Wednesday 27 August 2014

One-A-Day For 365 Days.

I wonder if my pooch realizes what she does for me.  It goes far beyond camaraderie or company.  It's a purpose, a cause, a thing that pushes this bod into impulsion.  Simply going out to do our 'business' is a chance for me to connect.  I just did it after our stoop 'n scoop, I connected with a stranger.  What pushes me that way?  Change that's what.

I'm wearing my Cannabis leaf pendant these days ... no longer fearful to show it.  So I decided to talk to a young guy outside.  Touching my pendent I say,

"Hey ... make sure you vote this year and we can get this legalized eh?".

He pushes off of his car and walks toward the pooch and I smiling, saying,

"Oh I don't vote.  Never do, it's all rigged y'know.  It's all about money.  The guy who spends the most wins.  I mean, look at ObamaCare, if Hilary had won, it'd be called HillaryCare.  It's all rigged. Voting don't do shit.".

My initial thought was something like .... right on.  A young twenty-something kid who has a brain!  Now that sounds odd as I disagree with both of his statements.  But right on for having an opinion and voicing it.  I wish I had had that shazzam when I was his age!

Now as we know, all books have covers and this one was a bit worse for wear.  It doesn't make me an asshole to acknowledge this.  The kid had a mullet, a baseball cap, jeans and a t-shirt ... leaning on his '95ish Honda Civic.  If he had a job, it was not in an office yet in the four minutes that we spoke, he showed me his awareness and awakeness as some would say.

"Buddy that's the states, I said, Canada's not there yet.  And you not voting is what they want.  Don't give them what they want!".  (Smiling and furrowing my brow~hey, it always worked on my mommy)

I pull it quickly back to the plant (One track mind or what?) and say,

"Well the Liberals are going to legalize. It's going to happen soon."

He says,

"I don't want it legalized.  Why would I wanna pay $10 bucks a piece and then pay tax?  No way man".

"I say we push to grow our own.  I'd pay for a license gladly to grow six plants." I said.

Crust officially broken.  I was in.  I found the spot where he lives too.  This kid's gramps is likely a farmer. This kid is likely just like me, a country-mouse turned city-mouse.  He says,

"Well ... I do like the sounds of that."

To be a good student or employee, one must have the ability to hear.  This is true only amplified in my opinion when it comes to what's needed to be a good teacher, boss, leader.  I believe we have that in the Liberals with Justin Trudeau.  And if what you're saying, doesn't align with what he's saying ... well ... maybe you're not speakin' loud enough!

Get involved this year.  The Conservatives are going to turn our Country into a Mud Pit.
Y'know what sucks in the mud?

Golfing
Camping
Fishing
Hiking
Gardening
Breathing
Surviving
Thriving

As I backed away from the '95ish Honda Civic and my newfound friend, I looked at his girlfriend and whispered,

"legalize it right?"  She nodded and smiled and we all laughed.  I said,

"We have one year.  I'll convince ya.  Cheers!"

One a day for 365 days.  Who else will join me?




Tuesday 26 August 2014

De-Regulation = The Wild Wild West

A few years ago, I heard a terrifying story about a young girl who was in the local emergency room because someone sold her Marijuana that had been sprayed with WD40.  Y'know ... the stuff that stops the squeak? What do you surmise would that do to a developing brain?  She survived I'm happy to say, but the story lives on as an example of how dangerous a plant like Cannabis can be when it is left unregulated.

Let's talk for a minute about regulation.  I love it.  I believe it is good for society.  I believe that oversight by a diplomatic entity is the only way to maintain fairness and equality in this world.  But that's just me and how I was raised.  We take regulation for granted really.  Let's take Tobacco for instance, what would happen if we deregulated cigarettes in Canada.  Here are a few bonuses for you and I ... the adults:

I would no longer have to walk to the store.
I would no longer have to pay tax on them.
I would no longer have a million and one confusing choices.
I would no longer have to prove my age ... ahem ... not that that's been required in a few years.

How convenient is that?  In fact, I'd likely only have to walk to the corner to get my buddy to meet me with a bag o' darts!  But I'm an adult.  What about the kids in school?  Will buddy meet them too on their lunch break or recess?  Why sure he will!  Profit is the name of the game, he'll come running to your kid gladly!

Let's look at Alcohol.  What would happen if Canada stopped regulating Alcohol?  Petitions abound in local Merry Marts and Corner stores to get it sold in there.  Convenience is the name of that game.  Because we all need an easier way to get more Alcohol into our pie-holes ..... NOT!

Not sure about you, but I regularly walk by kids loitering outside of these stores trying to find someone to buy smokes for them.  Now they'll have something else to ask for.  How great!  Free enterprise never imagined it so free! Canada is full of incredibly clever people who can easily turn a buck.  Remember buddy sittin' around the corner from your kids' school waiting for recess?  Well he has more to offer now. One-stop-shopping, ciggies AND a shot o' courage for your kid.  Oh Teacher ... they surely don't pay you enough to deal with that!!

