DIY Cannabis Skin Cream~ Enemy to Skin Infammation

The numbing power of THC has been a part of my skin care arsenal for a few years now.  It's incredible how quickly this cream relieves the sting of painful cuts and the ache of sore muscles.  For many of us our emotions are linked to the health of our skin.  Stress or emotional experiences can bring on irritating rashes that itch and all it takes is one minuscule tear in the skin's epidermis for infection to occur.

This happened to a woman I know.  Her rash always erupts on her 'decolletage' or chest/neckline. It's a good thing frilly scarves are in style right now.  Within days she had itched so much while she slept that she was red, sore, itchy, and bumpy from throat to nipple.

People who've worked with me can attest I'm one to whip out my own homemade meds.  In this case, I had some homemade Cannabis oil made with a high CBD strain in coconut oil that I told her to use over the weekend.

On Monday she reported that the oil didn't help the rash, though it made her skin soft.  So I decided to do an experiment.  That night I made a small batch of Coconut Cannabis oil with a moderate 16% THC Cannabis strain, and gave a small jar to the same woman.  After straining, I added a small chunk of Beeswax to make it a nice creamy consistency.  I'll add a nice aromatic oil of lavender or rose to future creams but didn't have any on hand at the time.

Within moments of applying this cream, my friend sat in awe of the total lack of irritation she felt. The Beeswax made it stay in place and kept it from rubbing off on her shirt.  She applied it several more times over the next day and was almost completely healed within three days.

What's even more encouraging is the fact that the texture of her decolletage, that ultra-feminine part of the female physique was now smoother, softer, and younger-looking than before.  This irritation had created a dry, almost scaley film on her skin that was nowhere to be seen or felt now.  Not only did the cannabinoids ease and heal her inflammation, but the idea that the cells themselves may potentially be invigorated and made more youthful is exciting.

If you're like the thousands of people who suffer from rashes, psoriasis, eczema and other skin issues, you should make a small batch of this cream.  The results are truly amazing and yet not surprising since cannabinoids are showing in studies to kill antibiotic resistant infections like MRSA.  Soon, Dr. Mechoulam and his awesome Israeli research team will prove that there are cannabinoid receptors in the skin as well as the gut, organs, brain, and bones.  More and more I see that our body craves cannabinoids.  This plant just does a body good!

Cannabis Oil today ... Cannabis Skin Care lines tomorow!  I say make your own :-)

We Have the Power to Change the ACMPR

I work with the LPs daily & I used to work with the banks daily.
Like many of you, I criticize some and support others.

I also own technology made by manufacturer's who don't care about their employees or source for materials.  We all own material goods with parts made in factories that have no clue what employment standards are.

We wish it were different, but we accept it because we like having material goods and we believe
our voice has no power.

What is really blowing my mind lately is how so many of us can't see the legal Cannabis industry in the same way.  We have no problem yelling about that.    Keep it up!

But I believe that every industry has good & bad players.  Some deserve our respect while others deserve legal action.  To cloak them all as evil is incorrect in my opinion.

We humans are adaptable, opportunistic, and eager.  Some of us learn very quickly how to make money.  You can't really be surprised that the LPs are taking advantage of the absolutely chokingly lax regulations surrounding their operation!!

Don't harass the player, HARASS THOSE WHO MAKE THE RULES & REGULATIONS!!!

I love reading your rants and I love seeing your passions in print, on protest signs, in tweets, on forums.   Keep it up!!

But put pen to paper PLEASE and yell at your Members of Parliament!

They think the status quo is working!!  They believe that Canada's legal Cananbis program is efficient and doesn't require their attention.

When they see the many ways that this entire program is inefficient, unsustainable, and NOT about health, they'll pay more attention!

But right now, our members of Parliament think mail-order medicine is working.  They'll never know any different if we don't tell them.

Please write your MP & MPP and tell them how you feel about our legal Cannabis program.
Any contact is engagement, but remember ... hand-written is always better.

#OhCanada150

Canadian Member of Federal Parliament contact info.
Canadian Member of Provincial Parliament contact info.

Coconut Cannabis Alchemy~Apartment Style

**** the oil from this process was fairly weak.  If you have been ingesting Cannabis or oil made with it for a while, you may want to increase the amount of product used.  If you are a brand new user or are planning on feeding this to your pet, this recipe is a safe place to start.



Infusing Cannabis into a fat is a surprisingly straight forward process.  It involves two distinct steps that rely on strict heat control and timing.  There are a bazillion different methods and for small batches I've come up with this one.  Mainly, you need to set aside about 4 hours of your time and voila ... you just made your own medicine.

Cannabinoids bind to any fat, I prefer coconut oil.  I made some oil a few nights ago in my small apartment.  It yielded me about half a cup of medicine that I take sublingually (under the tongue).

