Welcome to the Cannaba Verum podcast, the cannabis truth podcast. I speak the language of cannabis freely uncensored while educating my audience on the safe use of this live Plant Therapy. 

You should know what’s in your cannabis. what’s good and what’s not. It does not come with an FDA stamp of approval yet. Using cannabis mindfully as medication is a different concept in western healthcare philosophy, specifically of the past 100 years. There’s a lot to learn and reconsider. 

The information you’ll find here comes straight from the scientists and clinicians doing the work and reporting their findings in real time through various online outlets. The scientific truth that cannabis is good for us is finally getting out and is wide open for all to see at respected medical sites like pubmed.gov and JAMA, the Journal of American Medical Association. And I’m right there in the thick of it with all those titans of medicine… as a fly on the wall. Because I’m not a doctor. I didn’t go to med school. I took dozens of private cannabis courses offered by cannabis scientists online over the past few years. And slowly began to understand the bigger picture. But I’m not a medical doctor or scientist. Oh, I can talk to one about cannabis and hopefully inspire more doctors and patients alike to research the facts as we know them today and decide alternative health paths for themselves. 

This is Honey Smith Walls, a 21st century cannabis shaman, not a doctor, not a scientist, just here to explain this great big story and the language of cannabis in its historical, political and scientific terms, so you can make educated decisions about the medicine you choose to ingest. 

Guest Promo:

Hello, my friends. I’m presenting another series of conversations with our good friend the fabulous Dr. Leah. But I must warn you, although we plan to talk about the relationship between professionals and patients in our society, and how to create a better system, I had just been through an emotionally charged event I felt obliged to speak about concerning rape. You’ll hear me sort of choke on having to relive the story but nobody could have been more surprised than I about it. I thought all that mess was behind me. 

What I had completely forgotten was who I was talking to. I just lammed into girlfriend mode with Dr. Leah. But listen to her credentials, I just snagged off her LinkedIn. Dr. Leah Johnson, known to the cannabis community as Dr. Leah, is a formally trained clinical cannabis pharmacist and the owner and CEO of Alchemist Cannabis Consulting. She holds a doctorate degree in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. She is also an accomplished, highly driven clinical long term care and rehabilitation pharmacist with a primary focus in pain, mental health, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and sexual health medication management. 

She also has holds three patents for natural herbal remedy tinctures which she helped develop as the head of research and development for an herbal supplement company. Dr. Leah believes that complete physical health and mental health and well being can be influenced by the utilization of cannabis as well as other herbal remedies and supplements in conjunction with pharmaceutical medicines. She believes that most patients are given too many and inappropriate prescription medications while not being given the knowledge for utilizing effective herbal and supplements to reduce pill burden. She also believes that many patients are unable to get full relief of their ailments due to the missing components in their medication regimens. In an effort to improve the overall health and well being of patients, Dr. Leah works with patients and with their health care providers from all over the country to reduce the amount of medications taken, altering timing and dosing of medications to improve effectiveness and identify medications which could be causing issues. She also works with cannabis companies to advise them on dosing, safety interactions, and how to better help their customers see health improvements with the use of their products. 

So I just read all that off of Dr. Leah’s LinkedIn account. And I want to add this… At 68, I have a lot of elderly friends by 20 years on both sides of my age who are already on a handful of pills, and their minds are in a foggy mess. And I cannot believe their spouses still let them get behind the wheel of a car. But there they are. What Dr. Leah is offering to all of us is an opportunity to clear the fog and feel better. The first call will blow your

mind and it’s free. And her telehealth fee is an affordable and reasonable investment. into your quality of life. 

Take this opportunity seriously. It’s a phone call all about you with an expert medical professional who is actively trying to change the relationship between patients and doctors. Look for her information in the show notes and she’s also highlighted on my website in the Resources page. Then text her today. Just think of feeling great again for a change… And now Dr. Leah Johnson.

Do I have you Leah? Hello my dear. How are you? Hi, I’m great. How are you today?

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 7:01

I am doing great. I don’t have my normal headset so if anything comes off sounding funny just give me a heads up.

Honey Smith Walls 7:06

Okay, but you sound really great to me. Am I a little too loud?

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 7:10

No, you are fine. You sound absolutely fine. Okay, great.

Honey Smith Walls 7:15

Leah, I’m so grateful. I have this time to talk to you. I first of all, I appreciate the topic that we’re about to discuss. Because it’s you know, the world just needs to be aware of how things actually work and peeking behind the curtain with you, you know, just proved so valuable for everybody. 

