-- 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

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

Insanity, Irresponsibility, Hypocrisy, and Complicity

In the news today an "alleged" drunk driver ran a red light and killed a young pitcher in the prime of his life. After the sadness and some outrage nothing will change. This kind of thing happens every day and it's tolerated.

Yet the same people responsible for creating and enforcing laws in this country are dead-set against marijuana, even for medicinal use.

That's crazy hypocrisy.

Now I just watched William Cohan on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart explaining in very simple terms the insanely flimsy and 'hard to believe it's legal' foundation for Bear Stearns business model and the reason for it's collapse.

This is the first time I've heard about how this crazy system works. On all of the news programs, all of the political blogs, through all the political campaigns over the past twenty years I have never had an inkling of the insane system that the investment banking and hedge funds operate under.

That's crazy enough, but the thought of hundreds of Billions of taxpayer dollars being given to this same system (and many of the same people) to prop it up is the height of insanity and irresponsibility!

I think that if the people of this nation/world truly realized how they were being used to prop up this house of cards they would revolt.. and why don't they know?

Isn't that the job of journalism?

And why are our elected representatives part of the problem?

Steven Colbert wasn't funny

I just watched Steven Colbert waste the time of his viewers and his guest.

To begin with he started off saying the interview was about 'industrial hemp',
but the guest was advocating 'medical marijuana'. Then when the guest tried
to make the distinction clear Steven wouldn't let him, instead making the same
stupid and childish generalizations that the opponents make* and wasting time
with 'pot' jokes.

*Now I assume that Steven was attempting to make fun of the opponents of this
(medical marijuana/industrial hemp)
through parody, but by talking over and interrupting his guest ceaselessly the
ENTIRE message was lost/drowned out.

It pisses me off to see someone I've admired (for the most part) as one of the few who
tries to show the absurdity and BS so prevalent in Washington DC and on the "news" take an important subject and obliterate it with juvenile jokes that reinforce false stereotypes!

Is this just a product of a show that's just too convoluted for it's own good?

If I was the guest I would have asked (at the 'break') WHY I was even asked to be on.

Steven screwed up when he thought it would be (funny?) to get his viewers to go to Wikipedia and change an entry, causing a big headache, time, and money for those maintaining the site. It wasn't.

Hey Steven, we have enough of a hard time getting these subjects to the public!
Your guest only has a minute or two to at the most to speak.
You decided that it was more important to fill the ENTIRE segment with your [jokes?].

People who are dealing with chronic/deadly diseases that can be eased with medical marijuana
deserve better!

Damn it, you didn't let the guy get a single sentence in that anyone could understand, and you REINFORCED all the false stereotypes in the process.

Way to go dip shit!