I N S I D E @ C A N N A B I S H E A LT H www. cannabishealth.

com
Editorial ........................................................................................... 4
Letters .................................................................................................................................. 5
The Reluctant Activist................................................................................................ 6
by J.P. King
The Cannabis Health Foundation was formed in the spring of
2002 as a non-profit foundation.
Our mandate as a non-profit foundation is to provide accurate up-to-date information
on Cannabis Marijuana and Cannabis Hemp in a conservative style magazine that
appeals to the general public. We are pleased to announce the journal is now being
made available to: Government health organizations, patient support groups, medical
associations, research foundations and other cannabis related corporations at the very
low bulk distribution rate of: $1.00 per copy + shipping
Advertisers in the journal receive up to 300 free copies per issue.
For advertising information use phone or fax or e-mail: sales@cannabishealth.com.

Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana...........................................................7 SUBSCRIPTION / DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION

If you would like to receive 6 copies per year of the most informative resource for
Society sponsors Hemp Festival in Annapolis Valley medical marijuana available, subscribe to Cannabis Health by sending your name
and address to Cannabis Health Foundation, P.O.Box 1481, Grand Forks, B.C., V0H
1H0 $25cdn in Canada (USA send $45.00cdn and foreign send $75.00cdn)
Approval for Cannabis Spray Sought in Canada ..........................................10 Bulk distribution rates in boxes of 100 at $1.00 per issue plus shipping.
Pharmaceutical giant promotes Sativex E-mail: distribution@cannabishealth.com

Editor: Brian Taylor Production: Teresa Taylor Sales: Lisa Smith

Planetary Pride Hempfest 2004 ...........................................................................11 Accounting: Barb Cornelius Distribution: Lorraine Langis
Shipping & Store: Gordon Taylor Web: Barb St. Jean
Public Health Marijuana ...........................................................................................12 A very special thank-you to Tom for all his help with this issue.

Dana Beal outlines a new direction in harm reduction No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form, print or electronic, without written
permission of the publisher. Cannabis Health is also reproduced on the web in downloadable
pdf format at cannabishealth.com/archive.html.
Laurence of America..................................................................................................14
Founder of the Cannabis Corporation of America revisits the 1970s A parting word word from Brian McAndrew
Cannabis, Chocolate and MS...................................................................................16

Recipes...............................................................................................................................17
Chocolate Chip Cookies and Special Butter

Facts about Hemp Hearts........................................................................................18

The health benefits of shelled hemp seeds

New Crops for Old Lands ........................................................................................20

Story of the Doukhobors in Grand Forks

Cannabis Health on the Road ............................................................21 It was 2 years ago June 1st that we sat down and started working on the
first issue of Cannabis Health Journal and it is with sadness that this day
Seniors Making a Difference .............................................................22 has come. The support and response from the readers and advertisers has
The story of Joanna McKee allowed Cannabis Health to grow to the point where it is compromising
obligations I have towards the customers of my own graphic and design
Spocannabis........................................................................................24 business, Beyond Graphix. Being the production (graphic) guy for the
journal for its first 10 issues has provided me the opportunity to showcase
Sixth Global March for Cannabis Liberation
my skills to the world. I hope I have been able to entertain and inspire you
with my work during that time. It is with best wishes and luck for the
Book Review ......................................................................................25 future, that I say good bye to Cannabis Health Journal, its readers and
Lisa Smith reviews “Good Medicine, Great Sex” advertisers.

Music Review......................................................................................25
Lorraine Langis gives the “Hemp SeeDee” a listen
You can visit Brian McAndrew on the web at:
Cannabis Insights ...............................................................................27 www.openminder.com
Sebastian Schultz reflects on cannabis

Repotting ............................................................................................31 O n t h e C o v e r
Klozit King offers more helpful tips for growing
Doukhobor couple from the village of Archangelsko, Tula region in
Russia. In the background stands a handsome hemp plant still grown
2004 Summer Events........................................................................32 in this area for seed.

Friendly Business Directory .............................................................................28,29,30,31 Photo taken by B Verigin, circa 1999.

