Stop Visually Profiling Your Cannabis!

To trim or not to trim;  that is the question.

And if you trim, how close do you trim?  Do you leave a little leaf like a fringe on a skirt?
Or do you trim only for the full bud experience?  My friend's hubby has no use for trimming.  He's a 'trim before ya grind kinda guy' and I say, why not?  No need for mix!

#TrimNotTobacco

Cannabis users all over the world have been judging their ganga by looks for years.  I've even heard some people tell me they can decipher the strain just by looks.  I giggle to myself each and every time I hear that.  Truth is, a good trimmer can take four buds from the same plant and trim them so differently, you'd swear they were different strains.

As it stands today, there are likely 1000's of different strains of Cannabis and more being bred as I type.  And of course there are similarities.  I mean, they don't call it purple for no good reason.  The problem however, is that we do indeed ingest with our eyes first.

The culinary industry uses this fact every single day.  Presentation is everything!  Chefs believe very strongly that when you make a judgement on a dish based on looks, it definitely affects how you will perceive the taste.  The same thing is happening with our Cannabis.  Magazines and books only show the cream of the crop and we have new users believing that anything less than sparkly white coated nugs is inferior.  This could not be further from the truth.  I've ingested some pretty shabby lookin' buds and made friends with them quickly.  Looks mean nothing and the idea that you can visually profile a strain before you even touch, taste, or smell it is a fallacy in my opinion.

Much of our legal Cannabis is getting visually profiled.  Patients open up the bottle--a new experience for many who are used to the z!ploc entry method--and immediately make a judgement. Those poor little buds have had a long trip!  Let them freshen' up a bit!  They were jostling around in their plastic jars for hours trying to get to you, the least you can do is try them!  But no, some judge by looks and deem them of lesser value.  Even after ingesting, those bad looks remain in their memory effecting their opinion of the strain and the hand that grew it.

The term "hand-trimmed" is a seal of quality not all offer anymore.  I've had buds that were each carefully manicured by a human, and I've had buds that looked like hard green moon rocks.  Hand-trimmed vs. machine-trimmed.  The truth comes out in the grind every time.  We have to remember that these are flowers and flowers differ vastly sometimes.  If you open your order of Cannabis and don't recognize the flower inside, don't panic!  It may never look like the one in the magazine but that is no reason to shun it.  Grind it, vape it, smoke it!  Experience your receptors' reaction to it.  Feel the aroma-therapeutic action of the terpenes opening you up and motivating your thoughts.  You may find that the ugliest duckling fits your system best.  And you'll never know, unless you try.

“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.” ― Leo Tolstoy

Ten Reasons Why Mail-Order Cannabis Is Unacceptable

Do you ever run out of your medication?  For most Canadians, it's a simple trip to the pharmacy. Some pharmacies even deliver to your door.  But for the 75,000+ Canadians taking part in the ACMPR, running out of their meds is a lot more difficult to fix.

Legal Cannabis only comes in the mail from one of the 33+ Licensed Cannabis producers these days. On the surface and for many patients, this suits them just fine.  But if you're one of the other normal Canadians, there are more negatives to mail-order than there are positives.  At the very least we deserve both mail order and storefronts too.

This is the top ten reasons why I feel that mail-order medicine is unacceptable and not access:

10)  Credit/technology Requirements

Mail order Cannabis requires certain payment methods that only a portion of the Canadian citizenry are able to possess these days.  Credit isn't free and never has been.  Mail-order means that good ol' cash cannot be used.  If we really want to dissolve street level sales who do accept cash, you'll have to give us storefronts where cash can be used.

The notion that every Canadian has access to credit is coupled here with another asinine assumption, that being that every one of us has internet access.  Yes, you can place an order over the telephone, but that doesn't mean that sales clerk is going to be able to tell you what each strain does or whether it would work for you.  And, I've heard horror stories of patients being told they must order online through the producer web site.  Kinda like how bank tellers try to convince you to use the ATM machine next time.

9)  Credit Card payment wait times:

Credit Card:  those of us who carry a balance must time the purchase of our medicine correctly.  Five day payment clearing period + two day delivery means a lot of us are doing without because of credit processing times.  Not good enough.