I am one of many who want this plant legalized and regulated.  Just look at Tobacco and Alcohol ... without regulating them, Canada would be the wild wild west!  That is not the world I want my eleven year old niece to be raised in. I am on a new mission to legalize Cannabis.

I preach, and I praise, and I go on ad nauseum about the ways it can heal our bodies.  But it goes further than this.  With regulation, the adults of Canada can be given the respect to choose.  And with regulation, the children, youth, and early teens can wait to ingest it when they turn age of majority ... the same way they would with Tobacco and Alcohol.

So Canada, when the Conservative Government talks about the Liberal party's plans to legalize, they say it will make Marijuana more accessible to your kids.  Huh ... did they forget to 'carry-the-one'?  Or how exactly does that compute?

Regulation is good for society.

Thursday 21 August 2014

Aggression: No Reason to Shoot

Sometimes I like to read the comments and online convos of people about current events.  The current event at the moment is far too similar to what it was last summer.  Another black kid got shot by a white cop.  Kid is dead.  Cop is still free.  Same story ... different time.

When the Ferguson PD made the highly unethical decision to release that video of a black kid robbing a convenience store for cigars, it changed many people's outlook.  One guy said that upon re-watching the video, if it were him and that 6 foot+ kid came on to him with that aggression he wouldn't hesitate to pull out his concealed weapon and shoot him.  For aggression.  We've officially stepped backward humanity.

In my uneducated, ill-experienced opinion, aggression is so far from being a reason to shoot someone that I felt choked.  I mean, I felt aggression last season from a customer over undercooked Spring rolls.  I remember in high school this guy was being a dink and I chose this one day to confront him.  It happened to be the day he quit smoking cigarettes.  He slammed the locker so hard the wind messed my hair.  I'll admit I have felt aggression too.  Not so much recently, but I've definitely been known to do some regretful things.

Now let's look at that can we?  Where does aggression come from?

**Tobacco cessation~ See some scary signs of Tobacco withdrawal HERE
**Coffee cessation~ See the Top Ten signs of coffee withdrawal HERE
**Medication side effects~ "Tell your Doctor if you experience changes in mood or behavior."
**Financial woes~ "The Unemployment rate declined last month."
**Relationship woes
**Low Blood Sugar~at least according to this guy HERE

...... and many many more as we're all individual.

Aggression is life sometimes.  Heck ... I've heard some foreign languages that sound aggressive.

Not really sure how to end this one ... other than ... can we try to give one another a break?

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Big Pharma Infiltrates True Blood !!

The series is ending and Bill wants the true death.  He's tired.  He wants to want something other than the coppery tang of blood.  Can't say that I blame him.

The writing in this series is almost as good as the writing in the books.  I've read them all and now it's all jumbled in my brain ... no matter though.  True Blood is the closest to porn that this apartment will ever watch ... except maybe for the Game of Thrones.

At least we like it.  Not everyone does and I didn't either at first.  Eric looked stinky and anemic in the first season and Bill just wasn't my cup of canna-tea at all.  But the writing shows you the back-story.  The writing very quickly has you empathizing for these 'un-dead' beings ... that is until the fangs come out.

So ... to catch y'all up ... some group of conservative fang-haters has created a virus called Hep V that will eventually kill all of the Vamps.  Like today's Big Pharma, they also made an antidote or a cure.

As I watched this one scene Sunday night, I could not believe that I hadn't suspected it.  You see, the antidote got stolen and then found.  It seemed that Bon Temps may live on still in this melting pot of cultures. Except the white-coats needed to do a little something extra to the cure.  They needed to ensure that their pockets got lined in the meantime.

Wow.  The reason I watch that show is because it takes me out of reality.  And now it's just the same.


Think about it for a minute . . . . .

Big Pharma and their white-coats are creating pill after pill after serum after serum that will help you live a pain free life.  But they won't cure you.  This is job security for them.

Cures do not let them line their pockets ... only the pills that you need to take FOREVER will fill their accounts.

I mean, when was the last time a new Anti-biotic was created?

Tuesday 5 August 2014

Ethnocentrism: A Modern-Day Illustration

Some days my mind wanders and makes the oddest of correlations.

For instance, today I'm once again choked and verklempt at the utter massacre going on in the Middle East. Truly, I take no sides.  I believe we can all get along.  Live and let live.  Agree to disagree.  Believe in what resonates with you, and give your neighbor the same respect.

Then my mind goes to the kids.  It's the kids that suffer needlessly.  They may know faith and the daily rituals that it demands, but they don't know the hate.  They don't understand the hate.

 Then my mind goes to the kid in my life ... my niece Maddy.  Here's the funny correlation.

Last school year I was helping Madserelli study her spelling and comprehension.  One of the words that she was supposed to know and spell at the age of 10 ... in grade 5 ... was ETHNOCENTRIC.

The definition was:  believing that one group of people is superior to another.

Who knew that the following summer, my niece would see this in action?  No one knew, some suspected, but as I sat there quizzing her that day on the couch, I wasn't sure if I needed to explain that word in modern-day relativity.  I hoped in that moment, that that word was one she'd never have to spell again unless in History class.