Where you can pick up your issue of Cannabis Health

2 CANNABIS HEALTH Journal


Brian Taylor: Editor-in-Chief
Circa 1974
Two 30 something year olds were recently
talking on the net. “How is it that thousands of
hippies went to Woodstock and were enlight-
ened and thousands more got lost and didn’t
make it, and now all we see is just a few white
haired ones in the movement?” “Well grasshop-
per,” responded the other, “you see, all those
people went home and got jobs and raised fami-
lies and they are now too afraid of losing the
comforts of the good life they have built on
some stupid cause like peace or pot.”
On the less cynical side of financial success
and independence, it is nice to know that you
E D I T O R @ C A N N A B I S H E A LT H
can stand up tall and say “It is time for a change”
and still send the kids to college.
The Canadian election will be over by the time
you read this journal. Canadians will likely have
elected a minority Liberal government and
changes to Canadian marijuana laws following
the election will once more be back on the agen-
da in parliament. The US will be heading for the
polls in November; the outcome of that election
is anyone’s bet. You can bet on some limited
attention and interest from the US prohibitionist
forces in the re-shaping of the Canadian mari-
juana laws, but with all the other challenges the
US faces, the pro marijuana ballot initiatives and
the continued legal victories of medical marijua-
na patients against federal interference, this
would seem the ideal time for Canada to take
bold action and follow the Canadian senate rec-
ommendations.
Sativex is expected to be introduced into
Canada in late summer. In this first phase, the
new under the tongue spray will be available to
a select group of MS patients. As that old vision-
ary Laurence McKinney would say, how can
you introduce a medicine made from a concen-
trated extract of cannabis and still continue to
vilify the whole cannabis plant? Don’t you wish
sometimes that hindsight came earlier.
CHJ recently ran a picture by an exceptional
graphic artist, Dave Sheridan (see CHJ May
/June page 30). We found out that Dave died in
the 80`s of lymphatic cancer. Dave had a clear
vision of the future, a time when cannabis would
again be a common commodity in the western
economy. His art showed the optimism of his
time, the belief that this senseless drug war
would soon be ended and the forces of the mar-
ket and the art of the people would shape the
look of the cannabis industry.
In recent months, I have become sensitized to
the cannabis culture, or more accurately the
“counter culture”. So named, I assume, because
it existed at the same time as, and was often
openly opposed to the culture of the day. Those
who experienced the epiphany of the 60`s, are
now grandmas and granddads. That 70`s revival
phenomena… just the grandkids acting out.
The couple on the cover are a reminder that
around the world the use of cannabis is still part
of everyday life, not a crime, no license is
required, just part of a peaceful agricultural life.
Brian McAndrew our production manager has
moved on to new creative adventures in life. He
was a founding board member of the Cannabis
Health Foundation and one of the founders of
the journal. Brian spent many long hours over
the past two years making the Journal happen
and giving it the artistic look he desired.
Thanks and farewell.

LETTERS
Your children know you smoke pot.
About 1989 or so, I started to have a hard time
with the lie. You know, taking a walk, smoking
on the porch, telling them the little plants you
take such good care of are flowers. What I
began to see as sad, was the fact that we were
raising a generation of children who were being
taught by example to lie and deceive. If Mom
and Dad smoke pot and lie to me, then it must be
ok from me to, say, drink and lie to them or have
sex and lie to them. You know, I never thought
this would become a problem in my life. I
thought the laws would just naturally change as
people awoke to the gentle nature of the herb.
Laws have changed, they have become harsher.
Oregon state once had a liberal attitude to pot,
but right now young people are going to jail for
four years for possession of more than 100
plants of any age.
If I decide to be socially disobedient, I owe it
to myself, my children and my community to do
something to change the law. I once felt the
power to make this change would come to my
generation in their forties, I see now it will be
later, in our fifties. The fifties are just around the
corner for many of us.
Hypocrisy is a rot on your soul. Let us begin
to speak out and make our stand. What we have
to win could pay off the national debt in three
years, what we have to lose is the respect of our
children. Gord Taylor and Lisa Smith at the Grand Forks Home and Garden Show
Your children know you smoke!!

