Gifts From Mother Nature

**This piece is my first published article and it was featured in one of the last issues of
"Treating Yourself Magazine" in 2012.

Aspirin, otherwise known as Acetylsalicylic Acid, is one of the most commonly ingested preventative medicines today and it came from the bark of the White Willow tree. In the time of Hippocrates, as far back as 400 BC, patients were advised to chew on that bark to reduce fever, pain, and inflammation. In these our days of pre-packaged and ultra-sterile consumerism, few of us remember this fact, along with the fact that so many other commonly ingested medicines  came from plants. In 1829 the compound in the bark called Salicin was used to develop Aspirin. And now its hard to find a person between the ages of 50 and 90 who isn’t taking at least half a pill a day to prevent heart attack and stroke. We give credit to Bayer and a German chemist named Hoffman for this wonder … yet we should be thanking Mother Nature herself.

This example is but the first of so many other examples of how today’s medicines came from something that grew or grows out of the ground. Some people even choose to continue using medicine in its natural form when possible. Rather than making appointments to see M.D.’s, these people visit Naturopaths, Homeopaths, and Herbalists, among others. It’s their choice really … the jury is still out on which keeps us healthier in the long run, and at times it is personal preference alone that decides.

So it follows, that it is possible for us to find medicine in even today’s plants. Google Scholar would tell you that more than 150 new plant species were published in academic journals in 2012, though it’s estimated to be far greater. With technology moving with mach speed momentum, it even follows that we could find medicine in an already commonly known plant or weed.  That’s excitin’ if you ask me!!

This article is about just such a plant. This plant has been around for more than 5000 years and has seen as many changes in societal popularity as a Hollywood starlet. Like most starlets, this plant too is misunderstood. This plant is like the White Willow tree in that it also has medicinal compounds coursing through its organic body; up to one hundred different compounds! In the days of old, the regular practice with most plants was to dry it, boil it or to burn it—not always in that order. Teas, tinctures, and infusions were made and used widely with success. And the beauty was that we all could be our own alchemists, be self-sufficient, grow our own medicinal plants and process them in our own kitchens.

It’s curious to know that ‘grassroot chemists’ of today, who create their own medicine out of this plant are faced with the same challenge Hoffman was faced with almost two centuries earlier: How to get those miniscule molecules of medicine out of this plant, and into a safe, stable and easily-ingestible form of medicine.

Alas it took a compassionate and loving, Tilly hat-wearing Canadian from down East to do this for us with this plant. ‘This’ being the safe collection of these medicinal compounds into a concentrated form that results in a sort of oily medicine that kills pain, inflammation, and cancer… just to name a few. In this oily medicine are the many compounds I mentioned earlier, in varying degrees depending on what strain of this plant used to make it. Some people are even eating in salad, or juicing in juicers, the leaves of this plant!

This plant unfortunately has a legality issue that has kept it from being discovered as a safe medicine. Most developed countries including our own have programs allowing chronically ill and/or dying people to use this plant, some countries like our own even allow some card-holders to grow this plant.

I have many questions that I ponder and want your perspectives on. Firstly, can we Canadians boast free choice, and not be provided with it? Can you ban something saying it’s for public safety, yet allow other proven dangers like tobacco to be sold openly? The powers-that-be feel that for our safety, cardholders can no longer grow this plant. Meaning, they can no longer make their own medicine, because buying it from some large and approved grower will bankrupt all but a few of the “grassroots chemists” I mentioned earlier.

How long will it be before we’re no longer allowed to make our own food? Will home-made chicken stock be banned because we can’t be sure of the safety of those little bones? I make my own yogurt. How long before that  is banned because the bacteria could somehow go rogue and kill me? Kill me that is, before the tobacco can…. Cough cough. I remember having a mad case of poison ivy as a child. No calamine would cut it so my mom was told by a farmer she worked with, to boil the leaves and flowers of the Jewel plant and dab my rash with that infusion. How much longer will this still be allowed? What about that ‘bread and milk poultice’ dad used to joke about? Could I someday be a criminal because I choose to use turkey-turds and rain water to treat my acne?

Basically what all of this says to me is that I should buy from someone else, what I can make myself. Are we sacrificing self-sufficiency for what is called a ‘good economy’? So in other words, we Canadians are free as long as we don’t do anything to jeopardize the income of those in the fields of ultra-sterile, pre-packaged consumerism.

