issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:03 PM Page 1...FAERIES’ ORACLE; true healing must take place on all levels at...

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4 Cannabis Health journal

Editorial

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The Medical Marijuana Problem

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Ecce Granum Behold the Seed

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For the Science of the Seed

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CBCofC and Hempology 101 continued

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Modern Cannabinoid Consumption

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Rhode Island Medical Marijuana Bill Passes

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Cannabis Health Contest

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Where is the Compassion in all this?

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Shell Shock advertorial

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InsideCannabis Health

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Over the years, many people have askedme why I use cannabis. Medication choice is avery personal question, one that is usuallyonly shared with loved ones, health careprofessionals or healers, however as thecannabis debate continues to rage on, wefrequently find ourselves defending ourpersonal mythologies, until we get to thepoint where we just start refusing to answer.After all, no one ever asks what kind ofcondoms we use…but maybe we should.Harm reduction principles are well under-stood in the practice of safe sex, so why notcannabis in the practice of achieving person-al wellness.

The search for wellness is about morethan cannabis, it’s about learning to listen toyour body in the personal quest for a betterquality of life. As Brian Froud and JessicaMacbeth have illuminated in their book, THEFAERIES’ ORACLE; true healing must take placeon all levels at once—body, mind, and spirit.These levels are inextricably linked, all one piece,and we cannot expect to change one withoutchanging the others. Our bodies do not dothings all on their own. The links between differ-ent aspects of being are many, complex, andoften obscure. And yet, the principle of healingthem is simplicity itself. We need only to let go ofthe things that are hurting us and nurtureourselves with the things that benefit us. Sosimple! So difficult!

I would like to explain that healing doesnot always mean that you will be withoutillness or that a life will not be terminated atwhat we think is a premature time. To healmeans to be whole, living the life you have toits fullest. This is achieving wellness.

I believe my illness, Systemic LupusErythematosus (SLE), dates back to pre birth;however it took many doctors and years ofresearch on my part to finally come to thatconclusion.

Lupus is considered the disease of 1000faces, thought to be genetically linked andtriggered into life by a chemical or toxin expo-sure. During my mother’s pregnancy, shesuffered from chronic kidney stones andrelentless pain and was medicated with manyexperimental pharmaceuticals of thefifties/sixties. No fault to the medical profes-sion, they did what they thought was the rightthing at the time, and the knowledge of

potentially dangerous or long-term sideeffects were little known, however, I believe itwas the trigger that caused my immunesystem to become very dysfunctional.

Imagine seeing inside the workings of ahealthy body. I envision antibodies like anarmy of protector ants; all working collective-ly to seek out and eliminate any threats ofdanger. Amazing healing properties, if every-thing works as it should, but if theirmanagement systems are malfunctioning, asin my case, big problems can occur. My bodylives with a whole bunch of antibodies, still onthat warrior’s path, who are very misdirectedand misinformed. They often show up at thewrong event and for no apparent or rationalreasons decide to stay and party on…

Our bodies and minds tend to react badlyto the unwieldiness and immediately sendout signals of distress in the form of bizarresymptoms, which can include; migraines,neurological problems, organ and bloodinvolvement, loss of sight, chronic pain, debil-itating fatigue and many others. They comeand go at will or until you stop their party –which is not very easy at times.

When all conventional medical optionshave been explored and you have reachedthe point when you start asking; what’s worse“the cause or the cure” and your doctor tellsyou there is nothing more they can doanyways, you find yourself evaluating thequality of your life and what you are preparedto settle for or not.

In 1996, my GP came right out and toldme to go buy some pot. He said that it mighthelp relieve some of the symptoms, but ifnothing else, it might help me smile again.Having smoked pot in my teenage years, andreally, who didn’t try marijuana in the 60’s or70’s, I knew from experience it would not hurtme, but it was still a big decision that turnedinto a logistic nightmare when Itried to find it. Working as aninvestment banker, in a veryconservative environment atthe time, I couldn’t just stand onthe corner waiting for a dealerto wander by.

In 2000 I attended the veryfirst AGM of the VancouverCompassion Society, and fromthat day forward I made a vowto try and help others that werein the same position as me. Justfinishing 6 years worth ofmedical cannabis & drug policyreform research, I can honestlysay; I have a very clear under-standing of just howdysfunctional our currentmedical and bureaucraticsystems truly are. The similari-

ties to an immune system, that has runamuck, are quite uncanny. Who knows if acure will ever be found…

Why do I use cannabis? Because it helps!The immunosuppressant, pain, stress, nausea,etc. relieving qualities of cannabis are wellknown, at least by the people who use it. Andreally, that’s what it all about, isn’t it? It comesdown to personal choice and our right towellness. Cannabis does not take my symp-toms away, but it allows me to place them in adifferent perspective and it helps me to geton with my life of living.

Denny Lillico recently came to visit us inGrand Forks, now his is an amazing story. Ifyou are ever unsure, as to whether or not youbelieve cannabis helps sick people, all youneed to do is have a visit with Denny and seeit for yourself. The proof is in the seeing,believing and then trusting.Barb St.Jean

“Angels are said to be the thought formsof God, and heavenly messengers.They are the form builders of theuniverse and the embodiments of

divine will, perched at the top of thecontinuum of spiritual beings flowingdownward to the smallest of faerycreatures. All angels mediate cosmicand spiritual forces and will cometo our aid when we call upon them.Angels could be called grown-upfaeries – or, to put another way,faeries are little angels”.Brian Froud

E d i t o r i a l

Brian McAndrew, Denis Lillico, Lorraine Langis

Barb St. Jean:Executive Editor

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Cannabis Health 7

Th e M e d i c a l M a r i j u a n a P r o b l e m !

By Lester Grinspoon MD

“Unless we put medical freedoms into theConstitution, the time will come when medicinewill organize into a…dictatorship.To restrict theart of healing to one class of men and denyequal privileges to others will constitute theBastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in arepublic.The Constitution of this republic shouldmake special privilege for medical freedom aswell as religious freedom.”Benjamin Rush, physician and signer of theDeclaration of Independence

The medical marijuana problem is aJanus-like conundrum; one view of the prob-lem is seen through the eyes of patients andanother through those of their government.One face regards with dismay the problem ofdenying marijuana to the growing number ofpained, impatient patients who find it useful,often more useful, less toxic and cheaper thanthe legally available medications.Through thepatients’ eyes the problem is, of course, howto acquire and use this medicine withoutswelling the ranks (already more than 700,000annually) of those who are arrested for usingthis illegal substance and how to avoid jeop-ardizing job security through random urinetesting. The other face, the backward lookingone, is that of an obdurate government as itdefensively and inconsistently insists that“marijuana is not a medicine”, and backs upthis ill-informed, arrogant position with thefull force of its vast legal power as it is present-ly doing in the state of California.

There are many thousands of patientswho currently use cannabis as a medicine.Only seven are allowed to use it legally. Theyare the only survivors among the severaldozen patients who were awardedCompassionate Use INDs during a period oftime from 1976 until 1991 when the govern-ment halfheartedly acknowledged thatmarijuana has medicinal properties. Thisprogram was actually discontinued becauseof the exponentially growing number of

Compassionate IND applica-tions; the official reason wasprovided by James O. Mason,then chief of the Public HealthService: “It gives a bad signal. Idon’t mind doing that if there isno other way of helping thesepeople... But there is not a shredof evidence that smoking mari-juana assists a person with AIDS“. Each of the surviving IND recip-ients receives monthly a tincontaining enough rolled mari-juana joints to treat his or hersymptoms for that month.Because the quality of the

cannabis is poor, it requires more inhalationthan a superior quality medicinal cannabiswould. In fact, some of the recipients havebeen known to supplement this GovernmentIssue with better quality street marijuana.

In 1985 the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) approved dronabinol (Marinol) for thetreatment of the nausea and vomiting ofcancer chemotherapy. Dronabinol is a solu-tion of synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol insesame oil (the sesame oil is meant to protectagainst the possibility that the contents of thecapsule could besmoked). Dronabinolwas developed byU n i m e dPharmaceuticals Inc.with a great deal offinancial supportfrom the UnitedStates government.This was the first hintthat the “pharmaceu-ticalization” ofcannabis might bewhat the governmenthoped would solve itsproblem with mari-juana as medicine,the problem of howto make the medicinalproperties ofcannabis (in so far asthe governmentbelieves such proper-ties exist) widelyavailable while at thesame time prohibit-ing its use for anyother purpose. ButMarinol did notdisplace marijuana as“the treatment ofchoice”; most patientsfound the herb itselfmuch more useful

than dronabinol in the treatment of thenausea and vomiting of cancer chemothera-py. In 1992, the treatment of the AIDS wastingsyndrome was added to dronabinol’s labeleduses; again, patients reported that it was infe-rior to smoked marijuana. Because it wasthought that it would sell better if it wereplaced in a less restrictive Drug ControlSchedule, it was moved from Schedule 2 toSchedule 3 in the year 2000. But Marinol hasnot solved the marijuana-as-a-medicine prob-lem because so few of the patients who havediscovered the therapeutic usefulness ofmarijuana use dronabinol. In general, theyfind it less effective than smoked marijuana, itcannot be titrated because it has to be takenorally, it takes at least an hour for the thera-peutic effect to manifest itself and even withthe prohibition tariff on street marijuana,Marinol is more expensive. Thus, the firstattempt at pharmaceuticalization proved notto be the answer. In practice, for manypatients who use marijuana as a medicine thedoctor-prescribed Marinol serves primarily asa cover from the threat of the growing ubiqui-ty of urine tests.

Most of the patients who use cannabis asa medicine smoke or ingest it in some form. In

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8 Cannabis Health

so doing they are in violation of federal lawthroughout the country and of state laws inall but nine states. In those states, notablyCalifornia, which allow for doctor-recom-mended use of cannabis, buyers’ clubs orcompassion clubs have evolved as cannabispharmacies for patients with appropriatephysician documentation. Two distributionmodels have evolved. One is based on theconventional delivery system for medicine: apatient visits a buyers’ club (read: pharmacy),where he or she presents a note from a physi-cian, certifying that the patient has acondition for which the physician recom-mends cannabis (read: prescription). Theproprietor of the club (read: pharmacist) fillsthe prescription and the patient leaves to usethe medicine, presumably at home. Thismodel preserves the medical profession’sauthority to decide who shall use a medicineand for how long. The pharmacy provides asource, in this case a nonprofit one, for themedicine. If the doctor and the pharmacistbehave ethically, only those who have amedical need for marijuana can receive it. Inturn, patients have a reliable source for thedrug, relieving them of the stress of buying iton the street or secretly growing their own.The staid set-up of the club and the attitudesof the proprietors make it clear that thepatient is no more expected to use his medi-

cine there than he would be in a convention-al pharmacy.

The second distribution model resemblesa social club more than it does a pharmacy.The dispensing area is plastered with menusoffering types, grades and prices. Large roomsare filled with brightly colored posters, loungechairs and sofas, tables, magazines and news-papers. While some patients remain only longenough to buy their medicine, most stay tosmoke and talk.There are animated conversa-tions, laughter, music and the pervasive,pungent odor of cannabis. The atmosphere isinformal, welcoming and warm, providingsupport for patients who may be sociallyisolated and have little opportunity to shareconcerns and feelings about their illnesses.This type of club is a blend of Amsterdam-style coffeehouse, American bar and medicalsupport group. The model was epitomized bythe San Francisco Cannabis Cultivators’ Club.

Until some kind of legal accommodationmakes it possible for patients to obtain mari-juana without violating the law, buyers’ clubsare the best approach to the problem. Yet thefederal government, including the WhiteHouse, the Drug Enforcement Administrationand federal law enforcement at all levels,remains opposed to the idea.While for a shortperiod of time after the publication of the

Institute of Medicinereport, “Marijuanaand Medicine:Assessing the ScienceBase”, the Feds retreat-ed somewhat fromtheir position thatmarijuana has notherapeutic value,they are now workingdiligently to close thecannabis clubs.

Many, if not most,advocates who recog-nize the importanceof buyers’ clubsbelieve that the firstmodel is preferable tothat represented bythe San Franciscoclub. The former ismore businesslike,conforms more close-ly to the pharmacymodel and at leastappears to be morevigilant aboutchecking the docu-mentation of peoplewho present them-selves as patients. TheSan Francisco modelclub, largely becauseof the on-site marijua-

na smoking and its relaxed atmosphere,appeared to be more casual in its commit-ment to confirming medical need, whichmade even the supporters of buyers’ clubs alittle nervous.

