Over the course of centuries, cannabis went from textile to drugstore staple to Class 1 narcotic to its current spot as a gray-area legal drug that the American majority now view as helpful or harmless. Blue Ridge Hydroponics owner Brynnen Beierle says her views on cannabis mirror that of the country at large.
Once steeped in the "just say no," culture, Beierle has come full circle as BRH in collaboration with Roanoke College educates the new generation of cannabis growers and entrepreneurs.
"In high school, I was an anti-cannabis girl," she says.
It was a class at Lower Columbia College in Washington State that initially pointed Beierle in her new direction. Students were required to write a paper on a subject around cannabis. Beierle chose medical marijuana. As part of her research, she interviewed a mom who used CBD oil to shrink her 14-year-old daughter's formerly inoperable brain tumor by two millimeters, allowing doctors to remove it in a single surgery.
Read more at The Roanoker