4 CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal


Re: Hemp Magick Masque
“softer than an angel’s ass”
Dear Sir,
Having used the above mentioned product and
having tested the results, I must disagree with the
above noted assessment.
With the cooperation of the Boundary Hospital
laboratory staff and the good offices of Dr.
Jeanne, through laser technology, the latest radi-
ographic gadgetry, INR’s (Internal Normalcy
Ratios) and a dollop of onomatopoeia devoid of
fundamentalist homophobia, we conclusively
determined that my exterior is 33.78 per cent
SOFTER than the ass of the angel studied.
Perhaps the Ontario study considered the
sheathing of an agnostic angel. Do agnostics have
angels?
Yours truly,
Bill Cooper, Grand Forks, BC
LETTERS
when the taxes skyrocketed, I cut down consid-
erably. I found the less I smoked, the higher my
blood pressure became. Instead of taking more
and stronger medication, I tried a piece of cook-
ie daily. You can’t imagine how surprised and
happy I was to find my blood pressure came
down to an acceptable level and stayed there as
long as I ate my piece of cookie daily. No more
worries about a stroke!!
In closing, I would like to caution readers that
this is my personal experience with marijuana,
and the effects of cannabis may be different for
others.
Ilsa B., from BC

Letter to the Editor

Although I read Cannabis Health Journal reg-
ularly, with great interest, I assumed that only
people with chronic illnesses would benefit
being treated with marijuana, instead of the vast
array of medications available at the pharma-
cies.
I now know better!! During the long, hot
(45*C) summer of last year, I suffered daily
with nausea. The many Travel-Tabs I swal-
lowed were rejected by my stomach. It was sug-
gested that I try a marijuana cigarette. I am a
smoker, and very much enjoy it, however, the
aroma, which is a concern for me, of the burn-
ing marijuana cigarette was almost intolerable.
I was then offered a marijuana cookie. When I
ate it, my stomach relaxed and the nausea disap-
peared. This relief was consistently achieved
with roughly a quarter of a cookie 3 – 4 times
per day. I found this dosage very comfortable
and it kept me free of the nausea and vomiting.
This spring, when I badly hurt my back, I
asked for more cookies. This was the first time
in my life and, I’ll be 73 years young next
month, that I had gone to a physician and had an
x-ray taken. After the x-ray, despite the help of
two canes, I had great difficulty getting from the
lying down position into a sitting or standing
position.
Through it all, the cookies were a tremendous
help. In a few weeks, I felt much better. I no
longer needed the canes or people to help me
move. I now consider myself to be in tip top
shape!!
I have been a smoker for over 50 years, but

CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal 5

 T H E R E L U C TA N T A C T I V I S T
by J.P. King
I am one of the “lucky few” who has the
Federal Authorization to possess marijuana as
medicine. It took 2 1/2 years and I endured
every form of treatment for my conditions
(Chronic Pain Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome, Fibro Myalgia , Hep C Tx X2 suc-
cessfully, and other co-morbidity) that exist.
Prior to becoming disabled, I worked for the
provincially funded Alcohol and Drug Agency
in West Vancouver. I was the A&D counselor
for youth and families in West Van. I had
worked in that field for 14-15 years, prior to
that I worked as a nurses aide with mentally
6 CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
and physically challenged people.
The reason I have become a reluctant activist
is that I cannot stand to see the suffering creat-
ed by the war on drugs mentality. And it is
here in my hometown. Yesterday’s paper had a
story of a military style sweep in a neighbour-
hood near my home; they were after “Grow
Ops”.
I know that crime is becoming more associat-
ed with marijuana. I’ve been ripped off by
pirates when I was too ill to do anything about
it. But a military style sweep through a quiet
neighbourhood is foolish. I don’t trust any poli-
cy that puts my tax dollars or money stolen
through “Profits of Crime” legislation into mil-
itary response to drugs, especially marijuana.
The situation is only justified by keeping
marijuana, a harmless herb and beneficial med-
icine, illegal. The profits go to the capitalist
pigs who don’t care who they hurt. The good
cultivators get lumped in with a criminal ele-
ment that grows pot fast, cheap and stony, but
useless as medicine because of the adulterants.
We need to legalize marijuana now. With the
election on the way, we need to inundate the
provincial capitals and Ottawa with letters call-
ing for legislation, not the re-criminalizing Bill
C-10.
If the politicians see a lot of letters, especial-
ly if you take the time to write your own, each
letter is viewed as a block of votes. If enough
letters call for a full legalization, it becomes an
issue that must be addressed.
I have created a template letter that can be
copied in whole or in part and sent to your rep-
resentatives.
We tend to be fiercely individualistic people.
Most of us hold strong views about a full range
of issues. I want to hear them all. Write me,
send me your ideas, grow products, vaporizers,
pipes, papers, cannabis food, buds, tinctures
(non-alcoholic please), any and all good, safe
products that should be included in a guide
book for medical use.
Apotropaic
MusicSte 133 – 255, Newport Drive
Port Moody, BC V3H 5H1
MARIJUANA BRIEFING
FOR SELECT COMMITTEE
13 May 2004, New Zealand Herald
Experts and officials from Government-sanc-
tioned medical marijuana programs in the
Netherlands, Canada and the United States
will visit New Zealand this month.
Governments around the world have begun
legalizing the use of marijuana by patients
with chronic pain and other forms of suffer-
ing. A parliamentary health select committee
has recommended New Zealand consider
making cannabis-based medicines available
to suffering patients, and the Drug Policy
Forum Trust has invited the overseas experts
to brief it on their programs.
 MARTIMERS UNITE FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA SOCIETY
A new registered non-profit H E M P F E S T I VA L
organization is hosting Atlantic
Canada’s first annual Hemp toast and beverages) will be prepared for $5.00
Festival in the beautiful, bountiful and a barbequed Montreal pork shoulder roast
Annapolis Valley from July 31 – supper with all the fixings will be served for
August 1, 2004. This Hemp $7.50.
Festival will be the celebration of a
Several vendors will be selling memorabilia,
wonderful, health- giving plant and
paraphernalia and goods and services (i.e.: intu-
a call for our government to abol-
itive readings, chair massage) reflective of the
ish a totally unjust, archaic law.
body/mind/ spirit theme. A central campfire will
Although early to reflect a “har- be available. Adhering to responsible cannabis
vest theme”, mid-summer will find consumption, there will be a zero tolerance pol-
the Annapolis Valley in the midst icy in place for alcohol/drug abuse and violence.
of tourism season with many
Anyone who would like to set up early or stay
attractions for people planning a
later to partake of the many festivities occurring
summer getaway in Canada’s
in the Annapolis Valley, or just to relax, put your
Ocean Playground.
feet up and start thinking about Hemp Festival
On a more practical level, Nova 2005, additional camping time will be available.
Scotian nights are also more con- Tenting only will be $5.00/night and fees for
ducive at this time of year for out- those requiring hookups will be $12.00.
door events and camping.
Many of the booked speakers
For additional information:
will reflect the government’s gross
mishandling of the Medical Email: chair@mumm.ca
Marijuana Access Regulations and (http://www.wvda.com/en/visitor/index.php )
how this atrocious situation nega-
tively impacts on the country’s
chronically ill. Among the speak- Berwick, Nova Scotia photo taken by Clifford F. Wright,
ers are Jim Wood, owner of the MPA , courtesy and copyright of Patricia White.
Cannabis Café, New Brunswick;
Patrick Hardy, federal exemptee who was arrest- party/dance music, blues style). Steve’s
ed in Moncton during Marc Emery’s Summer of Hydroponics
Legalization Tour for consuming and possessing Headquarters, Lower
his legally prescribed medicine; Debbie Stultz- Sackville and
Giffin, federal exemptee and chair of MUMM; Greenwonder,
and John Cook, Vice Chair of MUMM and Dartmouth are assist-
director of the Cannabis Buyers Club of Canada, ing with band spon-
Halifax Outlet. sorship.
Judith Renaud, Canadian Chair of Educators Tickets for the
for Sensible Drug Policy will speak about imple- Hemp Festival will be
menting appropriate drug reform, including pro- $25.00 in advance
viding our children with accurate, current infor- and for MUMM
mation about drugs in our education system, members and $30.00
thereby improving student-teacher relationships at the gate. Admission
and creating safer, happier schools. includes a camping
Bands for this event have played in bars and at site for one night. Fox
festivals throughout the Maritimes and beyond. Mountain
Our headline act for this premiere Hemp Festival Campground has
is the Terry Edmunds Band, from Halifax. Terry complete facilities,
has played extensively for the last 30 years from including a canteen,
coast to coast, in Canada and the US, doing showers and is wheel-
warm up for musicians like Joe Cocker, Johnny chair accessible.
Winter, the Muddy Waters Band and Joni Camping sites include
Mitchell. He is a skilled guitarist and recording a large field overlook-
artist; in fact, Muddy Waters has likened Terry ing the scenic
Edmunds’s guitar playing to Johnny Winter and Annapolis Valley for
Eric Clapton. This act is sure to be a crowd tenting, and there are
pleaser. several hundred spots
available for campers
Other confirmed bands are City Fish (an orig- requiring electricity.
inal blend of blues, rock and country), Muddy
Creek (original folk/rock), the Blue Marble A canteen is on site,
Band (60’s and folk with contemporary rhythms barbequed hot dogs
and a solid rock beat) and the Backroom Blues will be available, full
Band (specializing in delivering the best of breakfast (bacon,
eggs, hash browns,

CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal 7

A P P R O VA L F O R C A N N A B I S
S P R AY S O U G H T I N C A N A D A
Wed, 12 May 2004 Globe and Mail (Canada)

The world’s first proposed cannabis-laced prescription drug to relieve

pain may get its start in Canada. Pharmaceutical giant Bayer announced
yesterday that it has applied to Health Canada for permission to market
the drug Sativex to those who suffer from multiple sclerosis and severe
neuropathic pain. The application was made in conjunction with the
developers of the drug, the pioneering British firm GW
Pharmaceuticals, which has been growing about 40,000 pot plants a
year at a secret location in a government approved research project.
Sativex is a medicinal mouth spray developed from the major compo-
nents of marijuana, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and
cannabidiol (CBD).

It would be the first prescription drug that uses real marijuana extracts
and not a synthesized form, according to its proponents. GW executive
chairman Geoffrey Guy has said the cannabis-derived spray will not get
patients high since it is sprayed under the tongue, rather than smoked or
swallowed. “They see the benefit without getting stoned.” Early trials of
the drug in Britain showed that it was a safe and effective treatment to
relieve painful symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Two weeks ago, the company announced that it did not expect British
regulators to approve the drug for use by multiple-sclerosis patients
until much later in the year. So, in the meantime, Canada has been
asked for permission to market the drug.

About 50,000 Canadians have multiple sclerosis. At least half of them

suffer significant pain, according to the drug companies’ statement.

