Medical Cannabis in Vermont vs. Colorado, and Thoughts on America's Drug Policies

“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”

I’m gonna get real for a sec.

As I write this, pain and frustration have me in their grip. I have been crying all morning, consumed by Great Vengeance and Furious Anger.

Yeah, this is how I feel about US Drug Policy...

You see, I am running low on my plant medicines, specifically cannabis, and my Fibromyalgia symptoms have been running around unchecked. My already severely limited quality of life is being impacted even further, because of lack of safe access to this plant. I’m in the process of applying for Vermont’s Medical Cannabis Program, but its much more involved than where we were living just two months ago, and it will be at least a month before I will be able to purchase from a state-legal dispensary.

Toto, we certainly aren’t in Colorado anymore.

Moving from somewhere where this ancient plant medicine is legal and respected, to New England, or anywhere that doesn’t recognize its value in the same way as those states who have legalized or have less restrictive medical cannabis programs, is like stepping back in time 50 years. I appreciate and understand to a certain extent why Vermont is so strict, it keeps that legal Mob known as the Feds off their case. But it makes things infinitely more difficult on the patients. To start, it costs much more money to apply out here than in Colorado, with no options for fee waivers or adjustments for those who are below a certain income bracket. I can’t shop until I get my official state card, unlike Colorado where patients can shop with their temporary paperwork until they get official documents in the mail. Also, unlike Colorado, upon application approval, I have to pre-select a designated dispensary for procurement, and can only shop at that location. And its not like I get to check the quality or variety before I choose, and anytime I want to switch dispensaries I have to send in more money to the state and fill out more paperwork. Oh yeah and you can only shop by appointment. Talk about frustrating. Being a Los Angeles native, and having relocated here from the booming Green Rush of the High Rockies, and having worked in the industry in both states, one could say I have very high standards of quality. And with the Fibro I have found that specific strains and methods of ingestion are more effective for some symptoms than others (will be discussing in detail in a future post). But I don’t get to shop around or know what my options will be before I drive an hour to the nearest dispensary to purchase my medicine. Awesome.

Leaving the bubble that is Colorado has really driven home how ass-backwards drug policies are in this country. How is it, that in 2014, with the World Wide Search Engine known as the Internet at our fingertips every moment, that we are still attacking plants? It just boggles my fucking mind. It is open information now, and has been for some time, that cannabis was made illegal for political and racist reasons, not for the health and well being of the citizens of this fine country; that this plant is safe, efficacious, and potentially profitable to boot. Should you happen to believe otherwise, you are in complete denial, I know you have no science to back up your claims, only beliefs, biases, and convoluted data. Argue with me, please, I fucking dare you. When I look around Vermont and see the overwhelming poverty and all that comes with that; drug and alcohol abuse, shuttered windows, closed stores and gas stations, entire neighborhoods with For Sale signs in front of each home, abandoned homes, buildings and properties, I don’t understand why lawmakers wouldn’t be jumping all over the chance to boost their economy and bring safe alternatives to their sick populous. Especially when you consider Vermont’s exploding opiate abuse problem, why wouldn’t you want to offer people safe alternatives?

Why are Cannabis and other plant medicines still illegal and stigmatized? 

I just don’t understand. It just doesn’t compute. 

And why are processed opiates legal, but you can't harvest your own opium from poppies? Opium is much safer than refined opiates, and much less addictive, altho it still must be handled with care. People would save a lot of money if they could grow their own poppies for opium.

What’s my beef with the medicines already legal and available? I don't feel pharmaceuticals shouldn't exist at all, I just don't feel they are the only solution, and think its only fair to have options about how one manages their health. What works for some might not work for others, or what's safe for one person might be detrimental to another.

For example, I have severe allergies to most medications, including the highly praised Penicillins, as well as suflas, and opiates. As someone who has been dealing with monthly Level 10 pain for going on 15 years, I have tried pretty much every pain pill imaginable to manage it, to no avail. And I have seen firsthand the detrimental effects of long term opiate use and abuse. I have lost several people to overdoses or complications from withdrawal, and all but one were prescription related. I never thought I could be grateful for my opiate allergy until I saw how addicted my friends were becoming. The most recent one I lost was like a brother to me; he passed while in jail, withdrawing from Methadone. His family hid the news out of shame or something, I’m not sure why, and he never even got a formal memorial. He was one of the most talented people I’ve ever known, and it breaks my heart. Methadone is the one they give you to get off Heroin. Which makes NO fucking sense to me because its so fucking dangerous and addictive in itself. How in the fuck does it make sense to treat an addiction with another addiction? All the people I knew who got into Heroin started with pills. And the majority of them wound up preferring Oxycontin over Heroin when they could get that. “It’s way easier than mainlining bro. I like to drink grape gatorade so that when I vomit it doesn’t taste bad.” Cannabis has not been shown to be physically addictive, and as someone who has been using it regularly for over a decade, I can tell you it is not. Habit forming, yes. Physically addictive? No. You will not puke and shake and rob your own family to feed your need for cannabis. 