This plant is Cannabis. Can we all forget the stigma that surrounds this plant? This weed? Can you for a moment forget every picture you've ever seen of a person smoking this plant? Because that’s not what this is about. This is about a plant that cures disease and diminishes symptoms and side effects rapidly and safely. It’s just a plant like Chamomile and Echinacea, Eucalyptus and White Willow. And it has finally been made into an edible, highly- concentrated form of safe medicine that is saving and/or extending the lives of humans, canines, felines, and loved ones from all sorts of illnesses. And the best part is that we all can make it ourselves.

Finally I ask you this: If they found that rose petals lowered blood pressure, would roses be banned from all gardens? It’s time stop the insanity, stop burying our loved ones, and stop allowing someone else to treat our ills.  With this Cannabis plant, we all have the power to heal ourselves.

Regulate It Already!!

I have respectful conversations about Cannabis law reform all the time.

I love regulation.

In my eyes, regulation protects the consumer from the capitalists.

For we Cannabis users, regulation could mean never ever getting less
than what you paid for again.  Never getting seedy-weedy.  It could mean,
languishing luxuriously in a safe store clerked by Birkinstock wearing
tree-huggers as you decide which strain to buy.  It means never hiding
that payment transaction again.  Never feeling awkward or unsafe again.
Many buy from trustworthy friends, but not all are so lucky.
 
Regulation of Cannabis could mean quality assurances if those are
desired; or not.  Regulation of Cannabis could mean that the people
who have been growing this medicinal plant for years and years could
actually sell it legally to be sold in said safe stores.  Then they could turn
around and buy homes and vehicles and stocks in the market.

Are all the dispensaries closed yet?  Is the field level at last?

Let's regulate the sale of this plant and get it done fast.

The people recently spoke to Premiere Wynne via sales figures and voila ...
the people of Canada LOVE apple cider.  It was released today that we'll soon
buy Cider in L*blaws too the way we now buy Beer.
Guzzle guzzle. (50K deaths per year).

I think the recent revelation of just how many of these expensive cannabis
dispensaries have managed to stay open, is as clear a message as those Cider
sales figures were.

The people of Canada have spoken ... we want to buy our cannabis in a store.
We want grassroots cannabis; not factory grown.
We want clerks in Birks not white-coats showing us how.
Why are you ignoring this?  It's like we're BEGGING you to tax us!!

(Many days I wonder why)

The Legalization Task-force is so worried about all those who SHOULDN'T use cannabis ....
while there are millions of Canadians who SHOULDN'T use alcohol.  Why are you giving
them easier access?  Why are you encouraging the impulse buy of a product that gives you
a hangover?

What about the rest of us?  What about we cannabis users?

Zero deaths by toxicity people.  Zero deaths.

Cannabis Put the Pagan Back In Me

When I think back on my history, it’s clear that I was searching to find my own skin.  The one I was born in never felt right.  Or it felt right when I was alone with my horses or my family but not with my peers.  Growing up we look for likenesses.  I spent my early years dirty playing with frogs or any furry I could find.  Then I had to grow up.  We compare ourselves to others.  I had depression so I did a lot of this.  I was always easily influenced and became a bit of a chameleon, learning every detail about new friends, but never disclosing any of my own.  I always felt inferior, so I wore a lot of skins. None fit.  It really wasn’t until I met my hunni and started ingesting the Earth’s sacrament daily, that I really formed a solid image of myself.  Cannabis helped me see who I really am.

Now I wear my split ends like medals of bravery and stealth.  I let my ragged locks fall around my shoulders wildly most days, unable to even pull my fingers through them at times.  At 42 I finally like my body, the jiggly bits too.  The skin in places has grown thin like crepe-paper.  I don’t remember when that happened, but I no longer hide it, I embrace it.  My wrinkles remind me daily that I’ve lived and laughed enough times to leave a mark.  They are evidence of happiness and joy.  Why be ashamed of them?

I gave away so many hours to vanity.  So much cream rubbed on.  So many hours conditioning.  So many dollars spent.  I’ll never get that back.  Now, I don’t use many of the commonly used products on the market.  My cuts no longer get covered with petroleum by-product based creams. My skin no longer gets cleansed with toxic lathering ingredients made in a lab.  I no longer slather lotions of questionable content on every inch of my person.  I accept that some parts of my body will never be smooth.  Today, I’m okay with all of it.

Nowadays, most of the products I use I make myself.  My aches and pains are chased away by Cannabis infused coconut oil in gelatin caplets.  Why buy in a store what you can make yourself?  I walk past the muscle rub aisle and just rub my sore muscles with the same cream but mixed with beeswax and castor oil.  Even my depression is eased with these flowers rather than the gut microbe-sterilizing pills I used to take.  My whole being is more healthy now.