I used:

2 grams Cannabis buds
1.5 grams Cannabis trim
1/2 cup Coconut oil

You will also need:

Heat-safe gloves/mits
A double boiler
medium sized mason jar
ceramic dish with lid
thermometer that goes over 200F
cheese cloth

The first process is called "decarboxylating" or "activating" your Cannabis:

To put it simply, in their natural form many of the medicinal cannabinoids in Cannabis are like jigsaw puzzle pieces that don't fit into our body's receptors.  Everything from sea sponges to humans have an endocannabinoid system~ a naturally-occurring system of receptors that accept this plant's compounds.  By burning or heating the Cannabis, you break off an excess piece of the jigsaw so now it easily fits.

For my fellow cooks, you're basically roasting here.  Pre-heat the oven to 290F.  While it heats, the Cannabis will exude an herby, almost onion-y scent.  Wrapping it in a little pouch of parchment paper definitely reduces the smell and also ensures even heating of the buds.

Break the buds apart with your fingers to cranberry sized pieces.  Many recipes tell you to grind, but there's a new train of thought suggesting that the cannabinoids leach out of the Cannabis more easily left intact than when ground into the organic material.  Halfway through the Coconut oil simmer, the buds easily mash up with pressure from a wooden spoon.

Place the parchment pouch inside a ceramic or glass baking dish with a lid (or foil in a pinch).
Roast for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, melt 1/2 cup Coconut oil in a mason jar.

Add your "activated" Cannabis.  At this point, I took the mason jar out of the
water and placed it into the ceramic dish so that if any buds fell too quickly,
they would be in that dish and easy to scoop out.

Halfway through, remove the oil from the double boiler and gently mash the
buds around to allow for effective leaching.

Simmer for 3 hours being careful that water doesn't boil dry underneath (kept
at #5 on my stove-top burner.)
Use a thermometer and ensure that the oil doesn't go above 220F.
The double boiler is a control measure as it's difficult to get the oil above 210F
or so.  At this point, the Cannabinoids need more time than heat to leach out into
the fat.

Strain when oil is cool enough to ring out with hands.
I always keep the bud in a waste-not-want-not fashion.  I usually add it to
my next batch.  It keeps for a long time in your fridge in a baggie.

And ... voila!  All you need now is a dropper/syringe measuring ml's.
Start low and go slow.  Dose on a full or partially full stomach.
Start by taking .25 ml held under the tongue and held for 30 seconds, then swallowed.
Wait 2 hours and judge how you feel.  Wait 4-6 hours before re-dosing at this point.

You can start increasing often when needed by .05 intervals until you reach the
proper dose.  This could take several days.  Go slow!  Each of us must find that
sweet spot.  If you cannot stand the taste,  gelatin caplets can be purchased online
or at any health food store.

Barb's Crunchy Canna-Yogurt Parfait

Good memories of active lives are what many a senior can boast.  But physical activity catches up to us and the wear and tear on our joints is a major draw-back to this aging thing!  We ache when we move, we ache when we don't move.  And the pills they prescribe only do so much.  When the side effects from the ineffective medication starts getting old, many people look to other ways to kill the pain.

At least that was the case with Barb and Jim, two lovebirds in their mid-70's living their golden years in their homestead out in the country.

"Well, says Jim, they put us out to pasture and we got bored y'see.  But every time we made plans to DO anythin' we'd spend more time sitting and resting than actually doing! We knew we had to find something new.  The cane helps but y'know..." shrugged Jim almost whispering in his slight Irish brogue.

Without as much as a breath Barb takes over, "Well the grandson Jimmy was the one that got us on to the Cannabis, he bugged Jim for months to take a puff off his wee little pipe but Jim didn't want anything to do with smokin' it.  And that was just as fine with me."

When they invited me over for tea, I knew I was in for a treat.  I was told that Barb had an herb garden out back so our tea would no doubt be home-grown.  Because of this, using Cannabis in Barb's kitchen felt pretty normal to her-- after all it's just another plant.

As promised Barb waited for me to arrive before she began to prepare Jim's medible.  She was a bit of a foodie so each day brought about a different creation of love, fruit, and activated cannabis.  Step by step Barb went through her process.  Jim sat at the table pretending to read the paper and sipping his decaf, peeking over the rim of his favourite old mug.  He loves the special treatment;  and Barb loves him.

Barb's Crunchy Canna-Yogurt Parfait

1/2 cup Vanilla Greek yogurt
Unpasteurized Honey
Cherries, Blueberries
Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds
0.65 grams Cannabis hybrid strain 8% THC 8% CBD, decarboxylated.

Within 20 minutes to an hour, Jim begins to feel the medicinal compounds taking effect.  His stiffness and pain subsides, his worrying lessons and he finds it effortless to smile.  Now he and his bride can leave the house for a day of visiting in their community.

Decarboxylation/Activation process:

This process changes the shape of the molecules so they can be absorbed by our bodies easing our pain and ameliorating our health.

1) Carefully chop bud into course pieces with a knife
2) Wrap in parchment paper and place inside a covered pyrex dish
3) Roast in over at 275*F for 20 minutes
4) Let cool




It turns out that Barb's crunchy canna-yogurt parfait is so great that it'll take your pain away so you can throw your cane away!!

Alternative Views on the CC Dispensary Closures

I get digital rotten tomatoes thrown at me a lot some days.  But for years I bit my tongue and these days my tongue wags too fast for me to catch it between my teeth so here it goes again ...

