Welcome to the Cannaba Verum podcast, the cannabis truth podcast. I speak the language of cannabis freely and 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 the healthcare philosophy of the past 100 years. There’s a lot to learn and consider cannabis is not dangerous, but it is not harmless, either. This is honey Smith walls, a 21st century cannabis shaman here to explain the language of cannabis in historical, political, and scientific terms, so you can make educated decisions about the medicine you ingest.
Hello my friends,
I’d like to talk to you about what you’ll find at the dispensaries at your disposal for purchasing medical marijuana. Medical Marijuana is exactly the same as Adult Marijuana… there is no difference except the legality. Medical marijuana patients jump through several hoops with lots of cash to see a doctor who will deem medical marijuana appropriate for their needs which allows a state card to be applied for and when it’s approved, the patient may then go to a dispensary in compliance with state laws and buy marijuana. Florida does not allow the sale of marijuana to the public like a candy store. But other states do and that’s called Adult-Use Marijuana. Exactly the same kinda of marijuana sold to patients in Florida dispensaries. Except some of those states who allow Adult-Use don’t enforce contamination compliance and instead, make the customer read and sign under a paragraph of disclosure that none of their product has been lab tested. That happened to me in MI several years ago when I was investigating their cannabis culture.
If you haven’t been to a dispensary yet, the ones in Florida are kinda like walking into a little boutique at a Club Med Spa … they all have their own brand, their own cannabis, their own choice of methods, their own chemical makeup of products for patients to choose, which is totally different than what you get down the street from the other dispensaries. And they all calculate their chemicals differently. No two batches will be the same unless that cannabis is strictly cloned and grown inside where the winds can’t blow new terpenes across the orange field into your prize grow or the huge deposit of minerals in your soil doesn’t also include bacteria and toxic heavy metals. Hard to maintain consistency when the fates of wind and air and earth born contamination is so close at hand and so easily able to ruin a whole harvest.
Telling you there has never been a death on the planet from cannabis is one thing… and it’s true. But that doesn’t make it harmless. And I find most of that harm comes in the damage done from contamination. There are other issues beside contamination, but this is really major until companies start growing cannabis for consumption like the medicine it is.
One of the problems is that testing for contamination means many different expensive little tests on individual contaminants like herbicides and fungicides and pesticides and molds and mildews and heavy metals. Just those 6 categories mean several tests for each devision. Not cheap. But by law, Florida dispensaries have to 3rd party lab test for content and contamination. So we’re pretty safe buying products from them.
Not true for over the counter CBD shops. CBD is one compound out of the 400+ in cannabis. Law does not require CBD products to be lab tested and most of them aren’t.
A few CBD companies lab test for content…what the cannabis makeup is in the product… but not for contamination. Most of these companies are not admitting that
their product could cause harm. But they all seem to have a lab somewhere expelling the oils and cannabinoids out of the raw leaf and putting the concentrates in bottles and pills and gummies and anything else they can think of. How is it they don’t understand the significance of contamination? But they’re not mentioning it. Why is that? Do they have lawyers?
Did you hear that recently California authorities found contamination in the papers some companies are using to roll cannabis joints… the PAPERS! Contamination comes in many forms. Like cheap steel from overseas that flake off into vape pen cartridges, the vape pen oils that turned out to be inferior products giving some patients lifelong breathing issues, and aspergillos mold that lined the lungs of cancer patients, killing them. It wasn’t the cannabis. It was the poisonous contamination due to the way it was grown, harvested, or produced. So one of the most important lessons to learn about cannabis is how to prove it’s clean.
This is where purchasing from a dispensary in Florida is the safest place to buy your cannabis meds. Florida Dispensaries will always be able to show you that 3rd party lab test on the product you’re about to buy.
The bud tenders at those dispensaries are real experts on their product line. But that’s as far as it goes. They’ve memorized the menu and descriptions. They didn’t take the course in botany, chemistry, or cultivation. They got a job at a nice new facility that sells pot to old people. And it’s their job to explain how the old people could use that product.
I’m 67. I rarely see people younger than 50 something at the dispensaries and when I do, they are generally in pretty poor shape.
I keep an ear open when I go to the dispensaries… it’s a great room design in most where several patients can be served at a long counter at once. And every time I hear a bud tender speak to an elder, I’m gobsmacked at what they say. The dialog today went something like this…
Chair was quickly brought in to assist white-haired elderly patient who couldn’t stand for long. None of the dispensaries have chairs or stools next to counters but each sale takes on the average 10-15 minutes… a long time to just stand for a patient.
Elder’s 30 something daughter asked most questions… mom was nervous and confused. Bud Tender kept referring to how the meds affected him and would she like to try this or that? More concerned questions from daughter who obviously is NOT a cannabis patient and is asking for clarification. Bud tender reiterates how the med affects him and she can always try something different if it didn’t work out. I couldn’t listen anymore. And I had to leave or my pack of 5 puppies were about to mutiny from the car.
I felt very sad for her though and wanted to sit down and listen to her fears and concerns and assure her that she could find the right cannabis and dosage with a little help.