Pre-Paid Credit:  I bought one of these once because I couldn't wait for my credit payment to clear. What a shock when I realized that it's a 2-day activation period.  I guess I was expected to do without my antidepressant for those 2 days + the 2 days it took to be delivered.

Certified Check:  It's like every single step in this process MUST profit someone.  I have to pay to certify a check?  Yep.  Then you have to wait for snail-mail to deliver it, and then delivery to take place.  So ridiculous.

Imagine if you had to certify a cheque in order to buy your Lipitor or your Cymbalta.  Crazy eh?

8)  Delivery times

For the average price of $10, patients in the ACMPR can be sure their doctor-prescribed Cannabis gets to them by Purolator or Canada Post within 2-3 business days.  And that's fine if you've planned properly.  But if you run out before your Cannabis is delivered, what do you do?  Can you imagine if you had a seizure disorder or were going through Chemotherapy while you waited for this corporate-run delivery service to get you your meds?  Tick-tock as you suffer.

7)  Questionable delivery personnel

I've been legal since May and I've had only good luck with my delivery personnel but others are not so lucky.  I know two Veterans who have had their medicinal Cannabis stolen while in the custody of delivery personnel.  These are heroes using a plant to treat their trauma and hundreds of dollars of it was stolen from them;  one never made it the door, the other disappeared from the sorting station itself.

Have you ever sat and waited for a delivery only to sneeze and miss the knock?  It's like there was no knock at all sometimes.  The door bell works yet, it doesn't ring.  It's easier for delivery people to put that little tag on your knob than it is to actually fulfill the contract that they've been hired to fulfill. It's not good enough.  If I pay $10 shipping because it comes to my door, but then have to drive somewhere to pick it up, then there's a problem isn't there!  What if I don't drive?  What if I'm wheelchair bound?  I'll have to wait to stop my seizures or ease my nausea?

6)  Questionable delivery policies & procedures

My prescription is split between two producers, meaning I buy from two.  The one delivers by Canada Post and the other by Purolator.  Now, the fact that these two are owned by the same entity matters not when it comes to their policies.  Canada Post workers are letter-carriers and as such are not required or allowed to go above the first floor of your tenement building.  I get a call to meet her in the foyer which is fine for me, but once again, what if I were disabled or severely ill?

Purolator on the other hands comes right to my door for the same $10 fee.  However, during the recent postal strike I waited five days for my medicine to arrive.  When I investigated their policies and time guarantees I realized that there are seven levels of service above the "standard shipping" we normally use.  This means that all packages above standard take priority.  You'd think someone would have advised the patients to prioritize their shipping.  I'm sure if it were pharmaceuticals we were buying there'd be a public service announcement to ensure no one goes a day without their pills.
Sometimes I wonder if these double standards would dissipate were Cannabis actually physically addictive!

5)  Extremely Rural Residences

I spoke to a man last week who pays $10 shipping for his medicinal Cannabis yet has NEVER gotten it at his door.  This man lives on a rural route in Ontari-ari-ario where you're lucky if you can see your neighbor's house from the road.  Canada is filled with rural areas of land like this man's that may pose difficulty to delivery personnel and their vehicles.  This guy has to walk half an hour to the sorting station to carry his cannabis-in-a-box half an hour back home.  How long before he gets mugged for his meds?  If we had storefronts, this guy could get a ride once a month to a legal storefront in a civilized manner.

4)  Caveat Emptor: but no returns allowed

'Caveat emptor' or 'buyer beware'.  More than half the legal patients are experienced enough to have purchased Cannabis by seeing it, smelling it, maybe even testing it first.  But you can't do that when you're legal.  Seems ass-backwards doesn't it?  You have to trust that the digital pic on the producer website is what you're actually getting.  It's a lot to ask when you're paying upwards to $15 per gram. And the worst part is, they normally will not take returns or give refunds.  This I can totally understand.  You can't take your Tramadol back to the pharmacy and get a refund.  But a lot of people are getting dinged by the 'pre-ground' option and drop-down menus that default at this instead of whole flower.  Trixy hobbits.  It's a stupid move because many patients think that's what they call whole bud and tell everyone they know that LP cannabis is crap.  If any of the above patients were able to buy their bud in a legal storefront, NONE of this would happen.  Sadly, many of the conditions that Cannabis is prescribed for are conditions that are a exacerbated by stress. Nothin' stressful about paying this much money for something that you're not sure will work. Those are two days of delivery waiting hell.