And yet ... here we are.

The truth of the matter is this:  we not only see this in action, but we also see the world allowing it to happen. Justifying the murder of innocent people because they are surrounded by extremists who know nothing but hate.  The world and the Governments therein are allowing more blanket coverage by calling all of Palestine Hamas.  Hamas is not Palestine.  Palestine is not Hamas.

In the end, I know I'm not alone when I pray that my niece and her peers aren't watching the news that I see. At 40 I can barely handle it~ the images replaying in my mind as I wait for sleep.  My thoughts going to those others' feelings as I subliminally slip my feet into their war-beaten shoes.  And then I awaken, catching myself looking out my balcony door at the pristine, the peaceful, the world that I live in, wondering what it must feel like to see it all crumble.

Crumbling lives illustrated in blood red.

All I really want to know is this:   what message are we sending to our children worldwide?

Some may say, this shows the youth that we all deserve the right to defend ourselves.  Okay perhaps. Though in 2014 modern day, we teach our kids to communicate with their words not their fists.

Here's another gut-wrenchingly humorous correlation:  even in the fantastical world of Sports where athletes defend themselves for riches and medals and bragging rights, we also see a comparable par system, where fighters fight others of similar caliber.  Competitions are organized based on size, weight, sex, strength.  We would never put a heavy-weight fighter up against a light-weight fighter.  Oh-no that would not be fair!!

Fairness now exists in organized sports, but not in the world of peace-keeping or defending borders.

I don't know about you, but I'm a little ashamed to call myself Human right now.

Peace be with you all.


Saturday 2 August 2014

Recreation with a Healthy Trade-Off

Looking at pics of oil that a buddy made, puts me back a few years.  Today is a very 'mental' day for me.  I feel off.  FU dreams!  I can't really tell you what made my dreams stink.  But I feel it.  I woke up feeling it. Your own dreams should never leave you feeling guilt, shame, or sadness.  Must get myself an Amber bead necklace!!

On 'heavy feeling' days like this, I find it so easy to step back in time in my mind.  So here we go back to about 2003.  I owned my own house, had a car, a career, four furry best friends, a laptop, a brain, and a hunger for knowledge.  And from time to time, if the circumstances were right I had some Cannabis to enjoy. Btw my kitty used to come running when I lit up.  Cats have Cannabinoid receptors too!

Oh the Alternative Therapies that I learned of on that couch with that laptop. India my kitty sitting to my left purring on the arm of the couch.  Sasha my Rotti lying to my right ... never far from me ... staring at the kitty as usual.  Laya my Cocker usually took the dog pillow to gnaw on a bone.  And Lucian my stray male cat was always staring at India wanting to rile her up.  These are good memories for me.  I look back now and I see myself in Utopia.  If I could have had my horses in that house with me I would have found a way.  But I didn't feel content or in heaven.  I felt like a criminal.

Every single night that I smoked Cannabis, I'd go to bed vowing to quit.  I'd time it right, so that my stash was empty.  You see I bought into all of the illegality of it ... even bought into the mental damage part too.  I had depression and was taking meds for that.  I remember thinking, if it's so bad for my depression then why do I feel so much better after I partake?  So confusing.  Is being hypnotized with the Prohibitionist's propoganda enough to make us ignore our own bodies and how we feel?  I mean, everything and everywhere I was told that pot was bad for my depression!!  Why did I feel so much better?  Well, I guess maybe I even bought into the ... it's the drug, it's addictive, it's making you think you feel better theory.  I think my sister may have told me that once while she was taking an 'Abnormal Psych' course.  But that was before she changed her view.  Just like Sanjay Gupta, my sis has changed her entire opinion on Cannabis and  now supports Cannabinoid therapy and legalization.

Education.  Who knew it could do so much.  My sis and I learned together.  Her never taking a puff.

So that was my life for a long time.  I partook when I could find it.  But I did it because it knocked me out and my mind didn't produce bad thoughts before sleep gripped me each night.  I didn't know or feel that it was medicine.  I used it because I liked how it made me feel.  If I was hungover, a few puffs relieved it.  If I had trouble sleeping, it knocked me out.  But the whole time I guess I had an understanding that there was a trade off to this.  That with each joint, I spent a bit of my health.

Now I know better.  The death count alone seals the deal for me.  I mean, what's the biggest side effect of any medication?  DEATH

Yet Pharma has us all so distracted with the drumming, that we don't even acknowledge anymore what a big fucking deal it is that NO ONE HAS EVER DIED FROM CANNABIS USE!!!

Ya ... I yelled that.  I keep yellin' it.  Will you join me?  Yell it !!

I yell it because ... I'm a little pissed off to be honest with you.  Nobody likes being lied to.

I see now that there's nothing any of us can do to change everyone's mind.  But there are enough of us out there who just simply love life and don't know the zero death stat.

Tell me . . . . . how much MORE will they love life after you tell them they can partake to their health without a freaking hangover !?

So much more that they'll be yellin' it too!

Peace~ Pot~ Prosperity to you!