But secondarily Oh my goodness. I just saw… I just need another woman because I just saw that new Matt Damon movie. And it was… I just feel like I need to warn everybody that it’s got an incredibly graphic rape scene and that the attitudes of the men for the rest of the movie are as horrific as you can imagine they would be about a guy who thinks that that’s okay. Oh, yeah. Or they don’t see it as a rape. You know, it’s it’s it’s just, you know, she totally wanted me to…

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 8:21

Oh, no, absolutely. I mean, it’s the same thing. With I believe the movie show girls back from the late 90s I think, had the same thing. And these are definitely movies where if there’s anything having to do with rape, people don’t understand that like, post traumatic stress disorder absolutely can happen from getting raped and to have movies with these types of themes that are not being you know, without the you know, precursor of hey, just giving anybody a heads up that there is this in the movie, I think is so important because, you know, in the military movies, they always you know, say that there’s going to be graphic violence but specifically rape is such an important thing because, you know, a soldier can have post traumatic stress from being in the service and seeing some of the vivid depictions could be really emotionally disturbing for them. But that’s the same for rape victims as well. To see the same thing… it just retriggers those feelings and so it definitely, all those types of movies should absolutely have a warning to viewers… not just oh, it’s R rated because of graphic content, but specifically state due to a rape scene and then that would be enough not to let out what the movie’s about or to spoil or anything but it is important… that way people are prepared… the people who cannot handle these types of things will know to avoid them, you know, if need be.

Honey Smith Walls 9:44

This whole movie is on the premise of a true story that happened in medieval times. And so you know, and then the attitudes have just prevailed. You know, always and we’re still trying, women are still trying to soften the violence of men, and it’s just damned hard. It’s just damned hard and I feel like you’re right. They need to put a warning up that this could possibly trigger not not just women, you know? Yeah, women aren’t the only ones who are raped.

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 10:16

Exactly. I mean, they can trigger anybody really but then and so that was one huge things, definitely about it. The other thing too, is that, you know, these are things that actually we’re seeing like even in long term care facilities. We are seeing this type of…like as you had mentioned, you know, this male behavior where a lot of the older residents, men who have been in family situations where it was appropriate to growl at women and, you know, and physically control women like that was actually…  I have patients that I’ve run into where, you know, there are survey people, the people who do the analysis of the facilities who have to go in sometimes because there are older elderly, male patients groping the female nurses. And we, as pharmacists who go into these facilities, have to prevent these facilities from utilizing medications to prevent these patients from doing this because a lot of facilities try to use what we as pharmacists called chemical restraints, which are medications that like for example, in long term care facilities, which are also skilled nursing facilities or elderly homes. 

Back in the day, people would give anti psychotics to patients just to sedate them just to pretty much make them quiet so that they weren’t screaming and yelling and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And obviously, that’s horrible. And as pharmacists, we make sure that chemical restraints are not being used at facilities, but that’s currently also being used again the for these. And it’s like this is a psychological disorder that needs to be discussed with a therapist. This is not something that you can use so some of these men and I’m not saying that what they’re doing is appropriate. What I’m saying is what they were taught is inappropriate and what they are doing is inappropriate, based off of what they were taught. 

So to give them estrogen to lower their sexual drive…that’s a chemical restraint. You are actually altering their chemical nature, you know, to get them to not do this. Now. There are many other ways to go about it, but this is one of the things we do in part as a pharmacist is to make sure that medications that are given to patients are necessary and appropriate because often medications are used to hinder a person and if there’s  something going wrong, there are ways to handle it. Appropriately without using medication as a restraint for patients.

Honey Smith Walls 12:58

Wow. Well, what we really wanted to talk about today and I’m sorry to be such kind of a Debbie Downer. I’m not. That was not the reason I wanted to talk about but I’m so glad to talk to you because I need you today dear. I need you. I need you to help me get through this. This mental emotional mess and goo that I’m feeling after that movie, and this is you know 24 hours later. I saw it yesterday at 11 o’clock. And I’m still just I’m still looping these negative feelings in my head and you know, I’ve been trying to medicate with cannabis thoughtfully and mindfully and not overdo it. But it has to work.

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 13:48

And so they also showed some really great studies. They’re newer studies, but it’s the utilization of MDMA, which is the active ingredient and what people call Ecstasy or Molly or whatever the street name is that you want to use. But they’ve shown that what MDMA does is… it’s similar to the way an antidepressant works. Antidepressants prevent most of the brain from pulling up the serotonin back inside and recycling it. What this allows is more serotonin to build in the periphery and by having more serotonin fill… that helps with happiness. And energy. So with with PTSD, using MDMA, what MDMA does is instead of preventing reuptake of the serotonin what it prevents, is it or what it does is it allows for the surge of serotonin to be released from the wells of serotonin you have in your brain, so it actually releases a bunch of serotonin. That’s why everybody who’s on high doses of MDMA, feel happy.

