Throwback to 2011: Work, Family, Cannabis Activism, and the Real Story

2011 cannabis activism was not a trend for me. It was my real life.

Back then, I was working long hours, raising a family, caring for my grandmother, and fighting for cannabis decriminalization. I was also working as an engineer at Talyst Inc. My weeks were brutal. Around 96 hours a week brutal.

This was before divorce.

Before disability insurance.

Before the car accident that changed my body and my future.

Before people tried to rewrite my life with rumors.

I am posting this throwback because people deserve the truth. My kids deserve the truth. And I deserve to tell my own story before someone else turns it into a weapon.

2011 Cannabis Activism Was Personal

In 2011, cannabis activism was not safe or easy. It could cost you your job, your name, your family ties, and your peace.

I spoke out anyway.

I was a medical cannabis user. I used cannabis for cluster headaches and real pain. But this was never just about me. It was about the basic right to own your body.

The state should not treat peaceful people like criminals over a plant. A working father should not have to hide because he uses cannabis. A patient should not be forced into fear because politicians want control.

That is why cannabis decriminalization mattered to me.

I was not asking the government for a favor. I was standing on a principle.

Free people own themselves.

Work, Family, and the Real Story

One of the ugliest lies people tell about me is that I did not work.

That is false.

I have worked since I was a kid. I dug ditches at 14. I swept floors. I passed out flyers. I babysat. I hustled because that was life.

As an adult, I worked in tech. I worked for Microsoft. I worked in dental software support and development. I worked for communication companies. I ran businesses. I had brick-and-mortar tech stores. I fixed systems, serviced hardware, wrote code, ran cable, and helped businesses keep their technology alive.

In 2011, I was working insane hours as an engineer. I was also doing side work, building websites, and trying to hold a family together.

That is not lazy.

That is a man grinding.

That is a man trying to provide.

Fatherhood Before Divorce

Before divorce changed the story, I was a father in the middle of real family life.

There were kids, bills, work, stress, meals, school, and all the normal chaos that comes with raising a family. We were not rich. We were not perfect. But we were living real life.

I was also helping care for my grandmother, who lived with us. My wife at the time did a lot there too, and I said that then. I will say it now. Credit where it is due.

At that time, I believed we were a team.

That is part of the record too.

People forget that divorce can turn memories into weapons. One day you are family. Later, the same history gets twisted into court stories, gossip, and character attacks.

But the past still happened.

The work happened.

The family happened.

The fatherhood happened.

Cannabis Decriminalization and Civil Liberty

My 2011 cannabis activism was tied to a bigger fight: civil liberty.

I had already been arrested during a legalization protest in Springville, Utah for using the streets without a permit. After that, an old 1968 city law was repealed. People no longer needed that permit to protest.

That matters.

That is what happens when regular people stop begging for permission and start acting like free citizens.

Cannabis laws were never just about cannabis. They were about police power. They were about control. They were about whether the government owns your body, your medicine, your habits, and your choices.

I reject that kind of control.

I believed then, and I believe now, that peaceful people should be left alone.

Before Disability and the 2013 Crash

Two years after that 2011 video, my life changed.

In 2013, I was in a horrific car accident near Talent, Oregon. A woman pulled out in front of me. My car was destroyed. My body was damaged. My future changed fast.

That wreck did not erase my past.

It did not erase the years I worked.

It did not erase the businesses I built.

It did not erase my family life.

It did not erase my cannabis activism.

But after a wreck like that, life is different. Pain changes things. Injury changes things. Disability changes things. Insurance changes things. People who do not understand it often judge it from the outside.

Some act like disability means you quit.

It does not.

A man can be injured and still have been a worker.

A man can be on disability and still have been a provider.

A man can be damaged by a crash and still deserve the truth.

The Father’s Day Video Matters

In 2015, my ex-wife made me a Father’s Day video.

That matters because it was after the crash and before the divorce.

She interviewed our children. The video was made for me as their father. It shows a different record than the one people try to push later.

No video can explain a whole life. But video does not care about later bitterness. It captures a moment.

That moment matters.

It shows that before the divorce, before the slander as I see it, before the attacks, I was not the cartoon villain some people want me to be.

I was Dad.

Why I Am Sharing This Throwback

I am sharing this because the truth needs a record.

People can say anything. They can twist stories. They can leave out dates. They can ignore work history. They can pretend injury is laziness. They can act like a father never showed up, even when the record says different.

That is why I said it then, and I still say it now:

Verify the data before you believe it.

Do not trust gossip just because it is loud.

Do not trust a story just because it is repeated.

Do not trust a bitter claim just because it sounds dramatic.

Look at the record.

In 2011, I was working around 96 hours a week. I was raising kids. I was helping care for my grandmother. I was working as an engineer. I was building websites. I was speaking out for cannabis decriminalization. I was standing up for liberty when it cost something.

That is the real story.

The Real Story Is Still Mine

This throwback is not about revenge.

It is about memory.

It is about truth.

It is about refusing to let divorce, disability, or rumors erase the life I actually lived.

I was not perfect. I had a past. I made mistakes. I said things rough. I lived hard. I learned a lot the hard way.

But I worked.

I provided.

I fought for freedom.

I was a father.

And my 2011 cannabis activism was part of a much bigger life story: work, family, pain, survival, and the fight to be free.

That story still belongs to me.

Sources

• 2011 YouTube Video, Ryan Thompson Cannabis Activism|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZwS3JdyjKQ
• OregonLive, Talent Man Killed After Driving Into Path of Car Near Talent|https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2013/05/talent_man_killed_after_drivin.html
• 2015 Father’s Day Video|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZm77VZK4Qc