The Therapeutic Rant ... it does this body good!

The way I use and partake in social media irritates some people.  The online rants I post worry loved ones.  Reading what sounds like my perpetual bitching urges new friends to try to appease me with their words.  I see this and I know this and for the close-to-my heart loved ones and family, I get it.  I feel ya :)

So I thought I'd try to explain it in a blog post.

I posted some words the other night after work.  I'm a bartender, so I see first-hand the pull that you and I and so very many others feel for this legal drug.  I can't recommend AA to any of my custies ... I can only recommend a beer or a bevvy concoction.  But as the moment nears to cut-off time, every shift shows me the urgency that 'last-call' makes some people feel.  Sometimes after a shift I like to unwind by reading my fb friend's posts or my twitter friend's tweets ... and I like to put my thoughts into words.

I posted this after a night of tending the bar:

"Re. Tipped Wages:  a fair wage should not be dependent on the generosity of a stranger.
And yet ... saying that after another amazing night of bartending and blushing at the tips I made ... seems wrong and ungrateful.

Really though, when you think about it, I make $9,75 an hour right now to cook fast food (minimal as it is) and serve, charm :) , evaluate, and assess all of the people I'm serving alcohol to.

I can't tell you have many peeps I served tonight.
But if any of them didn't make it home safely, I could lose the farm (minimal as it is).  

For $9.75 an hour."

Now, a new fb friend commented that it could be worse.  And that he liked me and didn't like to see me angry all the time. After some discourse on that fact, I realized that I needed to read my words again from a different perspective.  I asked myself how I'd feel or how I do feel, when I read rants from friends.  I realize that I write in the first person a lot ... even when the point I'm making doesn't involve me.  It's a way to make you feel it more.  And it's been working on me for many many years.

For those of you that worry that my job or my causes or my whatevers are stressing me out.  Or if you too wonder if I'm angry all the time, the answer is no.  As long as I can write down my thoughts, I'm good :)

In the end, I see this:   The best spots to play hide 'n seek are in the dark corners.  If you're a problem, it's hard to hide when the spotlight is on you.  This is how I feel about being described as a walking, talking public service announcement.  You can't live a full life with all that is offered in the world, if you don't know about it all.  And conversely, change for equality will never come if nobody knows there's a problem!

Time and time again, I'll overhear someone say something, jot it down and google it when I'm home. From there, may come a rant, a rave, or the subject for my next cause.  So if it works that way with me, my hope is that it'll urge you to tell others and to research it yourself.

Droplets in oceans cause big changes to the shoreline.

What I feel;  others feel too.  I know this.  I have had total strangers tell me that they didn't think anyone else felt a certain way that I had described in a rant, and thanked me for putting their emotions into words.  If everything in life has to be put into a monetary value, then that for me is priceless.

Wanting change is one thing.  But push push pushing it by gathering troops is how it's done baby.  And troops don't only wear fatigues!!   Sometimes they wear birkenstocks and doc martins.  Sometimes they're tatted and dreaded and grungy.

Actions are where it's at ... not looks :) And if you have a voice and the opportunity to tell another person about a better way or a law that will protect them, you too can feel that priceless feeling.

Passions To A Pill

This week, an alarming but not surprising study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal stating that 20% of my fellow Canadians drink too much alcohol.  here's  an article about it. I'm a bartender so this is really not news to me.  And ironically, this very week I myself witnessed several instances in my life that reinforce this issue as fact.

I work every Saturday night at a bowling alley.  When I slide the key in that gate and enter that bar/kitchen area, I am in charge.  It's my show.  My smart serve certificate decides who drinks and how much.  And my safe food handlers certificate ensures the food is cooked safely.  I am responsible for every ounce of alcohol, every bottle of beer.  I take that seriously.

