-- Thoughts about the jacking up of the TAC of so many cannabis [FLOWER] strains and the damage that it does --

 The focus of retailers/growers on super-high TAC percentages ruins the buzz (and actually changes it for many* people).

It's the difference between being able to enjoy a beautiful drive through spectacular scenery (at/around the speed limit) versus experiencing it at a hundred miles an hour.

Jacking up the THC/TAC % in strains that used to be much lower (which is most strains) just raises the bar higher than it should be.

These days if you want/need a higher TAC % we can buy either concentrates or vape cartridges.

If this trend continues everything will be 2-hit weed (and how many people will be doing that?). 

The subtleties are lost, and the detail is instead a blur (if more than a couple hits are taken).

Or instead of cannabis, compare it to going out for a few beers with friends. There's plenty of time to relax with friends and sip on beers. But instead of beers, you're doing shots.

I've been smoking weed since 1968. I can handle anything you put in front of me, but it is incredibly important to keep most TAC percentages in the <20% - 25% range to protect the full range of experiences possible.

The fact that so many people don't seem to recognize this fact is troubling to me, and hopefully, I can persuade some of them/you of the benefits of lower percentages in general, and the benefits for others, even if you yourself don't want them.

*Both vapers and smokers

If you are wondering why there are so many security/PII breaches this is one

 All I wanted to do was purchase an item from the same online storefront I purchased a similar item from a few weeks ago.

During the process of 'age verification' (this time) I was again asked to provide my *actual* birthdate. This previous time I provided one that was a day or so away from my actual birthdate (for obvious security/PII reasons) as this is a third-party service, and because...WTF this is against everything I've been writing about for years since my security blog for the Concord Monitor. It's against best practices (security-wise).

As I said a few weeks ago I purchased a similar item from Arizer, and in the process used a close-but-not-exact birthdate which is typical of how I approach sites that ask for my exact age. I'm not lying in any material way that affects the purpose of the 'age verify' and I am protecting my PII. Today however was a bridge too far.

Today I was presented with a message to provide an image of my driver's license and send [it] to this 3rd-party 'service'. I started to comply but thought better of it after the first 'photo' was rejected. I called their support # but ended hanging up after I said "I'm sixty-five goddam years old" and the woman told me not to swear at her (I was holding my tongue). So I decided to send a support message to Arizer, telling them the story and voicing my opposition to this intrusive and serious Pll/security FAIL Oh, and also the fact that they'd just sold me an item without my exact birthdate and no one died, no laws were broken, my PII was kept private and we all lived quite happily after... until I wanted to spend another $150+ on their site, but this time with the [potential] added price of my PII.

After this incident I decided to do a Google search for "security question: Should I give out my birthdate to purchase something"? Take a look - 

IF there are state/federal regulations that mandate exact birthdates they need to be changed with common-sense legislation to protect citizens' PII while controlling underage persons with a different (non-invasive) method.

A Quick Recap of the Past Year or So

 The past couple of years seems like a blur as I begin to recall them. 

I'll start with when I decided to stop all my meds except for my antidepressants. I was so sick of all the needle sticks and side effects, and this was the early days of the pandemic when doctors' offices were becoming empty and I hadn't had any communication with the doctor for many months.

I can't recall the details at all, but things seemed fine as far as I could tell.

Around [?] the same time Massachusetts legalized cannabis and I started consuming it as an adult recreational consumer. That was when I decided to lose weight. I was around 220 lbs and the extra weight was causing me serious health problems.

I decided to cut out all the junk foods I'd been eating. The chips and diet coke and so many other snacks needed to go. So that's what I did. I limited my 'snacks' to saltine crackers (with natural peanut butter / salsa). Water became my main drink of choice. I started losing weight and it continued until 2021 when my skin started itching all over and I was turning yellow (which I didn't notice for quite a while, then ignored foolishly). An acquaintance finally persuaded me to go to the doctor about it and that's when we discovered that I had a big problem with my liver. It had clogged up so badly that doctors had to insert a couple of stents in my bile ducts so [it] could start draining and we could start eliminating all the bile salts in my skin that were making me itch.

When they did some scans to see what was going on they discovered that I had pancreatic cancer (stage ll). At that point, I was getting close to my weight goal but suddenly dropped another 10+ lbs. I eventually started chemo and continued that for 5-6 2 week cycles. Chemo was rough, the nausea/sweating was overwhelming during the in-hospital chemo sessions and they couldn't fix it with other drugs.

Then one night I woke up to go to the bathroom. At the same time, I was having a stroke but I didn't realize it. I went to call for help later but the wireless pendant I'd been given couldn't connect... I ended up calling for help using my landline. Fortunately, the stroke was on my non-dominant side and 6 mos later I've recovered *most* of my capabilities but I've lost fine motor control of my left hand and also most of my (former) musical abilities, including thought and vocalizing (and of course guitar fingering).

The stroke was evidently caused by a blood clot caused because the lack of pumping strength of my heart which is around 30% of normal and atrial fibrillation (and something about a hole in my heart that should have closed up as I grew but didn't). There's also a possibility that chemo weakened my heart further.

I had stopped chemo because of the side effects and thoughts of long-term damage ruining any quality of life during the 2-5 years I possibly have. I had decided to go ahead with surgery, but because of the stroke that was not possible. It's still not possible because of my heart issues (ongoing treatment to strengthen the heart muscle). So I'm in limbo right now.

A couple of years earlier I'd gotten my medical cannabis certification. Cannabis has helped so much. During the chemo (at-home) I found that I didn't need to take most of the anti-nausea medications I was given. They were successfully replaced by cannabis for easing both nausea and the lack of appetite.

All this happened in the middle of an ongoing pandemic. As far as my former medications go, all the diabetes meds are no longer necessary as my A1c is back to normal. The medication for acid reflux that I'd been taking for 10 years is no longer necessary and the only meds I'm taking now are Lisinopril, Atorvastatin, Ecotrin, and Paxil (and of course dry vaped cannabis).

Weight chart from MyNetDiary

If you look at the current part of the graph it shows that I've maintained my weight between 155 and 160 to this day.

I believe that cannabis has helped me to maintain thoughtful eating habits, and (mostly) keep my mental health stable throughout the pandemic and the insane political climate both here and abroad.

That's enough for now. Next time I might get into my recent embarrassing freakouts on Twitter. I need to familiarize myself all over again with Blogger so it doesn't take me so long to use (like inserting photos/video).

- Thanks for reading

This IS a Threat

I swear, one of these days I'm going to come back here and actually write something (and then you'll be sorry).

Does This Thing Still Work?

In case you haven't noticed I haven't been around my blogs for quite a long time. 
What's that? You hadn't noticed? You're just here by accident or maybe you're simply clicking/tapping around one of my bios somewhere on some neglected profile page...

Well fine, no worries. I just wanted to say that I see that some blog-cleaning is in order before I start posting again. Things need to be updated here (kinda like your vacation cabin that's been sitting untouched since before you took that spontaneous road trip, went hiking, hit your head, got amnesia, and spent a couple of years wandering the woods of Maine until you woke up and realized that it was all a strange dream). Or WAS it?
Outdated magazines, stale crackers, and the refrigerator needs a hazmat team...

Still, the part about things needing to be updated is all too real. Websites listed that I no longer read or don't even exist anymore, and software that's been abandoned or I've stopped using. Like that family of red squirrels that have taken over the pantry, they need to go.