Cannabis is Medicine

 

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It's just impossible

Seizure days. ESES days. How do we get through them? Still, I have no idea. Still. Still! What would it look like to get through them? Is there some sort of chant for it, a manifestation? How does Buddhism work when your daughter has a bad seizure day?  It's just impossible, my friend Jody once said about her own situation, and I think about that often. It's just impossible. I think about Paloma and Calvin and Michael and Robert and Zaki and Charlotte and FlyBoy and Sophia and William and Emily and -- well -- all of them. It's impossible.

Listen. We had Dr. Bonni Goldstein on the Who Lives Like This?! podcast this week! She educates everyone about the endocannabinoid system and how cannabis medicine can right the balance for so many disorders. She talks about caregiving for caregivers, but her advice is really for anyone who wants to learn about how imbalances in the endocannabinoid system can manifest as disease or insomnia or anxiety or depression, etc. She has advice and suggestions. Check it out here. You can listen right from the blog post or from iTunes directly.

Cannabis Oil Questions Answered: Tiny Little Mother Mind Report with Stanley Brothers Podcast Update

Each week the tiny little mother mind™ is consulted about various topics related to cannabis medicine. I thought that I'd emerge from my tiny little office and answer a question that I've been asked numerous times during the last few weeks as the news accounts of powerful legislators "evolving" and the FDA approval of GW Pharmaceuticals' cannabis product Epidiolex snowball into one big bag o' dollars and a confused consortium of doctors, incarcerated black people and other tiny little mother minds™ wonder what's up. As you can see by the above photo, I'm wearing my cannabis bindi to augment my tiny little mother mind™ machinations. I have also consulted with Dr. Bonni Goldstein because -- you know -- tiny little mother minds™ know when they need help and ask for it.

What's the difference between Epidiolex and Charlotte's Web Hemp Oil?

GW Pharmaceuticals has long been developing a cannabis-based pharmaceutical for the treatment of seizure disorders. It's called Epidiolex.* Last week, Investors Business Daily reported that the company's stock shot up to a months-long high because of the anticipation that the FDA will approve it for use. You can read about it here.

GW Pharmaceuticals basically grows the cannabis plant and extracts CBD from the plant -- extracts a single molecule cannabinoid and then adds in proprietary terpenoids (that they are not sharing with the public). The product is more than 98% CBD in an alcohol and sesame seed oil base with artificial (strawberry) flavoring. There is only a tiny trace of THC in the formula nor other cannabinoids.

Charlotte's Web Hemp Oil is a whole plant product that includes many full-spectrum cannabinoids as well as a better spectrum of flavonoids, terpenoids and some THC.

Reasonable people are going to agree that the more choices and options people have to treat themselves or their children, the better. If Epidiolex becomes available and works to control refractory seizures, then obviously that's a good thing. That being said, it's been my experience, as well as many, many other people's, that the best seizure control as well as anti-inflammatory and other medicinal benefits comes with the whole plant medicine that includes the wide variety of cannabinoids PLUS THC. That's been relatively easy for those of us in legal states -- we've added different cannabinoids (like the CBDA that Sophie is using) and, of course, THC (that Sophie is also using).

Plus, I'll just come out and say it: I don't trust the machinations of Big Pharma and dread their encroachment.

The tiny little mother mind™ doesn't have the time here on the blog to really explain or instruct you, Reader, about the endocannabinoid system, but I highly recommend that you read about it and educate yourself. The website www.projectcbd.org is an excellent resource, as is Dr. Bonni Goldstein's book Cannabis Revealed.**

UPDATE: If you enjoy podcasts, the Stanley Brothers (of the eponymous Charlotte's Web fame) who are a sort of Jesus and disciples for some of us in the cannabis medicine world, have a new podcast that airs today, Friday, the 27th. Their first episode features Sanjay Gupta and discusses the opioid crisis and cannabis as an answer to it. I know a whole lot about cannabis, as you know, but I learned so much more. This weekend, I believe, CNN is airing Part IV of its series Weed. The times are a changing. Let's hope that they change in the right way -- WHOLE PLANT CANNABIS MEDICINE that Big Pharma doesn't destroy.