Yet the importance of the social aspect ofbuyers’ clubs cannot be underestimated and,in my view, offers a medically significant newmodel for future conventional use of cannabisas a medicine. It is becoming increasinglyclear that emotional support, contacts withand help from fellow-patients, friends, family,co-workers and others, plays a salutary role inbattling many illnesses. This kind of supportimproves the quality of life, and there is grow-ing evidence that it may even prolong life. Inone study, socially isolated women werefound to be five times more likely to die fromovarian and related cancers than women withnetworks of friends and families. In anotherstudy, women with breast cancer were foundto be 50 percent less likely to die in the firstfew months after surgery if they had confi-dants. In a four-year study of 133 breastcancer patients, married women had a longeraverage survival time. Researchers haveconsistently found that support groups areeffective for patients with a variety of cancers.Participants become less anxious anddepressed, make better use of their time andare more likely to return to work than patientswho are given only standard care, regardlessof whether they have serious psychiatricsymptoms. There is evidence that even briefsupportive therapy can have benefits that lastfor months. Some researchers have made thecontroversial claim that mere participation insupport groups can prolong cancer patients’lives. The San Francisco buyers’ club func-tioned very much as an informal supportgroup. It was not designed by psychiatristsand social scientists to provide supportivegroup therapy, but there is reason to believe itdid. One of the properties of marijuana mayhave contributed to its effectiveness: whenpeople use cannabis, they tend to be moresociable and find it easier to share difficultthoughts and feelings. If there is even onekernel of truth to the idea that talking aboutthe stress, setbacks and triumphs in the battleagainst an illness can help a patient cope andrecover, it is clear that the San Franciscomodel provides the best environment for thedispensing of medicinal marijuana.Furthermore, the existence of this kind ofmedical service would solve a difficult prob-lem for the physician who recommendsmarijuana to a patient, particularly an olderone who lacks experience. Unlike mostprescriptions which require little more prepa-ration than providing the patient with anunderstanding of the possible toxic (“side-”)effects, many marijuana-naïve patients willrequire someone to teach them how to use it


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Cannabis Health 9

comfortably. Such instruction is readily avail-able at a San Francisco-type facility.Unfortunately, we live in a culture thatconsiders such a facility a public nuisanceand criminalizes a compassionate form ofcaring out of loyalty to a symbolic war ondrugs. In any event, the present federalgovernment is not going to allow the devel-opment of a separate distribution system,and certainly not on the San Franciscomodel, for this one medicine.

Now that the federal government hasembarked on a cruel and so far successfulcampaign to close down buyers’ clubs, whatoptions are available to the many thousandsof patients who find cannabis of great impor-tance, even essential, to the maintenance oftheir health? They can either use Marinol,which most find unsatisfactory, or they canbreak the law and use marijuana. Why is agovernment which considers itself compas-sionate (“compassionate conservatism”)criminalizing these patients? What is thegovernment’s problem with medical marijua-na? The problem as seen through the eyes ofthe government is the belief that as growingnumbers of people observe relatives andfriends using marijuana as a medicine, theywill come to understand that this is a drug

which does not conform to the descriptionthe government has been pushing for years.They will first come to appreciate what aremarkable medicine it really is; it is less toxicthan almost any other medicine in the phar-macopoeia; it is, like aspirin, remarkablyversatile; and it is less expensive than theconventional medicines it displaces. They willthen begin to wonder if there are any proper-ties of this drug which justify denying it topeople who wish to use it for any reason, letalone arresting more than 700,000 citizensannually. The federal government sees theacceptance of marijuana as a medicine as thegateway to catastrophe, the repeal of itsprohibition. In so far as the government viewsas anathema any use of plant marijuana, it isdifficult to imagine it accepting a legalarrangement that would allow for its use as amedicine, while at the same time vigorouslypursuing a policy of prohibition of any otheruse. Yet, there are many who believe this typeof arrangement is possible and workable. Infact, this is the option the Canadian and Dutchgovernments are presently pursuing as arevarious states in the United States. Let usconsider what might be involved in establish-ing and maintaining such a legalarrangement in this country.

The first requirement at this time is thatthe FDA approve marijuana as a medicine.One can argue, however, that FDA approval issuperfluous where cannabis as a medicine isconcerned. Drugs must undergo rigorous,expensive, and time-consuming tests beforethey are approved by the Food and DrugAdministration for marketing as medicines.The purpose is to protect the consumer byestablishing safety and efficacy. Because nodrug is completely safe or always efficacious,an approved drug has presumably satisfied arisk-benefit analysis. When physiciansprescribe for individual patients they conductan informal analysis of a similar kind, takinginto account not just the drug’s overall safetyand efficacy, but its risks and benefits for agiven patient with a given condition. Theformal drug approval procedures help toprovide physicians with the information theyneed to make this analysis. This system isdesigned to regulate the commercial distribu-tion of drug company products and protectthe public against false or misleading claimsabout the efficacy and safety. The drug isgenerally a single synthetic chemical that apharmaceutical company has acquired ordeveloped and patented. It submits an appli-cation to the FDA and tests it first for safety in


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10 Cannabis Health

animals and then for clinical efficacy andsafety. The company must present evidencefrom double-blind controlled studies showingthat the drug is more effective than a placebo.Case reports, expert opinion, and clinical expe-rience are not considered sufficient.

The standards have been tightened sincethe present system was established in 1962,and few applications that were approved inthe early ‘60s would be approved today onthe basis of the same evidence. Certainly weneed more laboratory and clinical research toimprove our understanding of medicinalcannabis. We need to know how manypatients and which patients with each symp-tom or syndrome are likely to find cannabismore effective than existing drugs. We alsoneed to know more about its effects on theimmune system in immunologically impairedpatients, its interactions with other medicines,and its possible uses for children.

But I have come to doubt whether theFDA rules should apply to cannabis. There isno question about its safety. It is one ofhumanity’s oldest medicines, used for thou-sands of years by millions of people with verylittle evidence of significant toxic effects.More is known about its adverse effects thanabout those of most prescription drugs. Thegovernment of the United States has

conducted through its National Institute ofDrug Abuse (NIDA) a decades-long multimil-lion-dollar research program in a futileattempt to demonstrate significant toxiceffects that would justify the prohibition ofcannabis as a non-medical drug. Should timeand resources be wasted to demonstrate forthe FDA what is already so obvious?

But even if it were legally and practicallypossible to do the various phased studies towin FDA approval, where would the moneyto finance these studies come from? Newmedicines are almost invariably introducedby drug companies that spend manymillions of dollars on the development ofeach product. They are willing to undertakethese costs only because of the anticipatedlarge profits during the 20 years they ownthe patent. Obviously pharmaceuticalcompanies cannot patent marijuana. In factthey are very much opposed to its accept-ance as a medicine because it will competewith their own products.

It is unlikely that whole smoked marijuanashould or will ever be developed as an official-ly recognized medicine via this route.Thousands of years of use have demonstratedits medical value; the extensive government-supported effort of the last three decades toestablish a sufficient level of toxicity to

support the harsh prohibition has insteadprovided a record of safety that is morecompelling than that of most approved medi-cines. The modern FDA protocol is notnecessary to establish a risk-benefit estimatefor a drug with such a history. To impose thisprotocol on cannabis would be like makingthe same demand of aspirin, which wasaccepted as a medicine more than 60 yearsbefore the advent of the double-blindcontrolled study. Many years of experiencehave shown us that aspirin has many uses andlimited toxicity, yet today it could not bemarshaled through the FDA approval process.The patent has long since expired, and with it


In the end, thecommercial success of

any psychoactivecannabinoid product will

depend on howvigorously the prohibi-tion against marijuana

is enforced.

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Cannabis Health 11

the incentive to underwrite the substantialcost of this modern seal of approval.Cannabis, too, is unpatentable, so the onlysources of funding for a “start-from-scratch”approval would be non-profit organizationsor the government, which is, to put it mildly,unlikely to be helpful. Other reasons fordoubting that marijuana would ever be offi-cially approved are today’s anti-smokingclimate and, mostimportant, the wide-spread use ofcannabis for purposesdisapproved by thegovernment.

To see some of theobstacles to thisapproach to the prob-lem, consider theeffects of grantingmarijuana legitimacyas a medicine whileprohibiting it for anyother use. How wouldthe appropriate“labeled” uses bedetermined and howwould “off-label” uses be monitored? Let ussuppose that studies satisfactory to the FDAare somehow completed affirming that mari-juana is safe and effective as a treatment forthe AIDS wasting syndrome and/or AIDS-related neuropathy, and physicians are able toprescribe it for those conditions.This will pres-ent unique problems. When a drug isapproved for one medical purpose, physiciansare generally free to write off-label prescrip-tions — that is, prescribe it for otherconditions as well. If marijuana is approved asa medicine, how will off-label prescribing playout? Surely, knowledgeable physicians willwant to prescribe it for some patients withmultiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, migraine,convulsive disorders, spastic symptoms, andother conditions for which the use ofcannabis is well established by a mountain ofanecdotal evidence. But what about premen-strual syndrome? Surely women who sufferfrom this disorder consider it a serious prob-lem, and many of them find cannabis themost useful and least toxic treatment. Whatabout the loss of erectile capacity in para-plegics? What about intractable hiccups? Andthen there is depression, not the DSM-IVdefined major affective disorder, but thecommon low-level dysphoric condition forwhich general practitioners frequentlyprescribe SSRI’s such as Prozac? What aboutbipolar disorder?

Generally speaking, the more dangerous adrug is, the more serious or debilitating mustbe a symptom or illness for which it isapproved. Conversely, the more serious thehealth problem, the more risk is tolerated. If

the benefit is very large and the risk verysmall, the medicine is distributed over thecounter (OTC). OTC drugs are considered souseful and safe that patients are allowed touse their own judgment without a doctor’spermission or advice. Thus, today anyone canbuy and use aspirin for any purpose at all.Thisis permissible because aspirin is considered tobe so safe; it takes “only” one to two thousand

lives a year in the UnitedStates. The remarkablyversatile ibuprofen(Advil) and other non-s t e r o i d a lanti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs) can also bepurchased OTC becausethey, too, are consideredvery safe; “only” 10,000Americans lose theirlives to these drugsannually. Aceta-minophen (Tylenol),another useful OTC drug,is responsible for about10 percent of cases ofend-stage renal disease.The public is also

allowed to purchase many herbal remedieswhose dangers andefficacies have notbeen well deter-mined. Comparethese drugs withmarijuana. Today, noone can doubt that itis, as DEAAdministrative JudgeFrancis L. Young putit, “…among thesafest therapeuticsubstances known toman.” If it were nowin the official phar-macopoeia, it wouldbe a seriouscontender for thetitle of least toxicsubstance in thatcompendium. In itslong history,cannabis has nevercaused a single over-dose death.

Then there is thequestion of who willprovide thecannabis. The federalgovernment nowprovides marijuanafrom its farm inMississippi to theseven survivingpatients covered by

the now-discontinued Compassionate INDprogram. But surely the government couldnot or would not produce marijuana for manythousands of patients receiving prescriptions,any more than it does for other prescriptiondrugs. If production is contracted out, will thefarmers have to enclose their fields with secu-rity fences and protect them with securityguards? How would the marijuana be distrib-uted? If through pharmacies, how would theyprovide secure facilities capable of keepingfresh supplies? Would the price of pharma-ceutical marijuana have to be controlled: nottoo high, lest patients be tempted to buy it onthe street or grow their own; not too low, lestpeople with marginal or fictitious “medical”conditions besiege their doctors for prescrip-tions? What about the parallel problems withpotency? When urine tests are demanded ofworkers, what would be the bureaucratic andother costs of identifying those who use mari-juana legally as a medicine as distinguishedfrom those who use it for other purposes?

To realize the full potential of cannabis asa medicine in the setting of the present prohi-bition system, we would have to address allthese problems and more. A delivery systemthat successfully navigated this minefield


“Unless we putmedical freedoms

into the Constitution,the time will come

when medicine willorganize into a...dictatorship.

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12 Cannabis Health

would be cumbersome, inefficient, andbureaucratically top-heavy. Government andmedical licensing boards would insist ontight restrictions, challenging physicians asthough cannabis were a dangerous drugevery time it was used for any new patient orpurpose. There would be constant conflictwith one of two outcomes: patients wouldnot get all the benefits they should, or theywould get the benefits by abandoning thelegal system for the black market or theirown gardens and closets.

