"They Say that I'm A Dreamer..."

"But I'm not the only one."

--John Lennon

We used to live in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Our front yard contained some Rhododendron bushes and once in awhile the land--remembering that it used to be forest—allowed a poison oak plant would creep into the yard. At the time I read that nature provides an antidote for our physical ills and that Rhododendron tea applied to the skin would help heal a poison oak rash.

I steeped some tea and applied it to my skin--after I did acquire a rash--and although it’s been so long that I don’t remember if I tried any ointment along with the Rhody tea, I don't have a poison oak rash anymore.

This knowledge that nature provides antidotes dovetailed perfectly with the Hippocrate's quote that food is medicine, and that the Hemp plant--the true subject of this post, may provide some valuable healing.  

(Do not drink Rhododendron tea! I do believe it is poison, so see, I don’t think just because something is natural it is good for you. Let’s get reasonable here.)

So onto the subject of Cannabis:

This morning I was thinking that the prohibition of Hemp was to people like trying to put your cat where you want him. He has a mind of his own and will go where he wants.

I was cleaning the refrigerator really.

Prohibition of alcohol didn’t work, neither did prohibition of Hemp. It sure wreaked havoc for 80 years though. Imagine this: President Nixon placed 24-hour-a-day surveillance on John Lennon after his concert in support of John Sinclair who was serving a 10-year sentence for selling two joints.

 

The words Hemp and Cannabis are used interchangeably. The law states that it is legal to grow Hemp, therefore Cannabis, the genus name for hemp, must come from hemp--which it does). 

While hemp and Cannabis have the same taxonomy, they contain different components. The growers know this, and grow accordingly, like how to get more female plants that produce buds and flowers that contain both TCP and CBD. 

I don’t think that the makers of the 1937 Marihuana Tax Law (yep with an “h”) knew that chemists could extract the CBD, the non-psychoactive portion of the plant. It’s bizaare, too, for a law to use the word Marihuana, for it was meant as a racially-biased slang term to cast disparaging association on the use of pot, but it doesn't sound like terminology lawyers would use..

Now we know more. And if we look into our bodies, we will find cannabinoids, (CB’s) in virtually every major system from your brain down to your toes and including your skin.

And we know that Cannabis has two components. One: TCP that works on the nervous system, and gives the “high.” Two: CBD, that works on the immune system.

I mentioned on the October 17 post, that over time, with aging, this endocannabinoid system eventually burns out. Fewer cannabinoids are released, so the body’s cannabinoid levels deplete. The results are that we get age-related symptoms, like memory loss, blurry vision, joint discomfort, and aches and pains.

But help is on the way in the form of CBD substances.

That the plant’s genus name Cannabis,and that we have a system in our bodies called cannabinoid is another astounding coincidence.

 Yesterday I slipped my husband’s loops over my head, and adjusted the eyepieces so I could read a label that must have been printed with .0 font.

 “*Phytocannabinoid Rich Hemp

“Other ingredients: Virgin organic Hemp seed oil, vitamin E.

*” Phytocannabinoid rich hemp.” Yea sure, phyto meaning it came from a plant and yes, hemp is naturally phytocannabinoid, but that doesn’t mean this oil contained any CBD.

I was duped.

And hemp-seen oil has no CBD.

It’s a super-food, but no CBD.

Beware of Junk CBD.

 “Only products labeled CBD are guaranteed to contain a legitimate quantity of CBD. The majority of hemp oils contain only trace CBD and hemp seed oil products do not contain any CBD.

“If you are looking for a quality source of CBD, you want products sourced from the resin-producing flowering segments of the hemp plant. Hemp seeds provide zilch usable CBD.

“Even if your hemp seed bottle label is flashy, don’t let it fool you. Unless CBD is listed in the ingredients.

“Bottom line: Hemp seed products do not contain CBD oil in them, despite how they may be advertised. “If a label doesn’t disclose its CBD content, it is basically non-existent.--    Kanibi.com

When purchasing CBD products look to a company that has full transparency, meaning they label their ingredients, tell where it was sourced, have it triple tested by an outside testing company, say that it has been grown organically, has no GMO’s, and is preferable grown in the U S. It appears that Colorado, Kentucky and North Carolina are the best. (Oregon growers might stake issue with this.)