Last Saturday night was really busy.  So busy in fact, that I closed the kitchen at 8:30 because I didn't feel I could serve, keep track, and evaluate well enough, if I had to run for fries every fifteen minutes. My bar carries about eight varieties of coolers alone, each ranging from 4% alcohol up to 7% alcohol. When the college & uni students realize this, I sell all sixteen Vex very quickly.  I get that these kids are broke.  I never begrudge them any bees & honey treatment when they don't tip me.  As long as they show me some personality ... I'm happy.  I was shocked however on this night at the people who were asking alcohol content of all I offer.  It was older women ... well over their 50's.  Alcohol, though one of the most addictive "drugs" we have, and the one that leaves one's biology in such a state of disarray that it is by far the worst to treat and witness in detox, is an addiction that is hidden by a veil of many colours.  Not the dullest of which is the fact that Canada makes billions of dollars in tax revenue on Alcohol sales.  Looking back, I wonder if they really just needed a hug?  Or is it bang for your buck?  All coolers are $6.50 so perhaps that's it.  Still, I must say I was taken aback when this woman my mum's age asked me which cooler had the most alcohol in it.

The other instance that happened was a bit closer I guess.  I lost two co-workers because they were caught on camera drinking Gin then topping the bottle up with water.  As shocked as I was by that, the bartender in me was and is initially more pissed than anything else that I may have served a watered down Gin & Ginger last week!  It's hard for me to wrap my head around a pull so strong that you can't wait to get home. That you'd blatantly throw away the only employment you have.  For a drink of Gin.  Don't get me wrong, a Gin & Tonic is a lovely and refreshing summer beverage.  I'll take mine with lime, but I've never really felt the alcohol pull.  Though I've known and love many who have.  It's a difficult conversation to have.  Every where we look we are advertised to with seductive imagery and trendy advertising with unique concoctions to get you to try more and more and more.  Much of addiction is subliminal where reminders trigger cravings.  If only we could turn off the advertising.  I must steer clear of my ex-co-workers, but part of me wants to take them both by the ears and to an AA meeting.  I've never been to one, but I know they're close by and regularly offered.

The third happened at my other job.  New staff is a regular thing there, and the other night was the first time I had met or worked with one girl.  We were serving a customer I know and I said that alcohol can be your best friend or your worst enemy.  We gave him a cheers and she looked at me and basically cried for help with the saddest eyes.  Now, I'm sort of used to these kinds of things happening because I was a talk therapist in another life :)  people confide in me often and quickly.  And I genuinely listen because I know that sometimes the macro view is the one that needs to be assessed through.  Those pesky emotions cloud our judgement.  And .. I'll take any opportunity to lend an ear if I can.  Anyways, my co-worker is in her early 20's and knows she has a drinking problem.  She says when she starts doing anything, she does it to to point of doing something stupid.

Tonight after work, she asked me if I wanted to go for a drink.  I can't help but find that weird.  I declined, because my hunni was at home waitin' for me.  But, if you know that one drink always tastes like two drinks which you know will taste like three ... well you need to think before you talk to drink number one.  You have the choice.  You have the power to decide that first drink, pill, puff, deal, game, or shot.  I have shared this quote more than once, but Marilu Henner said once about food addiction that:

"It might be your choice to put that first bite in your mouth, but that food has an agenda of it's own."

Addiction in so many forms is rampant right now in Canada.  Prescription opiates control the lives of too many of our loved ones.  And everyone thinks they can quit.  Until they try.  There has to be more transparency here, there has to be more help, more diverse help.

I never really got the AA thing where you are supposed to surrender yourself to the drug.  But now that I've been there in a way or two, I can see that they've just worded it wrong.  When you know that something addicts you and you know that you lose the ability to control how much you consume once you start, then you have to surrender to the fact that you cannot ever start.  Ever.  This is a very true fact for many past addicts.  But not for everyone.  Our biology's are infinitely unique and so how we handle, metabolize, use or misuse is also unique to each of us.

Another true saying for many yet not all:

"One is too many;  and a million's not enough."