A solution now being proposed, notablyin the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report, iswhat might be called the “pharmaceuticaliza-tion” of cannabis: prescription of isolatedindividual cannabinoids, synthetic cannabi-noids, and cannabinoid analogs. The IOM

Report states that “…if there is any future formarijuana as a medicine, it lies in its isolatedcomponents, the cannabinoids, and theirsynthetic derivatives.” It goes on: “Therefore,the purpose of clinical trials of smoked mari-juana would not be to develop marijuana as alicensed drug, but such trials could be a firststep towards the development of rapid-onset,non-smoked cannabinoid delivery systems.”This position was recently echoed by AntonioMaria Costa, Executive Director, Office onDrugs and Crime, the United Nations at theInternational Symposium on Cannabis inStockholm on March 7th, 2003:

“I am not sure I understand the controver-sy about the medical virtues of cannabis: First,if and when they are ascertained, societyshould definitely make use of them. Whowould oppose the advances of medicine?Who would stand in the way of reducingsuffering? My concern is to prevent that, byproclaiming the (medical) virtues of cannabis,we open a back door to its wider (recreational)consumption. Society would end up regret-ting such abuse, just as we now regret tobaccoaddiction. If proven to be medically useful:,and this is my second point, cannabis shouldbe treated like any other medicine, namely asa pharmaceutical preparation to beprescribed for specific symptoms in accor-dance with properly determined dosages andstandards. In other words,either we are seriousabout the medical properties of cannabis (andwe, in this hall, take the question very serious-ly) or it is just a matter of using such propertiesas a Trojan horse to reach other goals –namely, the de facto decriminalization of itsproduction and trafficking. In this case I wouldbe strongly negative.”

Some cannabinoid analogs may indeedhave advantages over whole smoked oringested marijuana in limited circumstances.For example, cannabidiol may be more effec-tive as an anti-anxiety medicine and ananticonvulsant when it is not taken alongwith THC, which sometimes generates anxi-ety. Other cannabinoids and analogs mayprove more useful than marijuana in somecircumstances because they can be adminis-tered intravenously. For example, 15 to 20percent of patients lose consciousness aftersuffering a thrombotic or embolic stroke, andsome people who suffer brain syndrome aftera severe blow to the head become uncon-scious. The new analog dexanabinol (HU-211)has been shown to protect brain cells fromdamage when given immediately after thestroke or trauma; in these circumstances, itwill be possible to give it intravenously to anunconscious person. Presumably otheranalogs may offer related advantages. Someof these commercial products may also lackthe psychoactive effects which make marijua-na useful to some for non-medical purposes.Therefore, they will not be defined as “abus-able” drugs subject to the constraints of theComprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act.Nasal sprays, vaporizers, nebulizers, skinpatches, pills, and suppositories can be usedto avoid exposure of the lungs to the particu-late matter in marijuana smoke.

The question is whether these develop-ments will make marijuana itself medicallyobsolete. Surely many of these new productswould be useful and safe enough forcommercial development. It is uncertain,however, whether pharmaceutical companieswill find them worth the enormous develop-ment costs. Some may be (for example, acannabinoid inverse agonist that reducesappetite might be highly lucrative), but formost specific symptoms, analogs or combina-tions of analogs are unlikely to be more usefulthan natural cannabis. Nor are they likely to


To restrict the art of

healing to one class of

men and deny equal

privileges to others will

constitute the Bastille of

medical science. All such

laws are un-American and

despotic and have no

place in a republic.

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Cannabis Health 13

have a significantly wider spectrum of thera-peutic uses, since the natural productcontains the compounds (and synergisticcombinations of compounds) from whichthey are derived. For example, the naturallyoccurring THC and cannabidiol of marijuana,as well as dexanabinol, protect brain cellsafter a stroke or traumatic injury.

The cannabinoids in whole marijuana canbe separated from the burnt plant products(which comprise the smoke) by vaporizationdevices that will be inexpensive when manu-factured in largenumbers. Thesedevices takeadvantage of thefact that finelychopped marijua-na releases thecannabinoids byvaporization whenair flowingthrough the mari-juana is heldwithin a fairly larget e m p e r a t u r ewindow below theignition tempera-ture of the plantmaterial. Inhalation is a highly effective meansof delivery, and faster means will not be avail-able for analogs (except in a few situationssuch as parenteral injection in a patient whois unconscious or suffering from pulmonaryimpairment). It is the rapidity of the responseto inhaled marijuana which makes it possiblefor patients to titrate the dose so precisely.Furthermore, any new analog will have tohave an acceptable therapeutic ratio. Thetherapeutic ratio (an index of the drug’ssafety) of marijuana is not known because ithas never caused an overdose death, but it isestimated, on the basis of extrapolation fromanimal data, to be an almost unheard of20,000 to 40,000. The therapeutic ratio of anew analog is unlikely to be higher than that;in fact, new analogs may be much less safethan smoked marijuana because it will bephysically possible to ingest more of them.And there is the problem of classificationunder the Comprehensive Drug Abuse andControl Act for analogs with psychoactiveeffects. The more restrictive the classificationof a drug, the less likely drug companies are todevelop it and physicians to prescribe it.Recognizing this economic fact of life,Unimed Pharmaceuticals Inc. has fairly recent-ly succeeding in getting Marinol (dronabinol)reclassified from Schedule 2 to Schedule 3.Nevertheless, many physicians will continueto avoid prescribing it for fear of the drugenforcement authorities.

A somewhat different approach to thepharmaceuticalization of cannabis is being

taken by a British company, G. W.Pharmaceuticals. It is attempting to developproducts and delivery systems which will skirtthe two primary popular concerns about theuse of marijuana as a medicine: the smokeand the psychoactive effects (the “high”). Toavoid the need for smoking, G. W.Pharmaceuticals has developed an electroni-cally controlled dispenser to deliver cannabisextracts sublingually in carefully controlleddoses. The company expects its products(extracts of marijuana) to be effective thera-

peutically at doses toolow to produce thepsychoactive effectssought by recreationaland other users. Myclinical experienceleads me to questionwhether this is possiblein many or even mostcases. The issue iscomplicated by toler-ance to thepsychoactive effects.Recreational userssoon discover that themore often they usemarijuana, the less

“high” they experience. A patient who smokescannabis frequently for the relief of, say,chronic pain or elevated intraocular pressurewill experience little or no “high”. Furthermore,as a clinician who has considerable experi-ence with medical cannabis use, I have toquestion whether the psychoactive effect isalways separable from the therapeutic. And Istrongly question whether the psychoactiveeffects are necessarily undesirable. Manypatients suffering from serious chronic illness-es report that cannabis generally improvestheir spirits. If they note psychoactive effects atall, they speak of a slight mood elevation —certainly nothing unwanted or incapacitating.

The great advantage of the administra-tion of cannabis through the pulmonarysystem is the rapidity with which its effectsare experienced. This in turn allows for theself-titration of dosage, the best way ofadjusting individual dosage. With otherroutes of delivery the response time is longerand self-titration becomes more difficult.Thus, self-titration is not possible with oralingestion of cannabis. While the responsetime for sublingual or oral mucosal adminis-tration of cannabis is shorter than it is withoral ingestion, it is significantly longer thanthat from absorption through the lungs andtherefore a considerably less useful route ofadministration for self-titration. Furthermore,the design of the G. W. Pharmaceuticalsdispenser negates whatever self-titrationcapacity sublingual administration may have.The device has electronic controls that moni-

tor the dose and prevent delivery if thepatient tries to take more than the physicianor pharmacist has set it to deliver duringpredetermined time windows. The proposalto use this cumbersome and expensivedevice apparently reflects a concern thatpatients cannot accurately titrate the thera-peutic amount or a fear that they might takemore than they need and experience somedegree of “high” (always assuming, doubtfully,that the two can easily be separated, especial-ly when cannabis is used infrequently).Because these products will be considerablymore expensive than natural marijuana, theywill succeed only if patients are intimidatedby the legal risks, and patients and physiciansconsider the health risks of smoking marijua-na (with and without a vaporizer) much morecompelling than is justified by either themedical or epidemiological literature andthey believe that it is essential to avoid anyhint of a psychoactive effect.

In the end, the commercial success of anypsychoactive cannabinoid product willdepend on how vigorously the prohibitionagainst marijuana is enforced. It is safe topredict that new analogs and extracts willcost much more than whole smoked oringested marijuana even at the inflated pricesimposed by the prohibition tariff. I doubt thatpharmaceutical companies would be inter-ested in developing cannabinoid products ifthey had to compete with natural marijuanaon a level playing field. The most commonreason for using Marinol is the illegality ofmarijuana, and many patients choose toignore the law for reasons of efficacy and cost.The number of arrests on marijuana chargeshas been steadily increasing and has nowreached more than 700,000 annually, yetpatients continue to use smoked cannabis asa medicine. I wonder whether any level ofenforcement would compel enough compli-ance with the law to embolden drugcompanies to commit the many millions ofdollars it would take to develop new cannabi-noid products. Unimed is able to profit fromthe exorbitantly priced dronabinol onlybecause the United States governmentunderwrote much of the cost of develop-ment. Pharmaceutical companies willundoubtedly develop useful cannabinoidproducts, some of which may not be subjectto the constraints of the Comprehensive DrugAbuse and Control Act. But, it is unlikely thatthis pharmaceuticalization will displace natu-ral marijuana for most medical purposes.

It is also clear that the realities of humanneed are incompatible with the demand for alegally enforceable distinction betweenmedicine and all other uses of cannabis.Marijuana use simply does not conform to theconceptual boundaries established by twenti-eth century institutions. It enhances many


...the naturally

occurring THC and

cannabidiol of marijuana,

as well as dexanabinol,

protect brain cells after a

stroke or traumatic

injury.

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:05 PM

14 Cannabis Health

pleasures and it has many potential medicaluses, but even these two categories are notthe only relevant ones. The kind of therapyoften used to ease everyday discomforts doesnot fit any such scheme. In many cases whatlay people do in prescribing marijuana forthemselves is not very different from whatphysicians do when they provide prescrip-tions for psychoactive or other drugs. Theonly workable way of realizing the full poten-tial of this remarkable substance, includingits full medical potential, is to free it from the

present dual set of regulations — those thatcontrol prescription drugs in general and thespecial criminal laws that control psychoac-tive substances. These mutually reinforcinglaws established a set of social categoriesthat strangle its uniquely multifacetedpotential. The only way out is to cut the knotby giving marijuana the same status as alco-hol — legalizing it for adults for all uses andremoving it entirely from the medical andcriminal control systems.

Two powerful forces are now colliding: thegrowing acceptance of medical cannabis andthe proscription against any use of the plantmarijuana, medical or non-medical. There areno signs that we are moving away fromabsolute prohibition to a regulatory systemthat would allow responsible use of marijua-na. As a result, we are going to have twodistribution systems for medical cannabis: theconventional model of pharmacy-filledprescriptions for FDA-approved cannabinoidmedicines, and a model closer to the distribu-tion of alternative and herbal medicines. Theonly difference, an enormous one, will be thecontinued illegality of whole smoked oringested cannabis. In any case, increasingmedical use by either distribution pathway

will inevitably make growing numbers ofpeople familiar with cannabis and its deriva-tives. As they learn that its harmfulness hasbeen greatly exaggerated and its usefulnessunderestimated, the pressure will increase fordrastic change in the way we as a society dealwith this drug.

If the cynical attitude of the federalgovernment toward patients who use medicalmarijuana, its attempt to intimidate physicianswho recommend it, its arrest of people who,with permission of the local authorities, growmarijuana for medical patients, and its recentdespotic actions against buyers’ clubs inCalifornia lend credence to Benjamin Rush’sconcern about medical fascism, then thepatients and the people who help them in avariety of ways constitute a resistance move-ment against medical dictatorship. It is mybelief that this resistance will continue untilfreedom to responsibly use this plant as wechoose is secured.

Previously published in the Journal of CognitiveLiberties, Volume 4, Issue 2, http://www.cogni-tiveliberty.org/jcl/jcl_online.html


Two powerful forcesare now colliding: the

growing acceptance ofmedical cannabis and

the proscription againstany use of the plant

marijuana, medical ornon-medical.

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:05 PM

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:05 PM

16 Cannabis Health

E c c e G ra n u m B e h o l d t h e S e e d

I officially took up the cannabis issue in1993 after I bid farewell to the commercialseed company where I’d been a corn breederfor nearly two decades.The chemical industryhad been gradually scooping up seed compa-nies for most of that tenure. With the adventof biotechnology came the ability to modifycrops to fit within agchemical marketingplans, opening the floodgates of acquisition. Idecided to explore other uses for my talents.

