As disabled patients, we have tried every medical treatment available for our problems. These include chronic pain, nerve disorders, spinal issues, digestive disorders, asthma, insomnia, among others.

After following doctors orders and consuming copious amounts of narcotics, and various other prescription drugs (half of which were to counter the negative effects of other drugs), we had enough. It was time to explore our options in the non-pharmaceutical world of plant medicine.

The results we experienced were inspiring. As others witnessed the changes in us, we were asked to help with their loved ones. First, chronic pain was our focus, and we learned very quickly that cannabis was not a one-size-fits-all. It was necessary to know a person’s medical profile in order to best recommend strains and dosing.

As our reputation grew, so did our understanding of the medicinal properties of cannabis. When the first prostate cancer patient came to us for pain medicine, we were encouraged by the drop in his PSA, and increased our research focus to include cancers. More and more families came to us, desperate for a solution to their loved ones’ continued decline. When the family of a six year old girl with a brain tumor came to us for help, our path was clear, and we have continued on it creating an international shift in thinking around pediatric cancers and cannabis.

Mara Gordon is a cannabis alchemist and process engineer with Aunt Zelda’s, Inc., in the San Francisco Bay Area. She brings her two passions together - integrated medicine and data - helping patients individualize and customize their cannabinoid and terpene intake. Her involvement with cannabis began as a patient. After a painful disability necessitated leaving her career as head of Methodology at a Fortune 50, Mara suffered under medical treatment and 26 pharmaceuticals in California and Colorado. Understanding what cannabis can do, and how it’s done, is Mara’s passion. Helping other patients is her commitment.