Feature Story
MS Led Tim O ’ Hern to the Cannabis Business and
Opening Nature ’ s Grace and Wellness
Editorial by Clayton Stallings
When people use the term “ hindsight is 20 / 20 ,” it ’ s usually in the context of seeing things more clearly after they have happened . Ask just about any of the Missouri cannabis operators , and you are guaranteed that they all retrospectively would have done certain things differently because of the insight they have gained over the trials and tribulations learned on their journey to the commercial cannabis market .
The story about this particular operator , however , started with a complete loss of sight that ultimately manifested the foresight that helped pioneer cannabis legalization in the Midwest .
Growing up in a fifth-generation farming family in Illinois , Tim O ’ Hern had just graduated from law school in 2010 and was studying for the Illinois bar exam . Just two weeks before the exam , O ’ Hern woke up one morning having lost his eyesight in one eye . “ I went to several eye doctors , and they did a battery of tests ,” O ’ Hern explained . “ They said there was nothing wrong with my eyes , and they referred me to a neurologist . After an MRI and a spinal tap , they confirmed that I had Multiple Sclerosis ( MS ), and shortly after that , I lost vision in both eyes and was unable to take the bar exam .
O ’ Hern ’ s condition continued to deteriorate as he was completely blind Tim O ’ Hern of Nature ’ s Grace and Wellness , and wheelchair-bound for months until Twenty Twenty Brands , and Trinity Dispensaries . they were finally able to get him on the correct medications . Slowly , O ’ Hern started to regain his eyesight and mobility , but it was not just the pharmaceuticals that assisted with his recovery . “ Doctors would always suggest narcotic pain meds , which I would always decline , and instead , I found relief from natural remedies like cannabis . My eyesight condition is called ‘ bilateral optic
neuritis .’ It ’ s a nerve condition that connects the eye to the brain , so anything that limits inflammation in the body , like cannabis , is good ,” said O ’ Hern . “ I had a recreational user mindset when I was younger in life , but now , cannabis has become incredibly effective with all the side effects of MS , even with the lack of consistency in products back then compared to what we have now .”
O ’ Hern went on to pass the bar and started practicing law in Illinois and soon in Missouri . A few years later , in 2014 , Illinois became the first state in the Midwest to start a highly competitive medical marijuana pilot program with a competitive application process . The early iterations of the medical cannabis pilot program being proposed emphasized a background tradition in Illinois agriculture , so his family farming history and his medical background made for the perfect cannabis operator application in one of the first of its kind . “ Everything came together for us to throw our hat in the ring on a cultivation license ,” said O ’ Hern . “ We wrote our application , submitted it , and were fortunate enough to score the highest in our Illinois state police district , which is how they issued licenses under their pilot program . We started operating in the summer of 2015 .”
At that time , in Illinois , there were originally 21 cultivation and 55 dispensary licenses awarded . Although O ’ Hern ’ s group , Nature ’ s Grace and Wellness , was the first cultivator in Illinois to start servicing the market , at that time , there were only around 3,000 medical patients because the strict qualifying conditions to become a medical marijuana patient only included certain diseases like MS , AIDS , and Cancer –– instead of general pain or anxiety conditions we see in the Missouri market today . On top of that , there was no guarantee
32 April 2024