"You ever suck some dick for some marijuana?" "No, I can't say that I have..."

As someone with a chronic illness, meaning I have it FOR LIFE and it will NEVER go away, I have to carefully consider the long term safety of any symptom management regiment I choose to follow. Besides my monthly pain I also have developed severe daily chronic pain and other symptoms over the last several years due to the onset of my Fibromyalgia. Opiates, NSAID’s, and other commonly used pain management methods are definitely not safe when used for years. I used Ibuprofen for so long that I started developing stomach problems and had to stop. 

So what do you do when you are in constant pain? When you wake up every morning feeling like you are going to shit yourself and puke at the same time? When you can’t sleep, can’t eat? When your quality of life has been severely impacted by your health?  When it feels like there’s needles poking thru your retinas and your head pounds like its in a vice? The generally accepted answer is pills, pills, and more pills. I’ve been lurking immune disease forums for the last couple years, and the members are almost always on a myriad of pills. One to help with pain, a laxative to help you poop since pain pills bind you up, an SSRI or some other anti-depressant because being chronically sick fucking sucks, a pill for nausea, a pill for appetite stimulation, a pill to help you sleep...pills, pills, pills! Processing all that shit has to be super hard on the body, especially the kidneys, which are already at risk of being attacked by an immune system gone awry, as happens in immune mediated diseases. Not to mention manufacturing pharmaceuticals is poisonous to the planet (which is why the majority are made in other countries...they aren’t under US Environmental laws and so forth), and involves a bunch of gross stuff that you wouldn’t want to put into your body. (I will procure references for all my claims in another, better organized post. For now, I just need to rant.) 

So what if I told you I use plants for all my Fibro symptoms? Primarily cannabis, one of the first plants known to be cultivated by man per archeological carbon dating, a plant whose entire parts can be used, from roots to flowers, for either medical or industrial purposes, a plant that can be grown on the same soil for years before needing to rotate crops, a plant that is ridiculously safe. 

Speaking of the topic of safety, let’s get Scientific for a second. Whenever assessing the potential danger of a drug, one should know its LD-50. The term “LD-50”, refers to the dose that kills off 50% of a population in a drug study. So if you have 100 rats in a lab and you give them X amount of Z drug and half of them die, then that’s the LD-50 for that drug. Ideally, one wants to be working with drugs whose LD-50 is much higher than the effective dose. LD-50’s can be affected by animal type (mice vs. rats. vs. humans, etc), age, gender, and tolerance (Especially with opiates and alcohol. What would kill a non-user would not affect an addict, and addicts usually die from overdose when they have been clean for a while and then use again, at a dose they were used to when they still had a tolerance.). Published LD-50’s show that opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, and antidepressants have relatively low LD-50’s, whereas cannabis has a much higher LD-50 (generally around 1500 pounds in 15 minutes....good luck with that shit, homie! You’d most definitely pass out long before you reached that goal!). In the case of LSD, the LD-50 remains unknown. Meaning nothing has ever died from any dose of LSD, even crazy high doses. Hmm. Interesting.

With this information in mind, doesn’t the way the Federal Government has scheduled drugs seem a little confusing? How is it that cocaine and opiates’ medical value has been recognized, which can kill you quite easily and are incredibly addictive, yet cannabis remains Schedule 1, meaning that it has “no medical value and is incredibly dangerous”? This in spite of the fact that the Federal Government established the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Study program in 1976, giving medical cannabis to over 30 patients until 1992, when George Bush the 1st decided there was “no medical value” to it and scaled back the program. Now there are just 4 patients under this program. But it still exists. So the Feds say “this is a dangerous drug with no known medical value, so we shall make it Schedule 1. But we have this medical program where we give this drug to patients because it has been deemed a medical necessity.” WTF?!?

And this is what REALLY pisses me off. They sure as hell didn’t ask the patients they kicked off the program about the medical value of it. They didn’t say, “Hey, does this help you? Okay, sweet.” Nope, they just fucking decided, because the Bush administration wanted to be “hard on drugs”. 

Let’s not even look at the science for a sec...

How in the fuck can you tell me or anyone else who suffers what has medical value?

How can you tell me how to manage my pain, my nausea, my cachexia, my vertigo, my eye pain and headaches, my daily living?

How can anyone tell someone who suffers how they can and can’t manage it?

You have NO fucking idea what its like, unless you are in the same shitty boat. Some people get handed a raw deal in this life, and some get really lucky. If you have your health, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. I don’t give a fuck if you are broke, or you just got dumped, or you failed a class or got fired. I don’t care. You cannot buy health, you cannot earn it, you can’t get it back once its lost. I don’t care how shitty your life situation is, if you are in good health and free of chronic pain or other chronic symptoms, you are one of the richest people on the planet. Truly, you are lucky. 