What I really think, is that too many of us are on antidepressants.  I have no medical training and am in no way telling anyone to stop taking their meds.  But for me and many many of the people I know, antidepressants were nothing but zombifying poison pills.  So many parts of my biology began to normalize and improve once I weaned myself off of mine.  Many of us have learned that sometimes Schizophrenics go off their meds because they find them very sedating and dulling.  It's a numbing sense of emotionlessness.  It's likely very hard for some of you to imagine, but I'm convinced that many of these meds make us feel this same numbness  and alcohol is a quick lift when a lift is needed.  Lifts become something you live for.  One a day two a day ... until it's hard to get enough.

We also need to decide if we're willing to give up our passions to a pill that make a bunch of fukkers in some pharmaceutical company too much money.  Healthcare should not be a profitable industry so question your doctor's prescriptions and suggestions.  Google is your friend.  Use it ... doctors do! Know that food is medicine and that you have the power to change your chemical biology through thought, laughter, intention, and love.

You decide what happens to you.

Canadian-Grown Cannabis For Export

A few days ago, I took part in one of those bulk petition-like emails, this one asking the Federal Government to stop subsidizing the Fossil Fuel industry.  The letter is also cc'd to all of the members of parliament.  

One stone;  many birds.

The leader of the Green Party Elizabeth May sent me a long reply and what d'ya know ... we are like minds :)

This is my reply to her and to all others who are tired of taking part in this race to the end of the fossil fuel supply.  It's a race y'know, with a very distinct finish line.  There is only so much Oil left under there.  And I know we all hope that Santa left lots of inky prezzies under the ice, but we really don't know for sure.

We're too dependent on oil and fossil fuels.  We can all agree on that right?  The current need for Oil on this planet is huge and ever growing.  A National Geographic program I recently viewed spoke of the fight going on for control of the magnitude of natural resources in the Amazon Rain Forest.  They said that at the current rate of need on our planet, the oil from the Amazon would only last eight days.

An irreplaceable ecosystem lost ... for eight measly days.

Further to my desire for less subsidization of Fossil Fuels, I throw out to you another idea that is going around the tree-hugging circles of Canada.  And when I look at this from the macro view I can't help but think of the saying:  "work smart .... not hard!".

Why are we digging when we can grow?

Why are we extracting when we can produce?

Canada is already the 5th biggest agricultural exporter in the world. From grapes to ganga, from peaches to potatoes ... from corn to canola ... and from wheat to rapeseed, we know how to grow.  We could be growing Cannabis and exporting it worldwide.

As country after country, state after american state legalizes the use of this safe plant, the need for well grown cannabis is growing exponentially.  With each seizure stopped, each cancer cell killed ... as each bout of nausea and each sleepless night of insomnia stilled ... the demand part of this "supply and demand theory" is reproducing faster than a bad virus. If we wait too long, the chance will be gone Canada.

So ... we agree we should grow and export Cannabis.  Cool.  Now let's look at whats wrong with how we grow some crops.  

"What's wrong with how we grow?".   

Well, in my opinion it's like starting a tray of Marigold seeds in a dark corner with a lamp, when the windowsills are empty.

Growing up in rural Ontario with gardening genius parents, there were a few sentiments that my Daddy repeated over and over.  The first was 'If it's yellow let it mellow' and the second was 'When you leave a room, turn off the light!'.  My Daddy ... an environmentalist before environmentalism was cool.

So why are we leaving the lights on?  Better yet, why are we even turning them on in the first place?  The Sun shines for a reason.  To put it plainly -- to give energy to the plant world. And all the while mankind is patting itself on the back for energy-efficient light bulbs.

Enter: the Greenhouse.

So let's talk Solar.  I love the Sun, but we really need to work on that technology.  For instance, the rural Ontario landscape where I grew up now looks like a scene from the movie "Transcendence".  Fields where I rode my horse, have now been transformed by rows and rows of Solar panels as far as the eye can see. These are panels that are not even hooked up, nor will they be anytime soon.  Their existence was funded by our Government.  Down the road there's another field and rumor is it won't be hooked up for another ten years.  wth?

So I ask you this:   Why couldn't those rows and rows of Solar Panels have been rows and rows of Greenhouses?

