Transcendental Medication
When you get that perfect alignment of cannabis and consumption method, it can make some space for magic.
The other day, I experienced the perfect alignment of consumption method and strain.
I write a lot about how to personalize your cannabis experience to suit your preference and needs, and I talk about a variety of strains and ingestion methods. Everyone’s body and preferences are different, so when you do discover where that intersection of perfect consumption method and strain — it’s magical.
A few days ago, I had just such an experience at the intersection of 54 Green Acres’ Green Dragon and Arizer’s Solo II. That may not be your sweet spot — you might be more of a CBD tincture person. Or perhaps an indoor grown is your deal. Regardless of how you reach it — once you get there, you always want to know how to get back. At the time I reached it, I happened to meditating, and everything just fell into place. For a short time, there was nothing but bliss.
What more could you ask for in the middle of the madness that is life, than a spot of bliss?
One of the things I’ve learned about how I function and how cannabis helps to fulfill my medication needs, is how I can most effectively use it. This has changed and developed over time just as I have. I’m very grateful for the relief that I get from cannabis. Even a few moments of respite from the gut wrenching anxiety and incessant low-grade panic is a triumph in trying times. I’m very lucky that I can achieve so much anxiety-free time without putting myself at the sorts of risk that pharmaceuticals would ask me to bear.
What’s the drawback? That federally, cannabis is still illegal. That by talking about cannabis and advocating for it means that in the ever-judging eyes of many, I’m a criminal. That the medication I take was used to vilify and imprison so many and contributed wildly to inequalities and injustices. My issues with cannabis are due to the social side effects — I’ve found all of the others to be manageable. I believe that these social side effects can only be mitigated by normalizing discussions around the use of cannabis — not only how people use cannabis, but why.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a primary care doctor for the first time in years, and for the first time in years I was honest with them about what I do to treat my PTSD. I have a multitude of reasons to have been so skeptical of physicians, not the least of which is a 20 year career in healthcare as a data punk. It was mind blowing for me to realize the negative impact that working within healthcare had on my health: for my entire adult life, my healthcare was inextricably linked to my employment, except for my cannabis doctor. It was with my cannabis doctor that I could be the most open about the psychological and physical issues I was facing, as I knew that my records with them were private. It took until I was in my mid forties and exited healthcare for me to even have a chance at the healthcare best suited to my body.
I hope that as cannabis legalization proliferates that true normalization does as well, but it is going to require people telling their stories, and others being willing to listen. Society is going to have to being to take a more nuanced stance on issues around psychoactive drugs. We are beginning to discover that there is a host of clinical applications locked in plants that were once reviled because of their psychedelic properties, in many cases were also once treasured for the very same.