Like drawing cards from a deck. Some people get a full house, or royal flush. Others wish they could trade in their hand and pull from the deck again. A fresh start. But life doesn’t work like that. 

Now, looking at Science, let’s talk about the Endocannabinoid System. I will produce a more detailed post dedicated specifically to this system and to the numerous cannabinoids found naturally in plants and animals in the near future, but for now a quick overview. One of the most common receptor sites in the human Central Nervous and Peripheral Systems is the cannabinoid receptor. The purpose of endogenously produced cannabinoids remains poorly understood, as does the majority of the inner workings of our bodies, but it is speculated that they are involved with the regulation of pain, appetite, motor learning, and synaptic activity. Interestingly, studies are showing that the amount of cannabinoids produced by our bodies exceed the amount of cannabinoid receptors, which suggests cannabinoids are used by our bodies in other ways that we still don’t know about. 

Now why would we restrict people from using things that our own bodies make? I’m just as puzzled over this as I am with DMT, which is also Schedule 1. DMT is made in our brains and is in our bodies. We also don’t understand much about its role in our physiology, but its there, so obviously its important. Mother Nature doesn’t conduct processes over billions of years and keep things for Shits’n’Giggles. But if you, or I, or your sweet innocent Mom, or your preacher/rabbi/sensei, or your child, or anyone regardless of whether having purposely ingested DMT or not, were to be forcibly tested right now for it, we’d “all be holding”, to quote the late, great, Terence McKenna. 

Fuckin' love this!!

In short, our brains run on drugs. They would not function without them.

We need to re-evaluate the way we use the word “drug”. Why are pharmaceuticals accepted as medicine, and anything else demonized and called “drugs”? Why don’t we recognize that we all use drugs everyday? Caffeine, nicotine, refined sugar, alcohol; the products praised and supported by our consumerist nation, those are some of the most dangerous drugs on the planet. 

So why don’t we have the option to use Cannabis? Why is it still illegal? Why can’t I buy cartridges for my vaporizer pen from Amazon, and grow cannabis in my garden next to my tomatoes? Why must countless people suffer needlessly due to lack of safe access or proper education? We are still fed Reefer Madness bullshit, in this, the Age of the Internet. 

I miss my Colorado bubble more than words can express. I’m freaking out about my Fibromyalgia breaking thru the curtain I manage to keep up everyday by using Cannabis. I am in massive pain right now, the only things allowing me to type are Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa, a post on that is coming), ginger (also have a post coming on the science behind that), and Great Vengeance and Furious Anger.

You see, I have a Dream. 

A dream that someday all the residents of this beautiful and fragile planet will have safe access to alternative methods of treatment and symptom management. 

A dream that we can free ourselves from deadly addictions and toxic habits. 

A dream of having the freedom to explore our own consciousness as we see fit. 

A dream that one day we will be able to discuss plant medicines with our doctors as easily as we currently discuss SSRI’s and opiates with them. 

Perhaps I was pulled out of Colorado for a purpose. 

I would have remained complacent there, lazy in my surroundings, forgetting that is the exception rather than the norm. I wouldn’t have felt the need to become more involved, to make my voice heard, to stand up for what is right and push for continued reform. Every voice counts.

The time has long been overdue for some serious change in the way this country views drugs. Too many people have suffered for too long. Too many good people have stood by and done nothing, too many presidents have said cannabis should be accessible but haven’t done anything to change it, too many innocent people have been and remain incarcerated. 

Being sick is not a crime. Pain is not a crime. Consciousness exploration is not a crime. 

There is hope on the horizon, with reform taking place at the state level, and the re-examination of plants and alternative drugs in medical studies, like the ones taking place at John Hopkins. I personally believe its only a matter of time. But some of us don’t have much time to wait. And It doesn’t change all the injustice that has taken place since the advent of Harry J. Anslinger and Prohibition. 

Thank you for reading this rant. Maybe it will do some good in this world.

I promise my future posts will have specific and scientific references accompanying my claims. 

And I promise to fight for the plants.

*Peace & Plants*

*Love & Light*

Renata Carmen 

Please, if you find any value from this blog, please consider making a donation to the PayPal link at the top right of the page. I don't create these posts expecting anything but to help/entertain others, but I am a disabled mechanic/artist who is not currently receiving SSI/SSDI and when I'm flared up it's hard if not impossible for me to get my hustle on. I'm also working on adding Bitcoin here! :) 

Holistic Tips for Surviving the Holidays in Good Health (That Actually Work!) – Part 1: Common Mullein

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving yesterday filled with love, laughter, and wonderful foods!