Looking at cannabis from a plant breeder’sperspective, I saw a need to clarify matters ofvarietal difference, which is a plant breeder’sterritory. I came at it from my base as an agro-nomic crop breeder, so I took up the cause ofthe agronomic kind of cannabis, e.g., hemp.

I set about explaining the differencebetween hemp and marijuana and made aneffort to raise awareness of the importance of

germplasm. When Hawaii wantedto try hemp, I went there and rana project. It’s all aboutgermplasm.

GermplasmGermplasm. My spell checker

doesn’t know this word.Thinks it’sgerm plasma.

“Germplasm” is the collectiveterm for the genetic repertoire ofa crop, ranging over all its vari-eties that the breeder draws onfor genes.

Germplasm comes in neatlittle packages called seed(“achene,” in the case of hempseed, if you want to get technical).

When I matriculated at Hemp U., in 1993, Inaturally went looking for hemp germplasmand I found a distressing situation. The indus-try that had existed in North America hadrelied on a uniquely adapted American vari-ety of hemp known as Kentucky Hemp. Iinquired after Kentucky Hemp at the NationalSeed Storage Laboratory in Fort Collins, CO, afacility charged with the preservation of thenation’s critical germplasm resources. I discov-ered that it had not been preserved. Thewhole of it was lost.

Ecce granum! Behold the seed!Seed is a package with a nice, quasi-plas-

tic wrap, in which we find a nascent plant in asuspended state, battery included. This littleplant has already begun to differentiateleaves. Attending this embryo, or “germ,” is anenergy source, a battery of sorts. It’s either

carbohydrate or lipid: sugar or oil. In hemp, it’soil. When conditions turn right, depending onthe species the right conditions may requiresuch events as freezing or fire, the battery firesup and jump starts the plant to life, supplyingthe requisite energy for growth until the solarpanels are in place and can take over. The oilin hemp burns hot in the germinating seed.Really. Hemp’s seedlings are hotter than othercrop’s. It’s been shown.

Seeds are alive and can die. Seed respires.If time runs out before conditions are right forgermination, the seed dies. If seed is to bepreserved for long periods, many years, theconditions of storage must be carefullycontrolled. Commercial hemp seed germina-tion declines rapidly. After three years, it isusually below standards for planting (<80%).

Per my request, they found some bags ofhemp seed at the NSSL, but it came from a1949 crop. It was long dead. And because itwas cannabis, it presented the lab with aunique problem that was summed up for mein a truly memorable comment: “If any of ithad germinated,” the lab informed me,because they weren’t licensed for controlledsubstances,“we would have had to kill it.”

Every time I plant a seed…kill it before itgrows

The DEA makes no differentiation withinCannabis (I mean the genus when I capitalizeit). By their official definition, all Cannabis ismarijuana.As such, feral hemp,which is the oldcrop escaped into the wild that grows in areaswhere the crop once thrived, annually comesunder attack from eradicators. What this reallyis is a way for Police and National Guard toshift cost to the Drug War for some of theirmaneuvers and overtime. I kid you not.

For the most part, this feral hemp is thefinal state of Kentucky Hemp germplasm.Though degraded by many generations ofnatural selection for survival in the wild, suchthings as increased branching, shorter

Dr. Dave West overlooking Grand Forks during his visit summer, 2005

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:05 PM

Cannabis Health 17

internode length, and rampant variability, itis nonetheless a resource that should becollected and preserved, since, you know,they lost the original.

There’s lots of feral hemp around thecontinent, but in the US there is one particu-larly unique stand that I now believe actuallypredates Kentucky Hemp.

Kentucky Hemp was developed out ofaccessions of seed sent here from China bymissionaries after 1850. (There’s a strong prob-ability that KY Hemp arose from thehybridization of Chinese and Europeangermpools that met for the first time in US after1850.) Prior to that, the lineage of the domestichemp crop traced to European ancestry.

Previously I assumed the extensive standsof feral hemp in the Plains States wereescaped from that grown in eastern Nebraskaat the turn of the century. I changed my mindwhen I learned the surprising story of whatbecame of David Myerle.

Myerle was a “hempreneur,” a true enthu-siast. His activities centered in the first half ofthe nineteenth century and you can readabout his attempts to establish a viable hempindustry in Tennessee and Kentucky, and laterin Missouri, in James Hopkins’ classic, AHistory of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky.Myerle wasn’t lucky in business; his failureskept pushing him westward.

Not long ago, a file dating to the 1840swas discovered in the National Archives. Thefile contains letters and other documentsassociated with Myerle’s final mission: bring-ing hemp to the Indians. At Myerle’s urging,the Indian Agent from Fort Leavenworth did,in 1844, deliver hemp seed to NativeAmericans on the Plains and they grew it, andthen they replanted the harvested seed andsowed it again, and they brought in seed andfiber for sale. Myerle showed them how.

Today feral hemp can be found spread fromKansas, through Nebraska to South Dakota. It isquite plausible that these feral plants have theirorigin in that seed given the Indians by the USGovernment. Of course, had I the genetic toolsin hemp I used to have in corn, I could prove it.My feeling is that for the hemp to be spread asextensively as it is, it needed to get its startbefore the land was settled.

Alex White Plume collected seed fromthese plants which he planted in fields onPine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Andeach year the Feds have cut down his cropand hauled it off. Alex is now enjoined not toplant it again. We await the 8th Circuit Court’sdecision regarding the Indian’s right to thiscrop, given them originally by the govern-ment so they could be self-sufficient farmers.

Ecce granum!Germplasm can be as rough as the feral

hemp on the Plains, or it can be refined byyears, centuries and millennia of human selec-tion. Take, for instance, the case of Japanesehemp.

In 1896, the USDA reported “Japanesehemp is beginning to be cultivated, particu-larly in California, where it reaches a height of15 feet.” Now there’s an example ofgermplasm they should have preserved!Today, it’s very difficult to obtain seed ofJapanese hemp. I know. I tried. I went to Japanto see if I could procure seed of their hemp forthe Hawaii Project. I couldn’t. At least not seed

of the true Japanese hemp cultivar.

One thing about germplasm: it’s aresource and a national asset, and often aprivate asset. When people know whatthey’ve got, they don’t just give it away. At thevery least, they license it. Germplasm has legalsimilarities to software.

Hemp is highly regarded in Japaneseculture (see taima.org). Its use there recedesinto prehistory. Motifs at the Meiji Shrine inTokyo show hemp and hemp fiber are used inShinto religious ceremonies. Hemp is thefabric of Japanese royalty; it is required fortheir ceremonies. It was nearly lost.

In 1949, General MacArthur, who wasrunning the US occupation, forced the HempControl Act on Japan. (Comeuppance,perhaps, for the hassle the US had over hempin WWII. Recognition, at least, of the militaryimportance of the fiber.) Hemp cultivationdeclined as a result and the cultural memoryfaded. As the story was told to me, the timecame when the Emperor passed away andsuddenly they found themselves in crisisbecause ancient tradition required the burialgarments be made of hemp. Luckily, hempculture had been preserved in an area tooremote to be touched by the occupation andit was saved. Barely.

Ecce granum!Hemp as a fiber crop had a rough ride in

the 20th century. In the 21st, seed is on theascendancy as the end product. These littlepackages of genetics are also mighty pack-ages of nutrition. Hemp as food almost seemsa modern discovery. Of course, it’s not.

But perhaps you would be surprised tohear how, in 1997, the United States Agencyfor International Development (USAID)funded two erstwhile hemp “experts” on amission to Russia to encourage Russians togrow hemp! My Adventures in Hemp has


Seed is a package witha nice, quasi-plastic wrap,in which we find anascent plant in asuspended state, batteryincluded.

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18 Cannabis Health

provided many an irony but none greaterthan this! Talk about carrying coals toNewcastle! But that is how Yitzac Goldstein(then of Hemp Textiles International) and Ifound ourselves in Russia, traveling fromhemp mill to hemp mill, trying to talk up thenotion of growing hemp in accordance withthe guidelines for organic certification. It wasarranged by a maverick lady at WinrockInternational, but the money came fromUSAID. LOL. This is one of those un-told tales.

The hemp mills we visited were in adepressed and depressing state. Oil shortagehad shut them down because they were builtwith oil-heated drying tunnels. Meanwhile,huge mounds of hurds rotted out back. Atone mill, we were encouraged by meeting amill manager with hempreneurial spirit. Thefloor of his mill was covered with curingcement blocks he made using cement andhurds in a machine he’d engineered himself.

As far as I know, nothing came of ourefforts to convince Russians to produceorganic fiber. Producing fiber under organicstandards is a major undertaking, particularlyif the mill also receives non-organic crop, asthe lines must be segregated. There has to besufficient market potential. It was a hard sellto hardened mill managers.

Yet I believe our visit wasnot for naught. One day, in thevicinity of Kursk, scene of thegreatest tank battle of all time,and not-to-be-forgotten, wewere brought to visit an elder-ly gentleman who had beeninvolved with traditionalRussian hemp. The conversa-tion came ‘round to the seedand its uses and I asked whathe knew of “black butter,”something I’d only heardrumors of back then.

Our translator, Lyudmila,didn’t know about black butter either and shetook a keen interest as the old man told ofhow it used to be a staple in the Russian diet.The younger generation did not know, hadlost the knowledge, of how hemp seeds wereprocessed to a peanut butter-like consistencyand what a critical component it was to thetraditional healthy diet; or of a drink madefrom the seeds analogous to soy milk. There,that very day, Lyudmila and the old man,whose name I don’t have, forged an alliance torediscover this lost wisdom.

We came home; time passed. Then inApril, 2003, I chanced to see an article fromThe Moscow Times telling of a small town inthe Kursk Oblat that had put a cannabis leafon its flag in commemoration of its hemphistory. My heart leapt to read of the groupthere dedicated to the recovery of the area’shemp lore headed by a woman namedLyudmila. Though it is a common Russianname, I want to believe.

These days I get my hemp butter, rich inOmega 3s and 6s, from Manitoba Harvest andI wonder how the Russian babushka of oldwould judge the taste. I don’t know. As withthose Australian delicacies, Marmite andVegemite, it’s something of an acquired taste.I find it mixes well with peanut butter, and

wouldn’t that be a marketable product? Half‘n half? (MH, I’m talking to you.)

Looking at these instances of loss andnear-loss of a hemp tradition, product or seed,I see a common thread. They all result fromthe imposition of a dictatorial, centralizedpolitical power structure. From the US occu-pation of Japan through the Politburo ondown to the dictates of the DEA, there is acentral theme of loss of local control leadingto loss of local knowledge. States can maketheir own decisions about the death penalty;counties can decide to be wet or dry; but theFeds get to decide who can grow what?!

Seed embodies the opposite of centraliza-tion: dispersion. In seed we have theencapsulation of freedom at its most funda-mental, decentralized. To me, that is thetake-home message of Genesis 1:29. That thefirst gift of God to men would be seed to keepmen free that it was not given to a rulingparty or a priestly class to dispense, to control,but directly to man? “Here, this is for you, allthe seed-bearing plants.”Well…if you believethat stuff. I have a sense that it establishes aprecedent, anyway.

Henry David Thoreau’s last preoccupationwas with seed. He said, “I have great faith inseed. Convince me you have a seed there, andI am prepared to expect great wonders.” 1

Thoreau would go. The originator of theprinciple of civil disobedience would have putit on the line—wouldn’t he? — had he beenconfronted with our political system that hascriminalized the possession of seed. Imaginewhat he might have said were he to witnessthe incarceration of his fellow citizens for thecrime of possessing seed and growing plants!Especially this plant, then.

Criminalizing the possession of seed! Thatis what the “drug” laws do. Just look at thewording of the U.S.’s Controlled SubstancesAct, which serves as the model for othernations’ CSAs. Note how carefully the wording


Pollen photo courtesy Dr. Dave West

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:06 PM


evades and eludes: planting seed is “propaga-tion;” plants are “substances;” and to grow aplant is to “manufacture.” It is impossible toavoid the conclusion that these Orwelliantwists are intentional obfuscations. Whatrational person would accept that the merepossession of seed, the mere growing of aplant, is, in and of itself, a criminal act? Wherewould we be as a species, as a civilization, hadthere always been co-optation in that realm?Governments get away with things, doesn’tmake ‘em right.

