How My MS Diagnosis Changed Everything — And Led Me to Build 23rd State
By Leah Kollross, Founder of 23rd State
I never set out to start a cannabis company.
I set out to feel better. To feel like myself again. To find a way back to the dinner table, the backyard gathering, the quiet Friday night with people I love — without the brain fog, the fatigue, or the morning-after consequences that had started to define so much of my life.
What I found along the way was something I didn't expect: a product that didn't exist yet. And the stubborn, unshakeable conviction that it needed to.
This is the story of how a diagnosis I never asked for became the foundation of a brand I was always meant to build.
The Diagnosis
In 2023, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
If you've never received a life-altering diagnosis, it's hard to describe what happens in the days and weeks that follow. There's the immediate shock, of course. The appointments, the paperwork, the conversations you never imagined having. But underneath all of that is something quieter and more persistent: a renegotiation with yourself. A long, sometimes painful conversation about who you are, what your life looks like, and what you're willing to fight for.
MS is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the protective covering of nerve fibers, disrupting communication between the brain and the rest of the body. Symptoms vary widely — fatigue, pain, cognitive difficulties, mobility challenges — and they don't follow a predictable path. You learn, quickly, that control is an illusion. And you start asking different questions.
Not why me — that question doesn't get you very far. But what now? And more specifically: what do I actually want my life to feel like?
March is MS Awareness Month, and this year I find myself thinking about those early questions more than ever. Because the answers to them didn't just change my health. They changed my entire understanding of what wellness means — and they led me, directly, to building 23rd State.
What Cannabis Gave Me
I want to be clear: I am not a doctor, and nothing I share here is medical advice. What I can tell you is my own experience, honestly and without embellishment.
After my diagnosis, I began exploring cannabis as part of my wellness routine. I had been curious about it before — who in Minnesota hadn't, especially as legalization conversations were heating up — but I had never approached it with intention. That changed.
What I found was remarkable. Not a cure. Not a miracle. But a genuine, meaningful shift in how I felt day to day. The fatigue that had been sitting on my chest like a stone became more manageable. The anxiety that shadows a chronic illness diagnosis — the constant low hum of what's coming next — quieted. And perhaps most surprisingly, I found myself feeling something I hadn't felt in months: present. Genuinely, fully present in my own life.
Cannabis, specifically the combination of THC and CBG that would eventually become central to our formulations, gave me access to something I didn't have a word for at the time. It wasn't just relief. It was ease. The kind of ease that lets you sit across from someone you love and actually be there, rather than managing a running internal checklist of symptoms and worries.
That experience cracked something open in me. And once it was open, I couldn't stop asking questions.
The Questions That Built a Brand
Here's what I kept coming back to: if cannabis was doing this for me — if it was genuinely improving my quality of life, reducing inflammation, supporting my nervous system, helping me sleep, helping me show up — why wasn't there a product that looked and felt like it belonged in my life?
Everything I found felt clinical, or niche, or frankly a little embarrassing to bring to a dinner party. Tinctures in brown glass bottles. Gummies in childproof packaging. Nothing that said celebration. Nothing that said I made this for you, and you deserve something beautiful.
And then there was the social dimension — the one that nobody was really talking about.
I had spent the better part of two years, like most of the world, rebuilding my social life after COVID-19. The pandemic had taken something from all of us that we don't always name directly: the ritual. The physical, embodied practice of gathering. Of raising a glass. Of marking a moment — a promotion, a birthday, a Tuesday that was harder than it should have been — with something in your hand that says this matters, and so do you.
For people who drink alcohol, that ritual had snapped back into place relatively easily. But for people like me — people managing chronic illness, people on medications that don't mix with alcohol, people who had quietly decided that the two-day hangover wasn't worth it anymore — that ritual still felt out of reach. We were showing up to the party with sparkling water while everyone else clinked glasses, and pretending we didn't notice the difference.
I noticed. And I decided to do something about it.
Two Years of Getting It Right
23rd State was founded in 2023, the same year Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize adult-use cannabis — a milestone that felt, to me, deeply personal. This wasn't just a business opportunity. It was a moment of cultural alignment. The state I call home was saying, officially, that cannabis belongs. And I was saying the same thing.
But I refused to rush it.
What followed was two full years of research and development. Two years of formulation work, sourcing conversations, compliance navigation, and relentless iteration. Two years of asking: is this good enough? And answering, honestly, not yet.