Honey Smith Walls 15:03

That’s why they called it Ecstasy.  I stayed away from all of that when I was a kid.

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 15:08

Yeah, I have never done it. But in very, very, very small doses, what we call micro dosing, so you’d don’t physically affect the patient, you just help open the brain a little bit and help it heal.

Honey Smith Walls 15:23

Can I call my doctor and ask for that?

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 15:27

Sadly, not at this point. It’s still illegal in the US. Oh, yeah. But I mean, some research

facilities are allowed to utilize it for these types of studies. So there are a lot of studies which have been done for psychiatry, psychiatrists with their PTSD patients.

Honey Smith Walls 15:46

I know that mushrooms are sort of on a fast track for helping you know for becoming legalized even more so than cannabis, but yeah, aren’t mushrooms good for depression as well? Am I mistaken?

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 16:01

No mushrooms are good for depression and anxiety. They’re also like, a little less seen for pain, but they can also be slightly helpful for pain. There. We’re still learning a lot about psilocybin and how it works in the body. And there’s still a lot to learn… direct effects of psilocybin and PTSD is still very much in the early stages of of research. But cannabis, as you mentioned before, specifically THC,  one of its side effects is… and I don’t want to say forgetfulness, because this was a big thing that we discussed, you know during the different certification courses we were in… and we all kind of, you know, as a bunch of healthcare professionals, we were really discussing the concept of, it’s not always a bad thing to forget. Sometimes to not have something in your memory at all times is beneficial to you as a person. 

So cannabis really helps people with PTSD because what it does is it allows them to forget that traumatic situation they’re going through. It’s always going to be there, they’re always gonna remember it, but if they were thinking about it all the time, it causes anxiety, stress and so many other physical ailments, that it’s better to forget it in the immediate frame. You make sure you take it out of the the short term memory, you know, it’s always going to be in the long term memory but having it in the short term memory does not benefit the patient. 

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Seg 2

Same thing with pain. I’ve had lots of injuries and if I were to remember like for example, my biggest definitely something that has affected me is I had a triple fracture and dislocation. So they call it a tri malleolar fracture because it was three bones that were broken, and dislocation of my left ankle. And for the first few months, every single time I would step off a curb because that’s how I broke it. I would cringe and my whole body would tense up and I would start hyperventilating because the idea of stepping off a curb triggered that for me and I remembered the the event. And it paused me for a good couple like good minute to kind of re assess myself so that the nice thing about the low dose of THC and for some people needs to be more of a moderate depending on how they handle it. The lower to moderate doses of THC help your brain just kind of slightly put that situation in the in the back of your brain not in the forefront. So because it is gonna happen. It has happened… you do want to remember that it’s happened, you know, for just for mental well being and you know, you know, it’s important to know that something’s happened in your life. You don’t want to forget it all together. But you do want to make sure it’s not something that is actively affecting your life.

Honey Smith Walls 19:11

I don’t ever remember anybody teaching me anything about how the mind works in school. There are so many different levels and plateaus that we think on and, you know, just different clouds and bubbles and stuff that you know it… we’re not just thinking one thought at a time. Oh, yeah. And so the ability to be able to to assuage some of those negative looping thoughts is such a valuable asset of cannabis. And it’s not a forever thing and you’re not forgetting it you’re just setting it aside so that it’s not affecting you emotionally like it has been me… my blood pressure is still high today. I mean, you know, I’m I’m nervous. I’m sad. I’m I’m looking actively looking for ways to not cry right now.

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 20:09

And that’s where low dose THC is really helpful. So that way you…. because the problem is a lot of people will say, I’m stressed… I’m emotional. This was very hurtful. This brought up memories and images that I have suppressed for so long and unable to heal from and now it’s like all those wounds have just been ripped open.

Honey Smith Walls 20:29

Yeah. This really takes me aback right now. I’m sorry to be so tearful but it really surprises me that I’m, I’ve been affected this way. You know, I’ve seen lots of other movies, lots of other but none quite so like this one. And, and it was just… it just pushed every button in my body, I guess. Yeah.

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 20:49

And I mean in the one other thing that people forget is whether or not especially in a situation for this movie, which is rape but you know, for those who have not had these symptoms, who have not had these experiences to trigger these, these outcomes, even if you haven’t been raped, if you’re a very emotional person, especially if you you know are an empath you really, you know, feel the emotions of other people to witness something like that is as traumatic as actually happening to you for some people, not saying for everybody, of course, but for some people it is just as traumatic as you know, experiencing it yourself. 