We’ve been hoodwinked into accepting

their assertion that the growing of plants is anact of “manufacture”when the very word itselfmeans “made by hand.” In all other venues, wedraw a distinction between agriculture andmanufacturing. But the CSA carefully, conniv-ingly, conflates these activities so that certainplants may be proscribed as if they were theequivalent of synthesized substances. Yet, inall cases, it is clear that the negative socialimpacts are derived not from the naturalproduct but from the extracted, concentratedand chemically altered products made byman; substances designed for the conven-ience of the black market. The drug laws arethe cause of these substances.

The poet, ee cummings, put it best whenhe wrote, “a world of made is not a world ofborn.”Let that be our mantra.To grow a plant isnot to manufacture, and to possess seed is notcriminal. The hubris of that usurpation of ourNatural Right to Seed must be faced down. Forit is a Natural Right. The 5000 year old guyfound frozen always has his bag of seed.

For a time, not long ago, there was aneffort calling itself “The First Human RightOrganization.” I saw their ad in Rolling Stoneand sent for their pamphlet. They weremaking the same argument. I was heartenedto see someone had seized the gauntlet. Too

bad they seem to have disappeared. I’d like toget another copy of their pamphlet. I gavemine to Alex White Plume.

Ecce granum!“Convince me you have a seed there, and I am

prepared to expect great wonders.”1H.D.Thoreau. 1993. Faith in a Seed. Island Press.


Hemp seed photo courtesy Dr. Dave West

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20 Cannabis Health

Story by Anndrea M. Hermann Agrologist,Hemp Oil Canada Inc.photo courtesy Chantel Solomon

We know as cannabis coinsurers that thelove we put in we get back. I have beenblessed with the opportunity to have justcompleted my sixth hemp growing season

working and living in the Canadian prairies.The dream became a goal and the goal isnow the reality. This reality is industrialhemp. The fields have treated me very well. Isampled over 77 hemp fields and worked inover 120 this past summer alone. My work isfarmer based, we help farmers learn how tobetter grow hemp and they help us deter-mine which agronomic factors need to beaddressed in future research.

My current position is the Agrologistwith Hemp Oil Canada Inc. (HOCI), Ste.Agathe, Manitoba. Along with Kevin Friesen,the Seed Production Manager, we advise ourgrowers with everything from understand-ing the Health Canada licensing procedures,to seeding, combine modifications andharvest. HOCI prides itself in having strongpositive relations with our growers andcustomers; for without both of them wewould not be able to do the work that we

have so much respect and passion for.

I do not need to tell you about the bene-fits of either medical cannabis or industrialhemp. However one thing you may not knowis that without agronomic research we willnot be able to be successful in large scaleindustrial hemp production, and to keep up

with the productionissues like fertility,pest, and disease andweed management.Furthermore, everycropping system,farm, producer,contractor, processorand retailer workssomewhat differentlyso what might workfor one might not foranother.

At Hemp OilCanada we haveformulated a recipefor success for grow-ing hemp. It includes:

1) Obtaining anIndustrial HempLicence from HealthCanada.

2) Contractingyour production witha reputable company.

3) Having accessto the right and up todate agronomicinformation.

4) Having theproper infrastructure(i.e. suitable farmlandand farm equip-ment.)

5) Lastly, some luck from Mother Nature.

The licensing application process is fairlyeasy, and free. You need to get a criminalrecord check from the local police, GPS co-ordinates and a map of each field, fill in theHealth Canada application forms, arrange tohave a pre-harvest crop THC analysis, pluskeep all seed tags for Canadian FoodInspection Agency (CFIA) inspections.Instructions for Health Canada’s licensing canbe found at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/substancontrol/hemp-chanvre/comm-licen/applic-demande/index_e.html

Current varieties are being grown foreither grain (i.e. Finola & Crag), or dualpurpose for seed and fiber (i.e. USO 14, USO31 & Alyssa) or for fiber only (i.e. Carmen).Choice of variety depends on the final marketend product, farm and processing capability.Height variation can be seen within andbetween cultivars. Grain only cultivars aver-age 3 to 7 feet and dual-purpose cultivarsaverage 5 to 9 feet tall.

Many people have the impression thathemp means male plants only; this is false, asindustrial hemp is dependent upon both themale and female plants. Hemp is classified aseither monoecious (one-house), meaning thatboth the male (staminate) and female (pistil-late) parts are located on one single plant ordioecious (two-houses), meaning that themale and female parts are on separate plants.Male plants in dioecious varieties die off afterdehiscence (pollen shed) leaving the femalesto grow and set seed. Industrial hemp isanemophilious, primarily dependent uponwind to carry the pollen grains from the maleplant to the female. The average growthperiod is between 100-120 days dependingon variety and location.

Hemp should be sown into a warm,uniform, well-drained, and medium texturedseedbed with a pH of 6.0 to 7.5. Ideally, hempshould be sown at a depth of 0.5 to 0.75inches with a row spacing of about 6 inches.Pre-tillage passes and half rate opposingangles seeding passes can help with weedcontrol in both conventional and organicproduction. Hemp does not like “wet feet”, socaution is taken to avoid seeding into coldwet soils, which can result in poor emergence,more weed pressure and even total crop loss.The suggested seeding date is between mid-May and mid to late June depending on farmclassification and pest/weed managementpractices, with May 25th as an ideal seedingdate. The seeds will germinate in 2 to 4 daysand will emerge within 4 to 7 days. Hempseedlings have shown tolerance to frost to - 4C°. Sowing at a shallow depth into warm(8C°~10C°+) moist soil will facilitate quickemergence and the resulting canopy willpromote natural weed suppression.

Fo r t h e S c i e n c e o f t h e S e e d . . .

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Cannabis Health journal 21


A thick canopy of vigorously growinghemp can block out the sunlight available toweeds under the canopy and will not onlybenefit the current cropping but will help inthe overall reduction of weed pressures in theupcoming cropping year. The target seedingdensity is 100 plants per square meter and itis normally met with a seeding rate of 20 to 30pounds per acre. Seed is a major input costwhich averages from 30 to 60 dollars an acredepending on the variety. Bin-run grain is notallowed to be used as seed thus all producersmust purchase certified pedigreed seed. Thisassures the quality of the planting seed andprevents divergence from the true character-istics of the selected cultivar.

The second major input cost is fertilizer.Hemp is a heavy feeder and to take advan-tage of hemp’s vigorous growth habit atypical conventional fertilization programrequires 75 to100 lbs/acre of actual N (nitro-gen), plus 50 to 70 lbs/acre of actual P2O5(phosphate), and lastly K and S (potassiumand sulfur) should also be added wherefound deficient. Hemp is highly receptive tonitrogen in the soil, and the resulting rapidgrowth has maximum weed control, higheryields and bio-mass. However, to help inreducing input cost all fields should have soiltests conducted to correctly assess fertiliza-tion requirements. Both conventional andorganic producers should sow the crop intotheir most fertile land for maximum yieldsand economic return. In a certified organiccropping system it is best to sow the hempinto a green manure plow down (i.e. clover)field or after a forage crop (i.e. alfalfa), as

these practices enhance soilfertility and reduce overallweed pressures.

Good weed managementcan be accomplished by pre-seeding tillage and/orpre-emergent burn-off withglyphosphate herbicides. Theuse of pre-emergent burn-offis only suggested if neededand should be discussed withthe contracting party beforethe herbicide is applied. Thereare no herbicides registeredfor use in Hemp in theCanadian prairies, but a mini-mal usage permit is beingapplied for application ofAssure II herbicide for fiberonly production in Manitoba.Assure II is currently onlyregistered in Ontario for fiberonly production. Somecontracts would be consid-ered null and void if the cropis sprayed, even if total croploss would have otherwiseresulted. The current marketsdemand pesticide and herbicide free produc-tion, which is attainable with proper croprotation, adequate fertilization and soundfarm agronomic management practices. Nomatter how sound the practices are, hemp is acrop that is still susceptible to attack frompest and disease. Sclerotinia sclerotiorumstem rot (i.e. hemp canker) is the most noteddisease. It is a soil borne fungus that attacks

the stem with symptoms arising after flower-ing has occurred and results in the early deathof the infected plant. We have yet to see aneconomic impact, but Sclerotinia has beenseen and documented in fields across thePrairies, and is especially prevalent duringwetter growing seasons like the one we expe-rienced this past cropping year in 2005.Another fungal disease is Botrytis cinerea (i.e.

Hemp stalk - photo courtesy of Anndrea Hermann

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22 Cannabis Health

gray mold/head blight) which attacks flower-ing tops and stalks during high moistureconditions; this has yet to be a major problembut must be taken into consideration. Ifinfected with B. cinerea molding of storedseeds may occur or result in seedling infec-tion the next cropping seasons. BothSclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinereacan remain alive in the soil for years followingthe first initial infection. The best way tohandle these diseases is with annihilation ofhost vectors, rotation with non-susceptiblecrops, and using disease free pedigree seed.Pests like grasshoppers, painted lady butter-flies, bertha armyworms, hemp borer, andlygus plant bugs have all been noted withoutany true economic impact as of yet.

One of the requirements set forth byHealth Canada is that all varieties except USO14 and USO 31 are to be sampled by anauthorized THC sampler for analysis of theTHC level. This sampling should be donewhen ~50% of the seed is set, normally mid-August. The legal limit for THC is 3000 partsper million, if a test’s results are greater thanthis limit a re-test will be done. If this secondtest verified the field is over the limit the fieldwould be destroyed, however this has neverhappened and is not of real concern. The

sampling andanalysis cost onaverage $260.00 intotal dependingon sampler’s ratecharge and cost ofthe lab analysis.The test resultsmust be reportedto Health Canada’sOffice ofC o n t r o l l e dS u b s t a n c eIndustrial HempR e g u l a t i o nProgram within 14days after theresults arereturned; this isnormally takencare of by thesampler. By this time, most producers arepreparing for harvest.

Harvesting hemp is one the biggestproduction challenges. Hemp should becombined while still fairly green, greener thanoften expected, to limit wrapping of the fibersand seed loss due to birds and shelling. Thelong fibers become more difficult to cut and

thresh as the stalkmatures. Matureseeds are unaffectedby frost but matura-tion is accelerated indeveloping seeds.Depending on thecultivar selected forproduction, methodsof harvesting are

either swathing or straight cutting. No matterthe method used hemp is easier to cut whenusing new or sharpened knives or sickles, andguards. The only cultivar that can be swathedis Finola, as its average 3.5 foot stature meansless fiber and typically no equipment modifi-cations are required. Swathing should occuras soon as shelling is apparent at approxi-mately 85% maturity, cutting 6 to 12 inchesoff the ground and then combined at ~ 10%seed moisture. Straight combining of Finolashould occur at 12.5- 15% moisture and driedvia aeration to 9% or lower for storage.Straight cutting is preferred to minimizegermination in the swath during high mois-ture and shattering but it can aid in the dryingprocess. Cultivars such as USO 14, USO 31 andCrag should be straight cut at about 20~25 %moisture when using a combine without


Shawn Crew, Anndrea Hermann, Kevin Friesen, Field Festival /05photo courtesy of Neil Gobel.

Sid Johnson and Anndrea Hermann photo courtesy of A Hanks.

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Cannabis Health 23

modifications and straight cut at ~17% mois-ture with a modified combine. Cutting heightis usually half the height of the plant, normal-ly 3 feet above the ground level, and theharvested grain dried in aeration bins to ~9%or lower for proper storage, with 6% to 8%being ideal. Typical yields range from 500 to1000 lbs/acre depending on the cultivar, farmclassification, fertility, and Mother Nature.

Combine modifications have been benefi-cial in easing harvest. John Deereconventional combine owners have mademodifications to the feeder chain by replac-ing it with a continuous rubber belt. Thisallows harvesting at a drier moisture level andminimizes wrapping that typically occursaround the drive shaft and sprockets at thetop of the feeder chain. To facilitate harvest-ing with a Case IH Axial Flow combine, a rotorkit was invented to fit over the front of therotor and replaces the elephant ears, bearinghousing, and adds a paddle which smoothesout feeding that helps reduce fiber wrappingand pounding. For uniform feeding draperheaders are favored over the usual auger typeheaders. Some producers will also narrow theopening on the header to keep the hemprunning down the middle of the feeder chainarea and away from the drive sprockets on

the sides. Depending on the sheer volume ofstraw producers typically disable their strawchoppers which drops the straw out insteadof chopping it.

The stubble should be promptly mowed,cut or haybined at opposite angles ofcombining and baled immediately afterharvest to prevent the stalks hardening off.The bales can be used as animal bedding or aswalls for silage piles. Eventually fiber process-ing facilities will be contracting the fiber forproduction into bio-composites, industrialgrade matting and insulation and for clothingmaterial, just to name a few possibilities.