As we enter the joyful chaos of this Holiday Season, we find ourselves caught up in a whirlwind of social events: eating, shopping, eating, gifting, eating, and traveling (and did I mention eating??).

This 45 day crunch of consumerism and partying can wreak havoc on the body’s defenses, making us more prone to catching the season’s flus, colds, and other bugs that threaten to dampen our merrymaking. There is nothing worse than being too sick to enjoy festivities that you have been looking forward to all year!

So how does one survive this onslaught with enough vitality left-over to enjoy the ride all the way through midnight on December 31^st , and beyond into the New Year? Especially when you are at a slight disadvantage from having a chronic illness or compromised immune system?

Most health sources quote the same usual remedies: Vitamin C, Echinacea, Elderberry, Garlic, Homemade Chicken Soup, Lots of Fluids, Lots of Rest, Tea, Zinc, Peppers, Local Raw Honey…the aids we have come to know and love when we aren’t feeling our best. But the majority of these treatments aren’t as effective once sickness has kicked in full force. They certainly help with the symptoms, sure, but what do you do when The Plague is going around the office and you wake up with what you know are the initial signs of impending doom? How do you stop that freight train?

I have dealt with chronically swollen lymph node glands in my face and neck, along with upper respiratory, sinus, and ear infections, ever since the ripe 'ole age of two years. My poor parents did everything 1980’s conventional medicine advised them at that time; I was on such heavy doses of antibiotics for so long they had to monitor my blood on a monthly basis to make sure the meds weren’t affecting my body in any adverse ways. The infections were so chronic I was eventually scheduled to get a tube in at least one of my ears, but a turn of life events in the family caused a lapse in our health insurance and so thankfully I was spared that potentially detrimental procedure. I continued to have chronic upper respiratory issues, including bi-annual Strep and bacterial infections, until I started aggressively adjusting my diet and lifestyle in 2009. During my lifetime, I have built up a tolerance or had an allergic reaction to just about every antibiotic and sinus med known to modern science.

In short, I know a thing or two from firsthand experience about managing the health of the ears, throat, nose, and lungs. And then there’s the whole immune system thing. I have been studying that too, since mine is pretty screwed. Am I a doctor? No. So don’t be brash, if you have some sort of pre-existing condition etc. you should always talk to your doctor first before trying something new.

But, I am someone who can tell you what has worked for me, and anyone I know who has tried it. Most recently I got to try these cold remedies on my boyfriend, who is not only my caregiver, but also works full-time in customer service at a grocery store. Needless to say, he has been a bit worn out from all the Holiday Crazies that emerge like a long-dormant locust invasion during this time of year (you know who you are! For shame!).  He started feeling unwell on Sunday, and by Monday was feeling fatigued along with a tell-tale “tickle” in his throat. The sort of throat “tickle” that usually becomes a painful, sore mess which makes swallowing feel like the worst torture, and right before Thanksgiving! Nooooo! My hard-working sweetheart was not going to be sick on our beloved and well-planned Turkey Day! Not if I had anything to do with it. He diligently followed my suggested regiment and by Wednesday was feeling loads better! My boyfriend was so impressed with the results he suggested I share my regiment with The World.

So, dear World, I share with you the four holistic aids I have found most useful for staving off infections, colds, and managing upper respiratory issues. They are inexpensive and easily accessible, in fact, you probably have one or two sitting in your kitchen pantry right now. I hope they serve you as well as they have aided my household, especially during this hectic time of the year.

Today I would like to discuss Mullein, an herb whose useful properties aren’t widely known outside of the wonderful world of Herbalism. The ironic thing is that we have probably all seen it at one time or another and regarded it as “just a weed”, rather than recognizing it for the versatile Plant Medicine that it is.

Verbascum thapsus , known as Common Mullein or Great Mullein, is a flowering weed that is usually found in open spaces where the ground has been disturbed. It is prolific and grows all over the continental US and beyond into Canada and Mexico. Since most Americans don’t have access to meadows, streams, fields, or forest openings, the majority of us have spied Mullein’s distinctive towering spikes of bright yellow flowers growing in ditches along roadways or scattered throughout the open wastes of dumps.

Picture from Wikipedia, its too cold where I am to get any of my own shots of Mullein growing

All parts of the plant have been used for medical applications since time immemorial. Mullein is primarily used to manage afflictions of the ears, especially infections, and it is also used as an expectorant, to alleviate swelling, mange the health of the lymphatic system, and treat spinal injuries. It is most commonly used as a tincture, but is also drunk as tea and even smoked. 

Mullein was first recommended to me by my Dad, who has Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Syndrome, which we suspected I also had until it was ruled out by a VKH specialist earlier this year. Before he said anything to me about it, I was totally unfamiliar with the plant. My Dad and I share many of the same symptoms, including tinnitus, hearing sensitivities, and “feelings of fullness and itchiness” in the ears, and to my pleasant surprise I have found Mullein does an excellent job of alleviating these issues.

