"Healing" with Marijuana

A friend of mine is suffering from cancer and, the treatment thereof.  She is in great pain and the medications she is taking are accompanied by debilitating side effects.  Surgery is out of the question because her platelets are low from the cancer and she has to watch her sodium intake.  She continues receiving chemo treatments but then immediately she gets a skin infection (cellulitis). Then her doctor gives her antibiotics which work against the chemo. Everything is working against each other.  Now she can't walk and she's gotten even weaker from lying in bed.  Since she is taking so many different drugs, they cancel out the good effects of each other and she can't eat.  It is too bad she won't consider cannabis (pot or marijuana) as a treatment but she has been brainwashed into thinking that marijuana is a "drug" and that the pills she is popping are treatments.  If only she would consider pot as a treatment she could not only re-gain her appetite which would be beneficial to her health and well being but she would also be relatively pain free and conscious.  The drugs she takes now renders her into a zombie estate and do not give her the benefit of sleep.  One of her drugs inhibits getting a good night's sleep which she desperately needs and marijuana could provide that.  But, she is a good girl and doesn't do drugs. 

NY recently passed medical marijuana laws and our next door neighbor, Massachusetts, is looking into legalizing it across the board which will of course destroy NY's medical marijuana industry and, bwahahahaha . . . all the wasted time and tax payer dollars that went into the planning for the medical marijuana industry.  Hah! 

Not only can marijuana be used for physical, mental, and emotional well being, it can be used for "healing."  First, consider the meaning of the word "healing."  There is a difference between healing and curing.  To cure means to make the disease go away.  Healing has to do with an expression of greater wholeness and acceptance rather than curing.  Healing is about discovering what is hurting us in the first place and helping us to come to terms with it. 

A long time ago a friend was dying of cancer.  She sought every treatment and nostrum available, draining her bank account and only getting physically and emotionally worse at the same time.  She was in denial.  I don't know what precipitated her change in attitude but when she accepted the fact that she was going to die, she "healed."  She was able to talk about it, make amends with friends and family whom she transgressed in the past.  She was able to live life a little more fully and finally be happy.  I beleive it was the edible pot that she illegally obtained from her son who traveled to Colorado and risked arrest and decades in prison for its procurement, but gave his mom a new outlook on life and death.  Healing is about discovering what is holding us back in the first place.  Pot helped my friend look at life differently and die with dignity and comfort rather than denial, failure and shame - and she had a healthy appetite, too. 

Diabetes, obesity, autism, anxiety, cancer, autoimmune conditions, thoughts of suicide and other expressions of imbalance are increasing in society as are prescription drug treatments for all of those ailments and the downward spiral which comes with them and their treatments.  A pharmacist friend told me that she believes all the cholesterol medication people take causes diabetes and the medication for diabetes causes weight gain and kidney complications leading to heart issues. 

Cannabis could play a much larger role in most people's lives by helping them maintain a balanced, healthy outlook and diet.  Dying with dignity, comfort and acceptance should be the primary focus of "healing."  It is time for doctors to incorporate medicinal marijuana into their regular treatment practices in addition to traditional medical treatment in order to spare people the harsh side effects of pharmaceutical drugs. 

I recently watched the History Channel's movie "Marijuana Revolution" and I discovered that cultivators of this plant are able create strains to achieve goals and outcomes far more advanced than the dangerous prescription drugs mired with side effects that profit hungry pharmaceuticals are creating and pushing onto doctors to prescribe.  I have no doubt that in the future, cannabis combined with other treatments will actually lead to a cure for many maladies which afflict us.  It is definitely a cure for alcohol and drug addiction because pot itself is not addictive but is an alternative to those other addictions.  Working on the suicide hot-line I had many callers who were in mental and physical pain because of their addiction to pain killers.  I'm sure pot would ameliorate their conditions on the first day of use.

Thank you to states like Colorado and Washington who of course are making billions in tax revenue each year but, are also providing people with the option to heal, even to their death.  It is very exciting that marijuana cultivators are exploring uses of various strains in an effort to find cures and treatments and these people are not even medical practitioners.  They are simply lovers of the plant.  Too bad medical science and pharmaceutical companies are overlooking what has been in front of us for centuries.  Ultimately, there is no profit in curing cancer and other diseases, there is profit however in treating  symptoms.  

If you are on the fence about this natural God given herb, watch the History channel's movie "Marijuana Revolution."  If you can't watch it on the history channel (http://www.history.com/shows/the-marijuana-revolution/about) or find it in the tv guides, you can probably find it on the torrent sites.  Write to your law makers and ask them to re-legalize this herbal drug and support the hundreds of companies already cultivating, infusing, testing, marketing and selling cannabis-related products.

Facebook, String Theory and Zugzwang; Part One of Three

It is no secret that I dislike Facebook.  I used to have four accounts.  There was my real one where I had about 250 "friends," my dog had one and she had about 300 friends, my porch had one and it had about 500 friends (it posted a lot of pictures), then I had one named after a famous witch and she had 300 friends.   The reason I had the fake accounts was because I didn't want to share personal information on other websites and I didn't necessarily want everyone knowing where I was making comments or what I may have been liking.  I would often use my porch or dog to like things in order to get coupons or enter contests.  I would also use these accounts to fill out profile information.  For instance my dog made over $80,000 per year where as my porch made only $7,000.  The witch always declined to answer, as did I.  This way I could keep my real account pure and clean from the Facebook spy-bots looking to steal my data, profit off of and profile me.

People today are too sozzled by Facebook, Twitter and texting.  I recently sat down with a mother and daughter for an hour of chat.  The daughter rarely took her face and thumbs off her phone.  The only time she looked up was to take a selfie.

Forbes reports that nearly half a trillion dollars is lost in productivity each year due to employees reading their Facebook pages, texting and not working.  The average users spends a cumulative amount of about two hours each day taking occasional peeks at their pages and stalking others. 

In string theory, the impact of Facebook on our lives is mind boggling.  First, if a person was not spending so much time looking at what other people were doing, they could be outside actually doing something themselves.  And, not sharing it would be a plus, too.  Nobody really cares what that pizza you are about to destroy looks like.

Other alternative realities which could transpire because of Facebook is that you might post a comment on your homepage which your boss doesn't like and he fires you.  Maybe you call in sick but then post a picture of yourself at the beach, your boss then sees it on one of his friend's page and you're fired.  Maybe because of you "liking" certain things or commenting on other peoples' pages, a prospective employer takes a look at it and passes on you for employment because he doesn't like your likes or sees you spend a LOT of time on FB or doesn't like some of your friends.  Maybe an old high school friend makes contact with you through Facebook and you meet and have an affair.  Maybe an old high school friend contacts your spouse, they meet and have an affair.  What if someone ignores your friend request?  What if someone unfriends you?  The alternative realities of this one site and how they can change the direction of our lives are staggering. 

I prefer the zugzwang option and not to make a move.  In other words, not to have Facebook at all.  That eliminates a lot of string theory options which are not in my control.  An example of zugzwang would be two parents of a 16 year old child who are getting a divorce and the child is given the choice of living with either his mother or father.  Either choice will change his life drastically.  Instead, he chooses to run away and live on his own.  Not to decide is to decide.  Just look it up.  It is a chess term.

So the next move is in your hands: Read Facebook each day and watch the lives of your friends unfold or don't read it.  Another option is zugzwang and just close your account and go live life yourself.

-Malcolm (who realizes that he could be out on the lake skating but is inside blogging) Kogut.