But she wasn’t my patient… she didn’t come to me… and I was a stranger to her with no affiliation to the dispensary we were in. So I kept my mouth shut until I got home to talk about it with you. Break
As well-meaning as our sweet budtenders are, they are not doctors or shamans. They know a lot about their products and that’s fabulous! But they don’t know a lot about human conditions… especially in elders… and they don’t have the worldliness to consider what we already know as older humans… things don’t work the way they used to! And we’re most of us already on a handful of synthetic prescriptions that give us all kinds of side-effects. We fear the thought of more.
What I don’t hear much talk about is being mindful about cannabis. Mindful that cannabis will not hurt you. That if you experience discomfort in the way of anxiety or nervousness or anything else, you will be able to ease your way back into comfort.
Arm the patient with the tools to recover. Just giving the patient the knowledge that they can always be in control if they use cannabis properly will tame some of that fear and give the patient a much calmer recovery if they DO have an issue.
But Bud Tenders can’t tell which patient is going to do fine on cannabis or which patient may have adverse reactions to it. So they’re taught to tell the patient to start low and go slow. And that’s correct. But I’m not sure the nuance of that directive is really getting through. Especially when the dispensaries are pushing edibles already and the pros and cons are so weirdly balanced for some and off balance for others.
See… edibles have to go through your gut so maybe half or more of the meds are filtered out. Gee that makes your edible suddenly way more expensive.
And then you have to wait an hour for the effects… which will last maybe 8 hours.
No problem, you say… until you’re the one who has an adverse reaction because you couldn’t resist that yummy gummy sitting there staring at you. So you popped it down and soon after the first dose takes effect and you begin to realize that second gummy wasn’t a good idea. Now you get to cuddle with those icky feelings.
However, if you know how to assuage adverse reactions, then you’ll be running for more CBD, or more foods with beta-caryophylene which is the compound that can tame that THC. Black pepper and lemon rinds both have beta-caryophylene… and a bunch of other foods you could google. See what happens when you know a thing or two? You can make all kinds of problems go away.
Don’t get me wrong… I love our Florida dispensaries and trust them and marvel at the sweetness of our youthful twentysomething bud tenders. But ladies and gentlemen, this industry ain’t like anything you’ve ever experienced. It’s not Big Pharma’s industry… it’s not big alcohols industry, it’s not even Big Beverage… it started medicinally… in the ancient world. And it’s still medicinal… no matter how many drinks and foods and gummies you find it in. Cannabis is medicine. Don’t expect a twentysomething budtender to know all about the medicinal value of it because they didn’t go to med school. They went to marketing school at that dispensary.
As a new patient to cannabis, the bud tenders should be counseling you about how to use each delivery method, whether it’s tincture, transdermal patch, nasal spray or burning the raw leaf, each method has it’s own different timing for feeling the effects. And each product will have a different chemical makeup so that some will be good for day time and some for nighttime. But sometimes the nighttime varieties are great for daytime for some patients! So the lesson is that there are no standards. It’s gonna take a blood sample for us to know what we really need from cannabis but that’s a while away.
In the meantime, it is a hunt and peck process. You hunt for the right product and peck at it till you find the right dose for yourself. You will be your own alchemist for this puzzle. And you will have a lot of fun figuring it out! Don’t be afraid of it because you will always stay in control through this simple method.
You take the tiniest amount and wait for an effect. If you don’t feel an effect after waiting the appropriate length of time… redose with that same amount. Wait until you feel an effect. Or redose. Continue titrating up to your perfect dose until you feel good. Whatever that amount is what your personal dosage is for that particular variety of cannabis in that particular way you chose to consume it. Notate what you found. It’s about to get amusing. This process may take some time, depending on how you choose to use. But it will prove itself the best method for staying in control while finding your personal dosage.
I want to say that I have the greatest respect for the kids who are becoming our bud tenders… already leaders in their community, they will be leading the cannabis industry soon… and they’ll have all this experience under their belt.
But realize they’re just kids now and although they mean well, they don’t have the wherewithal to give you well-rounded medical advice. Use their information about their products but seek your real advice from your cannabis doctor who will be better informed about your whole health.
And remember that you can always stay in control of cannabis… before, during, or after you’ve consumed it, by using CBD to quell the THC or by consuming other foods that contain beta-caryophylene.
Thanks again for hangin out with me and do try all the dispensaries once you get your card. They all have great bud tenders, great products, and super sales to help you save your pennies.
Pax Vobiscum yall
Host: Honey 26:57
You’ve been listening to another Cannaba Verum podcast with 21st century cannabis shaman Honey Smith Walls, about the importance of using safe hemp and marijuana products. 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. I challenge you to check the veracity of my statements in each episode by checking the medical citations posted on my blog at Cannaba Verum.com.
That’s C A N N A B A V E R U M.com
- plant specifically grows, the acid form, the THCa – https://academic.oup.com/pcp/article/46/9/1578/1812749
- all street weed is contaminated: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5022003/
- Handbook of Cannabis for Clinicians, Practices and Principles by Dr. Dustin Sulak – https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Cannabis-Clinicians-Principles-Practice/dp/0393714187 and healer.com
- Certificate of Analysis (COA) https://www.pharmtech.com/view/certificates-analysis-don-t-trust-verify