3)  No face-to-face counsel w/ a Cannabis-educated human

I have a pretty good handle on all things Cannabis, but it's taken me 15 years.  New patients are not getting enough guidance.  Even for the patients using mere milliliters of Cannabis oil per day need more guidance than is available.  Dosing cannabinoids is individual and that is one of the most foreign ideas in healthcare right now.  Patients are advised to start low and raise up slowly, starting at .25 mls.  But that same patient could have a maximum daily dose of 8 mls.  Questions arise quickly, like how fast should I increase?  How soon can I expect to feel it?  Will it impair me?  We're used to taking 2 pills 3 times a day until the bottle is empty.  But with Cannabis, you have to see how it works for you.  Try explaining that efficiently over the phone.  Try ensuring that .25 mls IS what this patient is taking.  Legal storefronts could offer in-person counsel with people who can tell you what to expect and ensure you're dosing properly.  We could make dosing charts with tips and other options for ingestion.  The new patients getting legalized today are used to talking to their friendly neighborhood pharmacist who will explain everything to them.  In fact, you can book hour-long visits with your pharmacist to discuss your scripts!  The fact that the same guidance isn't really offered to patients in the ACMPR is shameful and dangerous in my opinion.

2)  Ordering mistakes=adverse events=healthcare costs

For the Cannabis naive, starting in this program requires that you learn some lingo.  Allowing elderly patients to order over the phone for something so esoteric, is engineering adverse effects from the onset.  Speaking of which, I just spent thirty minutes trying to explain the difference between an Indica and a Sativa cannabis strain to a 72 year old patient.  If she didn't understand me, and mistakenly buys a Sativa strain she's going to be disappointed, and unable to sleep.  There is far too much to learn with this medicine for new patients and they deserve face-to-face counsel when ordering!

Of course, mistakes happen on the other side too.  I know of one patient with a 12% THC cap who was sold a 25% THC oil.  Thankfully he was fine, but others may not be so lucky.  And what happens when a person takes too much too soon? They go to Emerg, that's what happens.  And at Emerg, they're often humiliated, marginalized, given fluids, an anti-nauseant, and the advice to stop using the product immediately.  The other thing about these visits is the cost.  It's been said recently that 1 in 5 visits to the Emerg are unnecessary so piling on even more is going to effect national healthcare costs.  Remember, if the meds these patients were taking were pharmaceuticals, they could have a seated chit-chat with a Pharmacist to make sure they understand it all.  Medicinal Cannabis doesn't get that respect I guess, and neither to its patients.

1)  Missed delivery means the patient must turn criminal

So you've missed your deliver for whatever reason.  Now how will you kill your pain, tremors, nausea, depression, anxiety, insomnia?  Too bad it's not pills you're on, because there's a 24 hour drug store in almost every city out there.  But there are no stores to help you out yet, only friends.  Because of this, many Cannabis patients in this predicament will go elsewhere to buy in a pinch.  According to the rules of the ACMPR though, buying this medicine from anyone other than a licensed producer is against the rules.  The only way to rectify a missed delivery is to step back into your criminal skin, and that isn't good for anybody.

Did any of this surprise you?  Are you as choked as me?  In what Universe can mail-order only medicine really work efficiently and sustainably?  Ugh.... don't even get me started on the packaging involved with mail order only!  With baby-steps it's improving, not nearly soon enough.  Patients in their 90's are even trying medicinal Cannabis.  What must those patients think having seen this plant in all of its many stages of legality?  They likely shake their heads at the insanity of it all, just relieved to not be in cuffs.

