The EVOLUTION Magazine August 2022 | Page 26

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A Vehicle Accident Resulted in a Medical Cannabis Business

by Clayton Stallings , The EVOLUTION Magazine

The last person Jess Dickerson ( Founding Partner of Blue Sage Cannabis Company ) had to convince that cannabis is medicine was himself , or was he just the beginning ? Let ’ s start at the beginning . As a younger man , if you were any of Dickerson ’ s friends , you knew better than to bring the “ devil ’ s lettuce ” around him . Unfortunately , he was a role model student for the stigma of the war on drugs .

On August 1 , 1987 , Dickerson picked up his future wife LeAnne in Columbus , KS . They had been dating for nine months , and on this fateful night , they were heading to the rodeo in Lamar , MO . “ On the return home that night , LeAnne fell asleep on my lap ,” explained Dickerson . “ I fell asleep at the wheel and woke up when I felt the truck going off the road . The truck was going off the left side of the road when I overcorrected to the right . The next thing I remember was an EMT standing over me .” stitches in her lower back . She did not need to undergo any surgery , but based on the damage to the passenger side of the truck , if she hadn ’ t been sleeping in his lap , she may not have survived the accident .
Dickerson was in the hospital for about 45 days , and the doctors were doubtful he would ever walk again . “ My spleen stopped bleeding after about 10 days , so they felt I could go through surgery on my back . They operated on my broken vertebrae T2 and T4 . They took a bone from my hip and graphed it on my back and wrapped a wire around my spine .”
Dickerson would eventually regain his ability to walk but never regain full strength in his legs . Nerve damage and chronic pain would haunt him his entire life . Never again would he experience a full night ’ s sleep , nor would he ever have a steady stream while urinating . For over 30 years , this was his life .
Only minutes previously , Dickerson had hit an embankment , and the truck ( picture above ) started flipping end over end . Both Dickerson and LeAnne were thrown yards from the vehicle . When the dust settled , LeAnne was able to flag down a passerby to get help — they eventually found Dickerson 30 yards from where the truck landed .
“ I was taken by ambulance to Pittsburg , KS , then to Joplin , MO ,” Dickerson continued . “ Ten days later , they life-flighted me to KU Medical Center in Kansas City . I had a broken back in two places , a broken neck , three broken ribs with one causing a collapsed lung , and a busted spleen .” LeAnne had compressed vertebrae and had 87
In July 2018 , both Dickerson and LeAnne were retired , living in Garden City , MO . They owned a pharmacy in Harrisonville , MO , and had two boys ( Boston and Montana ─ in photo above ) who had grown and were out of the home . “ I received a phone call from a friend asking if LeAnne and I would be interested in applying for Medical Marijuana licenses in Missouri ,” Dickerson explained . “ My response was — Hell No ! Later , LeAnne talked to some of the physicians in our medical building , and they told us we should consider applying because of the holistic benefits of cannabis and its ability to help combat the growing opioid epidemic .”
26 August 2022