CBD for Veterans

An Interview with Dawn Peacock from Haven CBD

Military veterans suffer from high rates of hard-to-treat conditions like depression and PTSD. Even with current medications, many of our veterans are struggling to find relief and live healthy lives.  

Dawn created Haven CBD to help veterans and those in need find relief from conditions for which CBD may be able to help. We talked with Dawn to get her opinion on CBD for veterans and to learn how Haven CBD is helping to change the lives of those who need it the most. 

About Dawn Peacock and Haven CBD

Calm by Wellness: Thanks for joining us. Would you be able to tell our audience a bit about yourself?   

Dawn Peacock: My name is Dawn Peacock, and I’m with Haven CBD. I am also a founding board member of Purple Heart Homes in the state of Colorado. I do a lot of work with disabled veterans, with people on Medicaid and on disability, trying to help them navigate the CBD world and especially navigate the wealth gap that is very much in play in the CBD world.

CBD Value for Veterans

Calm by Wellness: What value are veterans finding from using CBD?  

Dawn Peacock: There are a lot of different problems for different veterans. Whether it’s the pain, whether it’s anxiety, whether it’s PTSD, or whether it’s immune systems that are not healthy because of chemicals that they were exposed to in the Middle East—which happens very frequently. 

It’s very well-known that CBD along with the other minor cannabinoids is very beneficial when it comes to rest and sleep. Those are things that aren’t very easy to treat. To have something natural that helps them, it’s just a total gift. By the time they come to me, they’ve tried everything. And they’re just so frustrated. We try to go the more natural route with them.

Stories of Veterans 

Calm by Wellness: What stories are you hearing?   

Dawn Peacock: One of the ones that come to mind right off the bat would be with PTSD. A lot of the veterans are used to being heavily medicated. What’s so rare for them is taking something that they don’t feel come on, like they do with a lot of the medications that they take that are prescribed. They can feel them kick in.

Well, with CBD, you don’t feel things kick in. You feel more of the symptoms just dissipating. One of the responses that I get frequently is how great it feels to not feel medicated, not be in the fog, to be able to get that relief, to be able to have that sense of peace without it being forced on them by a drug that also leaves them foggy. 

Calm by Wellness: You’re helping veterans find these natural alternatives. How do terpenes fit into it?   

Dawn Peacock: I love that there’s so much more attention on terpenes now. Cannabinoids are key to balancing out your endocannabinoid system, but terpenes have been around for a very, very long time in a lot of different plants, and we have a lot of people on the supplement side that have been using terpenes for years, and ones that are found in other plants. 

There are some manufacturers and some companies that I work with that specifically tailor a product to use the information that’s already out there on terpenes to supplement the cannabinoids that you’re using in your product. I’m excited because I think that’s going to be the next wave piling on with all the cannabinoid research out there. I think it’s going to make a huge difference.

What is Haven CBD doing to help veterans?

Calm by Wellness: What is Haven CBD doing to help veterans?    

Dawn Peacock: The reason that Haven CBD came about, it’s very specific. It was a specific event. I was helping a company with marketing years ago. And they had a nano product, which was a very good product. A veteran came in and he was getting off of opioids. He tried it and it worked within 15 minutes, and he was so excited. He’s like, Oh my God, this is amazing. I’ve got to get some. And they said, okay, that’s great. It’s $120 or $140 for the bottle.

He said, “Well, I can’t afford that.” And basically they said, “Well when you can, we’ll be here for you.” How can you do that? How can you do that to someone who is trying to improve their health, who has served decades in the service for your safety and freedom, and you turn them away because of money. We have got to do a better job.

What Haven does is we work with people to get deeply discounted products. So we work with different companies, and they allow us to sell their product at basically $5 over wholesale. That’s a significant, significant saving for these people. And there really is a huge wealth gap when it comes to CBD products. 

We want to help everybody and to be able to help everybody, we need to have price points that everybody can afford. Just imagine if it was priced at a point where everyone could afford it and everyone could benefit from it. That’s kind of where I am.

Hemp Oil Path to Wellness

Calm by Wellness: How do you work with the veterans to help them on their path to wellness? 

Dawn Peacock: Everyone that we work with, we communicate frequently either on the phone or by email. Sometimes by Zoom.

We want to match them up with the right vendors and the right product. And then we need to follow up with them and find out, okay, so where are you? How’s it looking? How are you doing on your dosing? Are you moving it up? Are you moving it back? We just really want to help them help themselves.

And then there’s the dosage. A lot of people go with the low and slow building up, but sometimes you need a bolus. Sometimes you hit it hard and then taper down. And so that’s a conversation that we have with the person, and try to figure out where they are, what’s their pain level, where is their anxiety level? Because we can’t have people out there that are suffering and waiting to build up to a point where the CBD is working for them. 

Calm by Wellness: Besides Haven CBD, is there any other place where people can follow along with the progress that you’re making?

Dawn Peacock: We have a podcast called CBD Talk Podcast. You can find us on iTunes, you can find us on Spotify. We’re all about education because if we get an educated consumer base then I just really don’t see how anything could slip backward.