So it is really important that people protect themselves and you know, it’s again, it’s always important to know things but it’s also really good to know what you can do to heal yourself if you’ve been triggered. And you know, and so some people will go into these situations saying, I’ve never experienced this, I shouldn’t have any issue with it, but still get triggered. And that’s why it’s so important to know what you can turn to, you know, I mean, there are anti anxiety pills. Of course, they’re antidepressant pills, of course, but you know, to utilize a low dose cannabis, specifically THC, you know, CBD for the overall effect of calming but really THC because THC affects the brain and directly calms the brain. So really what we really want to do is low doses of THC, just enough to say… it’s not that I don’t remember what I saw yesterday is yeah, this is going to help me handle what I saw yesterday… Right? 

So you know for cannabis naive people you could even CBD is helpful for that but or point five THC at the lowest you but for people who are experienced THC users I mean, even a dose at about two milligrams three milligrams is amazing. And also the CBD. I always like to encourage that everybody really should make sure that their THC has a higher version of CBD usually high or low. A higher ratio. Yeah, a lot of people will do a one to one which is great for pain. It’s other things because sometimes you do need more THC and sometimes you need THC just in general like for insomnia but force for when it really comes to emotional you want both because your body responds your heart rate increases. That’s where the CBD comes in. CBD will calm the heart rate your CBD will help you calm your muscles will help you physically relax while the THC is helping you mentally relax.

Honey Smith Walls 23:19

I’ve got a question about CBD and liver enzymes…

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 23:23

okay go for it.

Honey Smith Walls 23:26

Is it gonna take just pounds and pounds of CBD to affect your liver enzymes?

Guest Expert: Dr. Leah 23:33

No, actually no. You can affect your liver enzymes even not only from CBD but also from just THC. Because both are broken down in the liver. However, there’s been some new information on some websites that have come in about cannabis interactions, which are completely absurd and are going based on just the fact that the cannabis is broken down by the liver, which is true. Both CBD ,THC, and all the other cannabinoids are all broken down in the liver from what we currently know based off of research and studies. 

And so obviously if your liver is not functioning properly, or if you’re having high doses of CBD or THC, it can absolutely affect the liver. But again, usually we see liver dysfunction, or liver, at least the liver enzymes being elevated. Usually when we see higher doses specifically of CBD. So this is when people start using hundreds of milligrams per day. Yeah, that’s usually where we… like I mean, I’ve seen some things where people are using 500 milligrams of CBD per dose… 1000 milligrams of CBD. And this is just insane… like this is just you know, unless you’re somebody who’s specifically being treated by a scientist, you know, a cannabis researcher. The reason we have this much CBD is because he or she is a patient who has some issue that they’re trying to fix. 

They’re shaking and we need to up the dose to you know, help with that one thing, but a lot of people are saying, Oh, I’ve heard so this much CBD is good. Obviously this much CBD is better. Yeah, Dr. Google? Oh, yeah. And then the the biggest thing I always explained to people is two different things. 

Everybody’s cannabinoid dysfunction is different. So what works for me and what works for you is not going to work the same for your listeners are not going to work the same for my patients. It’s going to work what works for each individual person, which is why it’s so important to start low. Go slow. And really I always encourage to work with a cannabis practitioner because this is the person that when something weird happens and your endocannabinoid system dysfunction responds in a way that you’re, you know, doesn’t really make sense to literature… This is where you have somebody there say, Hmm, let me figure out what caused this so that we can get the effect that we’re looking for in a different way.

Honey Smith Walls 26:05

Nodding my head affirmatively…  Must see an expert in cannabis, if you’re going to get the…. you know, the success with this medication for the least amount of money… point you in the right direction… get you started… monitor everything that you’re doing with cannabis and help you hold your hand through the process. I guess I’m at this point I’m just…. I don’t know… flabbergasted that so many people are just left alone to their own devices to try to figure it out. 

Outro’

Hey, friends, we’re gonna stop here so you can go live your life for a minute, but want you to know that we’ll be back to continue this series with our good friend Dr. Leah Johnson, who takes us behind the curtain of not only our medical industry culture, but the pharmacology of cannabis and how it works for us. 

And friends. Dr. Leah is only a text message away to help you quell your tummy issues, understand your personal chemical mixology and help you figure out a solution to your medical pharmacology issues. If you’re not satisfied with your quality of life on that handful of prescription pills, then just text Dr. Leah and she’ll follow up with a free 15 minute chat all about you. She’ll look at your mess of pills and work with your physician to make you more comfortable while educating you about the needs of your body. 