Which leads me to ask you this:   Why can't we grow and export Cannabis in greenhouses that are powered by Solar?  I'm talking mechanical window panes that could likely be programmed with heat and weather sensors that could be controlled by a smartphone app!

We're talking 'high-efficiency growing'!  We're talking taking full advantage of our diverse Canadian weather with sustainable technologies.  And of course there will be jobs.  The seed won't plant itself!  The growth coaxed, the preening done.  It's all a human thing.  Plants and humans feed off of one another.  I won't even get into the social benefits of something like this.  I mean, the fossil fuel industry is in such a precarious spot right now that it's a topic I all but avoid with some friends who's hubbies work therein.  This is how they pay their bills ... and I want it stopped ... effectively taking away their livelihood.  It's hard to move on from a conversation like that.  So I say let's have a new conversation. 

They can be the first ones hired on  :)

Shane Koyczan knows what I'm talkin' about ... watch this video with a tissue in hand  :)

Just Tryin' To Follow My Arrow

I'm in a bit of a work conundrum where I feel unfulfilled at both part time jobs.  Who knew "fulfillment" would be so fleeting?  Or am I an asshole for thinking I deserve it at all?  The only career that is actually feeding me and my passions is this one, the one that hasn't started to pay.  I realize as I sit and think about everything on a daily, hourly, momentary friggin' basis, that there may be some splatter damage from my actions.  Following your arrow is one thing.  Once you've dialed in on that target, it's all but forward momentum and impulsion that is required of you.  But dialing in ... that's where things get tricky.

In focus ... out of focus ... that's what I want ... that's what I'll be ... but what about that ... maybe I should apply there ... no I can't do that ... I'm not good enough to work there.

Is that bipolar?  Is that the box they'd put me in if I let them?  Or is it just plain and simple lack of self-esteem?  Who cares at this point, labeling anything makes it no easier to comprehend if you ask me.

Hi, my name is Dianna and I'm an over-analyzer.

The analyzing function in my brain is, at the moment in overdrive as I've been sick and apartment-bound for almost ten days.  Through fever and chills, in groggy and full-blown REM sleep, one thought has been bouncing around in this stuffy head of mine for too long now:

"What the fuk am I doing with my life?".

This whole working just enough to pay my bills so I can write thing was fine, but now I just want more.  I can only imagine how shitty it must be though to be a boss with an employee who can't make up her mind.  I'm so glad this analyzer is only on the inside!  Oh to explain my thoughts.  Is that even possible all the time?

A good friend just wrote something to me that I have both said and written to others.  It's funny how that goes eh?  Sometimes we can suggest the medicine to others, but forget all about it when it comes to ourselves.  She said:

"It's none of your business what others think of you."

Now that's release.  To put those words in an elixir, a pill, a tincture ... well wouldn't our world be a better place?!  The shift in motivation, intention, and mere life satisfaction would be tangible possibly even audible.

Then I found this 3-minute video from an American Idol contestant named Shi.  This is the first I ever saw her face, but as the video began on my facebook feed, I was powerless to scroll by.  She was speaking to me.  She was clarifying the queries and doubts that have made up my entire mental awareness for too many days.  I question me all the time, and in doing that I stunt myself.

Stop questioning your greatness ... and put it out there.

Watch Shi's video chat and see if she's talking to you too.

Now ... off to enter a writing contest :)

Shame in Memory ... an Enigma Sometimes

Many 'equalists' ... myself included can have a real moral conundrum on their hands when it comes to activities normally belonging inside the bedroom.  I think that too often growing up, I confused the meanings of so many words:  feminist, heterosexual, homosexual, sexual deviant.  As a young pre-teen, my bestie and I had a whole list of things we'd NEVER do.  Drugs, in the most utterly vague of terms, were on that list, as was oral sex.  But those times were ever-changing and it only mattered at times whom your friends were, in order to alter your views and your vows.

