‍It’s Cannabis is Community Week! It’s a time to celebrate the plant that’s helped millions of Americans find wellness. It’s a time to celebrate the community that’s made this happen and those who continue to fight for access to medical cannabis. As part of our celebrations, we’re highlighting members of our cannabis community all week long! They’re helping us break the stigma and show the world #HowWe420.

We as human beings are naturally in the pursuit to keep our well-being balanced as much as possible.

—Pierre Vuala

One member of our cannabis community is Pierre Vuala. He’s a personal trainer and founder of B3 Body Goals. We spoke with him to learn more about his views on cannabis-based wellness.

Q: Many people may wonder why you’ve decided to partner with a cannabis company to promote wellness. So, what made you decide to partner with us?

A: There are so many stigmas surrounding cannabis that many of us believe without question. Perhaps the biggest stigma is that cannabis is dangerous and has no therapeutic value. I’m an open-minded person and don’t give most things a solidified judgment. I’m also fortunate to have my own positive personal experience with cannabis, as well as watching my roommate use cannabis to deal with the pain he experienced from pancreatic cancer and treatment. The difference he felt from cannabis in comparison to the prescription they had him taking really opened my eyes to the benefits of cannabis. I feel that there is so much research in favor of cannabis, especially in the wellness community, and I want to play my part in making people aware of this.

Q: Why do you believe cannabis can support overall wellness?

A: I feel that the average person has to deal with a lot of daily mental and physical stressors, things we probably are not meant to go through. And the options we use to balance out that daily stress are sometimes even more detrimental to us than we know. Many people drink, eat unhealthily, or rely on pharmaceutical medications to help them cope with this stress. These socially-accepted options can lead people into deep depression, addiction, and even death. We as human beings are naturally in the pursuit to keep our well-being balanced as much as possible. We need to give people the option to know all that’s out there to help them reach that balance. So, why not choose a holistic approach, one with no life-threatening effects, one that our body has receptors for? Honestly, I think cannabis is the future of wellness.

Q: How could cannabis help some of the people you work with every day?

A: I’ve been working as a private personal trainer for over eight years now. A personal trainer plays many more roles than just getting a person into shape and healthy. We also end up wearing different hats such as therapist and pseudo-medical consultant. With that said, I’ve come across a lot of issues clients face as small as muscle inflammation issues to as big as depression or anxiety. Holding a former position as a pharmaceutical sales rep opened my eyes to all the harmful effects of the prescriptions my clients were taking for their problems, which cannabis has been shown to aid with. So, my logical thought process is, why not substitute these harmful chemicals with a one ingredient plant-based alternative? Cannabis.

Q: What comes to mind when you think about “420?”

A: Well, I know the common thought of 420 is the day that everybody gets baked from marijuana. Which may have been its initial crusade years ago, but I feel we need to change the conversation and create a day of awareness for all the good marijuana has done for society and what it can do.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

A: We, as a society, are becoming more educated in different avenues of life, and we can’t let imprinted stipulations direct our decisions. We are in an era where we have information at our fingertips. So, there is no need to always believe what is told to us. Do the research, talk with your physician, and make informed decisions on what works best for you.

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