Recently reapplied for my Oregon Medical Marijuana card for this year. I purchased a new book, The Medical Marijuana Handbook: A Patient’s Guide to Holistic Healing with Cannabis. By Norma Eckroate, published by BookLocker.com. This realm is very complex and confusing without a guide, so her handbook is welcome.
At least 1,000 strains of cannabis are named so far, each one a different medicine. Products are coming on the market daily. Each plant has at least 400 chemicals, THC and CBD being the ones in greatest quantity, the ones that tend to be listed by percentage on products. New medical strains tend to be low in THC, which is what gets you high, and very high is CBD, which is the medicinal chemical most people look for.
She speaks clearly about the synergy of the whole plant, vs allopathic chemical drugs. It’s got a name: the entourage effect. The medicine is softer, less harsh than most prescription medicines. Cannabis promotes homeostasis (or internal balance) by working with the body’s own endocannabinoid system to harmonize and balance all of the functions of the body. In her world, it can help just about anything. For cancer, it controls natural programmed cell death, called apoptosis. It assists angiogenesis, which causes tumors to starve. It attacks cancer cells like chemo with no harm to healthy cells in the body. And it also can increase appetite, essential for survival for many cancer patients. Some people lose weight and some gain, it varies. And all of this with relatively few side effects, no danger of overdosing. Thousands of people die every year from allopathic drugs and complications from drug interactions. No one has ever died from a cannabis overdose. I have heard this several times now.
The author repeats what I have already learned: the story on the street, the anecdotal evidence, is that a drop or two of RSO (Rick Simpson Oil) concentrated oil a day can reduce or remove even end stage cancer. The idea is to treat the whole body, not to suppress the symptoms, so a rebalance or cure becomes possible.
She says that the US government (in the 1970s) reported cannabis was good for limiting neurological damage after strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, HIV dementia. Cancer, pain, inflammation, autoimmune diseases, insomnia, anxiety, seizures, psoriasis, bone growth, even MS. Long list. The reason this works is because of the internal endocannabinoid system we all have in our bodies, and how cannabis links up with that in a variety of ways. I feel such sorrow that cannabis has been outlawed for so many decades, thanks to the pharmaceutical companies who want to make money. Unnecessary suffering by many, many people. Only now will the necessary research be done. It will take decades before we even begin to understand how this plant works.
My grandmother was a nurse during the second world war, and told me that they used cannabis routinely, especially for the DTs when an alcoholic would come in to her ward. No one thought anything about it, just a good medicine that worked for lots of things.
The politics of how this herb got to be a “dangerous substance” is just plain sad.
I’m about 1/2 way through the book, will report again if there’s useful things to share. Overall, the information is organized, not reported in great depth but with heart, and feels honest, presented with good intention. Not light or heavy, just easy to read.
But really, Purple Cush? Where do people get these names!