The Advocate Series: Coltyn Turner
Coltyn Turner is the Founder and CEO of The Coltyn Turner Foundation and Coltyn’s Crue. Turner hasn’t been a cannabis advocate or activist for as long as some of the individuals you’ll find in this edition, but he has spent a larger portion of his life in this position than many – he got an early start. He has been using cannabis since he was 13 years old and started advocating for others shortly after. It’s a family affair.
“I have Crohn’s Disease, Rheumatoid arthritis and Lupus. When all other pharmaceutical medications failed to keep me healthy, my parents researched alternative medicines and found a study from Israel that was very promising. So my Dad and I moved to Colorado to see if maybe cannabis would work for me, and it did.“ It didn’t take long for Turner to go from patient to advocate. “We got connected to advocacy when we realized very quickly that the laws surrounding cannabis in each state were changing. As I started fighting in Colorado for continued access, my mom was in Illinois helping pass the law there, making sure it wasn’t just a CBD only law. I take THC also, and to be able to come back home to Illinois, the law had to include THC and Crohn’s as a qualifying condition.My parents are the strongest and kindest people I know. They have fought against all odds to keep me healthy and surgery free, and even when I do get sick, which happens because I have an incurable disease, they are always by my side. They have taught me that every person matters and every person deserves to be healthy.”
It’s this history and exposure, his parents’ example, and his own health that make Turner so passionate. “Advocacy means so many things to me. It means passing inclusive laws so everyone who can benefit has access, it means educating everyone: doctors, lawyers, patients, business owners, grandmas, and grandpas.So we need advocates who understand and are educated in cannabis to educate lawmakers so they can create comprehensive laws, rules, and regulations that will benefit everyone. Education and research are the key to understanding this plant. Every day someone who is sick contacts us desperate for help and healing, as an advocate for cannabis and health, I take educating people seriously, sick people need to know whats going into their body and because I am being asked to help I need to stay current on the newest research and trends in the cannabis community.”
“The main challenge I’ve faced is finding the right cannabis and dosing it. Its trial and error and we’ve had a lot of errors. We didn’t have much help with all that. I am the first pediatric Crohn’s patient to use cannabis legally, so we were pretty much alone in this journey. Now my dosage is the industry standard for Crohn’s patients and that’s pretty cool. That is why I created a formulation for Mary’s Medicinals called the Remedy 1:1 by Coltyn, that is why I share my journey every chance I get, that is why I am creating a survey for Crohn’s patients with PharmaACE that will be available for participation as soon as the funding comes through, that is why I want to help raise funds for Sue Sisley and many other researchers out there that believe in the power of cannabis, that is why I exist. If my parents wouldn’t have believed all this, I wouldn’t be here today. ”
For Turner, advocacy goes beyond education and reform extends beyond the criminal justice system, as he explains – his medical treatment put his parents in constant jeopardy for their other children. “The other challenge is Child Protective Services, I was 13 when we tried cannabis, 14 when we left for Colorado. My brother was 15 and my sister was 11 and if the government should have ever decided that my parents were harming me, in any manner, they would have taken me out of their custody and I would have been put on another biological medication that has horrific side effects. But they wouldn’t have taken just me, my brother and sister would have been removed, too, and all that is just wrong. We hope to remedy that with federal deregulation.”
Turner says that he’s excited for regulatory oversight in Missouri. “DHSS is doing a stellar job with the rules and regulations. I really believe its going to be a very accessible market for the patients and fruitful for the industry. Now we just have to get the doctors on board, but in Missouri I think it won’t be too hard.”
Turner’s predictions for Missouri? “Healthy patients. Happy people. And A lucrative industry that helps the patients by not sticking them with high prices for medicine. I also feel like a lot of research will come out of Missouri. And for Missouri and Illinois I’m excited about the hemp industry. We host some of the most fertile and promising farm land in the country and my hope is that they use that land to cultivate hemp for not just medicines but also textiles. I really believe hemp can save the world.”
“I am alive. I am healthy. And I believe that everyone should have that chance,” Turner concludes.
To learn more about Turner and his organizations check out Coltyn’s Crue and the recently launched a non-profit organization, The Coltyn Turner Foundation.
“One day recently I had to go to the gastrointestinal (GI) doctor for just a check up. I don’t have a regular GI here in Illinois yet. This doctor flat-out told me that it wasn’t the cannabis that took away my inflammation in my gut, it was my diet, and that there is no clinical evidence that suggests cannabis can be used successfully for Crohn’s disease.” That experience was all the motivation needed for Turner and his family, “I want to walk back in to that doctors office 5 years from now and hand him a stack of research showing clinical evidence that cannabis does fight inflammation from Crohn’s disease and is a viable option for those who are pharmaceutically intolerant.”