Research suggests cannabinoids might:

•      Help maintain healthy blood sugar regulation

•       Support optimal cardiovascular health

•       Support healthy skin

•      Help neutralize free radicals

•     Help maintain a healthy immune system

• ·    Support optimal digestive function.

•       Reduce or relieve pain

•       Improve sleep quality.

•       Help counteract neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s by removing plaque that blocks the neuron signals.

•       Reduce cigarette and alcohol addiction

•      Reduce muscle spasms, cramps.

•      Reduce anxiety

•       Reduce inflammation and relieve pain

•       Control nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy

•       Kill cancer cells and slow tumor growth

•      Stimulate appetite and improve weight gain in people with cancer and AIDS Help maintain healthy blood sugar regulation.

•       Help counteract neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s by removing plaque that blocks the neuron signals.

•     Reduce cigarette and alcohol addiction

• Reduce muscle spasms, cramps.

Medical marijuana received a lot of attention a few years ago when parents said that a special form of the drug helped control seizures in their children. The FDA recently approved Epidiolex, which is made from CBD, as a therapy for people with very severe or hard-to-treat seizures. In studies, some people had a dramatic drop in seizures after taking this drug.

(To get a little glimpse into why Hemp has been denied to us for over 80 years check into https://makingsenseofcannabis.com

"I need new skeptics, my old ones became believers."

What Do You Do?

What do you do when you hit one of those days where you question why you’re here, if you are making any difference in the world, and feel that your work is a bunch of crap? 

I rarely have those days, but I did yesterday. 

I had nothing to say for my blog, even sitting in front of the computer drove me nuts. And then I dipped into twitter and saw a beautiful girl riding bareback on a gorgeous horse. 

 

I felt uplifted until I saw that shortly below the picture Lady Gaga was rushing home because her horse, Arabella--the one in the picture--was dying. 

Well, crumb. 

A few pictures below, that beautiful girl was crying her eyes out with a broken heart. 

I got out of twitter and decided to get out of the house too.  

Luckily, that day, I had that opportunity as I don’t always have a vehicle and I care for my grandson. But as luck would have it, my daughter was home and I could take off for tall timber. Hey, I had my faithful pickup—my office on wheels. 

We’ve had rains recently and they have turned the fields into green lakes so exquisitely brilliant it brings tears to your eyes. And driving through emerald fields of green, I saw that lady luck was smiling on me.

A white horse galloped across a field.

The lead fell from my heart. And then across the road, I saw why the white horse was so excited. Two horses, with two riders, were ambling along through one of those fields.

To further cheer me up, later on, I stopped in my tracks and watched three squirrels playing tag in the middle of the road. There were no cars except for mine, so the squirrels were safe and they quickly scampered away to safety.

Guess I was scampering away to safety too. And I found a place to heal from my insecurities. Green fields, three horses, three playing squirrels. 

When animals play, they play full out. 

Sometimes we forget to do that. 

By evening, I had read Martha Beck’s account of an experience during surgery. I would call it an out-of-body-experience, some might say it was an anesthesia-induced hallucination, but no, it was, for her, a spiritual awakening no matter what you call it.  

It left her with a love, a calmness she had never before experienced. And her conclusion got to me. Rather than have one mountain-top experience, (she didn’t use that term) she concluded that that was the way we were meant to live all the time.

I wondered, however, about the following quote, and wondered who had said it, and found that I did. I had written it on a site that has languished unpublished for years. Had I read that quote someplace else?  I don’t know.

If we expect perfection we are in for a rude awakening. And if we expect that failure will never touch us, that is to say, we have never taken risks, learned from failure, survived a set-back or given the opportunity to forge ahead in the face of adversary. 

And so I read that site and received its pep-talk.

On the off-chance that someone else will benefit from it as I did, I hit the “Publish” button.

https://howtohaveeverythingyoualwayswanted.wordpress.com

Live long, and wish on a white horse every chance you get.

I love you,

 Joyce