“Medical marijuana saved me from a life on pharmaceutical drugs…”
My name is John Berfelo and this is my story…
June 23rd 2005, I awoke to sun rays piercing through my bedroom window it was 5:30am.
I decided to head off to work early to get a start on a long and busy day. I was a glazier by trade, my official job title was an architectural metal mechanic / glass worker I installed windows and the aluminum frames in high rises and commercial buildings in Vancouver B.C.

I was the first one on the job that morning at 6 am, every-one started at 7am so I began by getting the job ready for the guys. I was going to work on the second floor deflec-tion header, this was located at the top of the frame for the glass that would be installed later and it needed to be sealed with caulking on the inside, it was 28 feet above the ground floor.

I decided to use a scissor lift for the job so I would be able to reach it. We had a machine called a Genie 2000 lift and it had a 48*89 platform with a full 4 foot metal railing around the edge to ensure safety; there was also a 2 foot gate at the side of the lift to enter the platform.

I went to the Job Box and got all my equipment and loaded on to the lift. I was getting ready to head out with the machine and thought maybe I should back vinyl for top of the frame, this is a hard rubber seal for the windows so I also grab a few rolls of vinyl and throw them beside the gate to get in and out, it was tied off because the latch was not working.

It was now roughly 6:15 am, I drove the scissor lift to the building and positioned it so I could work on the south east corner I had to reach the top of the second floor now being glazier it was always challenging and took a little finesse to get the job done. I loaded up the caulking gun and got to work. I started to walk backwards towards the end of the frame, I was running a nice caulking bead and if you are caulker you concentrate on the end of your caulking gun to ensure that perfect bead.

Now when I first loaded the lift I threw a few boxes of vinyl on the side near the gate and not remembering I tripped while I was walking backwards and fell back towards the gate which was not working properly, I still had the caulking gun in my right hand.

I only remember a few things after this. The caulking gun hitting the side of the railing and me trying to grab onto the gate with the other hand, stepping back with my right foot and nothing was there. I was falling, I then briefly remembering trying to get to my cell phone, and I could not turn my head I also remember someone holding my head then bright lights and commotion.

I had just fallen 28ft onto concrete and my life had changed forever!
This was the next 7 years of my life: my fight from the start to survive from my injuries, to overcome great obstacles and challenges from the extent of my injuries, to fighting Work-Safe B.C to have cannabis accepted for chronic pain and for acceptance of my injuries.
I protested to try and draw awareness to how injured workers were and are being treated, forced onto Social assistance, losing my house, living on the streets and helping educate the public and other injured workers on cannabis for pain control to being published and winning awards for my accomplishments and more. This is my story about one man’s battle to overcome his pain with natural standardized cannabis.

I awoke in Royal Columbian hospital on the 24th of June. I was scared and confused and in intense pain, I was screaming and a nurse was sitting beside me, she said my name and automatically gave me something that put me back to sleep. I broke my neck (c 6 burst fracture) broke my teeth, fractured my skull, shattered my left elbow, broke my hip, torn ligaments and bone fractures in my foot and cartilage in my knee. My C4-C5 is also com-pressed. Anterior wedging between T12-L1, my L3-L4 –L5 herniated discs slightly narrowed with early lipping. Last of the back is a L5-S1 disc herniation with right S1 nerve impingement. Lots of PAIN!

I now have some major nerve damage in my lower back and neck. Because of the c-6 burst fracture (I have a Synthes anterior cervical plate with four self-drilling, self-tapping screws between my C5-C7 verte-brae) my strength in my upper extremities has depleted. I now live in chronic pain. I was taking heavy prescription drugs, narcotics for pain, sleeping pills, muscle relaxers, anti-depressants and heart pills. At one point of my recovery, I was taking 32 pills a day to deal with all my issues. Cannabis became a major part of my life and recovery. It was the remedy I used to help escape from the horror I was in.

I met Dr. Paul Hornby (Ph.D., Human Pathology) at a compassion club back in 2006 , Paul made something he called Canna-Caps, converted THC in a capsule and the following 1 year I met a RN nurse and she had written a paper on amino acids and cannabinoids for depression. Taking this info and working together we were able to come up with a regimen to help me with my chronic pain, depression, anxiety, nausea and other condition related to my injuries.

Over the next few years I became a case study on natural cannabis for pain control, slowly weind myself off all the pharmaceutical drugs using this regimen and went on to have major back surgery and only used cannabis and amino acids for pain control before and after the surgery.

On May 20th 2008 at 12:30pm I walked into Eagle Ridge Hospital for a L3-L4 discectomy, I had just medicated (Medical Kush) I needed to prepare my CNS for surgery so I took 50 drops on tincture (10 mg THC per drop). This would be my only pain control other than the anesthesia for surgery. I felt the cold burning running up my arm as I was being turned upside down and the Doc walked into the room .

The anesthesia has worn off, it is 6pm I am being moved to the recovery room, I asked the nurse to please pass me my supplements, GABA, Tryptophan, Same-e, Canna-caps and cannabis tincture, cannabis cookies I took my supplements administered 30 drops of tincture and fell asleep. I woke up at 10pm and took 2 x 50 mg canna-caps (JKT-THC 50 mg CBD 2 mg)

I remember while recovering the next day a nurse came in and said you’re the guy that just did major back surgery with only natural supplements, she wanted to know what I was taking and spent the time to write everything down, I had a great conversation with her about cannabis and my injuries and how I was able to live a better quality of life.