Here's the podcast link:

Stanley Brothers Breaking Ground



















* My tiny little mother mind™is also a nerdy mind, and I love to pick apart the names that pharmaceutical companies give their concoctions. With the help of the internets I've parsed out Epidiolex:

Epi:   Greek, upon, on, over

Dio:  Latin, deity, god

Lex:  Latin, law, statute

So, are we safe, Reader, in interpreting this new drug manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals as being Over God's Law? 




**Disclaimer: I helped Dr. Goldstein with the book and am given a small percentage of sales.

Tiny Little Mother MInd™ Report, Part 486,783

A lot of you have been asking me about Sophie, how she is, what's going on and whether the cannabis medicine is still helping her. I'm sorry to be so circumspect -- sometimes I feel like an old peasant woman who might jinx things if I dare to utter anything positive. The thing is -- Sophie is doing really great as far as seizures are concerned. I seem to have found a sweet spot with CBD and Onfi, and she's going weeks without any discernible seizures. She's also eating and drinking and sleeping really well. Her mobility is still not as good, though, as it used to be, and it's becoming difficult to take her walking. She's stiff and contracted a lot of the time and resistant to movement. The New Neurologist is working with me to try to figure out what's going on. I asked The New Neurologist whether I should just be satisfied with The Way Things Are. I asked him whether this might be The New Normal. I don't know if it's the years of mindfulness meditation or just what my friend Jody called years ago, creative denial, but I'm pretty good at accepting things eventually, at least with my tiny little mother mind.™ I've figured out most days that the harder I resist whatever is in the present, the darker the day and the quicker the descent into what The Bird Photographer has quite aptly named the dark side. The New Neurologist said quite emphatically, "No. She's only 22, and I don't think we need to accept this incapacity." He's ordered some tests, I continue to give her CBD daily, and I've made the executive decision with my tiny little mother mind™ to do another tiny little wean of the Onfi. The New Neurologist doesn't mind the benzo, so I've decided that I'm on my own, and you know what? I have no more f**ks to give regarding that miserable drug. I'm not sure when, and I'm not jinxing anything at this point.

We shall see.

So that's where we are, and speaking of cannabis:

photographer: Carl Jackson

Do any of you want to know more about cannabis medicine? You've heard me talk about Dr. Bonni Goldstein, right? If you haven't ordered and read her book Cannabis Medicine Revealed,* you should do so now. Dr. Goldstein is a nationally renowned expert on cannabis medicine, and a group of my friends and acquaintances had the great good fortune a couple of weeks ago to attend a presentation that she gave at my house. Dr. Goldstein has a year-long waiting list for patients, but she was not at my house to give personal advice about cannabis. She doesn't sell any cannabis products nor distribute them, but she is a wealth of information and helps thousands of patients with various illnesses to find relief from their symptoms. She spoke of the history and politics of cannabis and answered questions about its efficacy in treating various diseases. Since most of you can't or couldn't come to my house and ask her questions, you can educate yourself and others. I think you'll find the book enormously accessible with well-researched information and compelling stories of some of her patients.

Here's the link to buy the book:

Cannabis Revealed: How the World's Most Misunderstood Plant is Treating Everything from Chronic Pain to Epilepsy

*Disclosure: I helped Dr. Goldstein with the book and am paid a small percentage of books sold.

The Broken Record of THC, Baby

I think ya'll are in need of a Sophalofa update,  no? Let's all knock on wood three times, on the ceiling like you mean it. We've gotten through another minuscule wean of the benzo, and Sophie is sitting up, eating and drinking and walking and humming and not-sleeping and not-seizing like a champ. The THC is helping her.

The benzo, legally prescribed and given to her over much of her twenty-two years on the planet, damaging her brain and causing Benzo Withdrawal Syndrome does not work. It harms her.