10 CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal


FIND NED’S HEAD
AND WIN THIS
TORNADO TWISTED PIPE
FROM WONG BONG PIPES
Send page number and location of Ned’s head
(Hint: It’s not in the comic!) to:
Cannabis Health
Box 1481
Grand Forks BC
V0H 1H0
or email answers to
distribution@cannabishealth.com
Please include your name, address and phone
number or email address. All correct answers
will be entered into the draw for this beautiful
Tornado Twisted glass pipe from Wong Bong
Pipes.
Entry deadline August 1st, 2004.
Congratulations to the Winner of May/June
contest, Ryan from Canoe, BC!
“I found Ned’s head chillin with Bob Marley
letting out a huge hit on page 27. Thank you
for the good read and keep up the good work.”
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
P L A N E TA R Y P R I D E H E M P F E S T 2 0 0 4
Hempfest 2004: August 26 through 29 is
Planetary Pride’s 6th Annual Cannabis
Festival celebrating the cannabis plant. The
event will be held at a location just outside
Sault Ste Marie, a 45 minute run from the
Ontario/Michigan border.
The Planetary Pride Hempfest is, in itself,
a Community. We gather, once a year, deep
in the forests of scenic Northern Ontario
and celebrate the Cannabis plant. Hempfest
attracts people from a wide range of cultur-
al and ethnic backgrounds from all corners
of North America. One just has to look
around their immediate campsite to discov-
er new friends from all over the world.
Almost 1,000 citizens attended Hempfest
in 2003. The Hempfest 2004 crew is plan-
ning on 2,000, and because of last year’s
huge success, we have even added an extra
day. Thursday night is Movie Night, so all
the travelers, and there are hundreds of
you, come in, grab a camp site and enjoy
some movies and the natural beauty of the
area. The scenery in the Algoma District is
breathtaking and many of the regular
Hempfest Citizens vacation in the area, both
before and after the festival. The festivities
this year include 20+ Bands, guest speak-
camping included is just $25.00 per person
ers, demonstrations on Bubble Hash and the
or $35.00 at the gate. Thursday night is
Volcano, competitions like Junk Yard Bong
$5.00 plus a can of food.
Wars, Rolling Contest, Big Bud Weigh-in.
For more information including the
Have fun, be entertained and meet some
HEMPFEST SURVIVAL GUIDE visit the
of the best cannabis people from all over
festival at www.hempfest.ca or order
North America.
tickets by calling 1-888-215-8970.
The cost for all this over 4 days with
PRACTICAL CANNABIS
GROWING GUIDE
Review by Lorraine Langis
This CD-ROM is one of the most informative
products out there for the beginning grower. In
an easy to use format it covers everything from
ensuring you are getting mature seeds, cloning,
harvest and absolutely everything in between.
There are recipes, tips on sexing your plants, pic-
torial guides, organic and hydroponics growing
info…the list goes on. The pictures and video
clips are well done and the language used in the
written section is easy to understand. There are
pull-down menus that allow you to pick and
choose which pieces of information you want to
read or which videos you want to watch. There
are even links to different sites, so you can
become further educated.
If you’ve got questions, this CD-Rom proba-
bly has the answers! It is truly a wealth of infor-
mation at your fingertips.
Each CD-Rom has its own individual code and
is non-transferable once loaded.
Available at cannabishealth.com $20.00 CDN
11
 P U B L I C H E A LT H M A R I J U A N A : T h e N e w D i r e c t i o n i n
Harm Reduction
by Dana Beal tionary function of
When the National Institute on Drug Abuse anandamide was to
turned its sights on the mechanism of cannabi- control inflammation,
nols and their endogenous analogues such as and that its role in the
anandamide in the brain, they were disappointed body and nervous sys-
to find that the dopamine model they relied on to tem grew as glutamate
explain drug abuse and addiction seemed to let came to be used to do
cannabis off the hook. The modest uptick in more and more things.
dopamine levels produced by pot confirmed
what the old hippies saw, marijuana is pleasura- Marijuana, Tobacco,
ble, but not particularly addictive. Cancer
More recent work tracing the pathways of So beyond the ques-
another neuro-transmitter, glutamate, has further tion of cannabis addic-
explicated the question of marijuana’s addictive- tiveness, an under-
ness. Familiar to aficionados of cheap Chinese standing of glutamate
food as mono-sodium glutamate (MSG), it per- mechanism has impor-
