Find out why our favorite Instagram account this month is @alexisbortell.
I want to be like Alexis Bortell when I grow up. A medical marijuana patient, cannabis activist, and hemp cultivator, 12-year-old Alexis has co-authored a book, Let’s Talk About Medical Cannabis, with her family and is one of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the federal government fighting the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
Alexis and her family discovered medical cannabis to be an effective treatment for her epileptic seizures. Because she could not be legally treated for her debilitating condition in Texas, Alexis and her family were forced to uproot themselves and move to Colorado, where she found sanctuary as a medical refugee. With traditional medical treatment in Texas, the best she could hope for was 3 consecutive days seizure-free; since implementing a medical regime using cannabis, she has been seizure-free for over 800 days.
To top it all off, Alexis and her family–mom Liza, dad Dean, and younger sister Avery– are both entrepreneurial and philanthropic. The Bortell family owns and operates their own small business, a farm called OneLuv Organics. High in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the farm (@oneluvorganics on Instagram) produces USDA Organic Certified fruits and vegetables, which are donated to local charities dedicated to feeding the hungry, including “Patches of Hope.” They also farm organic hemp to produce medicine and natural personal care products, like an artisan line of goat milk hemp soaps. The proceeds from their sales support their contributions to “Patches of Hope” as well.
Keep an eye on this trail blazer. Alexis Bortell is the face of the next generation of cannabis activists–and an inspiring role model for us grown-ups too.
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