Cannabis Consultants of Delaware looks to improve quality of life
Standing in the yard of her recently purchased home, next to a large cornfield east of Bridgeville, Cannabis Consultants of Delaware founder Jennifer Holloway pointed to the woods lining the property.
“I’m thinking about putting a path in those woods and making a Jen zen zone,” she said, her mind racing with possibilities. “There’s room for expansion, which is what I was looking for.”
As the use of medical marijuana grows across Delaware, entrepreneurs continue to explore ways to bring the medicine to patients. Holloway said she is giving it a go as a consultant, and she plans to use her home as her base.
Holloway said she got her start after becoming fed up with commercial pharmaceuticals. She said she has several health issues – systemic lupus (SLE), fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, PTSD and degenerative disc disease – but prescribed pharmaceuticals left her with significant weight gain, shortness of breath, fatigue, additional pain and inflammation.
Holloway said she attempted to discuss the possibility of medical marijuana with doctors, but physicians ignored her and restricted prescriptions, leading to an overall reduction in her quality of life.
In 2015, after years of traditional prescriptions, Holloway said, the funds for expensive pharmaceuticals were no longer available. She said medical marijuana become her only option.
As she began using medical marijuana, one by one, the symptoms, pain and weight slowly disappeared, she said. She calls it an epiphany.
Holloway said medical marijuana knowledge is growing, but there are still patients and potential patients with a lot of questions. She said the purpose of Cannabis Consultants is to ensure the education and resources are available to anyone seeking a better quality of life.
After her personal success, Holloway said she became a member of Americans for Safe Access, a national organization fighting for safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. She opened her business in 2017.
Holloway said she’s been traveling the state, speaking with doctors and clinicians about getting referrals. A pamphlet used by Holloway says Cannabis Consultants can help people get their medical marijuana cards, work with terminally ill patients during hospice and teach patients the best means of cannabis consumption.
Holloway said she’s had success getting her message to some doctors, but there’s still a stigma. Even the doctors who are receptive are hesitant to let it be publicly known they’re referring patients to her. She said she’s consulted for patients from Delaware, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York.
It’s not just doctors either; neighbors are a concern. Holloway said she thought long and hard before settling on this specific piece of property.
“I had to be very careful where I bought a house. The property is in rural Sussex County, but this is not in a residential area,” she said. In addition to consulting, Holloway said she is making cannabis-themed jewelry to help supplement her income.
For more information on Cannabis Consultants of Delaware, call 302-438-3895 or go to ccod.consulting.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.