Mae Wright: Advocating For Veteran Wellness
Mae Wright, general manager of Ethos, grew up surrounded by botany and a culture of plant medicine, perhaps destining her for the world of legal cannabis. Before she joined the cannabis industry as an advocate and a dispensary manager, though, Wright served in the U.S. Army as an Arabic linguist.
“I joined the Army when I was 17,” Wright said. “I was recruited for my language skills and ended up spending a lot of time in the Middle East as an Arabic linguist and interrogator.”
During her military service, Wright specialized in tactical human intelligence and travelled throughout the Middle East, concentrating on counter-terrorism, cultural, and intelligence affairs. She was a non-commissioned officer leading and training soldiers in tactical operations, technical duties, and socio-cultural-political issues in highly sensitive and volatile environments.
It was also during her military service that Wright began studying herbal medicine, reconnecting with her roots and expanding her knowledge of how plants can be used for healing. She was less interested in cannabis specifically at the time, she said, than she was in applying a whole range of herbs as medicine. To do so, she launched her own private practice and started seeing patients.
Transitioning from the military to a career in plant medicine
After leaving the military, Wright wanted to focus on the health and wellness of her patients. Applying the knowledge and experience she gained while earning her degree with the discipline she honed in the military, she built her private practice from the ground up. It was this foray into entrepreneurship that would set Wright on her path to legal cannabis.
“I was seeing more and more patients who were using cannabis in some way, or who didn’t have access to cannabis,” she said.
Wright saw patients who were EMTs and firefighters, for example, who might have ailments that could be alleviated with cannabis, but could not consume due to then-ongoing prohibition in Maryland. Wright also spoke with other veterans who had similar experiences; even many of those who lived in states with legal medical cannabis programs had government jobs and were hesitant to register lest they fail a mandatory drug test.
As a veteran, Wright could immediately relate; as an active duty soldier, consuming cannabis is forbidden. What’s more, the issue of access to medicinal cannabis was personal for her.
“My mom was diagnosed with cancer and my stepdad has multiple sclerosis,” she said. Knowing the benefits of cannabis and how it could help her parents with their symptoms, Wright felt compelled to help put an end to prohibition.
“So, I really started advocating for cannabis legalization in earnest in Maryland,” she said.
Advocating for the legalization of medical cannabis in Maryland
Wright played a role in founding multiple cannabis advocacy organizations, including the Maryland chapters of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and Americans for Safe Access. Meanwhile, numerous other advocacy organizations with a common goal were cropping up, but Wright realized they were not unified in their approach.
“All these different organizations in Maryland were trying to do the same thing,” she said, “but they weren’t working together. So I worked with the ACLU to found the Maryland Cannabis Policy Coalition.”
That coalition would go on to partner with all the cannabis advocacy organizations in the state, building momentum and ultimately convincing lawmakers to pass first a decriminalization measure and, next, a medical cannabis legalization law. But that was only the beginning.
After becoming so involved in legalization advocacy, Wright was courted by several prospective cannabis licensees, including a company called Mission, which would later be acquired by Ethos.
“I helped write the medical parts of the application for that organization, we won the application and licenses to help train and set up all the Mission dispensaries in Maryland, as well as some dispensaries in other states,” Wright said.
When Mission was acquired by Ethos, Wright stayed on and became the general manager at her location, where she is focused on delivering high quality information and recommendations to patients every day.
Cannabis benefits veterans “beyond PTSD”
Wright is not only an advocate for legal cannabis nor a professional in the industry — she is also a patient. Wright said she consumes cannabis to manage pain associated with some injuries sustained in the military, as well as to control the symptoms related to her glaucoma. Additionally, Wright said she finds cannabis offers her relief from anxiety related to past traumatic experiences.
“It really helps me just stay even keel. I use CBD a lot during the day, and THC I use in the evening a lot for the pressure in my eye,” she said. “Personally, it helps me also with the trauma; cannabis gives you the gift of forgetting. For other veterans I speak to as well who are living with PTSD, it’s really a nice medicine as well that doesn’t have the side effects of some other medications.”
For veterans, specifically, Wright advised the cannabis industry as a whole should bear one key thing in mind.
“Veterans are just like any other patient — it’s not just about post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” she said. “Although that’s certainly an important thing, there’s a broader conversation to be had.”
She likened veterans to training athletes, for example. “You have inflammation from running and doing push-ups every day. The military can wear on your body, it’s just like any other athlete.”
From the physical to the mental and emotional, Wright emphasized there are many reasons why veterans flock to cannabis. But no matter what it’s education, she said, that is key to connecting more veterans with the cannabis products that could offer them whatever type of relief they need most. To that end, Wright said Ethos maintains partnerships with exceptional outreach programs like Veterans Initiative 22 and Mission Beelieve.
“We’re always trying to work through these outreach programs to connect with veterans and help them get their medical cannabis cards,” Wright said. “We’re able to bring them into the store and walk them through the entire process of becoming a patient.”
Finding “unspoken kinship” with vets through cannabis education
Wright said she feels it is incumbent upon her and her team members to understand as much as they can about the ever-evolving world of cannabis science and medicine to better serve Ethos patients. Wright said she’s fascinated by the interaction of phytocannabinoids and terpenes in the brain and body, and how those interactions alleviate such a vast array of symptoms.
“There is so much we’re learning every day,” she added.
Her role for every patient is translating the insights researchers uncover about cannabis into actionable recommendations. But her shared experience with other veterans means she can speak particularly well to their needs.
“It’s nice working in the dispensary and seeing another veteran and thanking them for their service and having that common ground,” Wright said. “I’ve found other veterans feel comfortable knowing I’ve been out there in tactical environments like they have and there’s this unspoken kinship.”