The very first time I used Mullein I was desperate. Earlier this year, while managing a flare in my inflammation, I woke up with the unmistakable sensation of full blown Strep Throat. My throat hurt so badly it felt like it was on fire, I sounded like I had swallowed a frog, the lymph nodes on my face and neck were swelling up, and my ears hurt and felt as though they were full of cotton. I knew I was in deep trouble, and wasn’t sure how to proceed. Even if I had easy access to transportation and wasn’t homebound from my light sensitivity, I would have still been hesitant to hop on over to a doctor’s office for what would more than likely have been a prescription for antibiotics. Not only do antibiotics take anywhere from 24 hours to a few days to start working (not an appealing thought when you’re in Strep Throat pain), I’m allergic to pretty much all of them, the rest can trigger a flare-up in certain autoimmune diseases so I avoid them as much as possible, and nowadays I’m far more hesitant to drop the medical equivalent of a nuclear bomb on my Gut.

So that leaves me with very little options via Western Medicine. What’s a Strep-Throaty girl to do?

Quite fortuitously, I came down with the Throat Affliction from Hades during the very same time I was performing preliminary research on Mullein for treating the afore-mentioned Tinnitus, hearing sensitivities, and other ear issues I’ve been dealing with during the onset of my autoimmune disease (whatever it ends up being – it’s looking like Lupus or Mixed Connective Tissue Disease but I’m still undiagnosed at this time). 

After reading about the plant’s supposed powerful effects on ear infections, my boyfriend came to my rescue for the zillionth time and brought a bottle of Mullein Leaf Tincture home from work that afternoon. I had been in pain for several hours, unable to eat anything not in liquid form or smoke any of my medical cannabis. Even the simple act of swallowing caused excruciating pain. I was not a happy camper, to say the least.

After reading the bottle and doing some third party research, I put the maximum suggested dose of two droppers of tincture into a small cup of water and drank deeply, making myself swish each gulp around in my mouth for a few seconds before swallowing - so as to help my lymph node glands absorb it more readily. The tincture looks a lot scarier than it tastes; having a very dark brown, basically black color, but mild earthy taste that is easily masked by whatever liquid you choose to put it in. 

I felt relief immediately. It was like a cool hand had massaged my throat/ears/glands and relaxed them. 

This result has since been repeated in others, most recently my boyfriend. My research had shown Mullein is highly noted for the instant relief it can provide to swellings and the pain caused by them. How wonderful to see it working in real time!

After a few days of using the Mullein tincture as directed on the bottle, along with the other three aids I will be discussing in the rest of this series, my Strep Throat and any signs of ear or lymphatic infection were completely alleviated! I felt like singing my praises from the rooftops! And then I did my “Suck It, Big Pharma” dance! How I wish my folks had access to information in the 80's like we do today with the Internet. This herb could have made my childhood far more bearable.

I am in love with this versatile and humble “weed” and strongly encourage you to conduct your own research so that you may see how it could bring positive health benefits into your own home (or workplace). I no longer consider my medicine cabinet complete without a bottle of Mullein tincture, and look forward to growing my own or wild harvesting it someday (from the wild - not from near a trash heap!) so I don’t have to keep buying it. But, at less than $20 a bottle, and around 30 servings per container, I have zero complaints about cost (Can’t find it in your local stores or have a difficult time leaving the house like I do? Amazon has Mullein, along with a bunch of other holistic stuff!). And its ridiculously safe, although the bottle does say to avoid “while pregnant or breastfeeding”. Not sure what that’s about. Merits more research, but since I don’t plan on spawning anytime soon (*knocks on wood*) I haven’t taken the time to look into it. 

If you do and find anything of interest, please share your findings with me!

Here are three really good websites for getting started on your own Mullein research:

http://herbcraft.org/mullein.html

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mulgre63.html

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/common_mullein.htm

I do hope you find this information enlightening and empowering!

What are some of your favorite remedies for treating throat or ear infections?

Stay tuned for the rest of my Tips for Surviving the Holidays in Good Health!

*Love & Light*

-Renata Carmen

Please, if you find any value from this blog, please consider making a donation to the PayPal link at the top right of the page. I don't create these posts expecting anything but to help/entertain others, but I am a disabled mechanic/artist who is not currently receiving SSI/SSDI and when I'm flared up it's hard if not impossible for me to get my hustle on. I'm also working on adding Bitcoin here! :) 

Patient Review - Medical Cannabis Product - Mary’s Medicinals Transdermal Patches!