It is crucial that the grain harvested bedried immediately to prevent spoiling andloss of grain, or grade, and thus loss of profit.Preserving grain quality is met by reducingauger unloading speeds or by using beltconveyors which minimizes seed hull damageand cracking that can result in rancidity. Graincan be stored for one to two years if it isstored in dry, cool conditions, out of directsunlight and free from rodents. Under HealthCanada’s regulations the hemp grain isrequired to be locked while in storage, toprevent vandalism. Representative binsamples will be required by the contractingparty after harvest and drying. This helps in

insuring the quality of the grain for furtherprocessing. Once the grain has been driedand requested by the contractor it isprocessed into hemp oil, hemp flour, hempprotein powder, hemp toasted and roastedseed, hemp oil gelcaps, sterilized hemp seed,hulled hemp seed, hemp coffee and into awide range of personal body care and foodproducts. It is sold by bulk for private compa-ny product lines and is distributed world wideto retailers and consumers. By the time thegrain is being processed the entire process ofcontracting and applying for Health Canada’slicensing starts over again.This completes thecycle from contracting to the retail customer.

For up to date information on hempproduction, contracting, agronomicinformation and processing contact

Arthur Hanks, Executive Director, TheCanadian Hemp Trade Alliance at

www.hemptrade.caand/or us at Hemp Oil Canada Inc. at

www.hempoilcan.com.

Adding hemp to your final vocabulary willnot only change your health but change yourlife!! Peace and keep on hempin!!


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24 Cannabis Health

C B C o f C & H e m p o l o g y 1 0 1 c o n t . . .

Written by Gayle Quin. Gayle has beeninvolved with Hempology 101 and the CBCofCfor less than three years, but in that time hasdeveloped many edible and skin products whileactively speaking and writing for the cause.

The second trial of 2005 was on January 5-7. It was a great surprise to us whenHonourable Judge Harvey found Ted guilty oftrafficking in cannabis (resin) for the produc-tion of edible and skin products at the club.Reasons for Judgement and Sentencing maybe found on Hempology.com, October 14,

2005. In sentencing (pp3) she stated, “Mr.Smith admits possessing, in fact creatingthese items, albeit not for a great deal of profitand basically for humanitarian purposes.” Inpp18 she continues with, “we are not talkingabout medicinal marijuana.The definitions bythe government are clear.They do not includecannabis resin.” She stated, “I am not withoutsympathy for what it is you are trying to do,and I accept that…many people are frustrat-ed with the government.” Ted was sentencedto a 9month conditional discharge. Ted filedan appeal, which the Department of Justiceagreed to and invited the Courtto enter an acquittal. (SeeHempology.com, Sept.29/05.)

Later in Jan. 2005,Honourable Judge Kay foundTed Guilty of possession for thepurpose of trafficking as a resultof sharing joints at UVIC. He wassentenced to 1 day in jail. Tedhas filed an appeal before theB.C. Court of Appeal and will berepresenting himself early in2006.

Many of the club membershave had a remarkable reduc-tion in the use ofpharmaceuticals, if they havecannabis readily available as an alternative.This has led us to launch an independentresearch study to show in dollars and sensethe value of cannabis as a medicine. (SeeHempology.com, Sept 22, 2004, for a copy ofthe survey.) We are particularly proud of thisstudy, as it is the first of its kind in the world toour knowledge.

The CBC of C offers a wide range of medic-

inal products as well as raw herb. Theseinclude several varieties of dietary products,as well as topically applied ointments and oils,cannaplasts and lip balm, all containing themarvelous benefits of cannabis.

The club offers 7 kinds of cookies: ginger,chocolate chip, double chocolate, peanutbutter, oatmeal, peanut butter chocolate chip,and an extra-strength cookie made with budinstead of leaf.

Budda Balls were carefully designed to beeasy on compromised digestive systems such

as those with Crohn’s disease and diabetes,and are a complete meal replacement. Theycontain oats, hemp protein, soy protein,coconut, sunflower seeds, almond powder,honey, cannabis infused olive oil and lecithin.

Ryanols are veggie capsules containinggrape seed oil (good for dissolving badcholesterol) infused with cannabis andlecithin. Veggie capsules are used as an alter-native to gelatin capsules, which are derivedfrom animals. Ryanols are a convenient,affordable, and effective way of ingestingcannabis.

We also offer a lozenge for severelycompromised digestive systems as well assore throats. They are made of Chinese Wolfberries, Slippery Elm, and Cannoil.

Mental attitude has everything to do withE-mail: [email protected]: www.johnconroy.com

CONROY & COMPANYBarristers and Solicitors

JOHN W.CONROY, Q.C.Barrister and Solicitor2459 Pauline StreetAbbotsford, B.C.Canada V2S 3S1 Ph: 604-852-5110

Toll Free:1-877-852-5110Fax: 604-859-3361

Photos by Marnie Garfat

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Cannabis Health 25


physical reflection, and state of being (well-ness-illness). If cannabis is capable of creatinga state of self-worth, care and love, our bodiesare free to heal themselves providing wesupply it with all the nutrients it needs.Thoughts should be looked at as nutrientsthat feed our life force, and without, noamount of nutrition provided will make muchdifference. So cannabis seems essential to ourmental, physical and spiritual well-being.

That having been said, it seems apparentthat the best way to defend ourselves isthrough education. It is my great pleasure toteach you how to make Cannoil, a cannabisinfused oil you can use to do your ownbaking; and make into massage oils and lipbalms. This is distinctly different from makinghashish or honey-oil, which is a concentrationof the resins.

We are going to infuse the cannabinoidsdirectly into the oil we are using, which isusually olive oil because of its own benefits.Massage oils are half the strength of cookies.We still prefer the more traditional method ofa double boiler. Put 2-3 inches of water in thebottom pot and place on the stove. In the toppot put 1 ounce of good leaf (1/2 oz formassage oil, or 1/4 oz buds for Cannoil), and 1cup of olive oil or 1/2 lb of butter. Boil for 4-5hours - remember to check the level of thewater every couple of hours and add more ifnecessary to keep from boiling dry. You don’tneed high heat, just enough to keep thewater boiling. Too high a temperature andyou start to destroy the active chemicals.Instead it gets cooked at a temperature thatactivates inactive cannibaniods and cannibi-nols; thereby increasing its potency. Take thetop pot off and set aside to cool. Strain thecannabis/oil mix through 1 or 2 layers ofcheesecloth into a clean measuring cup andsqueeze as much oil out as possible. Don’tworry about getting it all out because nowyou are ready to make a Cannaplast! Now Iusually divide the oil into 2 containers, readyfor use. I make 50 cookies or 100 lozengesfrom 1/3 cup of cannoil. You can also bottle itat this point to add to whatever food you likein the quantity you need at the time.The nextthing you need to remember is that low heatapplies to baking as well. Cookies are baked at250F for 1/2 hour. Cakes need to bake at theleast 300F, so brownies and things like that areusually preferred.

It’s time to reveal the secret ingredient!LECITHIN! That’s right, lecithin. It comes fromsoybeans, eggs, corn, wheat and nuts.You canget it in liquid or powder for baking (alsogreat for greasing your muffin tins with), or incapsules as a supplement. Lecithin is found inall living cells of the human body. It aids thebody’s use of fats and oil-soluble vitamins byemulsifying them to a form we can use.This iswhy we add it to our cannabis baking, to help

our bodies use all the Cannoil. Lecithin breaksup cholesterol to help preventArteriosclerosis. Lecithin is essential to ahealthy nervous system as it is found inhigher concentrations in the Myelin sheath,(the fatty protective coating of the nerves) soyou can see how it will help things likeMultiple Sclerosis and White Finger. A type ofSuper Lecithin (lecithin combined with othernutrients) has been found to arrestAlzheimer’s disease. It can also restorememory banks, prevent gallstones from form-ing and lower your blood pressure. A lack oflecithin can cause forgetfulness, nausea, andintolerance to fats, high blood pressure, jointand muscle problems such as bursitis, crampsand soreness.

Cannabis has been a preferred topical treat-ment since it began growing beside thecampsite. A bud can be applied directly to anopen wound and it will not only act as a styptic(stops bleeding),but also as an antiseptic,(stopsbacterial infections), antibiotic (stops infec-tions), anti-viral (herpes), anti-inflammatory(stops swelling), and an analgesic (stops pain).

Cannabis oils come in a variety of forms

for our use. We can infuse cannabis directlyinto oils, and we can express health-giving oilfrom its seeds. Oils may be combined forspecific uses as most plants work synergisti-cally (better together). Our skin is our largestorgan and is capable of absorbing medicineas well as expelling waste. It makes sense toapply medicine directly to the site of needwhenever possible. In this day and age this isa very viable form of application becausemost people using a North American diethave compromised digestive systems.

Salve may be used anywhere you woulduse a first-aide ointment. The base oil is oliveoil, which has healing properties of its own.Salve is made by adding beeswax to thedesired consistency. You can use it for cutsand scrapes, burns and new tattoos, fungusinfections, dermatitis, eczema and bruises.Properties include antibiotic, anti-fungal andanti-toxicant.

The massage oil is not only good for afabulous body rub, but takes pain andswelling away from arthritic joints, and isenabling surgeries to be postponed andcancelled.


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26 Cannabis Health


St. John’s Wort and cannabis oil is espe-cially good for the circulatory system. It helpsall aspects of bruising from stopping pain,facilitating your body to reabsorb the bruisewithout clotting. It will strengthen capillariesand veins, which is important to compro-mised livers, as well as varicose veins, and wasgiven favourable reports from migrainesufferers. St. John’s Wort and cannabis oil isalso good for scrapes and cuts, and minorwounds and burns, making it an excellentfirst-aid remedy. This combination is also oneof the best things to stop abdominal crampsand break down blockages, as well as relievestomach-aches. It will soothe inflammationsof the skin and is a specific for recurrent earinfections.

Chinese Mint, Eucalyptus and cannabis oilis wonderful to rub on your chest for chronic

bronchitis, asthma, influenza (flue) andwhooping cough. It can be used for fever,headaches, sore throats, rashes, stomachbloating as well as neuralgic and rheumaticpains. It may also be used as a rub for yourpets to help repel fleas and mites.

Chinese Mint, Camphor and cannabis oilwill help lung complaints, local rheumatisms,sprains and strains, bruises and neuralgia. It isalso used as a rub for stomach and bowelcomplaints such as spasmodic cholera, flatu-lent colic and diarrhoea.

Arnica and cannabis makes an excellenttreatment for inflammations caused by thingslike arthritis and sprains. It will reduceswellings and relieve pain. Arnica works bystimulating blood circulation and is anaccepted ingredient for many arthritic andathletic preparations. It also soothes minorburns, ulcers, eczema, and acne. This oil is notto be used on broken skin or open wounds, asarnica can act as an anti-coagulant (stopsblood from clotting).

Lip Balms have Shea butter added for both

skin moisturizing and as a sunscreen. They areeasily flavoured with pure essential oils foreither personal taste or specific health issues.

Cannaplasts are a poultice made of recy-cled plant material produced in the making ofcookies and oils, wrapped in new cheese-cloth.They are applied directly to insect stingsand bites, varicose veins, sore joints andmuscles. They relieve arthritic inflammationand rheumatic pains. Cannaplasts may also beused to help sore or inflamed eyes, pull stiesand alleviate pinkeye. Cannaplast are warmedand placed upon upset or cramping stom-achs, irritable bowels, or for menstrualcomplaints

Also use on broken bones, sprains, strainsand bursitis, (for appropriate lengths of time).

They work best if you apply somemassage oil first.

Cannabis can be used to replace almostany type of allopathic medicine; from diuret-ics to anti-depressants - ear oil to throatsprays, and salves to reduce tumours. Extractshave been found to be effective on every-thing from bacteria and fungi, to the herpesvirus and staphylococcus that are resistant topenicillin and other antibiotics. You can virtu-ally make medicine from every part of thenoble cannabis plant, be it male or female,kola, root, or seed. That one of the planet’smost precious plants is still oppressed mustbe one of our society’s greatest travesties.

Finally, on Jan 29, 2006, the CBC of C willbe celebrating 10 years of providing cannabisproducts to people with incurable medicalproblems. The oldest public ‘compassion’ clubin Canada with over 1,700 members, the CBCof C would like to thank everyone who hassupported us over the past decade.


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Cannabis Health journal 27

Author, Curt Robbins, is a freelance writer whofocuses on counter-culture topics.