In grade six, bestie and I were sure we'd always be good girls.  That was clearly before the hormones came.  Then very quickly, grade 7 saw us placed in the same class, the same circle, the same desires as those girls who were in that one grade ahead.  Grade 8 ... where hormones come to change everything you thought you knew was real about yourself.

I was thinking the other day about my early sexual experiences.  I'm not talking about losing or finding virginity~whatever that means.  I'm talking about when I realized that experimenting and practicing had nothing to do with boys at all.  For me, it just happened ... I didn't really have a choice ... the girl with the cherry lip balm picked me.

I have to admit something.  I felt shame over this.  And I have never allowed myself to see it as it really was ... until now.  When the memory bubbled up to the surface of my shabby grey matter yesterday, I tried so hard to see it differently.  I wanted to see it as sexy experimentation.  And that is what it was, but it was hidden ... in the basement ... from everyone but we four.

So when I was about twelve, bestie and I were invited for a sleepover with two other girls who were in the grade above us.  The one girl was always more girly than we, she was so boy crazy that it seemed crazy!  So in the basement of her parents' home, with all of our hormones awakening and raging, we played make out.

The shame came months later when one of the other girls told the entire class that I made out with that other girl.  Suddenly the shame I didn't really know I had, started to rot and discolour like an apple slice exposed to the air.  It was one of those situations where I looked at that other girl thinking, "So did you!".  But saying that would admit my actions, would open a spot for that shame to sit itself in.  I recall brushing the accusations off and changing the subject successfully.  Now I see that the shame in it all, was not that it happened, but more so that it happened only once and as a practice rather than simply another normal way of learning about my own body, my own desires, and my own sexuality ... with another girl.  I literally had to break out of my mind to see this for what it was.  That night and our kissing was so wrapped up in shameand I had shoved it so far in the vault, that it had changed shape over the years into something that it wasn't.

Is shame enigmatic?  Does it change shape and viscosity?  And if so, does that mean we can also change it for the better?  Can we effectively change a stinky shameful memory, into a sweet smelling rose?

When I finally "lost" my virginity ... haha I gotta laugh every time I read and/or write that.  I mean, where did it go?  Has it ever been found?  Is there any clues as to where I lost it?  Bread crumb trail anywhere anywhere?  The terminology we use is effective ... it just effects the wrong things sometimes.  But I digress.  When I finally had sexual intercourse with a boy, it not only hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, but it was so much less than what I expected!  Talk about your false advertising!! Was that supposed to feel good?  Ouch! And all of that preparation.  I mean, I had a box of condoms and a spermicidal sponge hidden under my super-single waterbed for so long that I think I forgot about them.  (I eventually gifted that spermie-sponge to a much younger friend who was at her own experimenting stage in life.)

So the timing of this blog post is suddenly not lost on me.  The Ontario Government has recently opened debate on how, when, and if they teach sexual education in schools starting as early as grade one.  They want to educate our children about their bodies.  Only good can come of this.  Statistics show that when young children are taught what their body parts are for, they are less likely to be sexually abused.

Their body;  their rights ... right?!

To sum it up, it seems like I'm saying that pubescent girls need more girl on girl, and less marginalization.  Well, that's perhaps one message to gather here :) but really I wish I could go back and re-memorize that memory, re-categorize it somehow.  If I could I'd wrap that memory up in a 14 carat gold lined gift bag, topped with a big beautiful ribbon.  I wonder if it would have changed me, how I saw me, and how I treated me growing up.  I mean, I didn't always give myself all of the respect I deserved.

I wonder, did my lack of self-respect start in that basement with that shame?

The Slow-Leak of the Middle Class

How long can you drive your car when a tire has a slow leak?  My daddy warned my sisters and I about slow leaks.  They're not such a big deal in a tire until you hit a bump or a dreaded pot-hole on a back road.  Then the gravity laden pressure of that mass of metal and steel comes down on the rubber tire and then poof ... air comes out leaving the tire less resilient.