*Note: I am an independent, third party patient, reviewing new products that come into the dispensary I have designated as my Primary Care Center. They highly value constructive feedback from a patient who has a genuine debilitating condition, as well as previous experience in the industry. I hope my unique and candid insights help the Medical Cannabis Industry continue to evolve in ways that always keep patient needs first.*

Please, if you find any value from this blog, please consider making a donation to the PayPal link at the top right of the page. I don't create these posts expecting anything but to help/entertain others, but I am a disabled mechanic/artist who is not currently receiving SSI/SSDI and when I'm flared up it's hard if not impossible for me to get my hustle on. I'm also working on adding Bitcoin here! :) 

Management of chronic pain can be a great challenge. Most effective pain relievers are dangerous or potentially addictive, and every body has unique biochemistry, so what works for some people may not work for others. Cannabis has the potential to be an extremely strong analgesic, among its countless other uses, but an efficacious delivery method is vital for the body to absorb and use it properly.

Those patients with compromised digestive systems, fast metabolisms, high tolerances, and/or chronic illness often find ourselves struggling to keep ahead of our symptoms. I know the issues such people can have all too well! I am currently disabled and homebound due to a genetically inherited autoimmune disease. Besides the pain and inflammation I deal with on a daily basis, I also have been desperately struggling to manage the extreme pain caused every month by my menstrual cramps. They have ruled my life for almost 14 years now; affecting my work schedules, social plans, and overall quality of life in ways that are impossible to comprehend unless you have been there in some way yourself.

 

So how does one manage this kind of pain in ways that are as minimally damaging to the body as possible? 14 years and counting is a long time to rely on pills, and I know firsthand how detrimental they can be when used long-term. I’ve lost multiple friends to overdoses from prescription drugs, and my body has been torn up from chronic NSAID use. I also have a true allergy to opiates and sulfates. This is why I have been experimenting with Plant Medicines instead of pharmaceuticals, using myself as a guinea pig, and Cannabis still remains one of my favorite Plant Allies.

To be honest, I am disappointed with the majority of Medical Cannabis products currently in production. Many of the “medibles” on the dispensary shelves are made up primarily of ingredients like refined sugars, starches, chocolate, grains, dairy and other major allergens – items which promote inflammation and my chronically ill body can’t tolerate at this time. These are “stoner munchies”, not medicine. Some vendors are pretty legit, focusing on whole foods based and allergen friendly ingredients, but in the end, if it’s a product that’s consumed via the mouth, it’s probably not going to work very well for patients like me. My gut is just too damaged and thus anything I eat doesn’t get absorbed very efficiently; throw in my lighting fast metabolism, annoyingly high tolerance, and pain that rivals anything else I’ve felt before (including when I had an accident that involved losing the end of my middle finger – story for another time)…then you may start to understand how I’m able to rabidly consume the products that put your “six foot two, 210 pound buddy to sleep”.

"Medicine"?

When I am in the midst of my most severe pain, what we would call “Level 10” if using the standard “0-10 Assessment Scale” (see above Scrubs clip), and the only medical cannabis products I have are edibles, tinctures, drinks, or flowers, I find I have to consume something at least every 2 hours to keep my pain within a manageable threshold, on top of smoking or vaporizing constantly. This is not only expensive, time consuming, and taxing on the body, the last thing I want to do to when I’m getting my ass kicked by my cramps is eat a sweet or salty snack every few hours for days on end. In my quest for pain alleviation, I keep thinking to myself, “There has to be a better way!” Please don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of all methods of cannabis delivery, as they all serve their purposes. Some people get the relief they need from half of a 100mg cookie, and that’s great! It’s just that I personally have been really, really struggling to find a medical cannabis product that efficiently alleviates my long-term, debilitating, chronic pain, and after conferring with fellow patients in similar situations, I know I’m not alone.

Thankfully, Mary's Medicinals has unveiled a series of new products that I am very excited about.  They are called “transdermal patches”; sticky silicone patches that are applied to the skin and deliver the medical cannabis directly into the bloodstream! These are straight-up pharmaceutical grade medical products. Transdermal patches are an ideal way to manage pain like mine, because the medicine is delivered straight into the bloodstream, is completely bio-available (meaning 100% of the medicine is absorbed by the body, compared to an edible where only about 10% is readily absorbed) and the effects last exponentially longer than any other method of consumption. At least, this is what the lovely information packet that came with the patches declared. I couldn’t wait to put these claims to the test. And the patches were delivered to me, by my super awesome boyfriend (and caregiver), right when I needed them most – the first day of my menstrual cycle or what is known in our household as “D-Day”. No exaggeration, I plan and prepare for my cycle like a survivalist preparing for the Coming Apocalypse. I have to. I fear my monthly pain infinitely more than zombies or food shortages. You can kill zombies and grow food. It's not that easy to manage chronic pain!

The product packaging features nostalgic images of old-time apothecary bottles, information about some of the primary cannabinoids currently under medical study, and the transdermal patches themselves. They are offered in doses of 10 mg, and are cannabinoid specific. So far they offer CBN, CBD, CBG, THC, and THCa specific patches, as well as blends of CBD/THC. Each one is recommended for specific applications and symptoms.