 

You Control Your Future Woes

So it happened again.  A man from my past contacted me to tell me that he's been thinking about me. This is someone I was romantic with and then friends with for a dozen years.  I consider him a friend still.  However, the me that I am today sees through all of that now.  Whatever the hell that is.

The ball was left in my court, his cell number left in my email.  I was to text him soon.  To be honest with you, having been with my hunni for over nine years, the mere thought of what this old friend could want, left me with an empty pit in my stomach.  In one brief online encounter via the 1's & 0's of digital communication, I realized that being emotionally faithful to someone you love isn't done for them.  It's done for you.

Theories abound supporting the belief that guilt causes cancer.  I know for a fact that it causes stomach issues that can potentially lead to ulcers and other daily hindrances like locked bowels. Guilt is stressful and stress can lead to depression. Depression can affect the appetite and we're back to the stomach acid again.  Guilt sucks.

Now, being older and wiser I realize concretely that I can control whether or not I suffer from this tragic human affliction.  I used to do and deal with it later.  Or not deal with it.  But hating yourself for doing the wrong thing is engineering dis-ease in my opinion.

As for the guy, I did consider texting him.  If only to tell him how awesome my life is now.  When I told him I'm a Cannabis Counsellor, he just said "oh".  We used to partake together way back when. Here's the kicker though, and the thing that's left me so proud of my now clear vision ... he never once asked me if I was single, or happy, or looking to reconnect.  He merely dropped his pile of sentimental vagueness on my lap and in my head with no regard for how it would affect me.  That's some shitty shit right there.  If I were in his shoes, I hope to Goddess I'd have the decency to think about the mental well-being of the person I've been thinking about lately.

And I hold no bitterness, truly I don't.  But it's nonsense and it's drumming to distract me from the path that pulls me now.  A test perhaps and I'm FINALLY acing tests again!  Who knew?  I've proven that you can teach an old dog new tricks.  You can change your gullibility and your inability to speak up and out when needed.  So many mistakes are made simply because we cannot find our voice.  Or our gumption.  Or the bravery to stand alone in the crowd.  Or the courage to rock the boat.  Thing is, if we're smart we eventually say fuck the boat and we learn to swim.

Alone is only in your head y'know, we are one, we are all connected.  Shitty shit changes us and sometimes we don't correct the navigation in time before something drastic happens.  Life is hard. But we control so much of it, I see this now.  Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to the rescue!  CBT, love, forgiveness, and peace of mind.  Or maybe it's the Wolf brain coming through, that basic mammal who's instinct now tells it to preserve thyself.  Your future is in your own control if you feed the good wolf.*

"What you allow is what will follow."

*Cherokee Legend

Licensed Producers in the Best Position to Push For Insurance Coverage

Millions of Canadians are prescribed medications that are paid for by insurance coverage. For many of them, this coverage is what allows them to take the prescriptions their doctors prescribe, as they simply could not afford them otherwise.  Coverage encourages prescription compliance, and the studies are there to prove it.

In 2012, CMAJ published an article that researched the effect of cost on adherence to prescription medications in Canada.  They found that approximately 1 in 10 Canadians report cost as being a reason they don’t fill their prescriptions.  When they considered respondents with insurance coverage, their findings were clear, “After multivariate adjustment, we found that lacking insurance for prescription drugs was associated with a more than fourfold increase in the odds of cost-related nonadherence.”  There are even statistics that show a direct correlation between co-pay fees and adherence.  The lower the co-pay, the more likely that prescription will get filled.  

As more and more retirees show interest in cannabinoid therapy, they’re faced with the shocking truth about switching from pharmaceuticals that have been covered for years, to cannabis which is not yet covered at all. Statistics from 2012, state that 2.3 million working-age Canadians were on disability, a quarter of which were considered severe.  

Cannabinoid therapy works very well for many severe disabilities like chronic pain, Fibromyalgia, MS, some cancers even.  So as it stands today, if any of these income-limited citizens wants to try cannabinoid therapy they have to pay for it out of their disability payments.  Many juggle food and medicine each month, rationing everything at all times. This undoubtedly affects country-wide healthcare costs.  As long as Health Canada refuses to consider medical cannabis a medicine, both patients on disability and patients with insurance coverage will have to pay out of pocket for their cannabis.