I’ve been reconnecting with nature lately and it feeds a part of me that forgot it was hungry.  Today I puttered around with the patio door wide open, curtains blowing in the breeze.  It felt right.  I feel right and I have this plant to thank for it.  I proudly wear my Cannabis leaf pendant around my neck these days.  It’s permission for you to ask me anything about this plant.  Question period begins now.

Cannabis makes me feel the connection with mother earth.  Rooted my feet take hold now, I am sure of my place in the universe.  I’m finally confident.  I’m finally inspired to be who I am and be proud of that star-seed however different she may be.  In the end, this plant has made my skin feel right. Who knew?  Cannabis put the Pagan back in me.



 

The Daily Habit of Highly Happy Peeps

I'm re-watching the series "Weeds" and I'm at the part where Silas asks his mom why she's only selling weed and not coke or meth.  Nancy-Pants is my age.  I'm on her side as I watch this.  Such a complicated and flawed character.  I look at this question from her perspective.  As a business-person who uses no drugs, why would Nancy Botwin limit her profit potential to only serving pot-heads?

I have friends in all categories.  I know what each of these drugs can do to a user.  I know what happens when they run out, the urgency of each is different, and similar.  It's a duck-duck-goose scenario without a doubt.  Coke and meth are the ducks;  Cannabis is the goose.  And, like the Canada Goose, this plant could be this country's hero.

You see, we pot-heads use every single day.  We use several times a day.  Unlike the antidepressant pills I used to take once daily, I use this antidepressant approximately every two to five hours.  And, as someone who has spent many years following the orders of a 'white-coat', swallowing pills made for the masses, I can tell you that the lack of negative side-effects associated with cannabis as my antidepressant, is a big reason why I use the plant and not pills.

People who use every day ensure that they have supply.  They don't like to run out, so as a business person, they're not likely to waste your time or come knocking at your door at 1 am on a Thursday night.  We pot-heads have some choices depending on where we live, but for years we've had one or two friends we have an agreement with, and we maintain that relationship like it's family.  As a business person, Nancy-Pants knows that slow and steady (and safe) wins the race.

If however, she were into making some quick fast cash, coke and meth would do that for her.  The return-business is quick and awake 24/7.  These are the buyers you don't make friends with or tell where you live.  Both of these drugs drives the user to lose all sense of social norms.  Their brains need the drug, and they need it now.

As a business person, and on a business-only level, selling weed and only weed is one of the few smart moves Nancy-Pants makes.  Poor Nanc .... I don't think she ever truly grieved Judah's death.

This is why we can't keep categorizing Cannabis in with other street drugs.  I mean, as far as I know, there are millions of illegal medical marijuana users in Canada alone.  And yet, we have a system that only allows the white-coats and a few lucky others to legally grow this perfectly safe and incredibly medicinal plant.  We have made a regulatory system of growing and providing this medicine so complex and costly that only those already successful in the pharmaceutical industry can even afford to join in.  It's truly gross when you consider the fact that the factories that make Oxycontin, Fentanyl Patches, and W-19 (100 times stronger than fentanyl) don't even require the same ridiculously stringent security requirements as the LP system does.

I believe that from day one, the MMPR was planned out to be what we see today.  It was but a spark in Harper's eye, and capitalism and a drunk nanny, have allowed this baby to grow into a monster. They saw the scary black market and thought they had to lock this poor plant down, when all they had to do to remove the criminal element, was to allow us to grow our own.

C'mon Canada, it's not too late.  You have to take your head out of your beautiful ass and see this plant as what it truly is, a gift from Mother Nature.  Let us grow our own and heal ourselves so we can live and play and work and make Canada even greater than she is.  Let us take part in this industry.  Open the Craft Cannabis industry to the small business-owner and see our country thrive. We have Craft Beer and Craft Wine ... why not Craft Cannabis?

When Cannabis is finally legalized, the amount used and sold is going to increase dramatically. Turning flowers into concentrates or oils is not unlike that other Canadian industry we love, the Maple Syrup Industry.  Like Maple Syrup, Cannabis concentrates take a lot of product to make the sweet gift we see at the end.  It's no longer only about smoking.

Cannabis ... the safe business venture.  And that says something about we 'Pot-heads' doesn't it?

Dispensaries = Pharmacies; Congrats to the Black Market

On behalf of the millions of legal and illegal medicinal cannabis patients across Canada,
I'd like to offer my congratulations to the black market marijuana dealers.  You won for now.

