Daily Inspiration: Meet Amie Carter

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amie Carter

Hi Amie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Honestly, it’s kind of a long story. My journey actually started in 2006 when my son was born. He had seizures as a baby amongst other things and was finally diagnosed at 2 1/2 years old with autism, ADHD and oppositional define disorder. My son was very violent and aggressive, and I had to fight the mental healthcare system for every service. I realized how broken the mental healthcare system is. I became very involved serving on different boards and utilizing lawmakers to help me navigate the resources that could help my son. When my son was nine years old, CPS got involved and was going to force me to sign my rights over because they were afraid he was gonna hurt me. At that time, I decided to get him his medical marijuana card. He responded very well to cannabis treatments. It calmed his central nervous system, diminished his cognitive impairment and overtime increased his IQ. My son Jayden said he didn’t feel like his soul was connected to his body before Cannabis. Knowing how many families struggled like I did for so long, I petition the state to add Autism as a qualifying condition here in Michigan. With the help of many others in 2018, Autism became a qualifying condition. In 2021 some very horrible bills were introduced and being pushed by corporate lobbyist. The majority of the large corporations in our state decided to form an alliance to try to get rid of our caregiver patient program, which is what I relied on for my son‘s medication. I was livid, emotional, and I knew exactly what needed to happen. During that time I watched Corporate try to eliminate us and since then I’ve watched them try to weed out the Mom and Pop companies. That’s when the idea of Michigan Weedsters was formed. My parents owned a small business for 38 years. I know what it’s like to be a Mom and Pop business. In 2021 they were not only attacking us with the bills, but they were also working with the Michigan municipal league by trying to put bad ordinances in different municipalities. I divided the state of 26 different sections and started signing state leaders in county leaders and township leaders to try to monitor what was going on and where we needed to be to protect our rights. Since then it has grown into a 501 C4 and we lobby for the people by the people. I couldn’t have accomplished this without the current board members; Latrisha Matson, Ryan Bringold, Rick Anstiss, Jamie Lowell and Tanya Kaye. This is a grassroots effort by very passionate, educated people that love the plant. We have a unique opportunity here in our state given the fact that there’s only seven states that have the ability to do a voter initiative law. That means the people of the state can hand out petitions get signatures and get a bill put on the ballot for vote. We successfully passed our Michigan medical marijuana act in 2008 and proposal one in 2018, which allows anyone over the age of 21 to grow up to 12 plants at their home. These bills cannot be amended without a 3/4 majority vote. We have only had eight voter initiated laws passed since 1963. We have to protect them so the lawmakers know that we’re watching. In the near future, we are hoping to be able to facilitate to lobby days each week by taking our members in to talk to their lawmakers. We have to keep our lawmakers educated and also for them to understand the success stories on how well this plant is working to improve people’s lives. Individuals can sign up to become a member of Michigan Weedsters for only $4.20 per year. Businesses can sign up for $420 per year.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Honestly, I feel like the struggles that I had prior to this, just prepared me for where I am now. The overall biggest challenge that we currently have is educating people on why this is important. My fear is that people won’t realize the importance of protecting these laws until it’s too late.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I was in sales and advertising right after high school up until my late 20s. I was unable to work for almost a decade because of the needs of my son. I served on the board for the national alliance of mental illness and became an instructor, I served on the board for Inspiring Hearts for Autism and I connected with as many parents as I could. My family even appeared on the Dr. Phil show in 2014. Once I found that Cannabis was one of the best tools that I’ve ever tried with Jayden. I ended up coauthoring a book called Courage In Cannabis volume two. I also ran for State Representative in my district. I am currently on a committee working on Jayden ‘s law. We’ve been working since 2018 to try to get pediatric patients access to their natural medicine while at school. Non-smokable, of course. We would be the 11th state to have some type of legislation allowing pediatric patients to receive their medicine well on school grounds. The bill is modeled after Ashley‘s law in Illinois.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I have always loved meeting people and networking. Find what you are passionate about and don’t give up. Follow your heart. 💜

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.michiganweedsters.com/
• Twitter: @Mweedsters
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@amiecarter?si=zmPfI44sCMgMGzZx
• Other: https://linktr.ee/michiganweedsters