Is Cannabis The Ever-Versatile Medicine? Here’s My Take On It

Hi, my name is Dianna and I’ve smoked Cannabis every day for the past 14 years.

If you and I were to meet, you’d never guess it. Other than the fact that I find a way to work cannabis into the conversation often, you’d never even suspect that I smoked at all.

I don’t mean to visually profile. Nowadays, it’s all but impossible to pick out the cannabis users. We are every body!!

Unfortunately though, the media does this for us. Every time the news shows anything cannabis-related the pictures are always of smoking. Usually big gaggers. Or the big clouds over rallies.

Don’t get me wrong … it’s like incense to my hunni and I. But there a lot of people who abhor smoking, and every time they read or hear about medical marijuana or cannabis, they see young people smoking. This conditioning goes deep.

I just gave my co-worker 3 gelatin caplets filled with my home-made cannabis-infused olive oil. She has severe insomnia and the last time she took a prescribed sleeping pill, she woke up in her neighbor’s back yard. Funny, that never happens when she drinks wine and smokes doobs. But this oil is different than doobs.

For my pooch Molly and for yours truly, the oil in these caplets is like a friendly hand coaxing you to bed and rubbing your back til you fall asleep. It does not sedate, it only allows your brain to do what you want it to do, when you want it to do it. And it’s so easy to make.

Last week I did something to my lower back that pinched the nerve. I took two of these caplets before work and took two for later. I also applied my own home-made cannabis infused coconut oil cream several times throughout my shift. It contains Castor oil and bee’s wax as well, both medicinal. The effects were astounding.

The manufacturers of Ibuprofen and muscle creams don’t want legalization to happen. This is why. Making medicines like these are as easy as baking cookies and stew in a crock pot on a Sunday afternoon. I’ve even made some cream in which I steeped some of my home-grown hot peppers. My hunni absolutely swears by this stuff. More than made with love. Made with that which your body easily accepts. Natural, organic stuff.

I come from a long line of do-it-yourselfer’s. I grew up with gardening genius parents who were partners with mother nature. We had carrots and potatoes buried in the ‘hole’ in the basement til into the new year. My mom lined the shelves with preserves, and filled the freezer with veg. Home-made is simply better.

WATCH: A heated exchange inside the Canadian parliament…

Personal freedoms are a core belief that many of us still possess. Deleting the middle-man and truly providing for yourself by making your own medicine and food is at the very heart of this belief. This is a good belief; this is universal. It can bypass boundaries because health is life. And food and safe medicine is a part of health.

If you want to learn more about this, google is your friend. Also, there are Cannabis information clinics like Canadian Cannabis Clinics opening up all over. Many of which are covered by ohip. But the best way to really learn about cannabis as medicine is to normalize the conversation. You might be surprised who’s still in the cannabis closet. They may be waiting for someone else to bring the topic up. A friend found this out once after telling a co-worker about cannabis being good for so many things. The co-worker said, “yep… it’s the only thing that controls my husband’s Crohn’s”.

If I could momentarily bend Parliament’s ear, I would tell them that you cannot mandate personal choice. Otherwise, “personal choice” would be an oxymoron. It is not. It is a right that we as hard-working, life-loving, and tax-paying citizens deserve.

And we’re here to demand it. Cuz we got oil to make!!

This article originally appeared on The Couch Activist Blog.