forms multiple functions throughout the brain tant public policy
and the body involved in long-term learning and implications regarding
memory and as a kind of natural stimulant that marijuana, tobacco, and
“takes the brakes off” metabolic processes, carcinogenesis. The oft-
causing everything to burn hotter. repeated myth that “one
joint is 3 (or 10) times
In 2001 a Swiss researcher, Francois Conquet,
more carcinogenic than
made an interesting discovery with “knock-out”
a cigarette”—based on
mice who had been bio-engineered not to have a
the resin content—col-
particular glutamate pathway called m (for mes-
lapses upon considera-
senger) GluR5. Mice with no mGluR5 could not
tion of the role of
be trained to self-inject cocaine. This
chronic glutamate
is highly significant because elimination of
inflammation of the lin-
dopamine transporters and receptors in other
ings of the lungs in gen-
knock-outs still left them able to be addicted
erating the free radicals
through cocaine’s rewarding effects on sero-
that attack the DNA of
tonin. Microdialysis recorded the same
immune cells in these
dopamine spikes in both wild mice and the
linings. Like white
mGluR5-deficient ones, but soon after the
blood cells, these Dana Beal
researchers substituted intravenous cocaine for
immune cells are there
food, the mGluR5 knock-outs stopped pressing
to attack pathogens (the memory, writers use it to finish articles.
the lever. Their affinities for food, water, mating
lungs are a big vector for infection) that come In the lining of the lung, however, nicotine has
were unaffected; but cocaine could no longer
their way. the perverse effect of putting the damaged
“fool” the knock-outs into accepting it as a
replacement for food, water and mating. The truism that cigarettes are more addictive immune cell into kind of suspended animation,
than heroin becomes a lot easier to understand blocking apoptosis, or cell death. What happens
Cannabis and Glutamate if you keep a damaged cell alive while filling it
with free radicals produced by chronic gluta-
mate inflammation? Eventually you get bad
In Colorado Springs, the Chairman of the “Considered from the genetic code, the cell goes cancerous and starts
University of Colorado Biology Department is
Bob Melamede. Dr. Melamede teaches a whole public health standpoint, migrating all over the body spreading that bad
code. Which is why smokers end up with cancer
course on medical marijuana. Central to his the- cannabis is more often in some of the strangest places.
sis is the finding that cannabinols and the
endogenous neuro-transmitters they mimic are than not a replacement It has been estimated that the average New
glutamate antagonists; but not the kind of non- for alcohol and other Yorker breathes in pollutants equivalent to a
competitive antagaonists, like ibogaine, that pack and a half of cigarettes every day. But with-
come along to “plug the hole” after inonotropic drugs. When cannabis out the key co-factor of the nicotine, they do not
glutamate receptors have opened up to let min- use goes up, alcohol use get lung cancer at anything like the rate of pack-
erals through the cell membrane. Instead, and-a-half-a-day smokers. We all have multiple
cannabinols and anandamide act to “backsignal”
goes down.” redundant natural immunities that block the sea
along the metabotropic glutamate pathways that of crap we breathe from giving us cancer.
work (like mGluR5) through the second messen- Indeed, the crowning blow to the prohibitionist
when we remember that the mediating neuro- argument that burn products, not nicotine, cause
ger systems and modulate signals of
transmitter of the nicotine high is glutamate. the cancer is the widespread incidence of cancer
other neurotransmitters.
Once you acclimate to the nicotine, so that it no of the lip and gum among people who chew
What cannabinols do is to tell glutamate-firing longer makes you sick, its primary “cascade” tobacco. There are no published reports of stom-
cells to chill out, to stop firing so much gluta- effect is a quick fix of glutamate, lasting no more ach cancer from marijuana brownies.
mate, an effect that is necessary whenever too than 5 or 10 minutes, which has the effect of
much glutamate causes cell processes to burn calming the addict down while giving them a Beyond the reports of direct cannabis efficacy
too hot. Melamede believes the original evolu- lift. Typically, because it potentiates long term against certain kinds of tumors, the mechanism
of action of cannabinols is 180 degrees opposite