I can't help but look at the dispensary raid situations and Cannabis Culture closures from more than one angle.  I see so many angles here.  They force me to urge you to please be careful with your activism.

The laws surrounding the sale and supply of Cannabis in Canada SHOULD be different.  However, they remain firm and pushing the envelope can leave you with hands covered in paper cuts.  These are cuts that, like criminal records, brand you forever with lifelong future-changing scars.

You have to ask yourself how much the CC closures have to do with Cannabis at all?

Many of us are disheartened by this Project G (so ridiculous I refuse to allow it the digital tag).
We see it as a break in the forward momentum that leads to us having legal storefronts.  But I don't think we should be very surprised that the law was upheld--however unjust, and that those who broke it over and over and over and over again, were arrested.  If this were a Shakespearean play, we'd all have seen the foreshadowing as time and time again JT told us the law will be upheld.

Aside:   HURRY UP WITH REGULATION PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU!!!

It is undeniable that CC has made law enforcement look like a joke.  And, law enforcement wasting time and tax-dollars stealing medicinal dried plant products from the market IS a joke.  Especially at times on a Sunday--is nothing sacred?

Yet, in my opinion these charges are NOT about your right to consume, buy, or grow Cannabis.

This entire thing is because of the ongoing defiance.  We have to ask ourselves, would we be so upset if the one in cuffs was your buddy on the street?  Because as far as the law is concerned, CC & buddy on the street are the same thing.  That in itself is a cry for regulation!  All the buddies on the street providing safe affordable medicine deserve to do so in a storefront NOT just the ones with deep pockets and long distance connections.

This isn't about placing blame or pressure on anyone but those making the rules or in this case,
not making the rules.  And as each day more and more baby-boomers get legal to use and possess medicinal Cannabis, they're confused to watch the news and see bags of it being taken out of storefronts by Police!

So, I will attempt to slow my tongue and present this as a loud call for action to our Parliamentary body:

YOU'RE CONFUSING CANADIANS !!!

Is it legal or is it not?  The plant grown in the factory is licit but the plant grown in a basement is illicit?  What does that even mean?  With proper testing, quality control can become an industry and home-grown norm that is only now being implemented by big players like Aurora.

This confusion and lack of transparency puts legal Cannabis patients at risk daily and the snail's pace we're using to finalize recreational legalization is forcing otherwise law-abiding citizens into the position to break the law just to use this plant.

I for one am a law-abiding, tax-paying Canadian and I demand Cannabis dispensing storefronts by summer !!

Cannabis Chit-Chattin' on Amherst Island

After years and years as the couch activist, I'm fightin' the lock and lifting up and out and on the town.  I'm puttin' myself out there with no fears or cares.  At least none that I'll admit to myself.  In this, I'm making friends, connections, sharing knowledge, giving power and hope to others.

A few weeks ago I tweeted about getting legal in my city and a local radio station CJAI 92.1 FM liked that tweet.  So I took that as a break in the ice ... ice that I'm learning is always thinner than we think it is.  I suggested we hook up for a chit chat show about Cannabis.  From there, plans were made and here we are.  Have a listen here.

From the Ferry dock to the barn was a punishing walk as the wind chill tried its best to hold us back. The barn is the studio now, a fitting retrofit for this ultra-rural speck of dirt just off the edge of our great Lake O.  This was my first ever radio chat so I was nervous at first, no doubt about it.  But the host Eric made me feel right at home.

As it turns out, I like to talk Pot.  I have a Cannabis confirmation bias where I see its potential everywhere.  For instance, that speck of dirt called Amherst Island would make a wonderful rural area for Cannabis to be grown.  I know for a fact that there are serious organic farmers over there growing heirloom wheat like Ref Fife, who would appreciate the incredible growing power that lives within this plant and all of its many strains and sub-species.

As Eric explained, I'm in a position now to see many sides to this situation.  I'm a legal medical Cannabis user who manages my depression with Cannabinoids alone.  I buy my medicine through the mail now.  But I also work in the industry helping other patients get legal to possess and use this new and exciting medicine.  For years I've been telling anyone who will listen about Cannabis.  It's a bit of an inside joke that people now come to me to hear it, rather than me just bombarding them with info they didn't necessarily ask for :-)

The clinic I work for has many locations and each one is here to help you learn.  Canadian Cannabis Clinics evolves with the laws and the regulations so we're able to keep you informed at all times. Every day I get emotional listening to success stories and every day I'm told to do what's in the best interest of the patient.  Working inside that sentiment every single day feeds my desire to scream it from the roof tops even more!

And, of course it wouldn't have been a radio show without some awesome music.  Here are five of my faves from the requests we received.  Some I hadn't even heard before:

"Hits from the Bong"-Cypress Hill

"I got stoned and I missed it" -Dr. Hook

"Smoke Two Joints"-Sublime

"Roll Another Joint"-Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

"Legalize Marijuana"-Peter Tosh

I'm hoping to hit the show with more Canna-chat news and info in the spring.  See you then!