This is also happening to the middle class.  Millions of employees across Canada are having money leaked out of their paychecks, illegally of course, by their employers.  It might only be $4 this pay, or $9 next pay.  Not enough to leave you short for anything, and just little enough for many to say, "meh it's only a little, not a big deal."  That's to say we the employee even notice the deduction, or if we even question it.  Some employees live their whole working lives never correctly reading their pay stub.

What's even more choking, and what I'm currently being faced with, is the fact that too many working middle class people are simply complacent to their rights.  They believe what will be; will be and there's not much they can do about it.  Too many say nothing because they fear they'll lose hours or fall out of good graces with the boss.  While others simply have no idea that deductions from your pay check are not at the discretion of any employer, for there are laws surrounding this action and every other action an employer takes.

Canada is comprised of ten provinces and each province has a Ministry of Labour guiding the daily employment practices therein.  This makes me a very proud Canadian.  Unfortunately though for Canadians, the Ministries still operate within a "complaint-basis" process.  Meaning there is no oversight given to any business~ large or small.  There is no one to check to ensure that Stat holiday pays, vacation pay, even proper pay is being attained.  I've worked at and been screwed over in businesses where I was unionized too!  Unions run on this same archaic and ineffective system of acting only when a complaint is made.  Don't get me wrong, if you have a complaint, the proper channels for which to find restitution are close at hand.  But what happens when no one knows what is right and what is wrong, what is legal and what is against employment law?

Employment standards takes a community to make it work.  This is a more factually relevant statement than any I may ever make.  For every time you accept an illegal deduction, you're telling that employer that they can do it again to you and to others.  Every shift that is cut before the three-hour mark, is setting precedent for your little sister, brother, son or daughter to be treated the same unethical way.  Every break you don't take, every payroll mistake you brush off, is giving some employer the idea that if he can do it to you, he can do it to everyone else.

One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was written to the parents of working youth.  The gist of it was that your kids are likely getting taken advantage of in one way or another by their employer. Heavy words eh?  Words that will make me no friends.  But what if it's true?  In that post I stated that perhaps this is why so many businesses have uber youthful managers and supervisors running things. Do they like to get them young, fresh, and uneducated on employment standards?  Two of my co-workers right now went to Queens University and they both allowed our boss to deduct cash shortages from their pay.  Good job Queens.

Speaking of that boss, he went to McGill University and graduated in Economics.  Is this what higher education is about?  Learning the sneaky ins and outs of increasing your monthly income via illegal deductions from unknowing employees?

Now back to how to rectify this ongoing atrocity.  Change in Parliament resembles an evolutionary process from the middle ages right now, so I say we must take matters into our own hands.  I'm on a mission and I'm asking YOU to join me.  If the school curriculum refuses to teach the importance of employment standards then we'll teach it.  Tell every cashier, every barista that payroll deductions are illegal.  Tell all the bartenders and all servers that that dine & dash is not for them to pay.  Ask every employee you know if they get their daily breaks, pay for stat holiday, option to stay for the three hour shift when business wanes.  Give them the website for Employment Standards in their province linking out to The Employment Standards Act so they can refer to it when needed.  And finally, give them the greatest tool you could give any working person in Ontario, the toll-free number to the employment standards information centre which is 1-800-531-5551.  Any one of us can call this line to ask anonymous questions about our rights as an employee.

In my uneducated opinion, this slow leak of the middle class is a side effect of putting the importance of the sacred economy over the importance of the employee.  It's like they haven't realized that for every person who's shift gets cut early, there is a product that they won't be able to afford.  Cause and effect.  Too many of us don't see the number of hours on our pay, that were on the schedule.  My hours are less than the schedule forecast therefore I can't buy lunch today, or a new phone tomorrow, or a new car down the road.  It all adds up ... or doesn't in this case.  And what's adding up more and more for me, is that if we don't get a handle on this adversarial relationship many employee-employers find themselves in, we're gonna lose the whole farm.

Use your voice for good :)

Ins or Outs?

Indoor or Outdoor?

To many, outs are a last resort, or what they use for baking or other concoctions.
While ins, are what they hold up as trophies of great gardening.