The THC and CBD are helping her.

Let me type that again: The THC is helping her. 

Did you hear that Jim Sessions, Tom Price and all the rest of you goons on the cabinet and in the legislature of the Disunited States of Amerikkka, Inc.? Canada is moving right along with federal policy. You can read about that here. If the country didn't discriminate against those with disabilities immigrating there, I'd be putting on my tiny mother mind™ thinking hat right over that pink pussy one that I'd need anyway given Canada's chilly climate.

Anyhoo.

THC, baby. CBD. Whole plant cannabis medicine.

Sigh.

Did you read this?

A pharma company that spent $500,000 trying to keep pot illegal just got DEA approval for synthetic marijuana

Don't peel yourself off the floor or anything. You've heard it all right here for years. I've walked by Insys' tables at epilepsy conventions and "brain" summits, walked by their smiling reps and picked up and perused their glossy brochures. I have probably benefitted from their underwriting of epilepsy projects. In the words of Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club (watch the whole thing, please, because his final line is what I'm saying):



















This has been a Public Service Announcement.

If you want to learn more about cannabis medicine, I highly recommend you purchase Dr. Bonni Goldstein's book Cannabis Revealed. I helped her to tell the stories of many people who are seeing amazing results for various diseases and conditions, and you can read about them as well as learn about the history of the plant, how it works, what the latest research tells us, how to dose and other invaluable information. Because of my contributions, I do make a small amount for every copy sold, so this is also my disclosure, but even if I didn't, I'd tout the book as it's the best one out there about a subject that we still, evidently, can't convince the Powers That Be to get their heads out of their fannies, look past the cold, hard cash and start helping people like Sophie with it. Send a copy to Sessions et al, if you're so inclined, to help their view. It's dark and stinks up there.

Cannabis Revealed

Cannabis Revealed

Dr. Bonni is Sophie's doctor, my cannabis mentor, my advisor and my friend. Her long-awaited book, Cannabis Revealed was recently published and is available for purchase on Amazon as well as CreateSpace.The book is expensive, but it's essential reading, and I encourage any of you who have an interest in cannabis as medicine or who are using cannabis as medicine to add it to your library. First of all, this is a serious book that is thoroughly researched. It is as much directed toward professionals as it is toward laypersons, but the writing is clear and informative.

Given the number of emails I receive a week from strangers looking for more information or for advice on where to start, I am just thrilled to now be able to recommend Dr. Bonni's book. Cannabis Revealed provides a clear history of the plant, an in-depth discussion of the endocannabinoid system, the safety profile of cannabis and medical risks of cannabis and then an exhaustive and thorough discussion of how to use cannabis medicine, including dosing. The book also discusses how cannabis can be used to treat specific medical symptoms and diseases, providing interesting stories of real patients that Dr. Bonni treats, including our Sophie! You will be informed and inspired by this book -- the next best thing to actually having Dr. Bonni as your doctor.

You Are Not Alone

Point Lobos, CA

I don't believe in the power of prayer.  Even if you insist. I do believe in the open-ness of intention. That might sound ridiculous. I held Sophie in my arms this morning and asked for mercy and light. I know that I can't pray for Sophie to be healed, nor for me to know how to fix things, to figure them out. I know that I can be opened to caring for her more fully, more presently, with more resilience and calm. I know that I can gather her in my arms, her limbs wrought from mine, all her limbs. I know that healing is around us, in the air, in the crunch of yellow flowers that litter the lawn, brittle yet bright, despite.

Ask and open to receive.













It doesn't seem fair to weave some words together and fling them out there. Sophie is at school today.  She's not great, but she's at school. I'm taking her to the osteopath this afternoon. I'm surrounding her with wellness in spite of the relentless downturn. That's the way I've done it for two decades. I spoke to Dr. Goldstein this morning, the doctor who helps us with all things cannabis-related. For the first time in weeks, I felt helped. We have a plan. Dr. Goldstein said, You are not alone. I will help you.