Insurers say they cannot cover our medical marijuana prescriptions because Cannabis has no drug identification number (DIN).  And, at least by the standards Western medicine has set thus far, they’re right.  Is this one little acronym going to keep safer medicine out of the hands of Canadians?

Upon further inspection it seems like the DIN has much less to do with how the drug affects you, and much more to do with tracking, categorizing, and marketing.  The number itself is computer generated and upon search, will tell you everything from the manufacturer to the mode of administration.  But since a DIN is granted only after testing is done, the DIN in effect, ensures that the product has undergone sufficient testing. You see the problem.  No one wants to pay for studies on something that they’re not going to reverse engineer.  And as far as the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled, we have the right to use this plant however we see fit.

Pharmaceutical companies spend millions proving the safety, efficacy, and detriment of the chemical concoctions they sell.  But with successful medicines, these companies reap the rewards.  If most LP’s deem themselves a part of this industry, shouldn’t we expect the same from them?  It must be choking for some pharmaceutical companies who only sell pills, to see certain LP’s posting profits, hiring celebrities, buying mobile units, and trading on the stock market for selling something that they spent no funds to prove or create.  Who else would we expect should pave the way to not only societal acceptance through studies, but to attain insurance coverage for their patients?

We seem to be at a standstill in Canada where studies are concerned.  So many are done on animals not humans.  So many are done in other countries, where standards differ from our own.  But who better to perform these crucial human studies than the ones who have all the plant product!  They’re literally growing more every day!  And as time flies by, some of these LP’s are even opening storefronts where information and assistance can be attained.  Those outlets would be a great place for data recovery and study product distribution.  Sort of like study headquarters for participants to report to.  All under the strict guidelines that the ACMPR demands of the Licensed Producers.

From a Licensed Producer’s viewpoint, I want you to adhere to your doctor’s authorization, and have a recurring monthly order with me.  But from a patient perspective who sees the prices LP’s charge, I can tell you that isn’t likely to happen every month.  ACMPR patients supplement their medicine by buying elsewhere, meaning the LP’s are missing out on revenue.  Putting in the time, resources, and might that is required to legitimize this medicine to the point of insurance coverage is good for their bottom line.  Insurance coverage encourages compliance, and Cannabis compliance may just have more to do with convenience than with price or quality.

Like Pharmaceutical companies, Licensed Producers just want the bill paid.  If a DIN or the equivalent thereof is required for that to occur, it just seems logical that the Licensed Producers themselves be the ones to foot that bill.  I foresee a CDIN (Cannabinoid Drug Identification Number) perhaps grouped by ailment identifying ranges of cannabinoids and terpenes found therein.  Someone has to prove to Health Canada that Cannabis is indeed a therapeutic medicine.

I believe that this DIN argument is simply an attempt to delay progress.  Someone is profiting, so why change the status quo?  The status quo isn’t benefiting the average Canadian.  When we adhere to our prescriptions, the country’s health care costs go down.  We know what needs to be done.

There Is No Such Thing As A Cannabis Emergency

This is a common sentiment, even in the Cannabis industry.  When patients run out of their mail-order only medicine, it is indeed an emergency.  In my opinion, those who don't see this, do not truly see Cannabis as medicine.

When I was on antidepressants many many years ago, I used to run out sometimes.  Money hindered access to those as it does for many, and for all intents and purposes, I was addicted to them.  Prozac, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Cymbalta ... all highly addictive.  I remember once making my way to the pharmacy for help.  The brain zaps were extreme that day, zapping me every few moments, my brain screaming for those meds.  The pharmacist took pity on me and gave me enough to get me by.  I felt such intense gratitude that day, and within about half an hour of taking one caplet, the zaps subsided.

There is no pharmacist or dispensing site for emergency supplies of Cannabis in Canada though.  If you are in the ACMPR and you order incorrectly, you'll be out of your meds and expected to be fine with that.  You'll be told to plan better next month.  Cannabis emergencies happen daily in Canada. People who say they don't exist likely don't use Cannabis as medicine yet.