I can imagine you're busy busy little beavers.  Weighing out dime bag grams of some sorta Kush, the most popular street strain.  You know they'll sell lickity-split because now you have a captive audience.  Or shall I say, once again you have us right where you want us.  And hey, I don't hate you all, I mean y'gotta get it somewhere.

You see, Canada has a Cannabis program yet it remains federally illegal.  I just became legal myself and I sit here perched on the fence between legal and illegal.  The bud I'm using is illicit, yet next week when my order from bedrocan comes in, it will be licit.  Same plant.  Different legalities.  The only real difference being, whom I paid the money to.  It doesn't take a white coat to grow this plant.

It is said that over 50% of the country takes five or more prescriptions per day.  Imagine for a moment if you could only get those prescriptions via the internet or by telephone, delivered by snail-mail to your canada post mail box.  Instead of speaking face-to-face with a human who can help you understand those five medications, you can only do that over the phone.  And even then, you'll soon realize that you're not speaking to anyone who has specialty in this field of prescription medicine. Seems crazy doesn't it?  But that's what I'm expected to do now that I'm part of the MMPR.

For all intents and purposes, dispensaries = pharmacies.  Like a pharmacy, those shops that have now been shut down in Toronto, dispense medicine to people who need it.  I may not agree with their 'pushing the envelope' way of starting up, but that action is a side effect.  The actions that allegedly had them shut is also a side effect.  And those side effects needs to be studied.

Our family doctors know nothing about Cannabis.  Health Canada doesn't teach them on it, doesn't recognize it as a medicine, and they don't really encourage the signing of patients into this supreme court mandated program.  Therefore, sick individuals who find relief with this plant are faced with never finding a Doctor to make them legal.  Do you really think any of us like being 'criminals'? Many of us finally feel human again with this plant and now we're not human, we're criminal.

The MMPR is a broken program.  In order to take part you need a doctor, but doctors to sign are hard to find.  If you do find one and become legal, you're only considered legal if you're ingesting product sold to you by the Licensed Producers.  Dispensaries can do more than the LP's can.  Dispensaries humanize things.  The LP's know this, which is why we're seeing mobile units starting to tour around the countryside.  I deserve to be allowed to walk downtown and buy this medicine from a human.

Back to Toronto, consider it this way:  today the black market and the Toronto Police Department agreed on what action to take.  The Police just did them a huge favour.  In the next weeks, those people on the streets are going to get rich.  After all, illness doesn't take a back seat to bureaucratic bullshit and capitalism.  Cancer doesn't take a time-out because we have to do studies.  Crohn's doesn't stop being a pain in the ass for thousands simply because we're not sure if smoking this plant should be allowed.

There are so many ways to look at this situation, not the least of which are investments lost.  In the end, a quick google search will show you, the harm to the public is closing down these shops.  It's in the public interest and safety to regulate and integrate dispensaries into the business economy in every city.  We're not going to stop using the plant that gave our lives back.  We're just not.

Alcohol, the Most Commonly Used Home Remedy

I had a friend once who lived a happy life until she moved into a new town and soon realized that the man who had molested her as a child, lived three doors down the street.  Sleep alluded her, stress engulfed her.  She soon started drinking a bottle of wine every single night so she could fall asleep.
Each glass of grapey ethanol goodness muddied her memories until they were unrecognizable.  She'd pass out, sleep, get up, go to work, and then do it all over again.

I had another friend who's husband appeared to have two personalities.  The sober one was a reclusive jerk, while the other one that came out after two brown drinks, was husband of the year.

There are people in physical, chronic pain who wash down Tylenol with beer every single day.  The two together loosen up the joints, numb the nerve endings, and allow them to move.

If I could list the ailments treated with the home remedy known as ethanol, I know it would be a long one.  There are people who buy a bottle of medicine every single day, rotating from LCBO location to location, 007-style.  Of all of the poisons to addict ourselves on, ethanol is the worst to detox from. Death occurs often.

Thing is, home remedies are sort of frowned upon nowadays aren't they?  Natural remedies under attack and all.  If I were a capitalist prick at the head of Big Pharma, I'd see Alcohol as a threat to my income.  Yet, Ontario's Premiere Wynne has recently made this particular home remedy even more widely available for you to purchase.  Ontario Wine and fruit Ciders are now legal to sell at Farmer's Markets in Ontario.  Hmmmm ... have you been to a farmer's market recently?  The security detail is lax to put it mildly.  Quite often, booths are open at the back where theft by under-agers could occur within seconds.  What about the children?  Here's a list of upcoming Ontario farmer's markets in your area where you can buy wine made with 100% Ontario fruit.  My city has two sites, the main one being at Market Square three days a week this summer.  So convenient to buy something that statistically kills 50,000 of our fellow Canadians every single year.