While images of joints and bongs willpermeate cannabis lore for decades to come,alternative consumption methods have exist-ed for thousands of years. From the drinkingof tea-like Indian bhang (cannabis budssoaked in hot milk and spices) to the ancientmiddle eastern tradition of marinatingcannabis flowers in olive oil for anointment tothe skin, the smoking of cannabis is actually afairly contemporary means of ingestion.

The emergence of the medical marijuanamovement has motivated the developmentof alternative cannabinoid consumptionmethods. Joining sublingual sprays, tinctures,pills, and edibles is a relatively old technology:vaporization. This method of extracting THCand other valuable cannabinoids from the

cannabis plant offers the advantages ofdecreased harm to the lungs, considerablelong-term cost reduction, and significantlydecreased smell during consumption (aidingin stealth).

Medical quality vaporization requires adevice called, appropriately enough, a vapor-izer. Available in a wide variety offorms—from temperature controllable forcedair vaporizers, such as the $700 German-produced Volcano, to simple manuallyoperated glass devices for under $20—vapor-ization is more than a cultural experiment. Infact, it is becoming common for smokingcafes and compassion club dispensaries torent or offer free use of high-end vaporizers.

In the world of vaporization, the terminol-ogy is different. All metaphors related to thecombustion of cannabis suddenly fail toapply to this often high-tech method of sepa-rating THC from the cannabis plant foradministration to a patient. No longer dogenerations-old references to “burning aspliff”or “torching some herb”suffice. Instead,one toasts or vapes one’s stash.

A Brief HistoryWhile high-end vaporizers are relatively

novel, references to the vaporization ofcannabis date back at least as far as the 5thcentury B.C. Greek writer Herodotusdescribed a plant cultivated by the Scythiansthat they threw upon red hot stones within aclosed room, producing a vapor. Herodotushumbly noted that the Scythian vapor bathproduced an effect “…that no Grecian vapor-bath can surpass. The Scythians, transportedwith the vapor, shout aloud.”

In 1989, a self-purported U.S. governmentemployee who identified himself simply as“Dr. Lunglife” provided a manuscript to HighTimes in New York City.The paper detailed theprocess for building a basic vaporizationmachine from parts purchased at a localRadio Shack electronics store (see VaporizingTHC Oil: An Alternative to Smoking Marijuanain the May 1989 issue).

In 1994, at the 7th Cannabis Cup inAmsterdam, Sensi Seed Bank employee “EagleBill” demonstrated what is believed to be thefirst temperature controllable heat gunversion of a vaporizer. Using only trim leavesand bottom-of-the-plant buds, Eagle Billwowed passers-by with a clean, powerfulhigh. Shortly thereafter, commercial vaporiza-tion units began to trickle onto the market.

M o d e r n C a n n a b i n o i d C o n s u m p t i o n

“The whole process of

vaporization is just

going to become easier,

more convenient, and

less expensive,”

Rick Doblin

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28 Cannabis Health

The RealityObjectively, vaporization provides many

of the “convenience” advantages of smokingwhile avoiding most of the—albeit controver-sial—health risks associated with the burningof cannabis leaves and flowers. It offers rapidonset (a characteristic of smoking, but noteating) and very efficient extraction andutilization of cannabinoids (clearly superior tosmoking). This greater efficiency means thatvaporization sings a siren song not heard onthe island of smoking: a cost savings resultingfrom stretching one’s medicine supply. In aworld where cannabis prices often competewith those of gold and the most ill are typical-ly those with the least financial power, this is atremendous advantage (especially forpatients consuming high volumes).

Vaporization allows most patients toconsume one-half of what they typicallywould smoke to produce the same effect. Forthose who are chronic smokers, this can resultin thousands of dollars in savings over aperiod of only one or two years.

While vaporization offers significant mid-to long-term cost savings compared to smok-ing, it sports a heavy duty upfrontexpense—at least for the most efficientmachines that are best suited to medicinalusers. The benchmark, at least for the timebeing, is the Volcano. At more than $600 USD,however, this model is simply beyond thebudget of many pot users. Fortunately, priceswill surely decrease as market competition,technical innovation, and demand increases.

Many patients report that vaporizationproduces a more heady, sativa-like high. “Itdoes seem to be more of a body engagementwhen one smokes cannabis as compared tovaporization,” said Dr. Rick Doblin, founderand president of the MultidisciplinaryAssociation for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) inSarasota, Florida. “Maybe that’s from thesmoke or the particulate matter…it’s hard tosay exactly. But there does seem to be anethereal, heady effect that comes from vapor-ization,” he said.

The ScienceWhen one burns any herb, the goal is to

extract the substances of medicinal orpsychotropic value. Unfortunately, researchhas shown that burning cannabis typicallyproduces more than one hundred toxins,when a handful of cannabinoids andterpenoids is all one really wants. Thecombustion of cannabis is akin to collapsingan entire building, when all you need is toredecorate a single room.

Despite studies linking marijuana smok-

ing with a decrease in the likelihood ofcontracting lung disease, a lack of toxins issimply superior to an abundance of what mayor may not carry negative health conse-quences (especially for weak or very sensitivepatients). Chemic Laboratories inMassachusetts illustrated this when it foundthat the Volcano can produce vapor that is95% pure THC, with only three additionalcompounds present in the vapor (one ofwhich is a cannabinoid). Regardless of thepleasures of smoking, many patients mustnecessarily seek the most efficient and leastrisky consumption methods available.Currently, this is either vaporization or edibles(with tinctures running a close third).

One of the most confusing elements ofvaporization is the temperature at which ittakes place.This is due, in large part, to the factthat vaporization occurs within a range oftemperatures, not at a specific thermal point.To be more precise, each cannabinoid (morethan 60 have been discovered) vaporizes at aslightly different temperature.

Thus, different cannabinoid profiles areproduced by variations in vaporizationtemperature. While the average recreationalsmoker will be hard pressed to perceiveminute differences, a near-combustiontemperature (about 220 degrees Celsius, or428 degrees Fahrenheit1) will produce anoticeably different medical effect or hightype than a setting at the base of the vapor-ization temperature range (about 50 degreescooler). This can have an impact for medicalusers who find maximum efficacy from aparticular cannabinoid profile.

According to MAPS’ Doblin, lower vapor-ization temperatures result in a headier, moreethereal high, while higher temps produce amore body-engaged, indica-type effect. Herecommends using higher temps in order toextract a maximum volume of cannabinoids.

Torching vs. ToastingA thorough and fair comparison of smok-

ing and vaping is outside the scope of thisarticle. However, because the vast majority ofpatients smoke their medicine, comparingvaporization with this universal benchmarkcreates helpful and realistic reference points.The greatest difference between a commonform of smoking, such as a joint, and thepinnacle of vaping, the Volcano, lies not onlyin the efficiency of the extraction of cannabi-


The emergence of the

medical marijuana move-

ment has motivated the

development of alternative

cannabinoid consumption

methods. Joining sublingual

sprays, tinctures, pills, and

edibles is a relatively old

technology: vaporization.

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:07 PM

Cannabis Health 29

noids, but also in the completeness of thecollection and consumption of the transfermedium (vapor or smoke).

For example, when consuming a joint,much of the smoke is lost and neverconsumed, escaping into the air. This is obvi-ously less true of bongs and pipes, butsignificant loss from “sidestream” smoke still

occurs. In fact, a 1990 study by Mario Perez-Reyes (Marijuana Smoking: Factors thatInfluence the Bioavailability ofTetrahydrocannabinol) revealed that as muchas 40-50 percent of the THC in a joint is lost tosidestream smoke.

While most vaporizers are not designed aswell as the Volcano, many models do offer theefficiency of capturing all vapor for consump-tion by a patient, allowing none to escape orgo to waste.

While burning herb is a one-pass process(for a given quantity), vaping involves severalpasses over a single portion of marijuana.Depending on the resinous nature of thesample, up to 10 vaporization passes (10 bagsof vapor, in the case of the Volcano) can bemade over a single portion of cannabis. Thefirst two passes produce the greatest strengthvapor, with each concurrent pass producingless and less medicine (the collection bagbecoming less hazy). For best results, oneshould stir the “duff” (toasted cannabis) afterevery two or three vaporization passes.

True to the thousands of uses of thehemp plant, the spent duff that is a by-prod-uct of vaporization continues to offer utility.Toasted cannabis herb is well suited in thekitchen, complimenting soups, casseroles,and meats during cooking. It can even beused as a crude potpourri.

Both smoking and vaping offer excellenttitration (dosing). Like smoking, edibles, andtinctures—but unlike pill solutions such asMarinol or the new sublingual spraySativex—vaping provides the economy ofallowing patients to grow their own medi-cine, providing the added benefits ofaffordable supply and personalized strainselection via targeted genetics.

Finding PerspectiveIt should first be noted that the “superior-

ities” of vaporization are sometimessubjective, especially for recreational smok-

ers, but often for medical consumption aswell. Even some hardcore medical users prefersmoking. “I’m a cigarette kinda girl,” saidAlison Myrden, a noted Ontario-based multi-ple sclerosis patient/activist who has tried theVolcano. “I have too much trouble with myhands due to the MS to play with vaporizersor pipes,” she said.

Myrden’s situation highlights the realitythat there is no best consumption method forcannabis. MS patients such as Myrden andothers with severe neurological disorders(epilepsy, dystonia, etc.) often are forced to seeksimplicity. The stress reduction that accompa-nies one’s preferred and highly subjectiveingestion method is of significant note. Thepsychological stress produced by displeasureor frustration can easily eclipse the benefits of atechnically superior means of consumption.

Caregivers and others in the medical mari-juana community should considervaporization as simply another option in theever-widening range of consumption avenues.


While burning herb is a

one-pass process (for a

given quantity), vaping

involves several passes

over a single portion

of marijuana.

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30 Cannabis Health

Harm ReductionAccording to the latest peer-reviewed

research conducted by Dr. Dale Gieringer ofNORML and published in the Journal ofCannabis Therapeutics, vapor produced bythe Volcano was overwhelmingly populatedby THC, but does contain trace amounts ofother compounds (collaborating the previousfindings of Chemic Laboratories).

“The major finding of this study was adrastic quantitative reduction in non-cannabinoid compounds in the vapor fromthe Volcano,” read the Gieringer study. “Thisstrongly suggests that vaporization is aneffective method for delivering medicallyactive cannabinoids while effectivelysuppressing other potentially deleteriouscompounds that are a byproduct of combus-tion,” it summarized.

A leading edge unit such as the Volcanoproduces cannabis vapor that is pure enough,in fact, that it qualifies to be used as a scientif-ic medical device. Doblin points out that thepurity of cannabis vapor produced by aprofessional unit is great enough that evenseverely challenged medical patients shouldharbor little worry regarding health risks.

“Vaporization does such a good job ofreducing the risks that we’re aware of that Ithink there’s an excellent chance that highpotency marijuana, vaporized, can be consid-ered a medicine by organizations such as the[U.S. Food and Drug Administration],” said

Doblin. Thus, vaporization is a technicaladvancement in the consumption of cannabisthat is also serving as a political tool forresearchers like Doblin.

The Future Will be VaporizedWhile smoking will probably never fully

disappear from the cannabis landscape, thefuture of vaporization promises to increaseefficiencies and convenience even further.Smaller, more portable units will continue toemerge that provide results approaching thequality of today’s Volcano. While rabid detrac-tors perpetually fail to establish a linkbetween smoked cannabis and lung cancer, asignificant percentage of the cannabiscommunity will prefer smoking over vaping.Vaporization, however, will continue to luregreater numbers of disciples, both recreation-al and medical.

“The whole science and technology ofvaporization is developing in a really goodway,”said Doblin.“The whole process of vapor-ization is just going to become easier, moreconvenient,and less expensive,”he concluded.“I think there’s going to be a lot more peoplemoving to vaporization in the future.”

1) Thus, the urban legend of the perfectvaporization temperature being 420 degrees isactually true. In Fahrenheit, 420 degrees iswithin the recommended upper range of thevaping temperature scale.