I wanted our products to meet a standard that didn't really exist in the market. Not just safe and effective — though that was non-negotiable — but genuinely, undeniably delightful. I wanted someone to pick up one of our products and feel, immediately, that it had been made with care. That someone had thought about them — their experience, their comfort, their joy — at every step of the process.
Our formulations are built around premium, regionally sourced hemp. Learn about why THC and CBG combinations we use aren't arbitrary — they reflect real research into how these cannabinoids work together to produce balanced, functional experiences. We obsessed over dosing, over onset time, over the sensory experience of every product from the moment you open the package to the last sip.
And we thought carefully about form. Because form matters. The vessel you drink from, the ritual of preparation, the way a product looks on a table surrounded by people you care about — these things aren't superficial. They're part of the experience. They're part of what makes something feel like a celebration rather than a supplement.
What We Built
Nearly a year ago, we launched our first products — and the response has been more than I could have imagined.
SHAKE is our flagship: the world's first infused edible glitter drops. A few drops transform any drink — your mocktail, your sparkling water, your favorite juice — into a THC-infused experience with a literal shimmer. SHAKE comes in Emerald, Cosmo, and 24k Gold, and it does something I'm still a little in awe of: it makes people feel like they're part of something special. It's the product I wish I'd had at every gathering I attended post-diagnosis, quietly nursing a drink that didn't quite fit the moment.
FRESH PRESS is our THC + CBG pear cider — crisp, refreshing, and crafted to drink exactly like the premium beverage it is. No aftertaste, no apology. Just a genuinely good drink that happens to be infused.
Blush Crush Infused Bubbly is our sparkling, wine-inspired cannabis beverage — effervescent, celebratory, and built for the moments that deserve a toast. Ten milligrams of THC and ten milligrams of CBG, in a format that belongs on every table.
Each of these products was built with a specific person in mind: someone who wants to be fully present. Someone who has made a choice — for their health, their medication, their values, or simply their preference — to find a better way. Someone who refuses to believe that taking care of yourself means sitting out the celebration.
The Bigger Picture
I think a lot about harm reduction. It's a term that gets used in policy conversations and public health circles, but at its core it's simple: it means giving people better options. It means meeting people where they are, without judgment, and offering something that serves them more fully.
Cannabis, used thoughtfully and responsibly, is a harm reduction tool. For people like me — managing a chronic illness, navigating a nervous system that doesn't always cooperate — it can be genuinely life-changing. But it's also a harm reduction tool for the person who used to drink three glasses of wine to take the edge off on a Friday night and woke up Saturday feeling like they'd lost a day. For the new parent who wants to unwind without the alcohol. For the person in recovery who still wants to raise a glass at their best friend's wedding.
We are living through a profound cultural shift in how people think about alcohol. Younger generations especially are reconsidering their relationship with drinking in ways that would have seemed radical ten years ago. The sober-curious movement is real. The demand for functional, intentional alternatives is real. And the desire to participate fully in social life — without compromising your health or your morning — is deeply, universally real.
23rd State exists at the intersection of all of those things. We're not anti-alcohol. We're pro-choice. We believe that what you put in your body should be your decision, made with full information and real options available to you.
What This Month Means to Me
Every March, the MS community comes together to raise awareness, share stories, and remind the world that this disease — which affects nearly one million people in the United States alone — deserves attention, research, and compassion.
This year, I'm participating in that conversation in the way I know best: by telling my story.
My diagnosis was not the end of anything. It was, in the most unexpected way, a beginning. It gave me clarity about what I valued. It gave me urgency. It gave me the particular kind of courage that comes from having nothing left to lose and everything to gain.
It gave me 23rd State.
If you're living with MS, or supporting someone who is, I want you to know: your joy is not a luxury. Your presence at the table matters. And you deserve a drink that knows that.
If you're simply someone who has been quietly reconsidering your relationship with alcohol — or who has felt, at some gathering in the past few years, like the ritual of connection was just out of reach — I built this for you too.
Three years ago, I asked myself what I wanted my life to feel like. The answer is the same today as it was then: present. Joyful. Connected. And worth celebrating.
That's what 23rd State is. And we're just getting started.
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Learn more about the story behind the brand at 23state.com/pages/our-story. 23rd State products are available at 23state.com and at select retailers across Minnesota and beyond.
23rd State products contain THC and are intended for adults 21+ only. Please consume responsibly. Nothing in this article constitutes medical advice.
