This mom has made a career helping patients access medical cannabis

In 2013, Stephanie Gluchacki described herself as “newly divorced with two small children and underemployed.”

Needing a change from her career in big box management and bookkeeping, Gluchacki took an opportunity with Canna Care Docs, which qualifies patients into medical cannabis programs in Canada and the US and provides educational information on therapeutic effects.

“At the time it was a bit nerve-wracking,” Gluchacki told Daily Hive about her career change.

“There wasn’t much known about medical cannabis.”

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Gluchacki experience as a front desk receptionist has been pivotal in growing her role within the organization to what it is today, including a promotion to CFO.

“Working in this industry, particularly as a woman, it’s very exciting. There is never a dull moment. You are working in an industry where you are constantly dealing with evolving regulations, red tape, regulatory concerns, and hurdles,” said Gluchacki.

“As I got to learn about cannabis as medicine I got to see its therapeutic benefits and that enticed me to see how we could shout this message and make this medicine more available and have these conversations with more and more people.”

Although much has changed since Gluchacki started in the industry five years ago, she still sees a lot of stigma towards the topic.

“Sometimes when I’m having conversations about cannabis, people might ask me to keep my voice down or look over their shoulder to see who might be listening.”

“The stigma has changed but we aren’t where we need to be,” said Gluchacki.

Stephanie Gluchacki pictured with her daughters

Gluchacki sees education as the most important tool when facing cannabis stigma, and has candid conversations with her daughters, now teenagers, about it.

“In school, cannabis is still portrayed as something bad,” said Gluchacki. “I talk to my daughters about it and provide them with information about cannabis as medicine so they can understand the plant as something not to be abused.”

Gluchacki noted that for the most part, friends and family have been supportive of her career although “there have been kids who don’t come over anymore after their parents find out about what I do.”

Gluchacki credits her tenacity and the challenge of overcoming “no” for her success and hopes to continue to cannabis conversation with an evergrowing audience.

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