FINDMIGHTYMIKE

Find Mighty Mike hidden

somewhere in this issue to win a

prize. Send the page number

and location where you found

Mighty Mike to

[email protected] or

snail mail to Box 1481, Grand

Forks, BC V0H 1H0 with Mighty

Mike Contest in the subject line.


issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:07 PM

Cannabis Health 31

Every subscription, article, letter, art, photo and/or “TruthIs” submission and advertiser received before March 31,2006 will be entered for a chance to win this exquisite one-of-a-kind medicine bag, worn during the openingceremonies of the Festival of Freedom at the Forks. Createdby Mikisew Cree First Nation artist, DorothyAnn, a giftedsoul who is inspired by the world around her. “A piece ofmy soul goes into each medicine bag” DorothyAnn says ofher creations. Her bags are made with 100% hemp, cordand hand dyed lining. The stones are: crystals, turquoise,100 year old trading beads, handmade pure silver and

pewter Mexicanbeads. She evenadds a piece ofsweetgrass tobless the bagand a signed,numbered card is included. From her soul to yours, peace.This bag is valued at $2,500 CDN. The winner will beannounced in the May/June 2006 issue of Cannabis HealthJournal. Good luck to all.

Last Chance!!!!!Enter to Win this First Nations Medicine Bag!

Winner to be Announced

in the May/June issue of Cannabis Health

SUBSCRIBE - SUBMIT A STORY - ADVERTISE - WRITE US A

LETTER OR SPOT THE PROPAGANDA AND SEND IT IN!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 3, 2006Rhode Island Becomes 11th Medical MarijuanaState First Medical Marijuana Bill SinceSupreme Court Ruling Passes Via Historic VetoOverride CONTACT: Bruce Mirken, MPP directorof communications, 202-543-7972 or 415-668-6403

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND — TheRhode Island House of Representatives votedto override Gov. Donald Carcieri’s veto of theMarijuana Policy Project’s medical marijuanabill today, making Rhode Island the 11th stateto make medical marijuana legal and the firstto enact a medical marijuana law since theSupreme Court’s June decision in Gonzales v.Raich. Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law isthe third to be enacted by a state legislature,and the first passed by overriding a governor’sveto. (The other eight states’ medical marijua-na laws were enacted via ballot initiatives.)

“Today’s vote proves yet again that themovement to protect medical marijuanapatients from arrest is unstoppable,” said RobKampia, executive director of the Washington,D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, whichspearheaded the effort to pass the bill. “LastJune, White House Drug Czar John Waltersproclaimed ‘the end of medical marijuana as apolitical issue’ in the wake of our loss in the

U.S. Supreme Court, but he couldn’t havebeen more wrong. The public, the medicalcommunity, and Rhode Island legislatorsagree that patients with cancer, AIDS or multi-ple sclerosis should not be arrested for usingmedical marijuana on the advice of theirphysicians. We will continue to roll back thegovernment’s war on the sick and dying, andthe White House drug czar can’t stop us anymore than he can make water flow uphill.”

MPP worked closely with a coalition ofRhode Island patients, medical experts andhealth advocates to build support for the bill.Organizations working to pass the bill includ-ed the Rhode Island Medical Society, theRhode Island Nurses Association, and AIDSProject Rhode Island. In association with theRhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, MPPrecently sponsored a billboard near the state-house and encouraged patients and othersupporters to call and write their state repre-sentatives to urge them to override thegovernor’s veto.

Medical marijuana legislation continuesto receive support in state legislatures aroundthe country. Medical marijuana bills wereintroduced recently in Michigan andWisconsin, and MPP has retained lobbyists toadvocate for medical marijuana legislation in

Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. Similar legis-lation is poised to pass in New Mexico.

With more than 19,000 members and100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, theMarijuana Policy Project is the largest mari-juana policy reform organization in theUnited States. MPP believes that the best wayto minimize the harm associated with mari-juana is to regulate marijuana in a mannersimilar to alcohol. For more information,please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.

R h o d e I s l a n d M e d i c a l M a r i j u a n a B i l l Pa s s e s

“Today’s voteproves yet again

that the movementto protect medicalmarijuana patients

from arrest isunstoppable,”

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:07 PM

32 Cannabis Health

W h e r e i s t h e c o m p a s s i o n i n a l l t h i s ?

This is an open letter to anyone who mightbe experiencing the difficulty of trying tosurvive on a disability income having to self-pay for the only medication left for those whoreally have no other option in terms ofCanada’s present Pharmacopoeia ofPharmaceutical drugs. In fact, Cannabis is theonly Medicine I have left for treating symp-toms and a possible cure to the present healthcrisis I’m currently dealing with on a dailybasis. In fact, all Pharmaceutical drugs to date,prescribed for my conditions, are contra-indi-cated for folks with chronic liver disease.

Cannabis has truly worked for me, interms of pain management, hunger induce-ment, treatment for sleep disorder, anxietyand as a preventative measure, possibly slow-ing down the replication of Chronic HepatitisC ¨C Geno-type 1a.

I was treated in 2002 with aPharmaceutical drug called Interferon 2b aswell as pills (six per day) used as an anti-viral.The drug product company RochePharmaceuticals called this productRebatron. (Sounds like an X-box game.)

After seven months on this frighteningproduct, I was told the treatment results were

negative.The result sure was negative, at leastfor me anyway. I now have autoimmunedisorder, Osteopenia, future possibility ofIschemic heart disease and maybe cancer. Itruly believe that these conditions are thedirect result of this medication. Of course nowI have a lot more to deal with post-treatment.I believe more will be revealed as my lifeprogresses. Though there are those whomthis treatment has helped tremendously, thiswas not the case in my treatment with thisdrug. I’ve interviewed many individuals treat-ed, a large percentage of individuals are nowin therapist’s offices and prescribed S.S.R.I.drugs, i.e. Prozac, Celexa, Effexor. Some aredeveloping cancer and going for their thirdround of these drugs, even though they havedeveloped cancer. (These individuals have topay for this treatment themselves and arewilling to do so.)

Pharmanet denied me any further fund-ing for drug treatment as the drug is onlygiven once to those of us living in poverty; ifone can self-pay they will gladly give you thedrug, costing $18,000.00 (C $20,000.00) withno guarantees. To me it was a blessing to methat I was unable to receive any further fund-ing, though I tried through advocacy to swaytheir decision. Please see (Monday Magazinearticle: May 22.04. Title: Insult to Illness.)

In 2004 I began researching options oftreatment for my condition via credible siteson the Internet. I became convinced thatMedical Cannabis could work for me on manylevels, symptom management, preventativemeasures and, dare I say, a potential cure (Yetto be discovered). What I can tell you is thatthe wasting condition I once had is gone; I’veincreased in body mass by 40 lbs! I sleep verywell and can tolerate most of the pain I feeldaily. My blood work is the best it’s been inyears. Further tests will be needed to know forsure as to the potential of what was oncecalled the “Holy plant” of medicine. The planthas a matrix of 60 or so Cannabinoidsdepending on its strain. Though the Delta 8 C

9 feature in the plant helps in much sympto-matic relief; it’s not the whole story. What isimportant is that the whole plant IS the wholemedicine. Even the plants roots have beenused over the centuries for dissolving tumorsand cancer. Yet, try to find cannabis root.

Now, all this good stuff being said, in 2004I entered into the world of compassion clubs,Doctors forms, Specialist forms, Governmentforms (B.C. (pwd)-disability, C.C.P. disability,The office of the M.M.A.D.) These forms mightkill someone before the actual disease will. Infact just to receive nutritional supplementfunding took three years of fighting for awhopping $164.00 per month. In fact, thepast two years have been a go-it-alone advo-cacy just to survive.

Adding to all this stress is the addedfinancial costs, creating more stress in some-one combating several chronic illnesses andto keep cannabinoid levels high in my system.To obtain cannabis for medical use, I’veneeded to sell many of my belongings, obtainloans from agencies preying on the poor anddestitute that must pay back these loans at avery high rate of interest and finally a smalldisability visa (R.B.C.) which is now over limit.I am a Medical Cannabis Licensee under theM.M.A.D. and order one half of my prescrip-tion due to economics. As well, I use my localclub (The Cannabis Growers and Buyers Club)affectionately known as “Ted’s” here inVictoria B.C. I’m grateful to both these agen-cies for providing affordable great medicineas well as going to great lengths to protectindividuals with immune deficiency issuesfrom bacteria and microtoxins and fertilizersused in commercial growing.

Yet, I ask the readers, how can someoneon an income of $1044.00 afford to spend halftheir income on medication? And survive andstay healthy in today’s economic climate. I’ve

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:07 PM

Cannabis Health 33

We have been rockin’ the Shock inEdmonton, Alberta for five years strong. Wehave two Shell Shock locations in the centraland south sides of the city. The premier loca-tion, in Strathcona, where it all began, islocated at 8124 Gateway Boulevard. We havebeen cultivating our second shop inWhitemud Crossing, 4211 106 street. Bothshops offer an executive look at cannabis andcounter culture. They have and will alwaysmake you feel like you are the most importantperson that has ever walked into the shop.Your support is all that matters and that willnever change. They are pleased to give youadvice and training on what to use and howto use it. From your first bubbler to your firstbong; from a regular stem to a percolatingone; from a coffee grinder to a space case andfrom blunts to vegan papers, Shell Shock canfulfill all your needs. Shell Shock is a shop withmore than just bongs and pipes; it is aboutthe people.

When it comes to knowledge on drugtesting, Shell Shock is where you want to be.With five years of hard research beneath theirbelt, all your questions can be answered andyour fears calmed. Shell Shock will spendhours making sure that the product youchoose is the best suited for your situation.

Shell Shock is a strong promoter of vapor-izer technology and, a few years ago, we werethe first one’s to have the volcano availablefor rent. Our glass collection includes piecesby Shine, PJ, Cool Liquid, Benz Glass,Chameleon, Nault Glass, Pixie, Lethal, Galaxy,Intrepid and others from around North

America. Check out the Mighty Traveler piecefrom Benz Glass with three turtles, a mantaray, two jelly-fish, a coral reef with fish, and agiant octopus bowl. A piece for the truecollector, or order you custom piece today.

Our website makes us available for allthose who have heard of Shell Shock but arenot able to come into the shop for the entireexperience. We showcase many of our top

products and the best of the best of our glasscollection in the catalogue. For those of you,who don’t live near; check out Shell Shock onthe web at www.shellshock420.com.

Shell Shock is a place where you can talkto real people who care. Keep it Blazin’

personally come across growers who offeredme 1/5 of my prescription (which is totally ille-gal). One in particular, is now on city councilhere in Victoria trying to fund their politicalcareer of the back of the unfortunates. (Whatelse is new?) I was prescribed Marinol, a phar-maceutical cannabis drug at $80.00 permonth. This product was not funded underthe Medical Services Plan of B.C., and yet theprovince approved Cesamet, another synthet-ic cannabis drug, actually its pharmaceuticalname is Nabilone.The funding came in for thisproduct, and was covered by M.H.R. at awhopping $1280.00 per month. Is there anylogic to this? Of course not, it’s all aboutmoney and pharmaceutical control, later Idiscovered that Cesamet is not a medicationfor individuals with liver disease, which is myprimary problem. (Baffling!).

So it all comes down to the almighty dollaronce again. This is a fight for control andchoice, and financial gain off the back of soci-

eties most unfortunate; the poor, sick anddying. Greedy growers, greedy politicians,greedy pharmaceutical companies, all posi-tioning for control of what was once called the“Holy plant”. A truly un-holy trinity. The cost ofthis medication need not be so high.Understandably; growing has costs, yet thecost might be no more than $15.00 per ounce.

What I also find baffling is in a country likeours where there is nothing in the Canadianpharmacopoeia useful to helping me; I’mforced to pay almost half my income to theFederal Government for a treatment they areselling to me, via Prairie Plant Systems. Whythis medication is not covered, and conces-sions are not made for individuals living inpoverty, trying to survive just one more day, isequally as baffling. I’d like to thank those whohave helped me in advocacy and thank thoseclubs, growers and branches of Governmentwho are operating with integrity and compas-sion; you are all a rare breed indeed. As we all

know, so much for “A government for thepeople, by the people”. It truly has become a“government for the corporation by thecorporation”. In this case the giant pharma-ceutical conglomerates that care nothing forthe individual, rather, only for their quarterlyprofits. It’s a sad case. Many growers out thereare following suit to this growing conscious-ness. If there are growers out there who aregrowing from integrity, I ask for your help, asI’ve nowhere else to go. To those who startedthis movement, I’m grateful beyond words, tothose money driven and power hungry younow have become that which we thought wewere all fighting together, the enemy, theestablishment based of hierarchy and control.Once again I ask you, where is the compassionin all this?

D M. Victoria. B.C

W h e r e i s t h e c o m p a s s i o n i n a l l t h i s ?

Cutting Edge Cannabis Cultureadvertorial

issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:07 PM

34 Cannabis Health

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issue-4-3 2/14/06 5:07 PM

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