Premiere Wynne has also given away millions in revenue for Ontario to certain hand-picked capitalist conglomerates that are now allowed to sell beer in their grocery stores.  So great to live in a free society where the Queen's students can get their chips and beer in adjacent aisles.  The "impulse-buy" is encouraged and likely accounts for a lot of sales.  Since when does a financially ailing Province give away revenue like that?  Are we sure she's on our side?

In addition to this, Ontario now has a brilliantly growing craft beer and wine industry.  She's even subsidizing wages for a few.  Craft beer itself is huge and regulation on alcohol content seems to be something that no one really considered because the last glass I had was 9% alcohol.

When the highest content beer I can buy in the store is 5.5%, and the Craft industry is producing ones that are 3.5% higher, shouldn't consumption guidelines be suggested?  Are those of us with our smart serve just supposed to do the math in our heads and cut the patron off accordingly?  Oh that should go over well!!

Oh, but it colours regions of our Country with flair and commerce.  Oh, but it's a cultural rite of passage no matter the detriment.  Oh, but just think of the extra tax dollars Ontario will earn!

Here's the thing ....  when you're selling shit that kills and addicts people, forcing them to spend their rent money on a bottle each night, you have to think twice about all the colour and all the flair.

Ms. Wynne, alcohol isn't good for many of us.  Many of us can't have just one glass.  One glass tastes like two and then the bottle is empty.  Did you do any research on this when you made these decisions?  Or were your eyes so filled with dollar $igns that you forgot about the health of the citizens you represent?  Or is that the problem, you forgot that you represent ALL of us.  Not just the capitalist pricks?

Marijuana For Trauma ... Feels Like Family.

I just took part in day one of something great.  I went to the open house for MFT, the Marijuana For Trauma group that is going to help the Limestone City get relief. There are a lot of support groups out there, but this one has proven to me that the best ones see you shaking hands upon entering, and hugging upon leaving.

This particular support group was started by Veterans with post traumatic stress disorder helping others like themselves. Thousands of Veterans and thousands of civilians have realized that Marijuana eases PTSD.  Cannabinoids ease trauma.  For my depressive brain, Cannabis de-amplifies the negative so that all of my positive can come back to me.

Luckily for Kingston, MFT aren't only here for Veterans of Kingston. They're here to guide anyone curious about Cannabinoid therapy.  If you need help navigating the process of becoming a legal medical marijuana patient, this is where you need to be.  These are people who like me, realized a while ago that the pills don't work for us.  We went looking for something else and we found it in the Cannabis plant.

I spent about 16 years on various cocktails of pills for my depression.  I accepted the detriment those pills had on my body because it beat feeling dark and empty. Feeling nothing was better than feeling everything magnified.  I said goodbye to my orgasm, said adios to normal gut and bowel function.  I said goodbye to inspiration because I accepted the numbness.  Until I, just like the guys who started MFT just couldn't live that way anymore.  Six years ago I said goodbye pills;  hello cannabis.  My health soared.

Now the really great thing about this location of MFT is that it's going to be a full service facility. They see what I see: therapy for optimal health includes the full spectrum.  No one thing is all you need.  Self-care routines, exercise, sunlight, talk-therapy, love. Proper treatment for any mental illness includes a plethora of things.  So they will provide on-site counseling, nutritional guidance, registered massage therapy, support nights for spouses, and so much more.

Here's what in my opinion sets this group apart.  It's the intangibles here.  It's the fact that there's a cel phone number on the business card so if you need help at 3 am, someone will answer.  It's in the way they look at you, right at you when you talk to them.  It's the hugs they give.  Hugs that last long enough for anyone to know they matter.  There will be open mic music nights and there will no doubt be regularly scheduled functions so this network can re-group, re-tighten, renew the vow that they are a family.  Behind the desk will be a wife who will say to you, "this is what happened to me and my husband, maybe we can help."  In the rooms down the hall will meet volunteers who can assist you with paperwork, or research, or anything a friend would ask a friend about.  This thing that sets Marijuana for Trauma apart, is that utter sense of safety you feel when you're around them.  Like they could know everything about you, and still love you.

Radical loving acceptance ... just in time for that paradigm shift.