BY RUTH HILL R.N.
Recreational cannabis is legal. The regulations being implemented are slow to materialize and in some cases too onerous for dispensaries, cultivators and distributors. Many are closing or going underground due to the prohibitive cost. Seniors on fixed incomes will utilize these noncompliant places because prices have doubled since January 1st.
Can we make any sense out of the confusion? Do I need my medical recommendation? The regulations say to get a 9% exemption from state tax, a county recommendation is needed. The 25% city tax is still there.
How will the workforce be affected when drug tested? The self-testing kits will be flying off the pharmacy shelves. It is still ok to work with hydrocodone or alcohol in the system but not CBD even though CBD has no mind-altering effects. Read Marijuana is Safer so why are we Driving People to Drink by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert.
What is cannabis doing other than leading to a mental high? The myths keep being drilled into the public by the media, the government and uneducated people. They do not know how to get out of the 60’s. The following are some experiences with medical cannabis. How about the relief from migraines with 2mg of THC? Or free of pain from fibromyalgia one hour after taking 10mg of CBD. Or less hand tremors from 5mg of THC. Or a blood sedimentation rate that is reduced leading to a reduction in prednisone from taking THCa. None of these clients are high.
For me there is no more peaceful feeling than lying in bed wide awake trying for ninety minutes to go to sleep and realizing that my restless legs are calm. My body is sinking into the mattress without jerking around and kicking my bedmate. It has taken me nine months to achieve that peaceful feeling. Why has it taken nine months? Well treating back pain is the most difficult problem to treat.
Everyone has a unique metabolism, we differ in our response, in our ability to breakdown the components of CBD and THC, or terpenes. Some terpenes cause allergies. If a product causes the eyes to itch or the nose to drain, maybe it is the terpenes. Terpenes are in many supplements. The European Union is the only country in the world to test and regulate supplements.
It is hard to find medical cannabis that is purely CBD or purely THC. Every dispensary wants to sell CBD:THC in ratios of: 18:1, 10:1, 5:1, 2:1, 1:1. While 2.5mg of THC is a starting dose. If you do not want to get the mind altering feeling of THC do not take a product that has a ratio less than 10:1 CBD:THC. Adjusting the dose is hard when the products vary in ratios. Therefore I, along with many doctors who teach patients to self-adjust, recommend utilizing one bottle of CBD with one drop being 1mg of CBD along with a second bottle of THC that also delivers 1mg of THC with one drop. This is called microdosing.
Look up Dr. Sulak, from Maine. He has a website called https://healer.com which demonstrates with videos how to adjust cannabis and eliminate opioids. If a local dispensary does not have these products, ask for them or purchase them on line made in CA, as some are not legally sold across state lines. Utilizing a cannabis coach is the most effective way to replace opiates, anxiolytics, antidepressants, and insomnia pharmaceuticals.
One final personal note. I would like to share a poem about my ordeal in using cannabis.
Ode to cannabis
your spindly leaves
grow towards me
evoking confusion and curiosity
some label you a scourge
on humanity
lawmakers besmirch you
I
savor
your perfumed
oil
under my tongue
awaiting
the unfamiliar state
of receding restlessness
leaving pain an orphan
request an evaluation from Ruth Hill at hilruth@gmail.com