I got three patches in my sample kit:

THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol)- Suggested for relief from pain & anxiety, reduction of muscle spasms & nausea, promotion of sleep, & appetite stimulation.

THCa (Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid) - Non-activated form of THC. Suggested for non-drowsy pain relief, anti-spasmadic, & inhibitor of cancerous cell growths.

CBN (Cannabinol) - For muscle spasms, inflammation, & insomnia.

I must admit that initially I was very skeptical of the dosage. At only 10 mg I was tempted to try all 3 patches at once and consider myself lucky if I felt any effects at all.
But, I was advised against it, and after my experimentation am glad I listened. 

Here are my findings:

3:35pm – Started with the THCa patch, since I am seeking “non-drowsy pain relief”. At this time, my pain level is around a 7. I’m also feeling dizzy, nauseas, fatigued, and have no appetite. The instructions suggest applying the patch to a “venous part of the skin; top of foot, inside of ankle, inside wrist”. Based on this, I put the THCa patch on top of my right foot. I find the plastic lining difficult to remove - had it been a day when my arthritis was really acting up I would have needed assistance getting it off - but once applied the patch feels surprisingly comfortable and light on my skin. The adhesive doesn’t feel heavy and my skin is still able to breathe. There is a warning in the instructions stating that “burning or itching” may occur upon application, but happily I feel no such affects. It seems Mary’s went out of their way to use high quality materials in these patches, which is greatly appreciated, since they will be on my skin for at least 8 hours. 

What the patches look like when applied

4pm – Starting to feel pain relief. It’s coming in “waves” – my body starts to relax and eyes get heavy for around 10 minutes, then the pain will peek through for about the same amount of time, and then it is masked again by another wave of pain relief. Perhaps it’s because the patch is on one side of the body and the blood has to flow around. The instructions do say “While it delivers cannabinoids at a controlled rate, it is not a perfectly steady release.” I’m also finding that my head feels a bit “funny”, very similar to how Marinol made me feel when I first tried it many moons ago (long before we had things like blogs). Overall, the effects feel  very nice; more effective than any edible product I’ve had in Colorado. When the pain is masked, its down to a 2. When the pain peeks through the “cannabis curtain”, its closer to a 7. So yes, the THCa patch is definitely working. Probably will need to apply a second patch soon though, my pain is really starting to become severe.

4:11pm – Applied the CBN patch to the top of my left foot. I’m hoping that having patches on both sides of my body will help steady the release of the medicine, as I’m still feeling the effects in very noticeable “waves” and the pain that is peeking through now is very strong, getting close to Level 10. I’m also thinking that the synergy of the THCa combined with the CBN will help my head feel less “Marinol-like”.

4:50pm – Pain is almost completely alleviated! I’d say my pain is now around level 2 or 3 and staying there pretty consistently. Seems like having patches on both sides of the heart really helps, along with the synergy of multiple cannabinoids. I’m still fighting the vertigo and dizziness I was feeling before applying the patches, but its probably because I haven’t eaten anything yet today. Oh. Food! I forgot how awesome you are! My appetite is now totally primed. I’m gonna go raid my kitchen! Be back in a bit J

5:30pm – Feeling much better after eating. So happy I was finally able to do that! Now I’m ready for a much needed nap.

6:30pm – Woke up feeling groggy but in good spirits and still free of pain. The effect of the two patches combined is proving to be very strong, very narcotic-like. Awesome! Once out of bed my grogginess clears up. Ready for dinner now!

8:40pm – Still feeling effects from the two patches, including The Munchies. The “waves” affect still comes and goes, but much less pronounced with patches on both sides of the body. Pain levels are currently fluctuating from 2-5, but the cycles where the pain peeks through are much shorter than the times I feel relief. Head still feels a little bit funny/”Marinol-like”, but its easy to ignore. It’s a small price to pay considering most efficient analgesics have really harsh side effects like nausea, dizziness, constipation, and physical addiction.

10:30pm –Baked an improvised dessert, and it was glorious! I’ve eaten a lot today, and that’s good news, because I really struggle with eating and absorbing nutrients, and my doctor wants me to gain at least 10 pounds. Still feeling waves of symptom relief, but have definitely passed the peak. My head is much clearer now, eyelids aren’t feeling as heavy, and the pain is making itself known again. But the patches themselves are still very comfortable. I’m surprised that I keep forgetting they’re on top of my feet, and even when I remember I don’t feel them much at all. No itchiness or discomfort to speak of, and I have very sensitive skin. Pretty sure I will need to apply the third and last patch before I am able to go to bed for the night. Gonna smoke/vape a bit and brush my teeth before making up my mind.

