It has now been over a year since cannabis was legalized in New York state, and Saturday is 4/20, an unofficial holiday that celebrates it. With more than 100 dispensaries in the state, there is now a conversation about safe and responsible use of cannabis. A new CBD dispensary hopes to further this discussion.

“I've always been a very strong person, and that's also what helps me,” said Barbara Vaughn, the founder and chairwoman of Cannabicity. “I'm very of a very strong mind and a certain amount of pain I could just put out of my mind.”

Fourteen years ago, Vaughn was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease. 

“It’s called transverse myelitis,” Vaughn said. “It is numbness in the body. It started with my feet and within a few days went all the way up to my midriff.”

Initially, Vaughn was prescribed strong pharmaceutical medications, but she didn’t want to become dependent upon them. She says she was worried about various side effects of the drugs.

“I was really looking for an alternative to taking more like nerve medication for pain,” Vaughn said. “And that's what led me to want to explore like the CBD. And I do find that it does it does quiet things down.”

Now, so many years into her treatment, Vaughn has found a good balance between CBD, THC and her prescription medications. It’s what led to the opening of Cannabicity, a dispensary that offers cannabis-derived goods, currently with CBD. 

“I think with it being legal and being controlled and the type of product you use, if you're going to use it,” Vaughn said. “I think that's a better way to go because you know you're going to be getting the quality. It's going to be safer than what people get on the street.” 

Vaughn shares that the mission here is to break the stigma against cannabis in general, so that women and older individuals, like her, can be helped by it.

In 2019, a Gallup poll by the NIH found out that Americans over 65 years used CBD for pain (40%), anxiety (20%), insomnia (11%) and arthritis (8%). Last year, a study by the University of Michigan stated that one in eight older adults use cannabis products.

Vaughn hopes this relief that she feels with CBD can be experienced by others who are struggling with their physical or mental health. She is also looking forward to adding recreational adult-use cannabis to Cannabicity. 

 “We have applied for a license and we are set up, really ready to go to bring in cannabis products as soon as we get a license,” she said. “But we can't really control what New York does. So, what we can control was what we're doing here.”