We're talking about Cannabis again by the way :)

Odd really ... there are still many who say that no light or lighting system can give the plant what the Sun, Moon, and Stars can give her.  This philosophy resonates with me.

Either way one thing is true.  Indoor growing and this super-sterile idea that Cannabis must be hidden while it's grown, is why and how we're killing our environment faster than we suspected.

Have you ever wondered what the energy output of the 15 LP's is?
Have they hired the right peeps to convert that energy to a more affordable form?
My hunni knows control engineering so I know this is done in big factories to save energy.

I mean, in an effort to A). protect society from a plant with zero deaths, B). maintain super-sterility, and C). to control the environment 100% ... we're burning more coal than we need to.  That's a fact.

I do get it though, the Sun in all of her radiating greatness can be too much sometimes.  I've all but killed certain houseplants by leaving them in the Sun's rays for too long.  But Cannabis, when grown outdoor will easily adapt itself.  It will ooze resins and make more chlorophyll to act as sunscreen and ray-repellent.

I can't wait til Cannabis is legal so studies can be done to see which way creates better cannabinoid content and profiles!  I've even heard about some elusive Cannabinoid that I believe goes by the acronym CBV that is full of wonder.  It seems to come out of nowhere ... or does it?  Does the Sun's mojo shower certain plants with this willy-nilly?  Or do special conditions make it so?  I'll keep you posted as the studies and evidence comes in.

It's stated in this article  from EarthTimes.org, that "indoor cultivation alone is responsible for releasing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to about 3 million automobiles."  Yikes.

Lights, fans, hydroponic watering equipment ... all of these things must be powered by something, and for now that something is coal.

So that means in energy factories, they burn coal, oil, sludge, or nuclear rods to boil water to make steam to move a turbine.

Unbelievable isn't that?  Let's do that again:

Burn something
Boil water
Create steam
Move turbine

Holy shit ... asinine.

Back to cultivation, let's consider the water.  Ah yes water.   Did you know that you and I pay more money for water than we do for fuel to run an automobile?  A D@sani at my work is $3.50 for a few hundred ml's!!

The phrase "work smart; not hard" comes to mind when I think of water and indoor Cannabis cultivation.  I don't know for sure, and I don't think the info is public to confirm, but I think many of the Canadian licensed producers for MMPR are still growing in soil.  In this recent Fifth Estate show on CBC, Mark Kelley gives us a glimpse inside two of the fifteen LP's in Canada, Tilray and Tweed and both were still growing the dirty wasteful way.

Hydroponic systems are so easy to make that an afternoon visit to Home Depot could supply a gardener with all that they need.  Aeroponics may be a bit more difficult and expensive, but all-in-all it's not rocket science!  Plants don't need soil to grow.  And yet the "experts" in the current Canadian field of Cannabis horticulture are still using something that hides microscopic mold spores and mite or parasite eggs very well.  Not to re-mention the fact that water is precious right now ... say it like Smeagol :)  It's proven daily somewhere that hydroponics and aeroponics are the sustainable option as water is completely recycled and re-used.

Is this why the LP's are always out-of-stock or incinerating useful medicinal plant material?
Is it really as simple as bringing them out of the dark ages of gardening and into the light of day?


Why can't we meet in the middle on this?  I get that nature can be harsh.  Oftentimes, the outdoor flowers I've been gifted by friends are dark and sometimes battered looking.  I don't judge a flower by it's look though.  Wind, rain, and all of the power of nature makes the plant do what it must to protect itself.  Think grain of sand and pearl.  Now that's a different perspective.  Could this self-preservation and protection that the plant practices, actually make a higher cannabinoid ratio and content?  Some would argue.  Some would also argue that they will only ingest flowers from plants grown in soil.

The future of Cannabis cultivation is a combination of the two in my hopeful opinion:  adaptable outdoor greenhouses with solar lighting and banked energy for all of the needs of the plant ....

.... on every single balcony in Canada baby.