10:55pm – Yep, definitely need that last patch. The pain is becoming very strong again. I apply the THC patch to the inside of my right ankle, targeting the veins that run through that area. Currently my pain level is fluctuating between 3 and 6.

11:15pm – Pain starting to become alleviated again, but too exhausted to stay up any longer and take additional notes. Off to bed with this sleepy but content patient.

Next Morning – 

Woke up around 8:30, not completely refreshed, but I’m blaming my hormones, hot flashes, and late night berry cobbler for that and not the patches themselves. Having two fresh patches to apply prior to bed instead of just one probably would have been beneficial; despite that my pain is still subdued which is a lovely surprise. Overall, I’m in good spirits, and feel much better after my morning routine of smoking/vaping and sipping some warm ginger tea. I feel mentally sharp and have an overwhelming desire to do something active/social ; a rarity for me nowadays.

The patches are still very comfortable on my skin – no itching or sweating, and they remain firmly in place. I put socks on in case the corners tried to lift up while I was sleeping, but I don’t think that was necessary. These patches are very thin and so don’t have a tendency to snag on surfaces like sheets.

Removing the patches from my skin was surprisingly easy and comfortable. I must note that I don’t have hair on any of the areas where I applied the patches, so I can’t comment on how badly they tug on hair. Once the patches are removed, there is a bit of redness that lasts a few minutes, but I experience no itching or irritation. The residual tackiness is easily removed with little to moderate effort using soap and water, and adding an exfoliate like baking soda helps. 

Right after removing all three patches, can barely see any redness or irritation

Although the instructions state “the cannabinoids remain in the blood for several hours even once the patch is removed”, about 20 minutes after removing the patches I am hit with a wave of pain. Apparently they were still releasing cannabinoids! Unable to go purchase more and desperate to keep the pain from coming back full force, I pull the now wadded up ball of patches out of the trash, unravel them, and stick them back on my feet! Luckily, after about 30 minutes, I start to feel minor relief again, which lasts through the afternoon. I’m impressed by how long the effects last, and wish I had more to get me through the following few days! From now on, I definitely plan to have a stash of Mary’s Medicinals Transdermal Patches in my medicine cabinet at all times.

Afterthoughts:

This is by far the best medical cannabis product and delivery method I have used to date for treating my most severe pain. It even rivals many of the true narcotics that I’ve experimented with in the past. The ease of use, discreet application, long lasting affects, relatively stable delivery, and bioavailability make for an incredibly efficacious medicine. If you had told me last week that I would feel viable effects from 10 to 30 mg and they would last for over 6 hours, I would have laughed in your face. I’ve eaten 800 mg edibles that went right through me and had barely any effect at all. These patches are so efficient that those with lower tolerances or less debilitating symptoms could (make that “should”) cut these patches in half, or even quarters.

-There are only a few minor changes I would like to see take place with these patches:

1) I would greatly appreciate a more user friendly plastic backing. Once started, the backing came off with little effort, but I found it was very difficult to get started. Perhaps there is some way to make it like a sticker’s, where the plastic is perforated and peels off in pieces. This way someone with arthritis could just fold the patch and the backing would already be started and ready to peel off. 

Example of suggested plastic backing

2) I strongly prefer the synergy of multiple cannabinoids to the way isolated ones make me feel. This may be caused by the fact that my condition is systemic, i.e. involving the entire body, and so I may benefit the most from as close to a “whole plant” experience as possible. Perhaps Mary’s could offer patches in different combinations of cannabinoids, along with one higher strength level, like 15 or 20 mg. I could have definitely used something a bit stronger when I was in the grip of my Level 10 Pain.

3) Lastly, my experience shows these patches release the medicine more consistently when there is one on either side of the heart, so perhaps they could be packaged for use in pairs, or this suggestion could be added to the already detailed and helpful instructional packet.

Overall, an excellent, pharmaceutical grade, medical cannabis product! Strongly recommended for the traveling patient (think: flying!) and/or those suffering from chronic illness or long-term debilitating symptoms; especially pain, inflammation, insomnia, and cachexia.

A massive “Thank You!!!” to Mary’s Medicinals for creating and distributing such a wonderful and viable medicine, not just another “stoner novelty”. I look forward to experimenting with your full line of Transdermal Patches to manage my myriad of symptoms, and to more Medical Marijuana companies offering similar grade products in the future.

What are your favorite Medical Cannabis products or companies in Colorado today?
Which new products would you like to see produced by these companies, or reviewed on here by this self-appointed guinea pig?

Thanks so much for reading and your continued support!

*Love & Light*
-Renata Carmen

Please, if you find any value from this blog, please consider making a donation to the PayPal link at the top right of the page. I don't create these posts expecting anything but to help/entertain others, but I am a disabled mechanic/artist who is not currently receiving SSI/SSDI and when I'm flared up it's hard if not impossible for me to get my hustle on. I'm also working on adding Bitcoin here! :)