You see, when you have an untreated or an under-treated illness and you finally find a medicine to treat it, you'll do almost anything to maintain access.  I know patients who are currently cancelling cruises and trips South because the U.S. doesn't respect this program or this medicine.  They refuse to live without it now.  For over fifteen years I did this.  I bought from whomever I could buy from, putting my own safety, freedom and health at risk.  But it was worth it to turn off the negative chatter in my brain.  I broke the law for many years just to feel human.

Right now in Canada, running out of Cannabis is an emergency for many patients for one major reason:  to access it in between mail-orders, you have to step into your criminal skin and buy it illegally.  A Cannabis emergency means the patients turn into criminals just to ease their pain, depression, or the bazillion other things Cannabis is prescribed for.

Medical Cannabis production is now a highly restricted, highly regulated industry that is run by pharmaceutical companies.  Many have stocks being traded on the stock market.  Yet we can't buy this medicine in storefronts.  When you really look at this mail-order process in its full functionality, you see very clearly that the entire program is a Cannabis emergency in itself.

Legalize safe medicine now.

Opioids: Approved ~ Cannabis: Denied

Over the past few years, Canadian Veterans have learned a lot about pot.  Mostly from one another, or other grassroots-minded friends or relatives.  Over the past year, so many Veterans have been educated on, experienced, and realized the benefits of Cannabis that the spike in use has alerted the officials.  Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr was shocked to see the math.  I guess he hasn't heard: the Veterans want plants not pills.

I'd love to know how long it took them to decide to cap coverage to a measly 3 grams per day maxed at $8.50 per gram.  That's $6.50 less per gram than what VA was usually paying prior to this.  And, some producers have assured their Veteran patients that they can remain using the same trusted strains, as they'll gladly absorb the difference.  Wow.  That's some profit margin.  That's like quadruple the profit margin that's in a Hyundai Accent for frig's sake!  But you must understand, they're supplying us with medicine that none of us can be trusted to grow safely ourselves.  Oh the smoke-screen is thick.  Must be all those Health Canada approved pesticides left in the bud!  That is, if you can keep it lit!  But I digress.  I want to know how long it took them to cap coverage when people have been dying from Opioid deaths in every province for years now, and no one is capping coverage for the reverse-engineered heroin!!

I demand that Kent Hehr do the math again, this time including all of the variables, carrying all of the 1's.  The average Veteran has been prescribed dozens of pharmaceuticals, all covered by VA.  Many of those meds are to treat the side effects of the first ones.  Many disrupt bodily processes.  Many disrupt peace of mind, the one thing they're supposed to treat.  But that's the thing isn't it?  As yet, we don't have any pharmaceuticals for which the sole purpose and treatment is PTSD.  That's how complex it is, even the white-coats haven't figured out how to treat it.  And they're pissed that this plant does.  They're also pissed that patients everywhere are ripping up scripts and lighting up doobs. Let's be clear, Cannabis is replacing Pharmaceuticals.  Maybe we need to check stock portfolios of those making the rules here.  What is it to anyone what a patient uses to ease his or her illness?

This plant helps all of the body's processes because each of us has a naturally occurring receptor system that accepts its compounds.  This system also accepts hormone-like compounds made within our bodies, but shaped like cannabinoids.  I dare say, anthropologically speaking, we're meant to use this plant.  And anthropologically speaking, we are not meant to take pills made in petrie dishes in a lab!  Yet we're allowing them to make it so.  We're allowing them to remove our right to use what we believe works, because of financial disparity?  Not good enough.  I and millions like me still believe that profit should have no place in healthcare or medicine.

Whichever stamp the VA worker uses:  APPROVED or DENIED, are they really able to separate themselves from the human who's life they've affected?  Do they hear the Veterans that say,
"I can't believe the emotion I feel now, or the sleep that I get now, or the dreams that no longer disrupt my days now that I'm using this plant."  Can our Honourable Minister Hehr hear these words?