Invest in your health by texting Area code 408-418-8802 Don’t bother writing it down. I’ll put it in the show notes but I’m going to tell you anyway. And you can also email her at DrLeah…That’s D R L E A H, one word… the at sign…DrLeah@AlchemistCannabisConsulting.com 

Don’t bother writing it down. You know where it is… in my show notes. Also gonna be on my website. So thank you for hanging out with us. And a personal note to our dear friend Dr. Leah… thank you for helping me through this particular moment. Gosh, I appreciate you so much. 

Pax Vobiscum everybody.

You’ve been listening to another Cannaba Verum podcast with 21st century cannabis shaman Honey Smith Walls (that’s me) about the importance of using verifiably safe products. The process of becoming diagnosed for problems and taking your records to a cannabis specialist can lead you to the correct cannabinoid therapy for those issues. 

Otherwise, you’re just your own guinea pig looking for answers without any foundational knowledge or ability to determine the best choices or strategies to find help in a cannabis expert in your area. 

Visit cannabisclinicians.org That’s cannabisclinicians.org And unless otherwise proven by a reputable third party lab test, please be advised that all street weed is contaminated. It may do grave harm to a patient with a delicate immune system who already has inflammatory issues like arthritis, IBS, fibromyalgia or worse. 

It would mean the world to me for you to join my dear audience. If you subscribe to the podcast, you won’t miss the latest news about cannabis straight from the source. And if you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll be part of a project to understand the effects of cannabis on the public. Your anecdotal cannabis testimonies are priceless to me. So it’s not just you learning. It’s me learning what you need to learn. Then I can make that happen for you and show you the way without being repetitive for those advanced patients. There’s so much to learn. And it’s fascinating. Come on along on this cannabis journey with us and be part of a real time study. I’ll report back to the scientist about you informally, of course, and they’ll report their new discoveries to us. I love the synergy in the heart of the moment. You’ll find medical citations posted on my podcast blog when you visit to subscribe at CannabaVerum.com That CANNABAVERUM.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

MOOOOOOO!!

Sources:

Cannaba Verum is Latin for Cannabis Truth. Sourcing factual information about cannabis hasn’t always been easy for a variety of reasons. However now because of modern innovations, it is. My sources are from historical and modern leaders in cannabis science: 

Roger Adams, U.S. Organic Chemist who isolated the structure of CBD, 

Raphael Mechoulam, Israeli Organic Chemist who isolated the structure of THC,

Ethan Russo, Dir R&D International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute 

Dustin Sulak, DO – my favorite doctor at healer.com, teaching the art of Cannabis Healing to the world, and other industry greats like: 

Rev. Dr. Kymron DeCesare, Ed Rosenthal, Jack Herer, Michael Backes, and Michael Pollen and so many more… plus I use classical sites like: PubMed.com, JAMA.com, ResearchGate.com. I listen to several daily podcasts to keep up with the latest cannabis news across the nation and throughout the world like:  The Great Shea Gunther at MJTodayDaily.com and MarijuanaMoment.net.  I trust the CBDProject.org and CannabisScienceTech.com. I watch the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) at: thecannabisindustry.org and many more.  

You’ll find Citations available on my podcast blog at cannabaverum.com 

PS: Helping society get past the fear of using cannabis will be a lifelong journey for me. This industry is just opening up and both patients and doctors are completely cannabis naive and need help understanding where to turn for trustworthy information. If you need help opening that cannabis discussion with your family doctor,  please reach out and grab the Dear Doctor Letter I wrote for this exact purpose. It will explain your decision to try cannabis and ask for their help in monitoring your labs and progress. It will also show them where they can find medical research on the subject of your diagnosis and the effects of cannabis. You’ll find that letter here: CannabaVerum.com  

1. Microdosing – https://healer.com/cbd-cannabis-dosage-guide-project-cbd-interview-with-dr-sulak/
2. Concentrates – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29307505/ 
3. Cannabis Helps Dementia Podcast – Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia
4. Society of Cannabis Clinicians – https://www.cannabisclinicians.org/
5. Take the Pledge – GreenTakeover.com 
6. HoneySmithWalls.com 
7. Handbook for Clinicians – Principles and Practice – https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393714180
8. Dr. Leah Johnson: Email: drleah@alchemistcannabisconsulting.com and (Text Only: 408-418-8802)
9. Pharmacists Cannabis Coalition of California (PCCC): Brand New…Check LinkedIn!
10.  Dr. Alan Ao can be found at: CannabisPharmacists.org 

All opinions are my own and should not be mistaken as medical advice.