In his dorm room at the University of Maryland, Connor Sheffield experiences a typical dilemma amongst college students: a dying laptop in the middle of a video call with no charger in sight. Connor is quick to take action though, a skill that has carried over from his youth.
“Would I really be in college if all of my devices worked?” he laughed as he switched the call he was on from his laptop to his phone.
At 14, Connor became a medical Cannabis patient in an effort to treat gastrointestinal dysmotility, a condition that immobilizes the digestive system and causes nausea and loss of hunger, among other painful symptoms. “Any gastrointestinal issue you can think of, I deal with it on a daily basis,” he said.
When he became a patient, neither he nor his family knew much about Cannabis. When he brought his medicine to the school nurse’s office to be administered, it was met with controversy and confusion. Connor said that to accommodate his condition, he would be taken off campus and given his medicine, adding he felt this process wasted time that could’ve been spent in class.
Finding that he was not the only patient who had conflicts with taking medicine during the school day, Connor and his family advocated for a solution not only for him but for other young medical patients in the same position, ensuring future patients would be taken care of as well. Through their advocacy, Connor and Raina’s Law was passed in 2020, allowing students prescribed medical Cannabis to have their non-smokable medication administered in public schools. The law was also inspired other states to enact similar laws.
“Imagine trying to convince 200 state senators and delegates that Cannabis is even remotely OK for a child to consume,” he recalled. “I’m ok with taking up the responsibility of talking to these people if nobody else is going to. It feels good, daunting, but I think I’ve seen people will listen to me and what I have to say.”
With a passion for the general public’s well-being, he and his family founded the Connor Sheffield Foundation, a non-profit to provide a deeper education to the public and medical officials regarding medical Cannabis and its healing properties for different conditions.
“I want to make sure that nobody else has to suffer the way that I have, especially at such a young age. It’s terrifying,” he said. “What I’ve gone through, it’s going to impact me the rest of my life and I don’t want anyone else to have to deal with that.”
The foundation consists of medical professionals and other board members, including Connor’s parents. His mother, Tricia, said the foundation was started to provide more education for patients and doctors on the pros and cons of Cannabis use for certain conditions, including Connor’s.
“Doctors didn’t tell us that Cannabis had all of these benefits,” she said. “It was taboo, especially for children.”
The foundation’s current project focuses on researching the treatment of PTSD with Cannabis through a partnership with Tetragram, a data analytics company specializing in data collection of Cannabis and CBD consumers through an app. Tetragram’s CEO, Otha Smith, III, said he and Connor have been waiting to work together on some research since crossing paths in 2016 and added that the foundation’s study expands outside of Maryland and into almost every state across the country.
“We want to provide information to doctors so they can feel more comfortable talking about people with Cannabis,” said Smith, III, who is also a board member of the foundation. “Wherever the benefits and side effects are, we’re going to capture them and put them out there.”
The study also holds some significance to Connor personally, who suffers from medical PTSD due to his condition. He says Cannabis not only helps him stimulate his appetite and achieve relief from his condition but also helps his anxiety and gives him the focus needed for schoolwork or work related to the foundation.
Connor also said when he does consume, he prefers indica or indica-leaning hybrid strains, saying sativa strains give him the opposite effects he desires. He also looks for certain products high in CBG, CBD and CBN to help with his pain and get some sleep.
With a heavy workload at school taking some of his focus away from the foundation, Connor is quick to acknowledge that none of the work they’ve done would have happened without the team around him, adding that he will always stress the importance of organizing if change is necessary.
“People from all walks of life and different experiences with Cannabis are important when you’re organizing and bringing education to this,” he said. “We started very grassroots. All of our events we do — it’s all us and volunteers. What we’ve done is a huge testament to me. Organizing actually has results, and we’ve seen that first hand.”