A few weeks ago we once again, in countrywide accordance, vowed to never forget.  It seems we have some poor memories in Parliament.  You're forgetting every time you ignore another Veteran's plea for coverage of Cannabinoids.  You're forgetting every time you side with capitalism instead of with our heroes.  You're forgetting every single day that you allow the Legalization task force to drag their feet.  Remembering what our Veterans have done for us, is legalizing and encouraging gardens for heroes, and covering all the costs.

Marketplace Tickles the Low-Hanging Cannabis Fruit

I love the program Marketplace, and the host Erica Johnson and I are tight.  Well not really, but we did have a nice email interaction last year regarding a local restaurant who takes tips from servers for breakage.  For the most part, Marketplace gives voice to the average Canadian citizen, and outs the greedy corporate capitalist time and time again.

However, in their most recent episode titled "Superweed:  What's in Today's Marijuana?", I can't help but feel disheartened.  Like I felt at the end of LOST.  Like they just rushed it all in, using over-simplifications to push an already shaky and often-countered opinion.

They may surprise me though.  I mean, if I know there are other dangerous substances being pushed on our youth, then Marketplace must know this too!  Maybe next week they'll have one titled:

"SuperBooze:  What's in Today's Alcohol?".

We want to discuss recreational substances and the growing mind.  I'm game!  My niece is 13 and I fear for her and her peers.  Do you have any idea how much research and engineering goes into making booze taste like fruit and candy in order to disguise the taste of the ethanol?  Some youth have no idea what Passion Fruit tastes like until they take a sip of a Passion Fruit cooler!  Peach, Chocolate, Green Apple, Pear, Pineapple-Mandarin-Orange too!  Are we sure we're looking out for the kids?  Or are we creating these flavours WITH the kids in mind?  Yet no one is worried that the taste of the ethanol is disguised?!

Instead, we're worried that today's Cannabis is super weed compared to what was ingested at Woodstock in 1969. Speaking of booze, the act of drinking is a norm while smoking is not.  More kids will drink ethanol than will smoke Cannabis!  The potential for abuse is greater because Alcohol tastes good and has a delayed onset meaning by the time your little darling is drunk, he or she has drank too much.  Interestingly enough, there is no lethal dose of Cannabis because it does not act on the central nervous system the way Alcohol does.  Which is more dangerous?  The one that can kill you or the other one?

I also look forward to another episode titled:

"SuperBenzos:  What's in Today's Pediatric Meds?".

Remember Liam McKnight?  The CBC has reported on his success with medicinal Cannabis many times.  Well before Liam found Cannabis Oil, he'd already tried ten different Benzodiazapenes. Watch this video to see Liam's journey to reclaiming his health with the help of his family.  See him shaking in that one scene?  He's withdrawing from Benzos.  And we're worried about the Cannabis on the streets?  Benzodiazapenes and Neuroleptics are heavily prescribed pharmaceuticals that are all well known to be addictive.  The process to wean off of meds like this is dangerous, time consuming, and hellish to experience.  In fact, the risk of death from gran mal seizures during withdrawal is greater with Benzos than it is with Alcohol.  And the white coats are giving these out like they contain hope!!

And still another one I'd love to watch:

"SuperOpioids:  What's in Today's Pediatric Pain Killers?".

In 1969, when a child had their adenoids and tonsils removed, they got a popsicle and an aspirin. Yet a friend told me of an 8 year old relative who was just given a script for liquid morphine for that very same routine procedure.  Cherry flavoured no doubt!  Why?  Has our pain tolerance lessened in the past 50 years?  Have procedures become more painful?

What's my point?  My point is, if we're going to be real about the dangers of recreational Cannabis then we have to also be real about all of the other clear and present dangers to the growing mind! There are young medicinal users illegally self medicating their depression, anxiety, adhd, stutters, and pain with this plant.  They are replacing conventional medications that they've already tried, but found no therapeutic effects from.  I and aunts, parents, and grandparents the country over are tired of the over-drugging of our youth.  It's time to be real.  Study all of these substances regardless of profits made.  Our youth are worth more than this rhetoric.