Direct Cannabis Network, a business-oriented digital news outlet.
Describe yourself and what you do.
I am a tech geek who loves entrepreneurship and innovation mix that with hardworking, loyal and big hearted. I believe in empowering others and striving to make a positive difference and impact not only in the cannabis industry but in the world.
What is your personal cannabis origin story?
About three and a half years ago, I was re-introduced to cannabis, this time in a medicinal way. My fiancé and I found out that we were pregnant. Quickly after, I began showing health concerns that put me on bedrest. The complications worsened, and I had to have an emergency surgery.
After the surgery, I was given a lineup of prescriptions that didn’t help with my recovery. Due to the prescriptions making me feel worse, my fiancé suggested I turn to cannabis.
“I never thought of cannabis as a medical thing. I think I kind of laughed. To me, I got the munchies whenever I smoked. I was not educated about it. But it was that last resort. I thought ‘let me just try it. If I can get off these pills and not feel this horrible and sick all time, if works, that will be awesome.’
As I began my trial and error of testing out medical cannabis, I noticed that cannabis helped me physically and emotionally.
During that transition, I also began doing research specifically in areas I am passionate about. I quickly realized I couldn’t relate to the media outlets available at the time and couldn’t find much on startups, tech, and innovation and saw a real need for an ecosystem for the cannabis entrepreneurial community. This began the development of Direct Cannabis Network.
What is your Superpower?
I believe my superpower is authenticity. I know where I excel in my attributes, but I also know what I am not good at and that is the power behind building a team and becoming a good leader.
I strongly believe that in building a successful business, you must know yourself, what are your strengths, what you excel at and what you are not good at and who your ideal client or customer is.
This is awesome, Adelia. It’s incredibly empowering to see women like yourself stepping forward and inviting other women to do the same to ensure that we have a place at the table as the medical cannabis movement takes shape. As a holistic health advocate and community leader in Philly, I’m thrilled to have a place to connect with other women and their communities across the country, to share resources, ideas and energy.