12 CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal


of nicotine: anti-glutaminergic, anti-inflammato-
ry. That is why cannabis is prescribed for all
kinds of inflammation and auto-immune disease.
So regardless of the amount of tar or burn
products—and meaning no disrespect to the
vaporizer advocates—with cannabinols instead
of nicotine in the mix there’s nothing to “turn
on” the carcinogens therein.
Marijuana, Alcohol, Accidents
The final bit of confusion that can be cleared
up here is the widespread fallacy, based on the
outdated notion marijuana works like alcohol,
that pot is a major cause of accidents. Once
again, mechanism of action confirms the epi-
demiological studies that already show people
drive, if anything, more safely on cannabis.
Where cannabis has its very own receptors,
alcohol works by unleashing a flood of endor-
phins in response to major trauma caused by
ethanol stripping the myelin sheaths of the nerve
cells. From there the addictive process is
straightforward, with the endorphins engender-
ing a dopamine spike, which eventually locks in
the mGluR5 pathway and so on. But while the
trauma is occurring, and you’re drunk, you abil-
ity to function is severely damaged in a way that
just doesn’t happen with a mild glutamate antag-
onist working through its own specific set of
receptors.
Considered from the public health standpoint,
cannabis is more often than not a replacement
for alcohol and other drugs. When cannabis use
goes up, alcohol use goes down. And because
the cannabis effect is NOT incapacitating like
alcohol intoxication (every single study to date
shows no significant impairment of driving, for
instance) the effect of the substitution of
cannabis is the saving of lives. Economists
Frank Chaloupka and Adit Laixuthai, at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, estimate that
cannabis decriminalization would reduce youth
traffic fatalities by 5.5 per cent, youth drinking
rates by eight per cent and binge-drinking rates
by five per cent. Other evidence suggests we
would see similar declines in emergency-room
drug and alcohol cases.
Tobacco, Marijuana, Harm Reduction
Harm reduction approaches to cannabis have
focused heretofore on the market separation of
cannabis and other illegal drugs. According to
Dutch government facts-sheets, out of the total
population of 727,000, Amsterdam has around
5,100 hard-drug users. The primary thrust of
policy is to discourage the use of drugs, and to
combat the trade in drugs. The authorities also
seek to minimize the risks incurred by drug users
and to reduce as far as possible the nuisance fac-
tor for the general public. In the context of use,
Amsterdam’s drug policy differentiates between
hard and soft drugs, i.e.: cannabis is available,
but at locations where no other illicit substances
may be sold, and this “market separation” is
strictly enforced. Of some 5,100 hard-drug
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
DANA BEAL
users, around 2000 are of Dutch origin, with
some 1,350 having roots in former colony of
Surinam, the Netherlands Antilles and Morocco. Dana Beal, organized the first marijuana
Around 1,750 users come from other European protests during the summer of love, 1967. He
countries, mainly Germany and Italy. The total was a founding member and chief theoretician
number of hard-drug users is steadily decreas- of the Youth International Party, started the
ing, while their average age is rising, from 26.8 YIPster Times after the Miami Convention
years in 1981 to 39 years in 1999. In the same protests in 1972 and crusaded for marijuana
period the total number of drug users under 22 legalization in the 70’s. He collaborated with
years of age dropped from 14.4 percent to 1.6%. Tom Forcade, founder of High Times, changed
The singular flaw of the Dutch system from the name of the paper to Overthrow in 1979,
the standpoint of nicotine carcinogenesis is the started Rock Against Racism in December
almost universal practice of smoking cannabis 1980, he initiated an Ibogaine project with
mixed with tobacco—a habit that totally under- Howard Lots in an effort to make this addic-
mines the health benefits of smoking pure tion interrupter available to addicts every-
cannabis. It will be a hard habit to break, con- where. He published the Yippie anthology,
sidering the basic chemistry involved. Blacklisted News in 1983, advocated medical
Combining nicotine’s glutamate agonist effect marijuana for AIDS patients in 1986, joined
with pot’s glutamate antagonism offers the ben- ACT UP in 1988, pushed Ibogaine through
efits of a kind of “speedball”: cutting back on the ACT UP and NIDA until he was unmasked as
“stoned” effect of the cannabidiol without inter- a medical marijuana activist after a short
fering with the initial THC-induced melatonin prison stint in ‘93, co-founded Cures not
rush—the high.** But the seeds of change are Wars, started NYC Medical Marijuana
contained within the almost 90% switch from Buyers’ Club with Johann Moore in 1995.
hashish to hydro by Dutch consumers during the Beal published the Ibogaine Story with Paul
last decade. Without the need for tobacco to DeRienzo in January, 1997. Dana was part of
make a hash joint, better tasting bud—plus the the Wheelchair Walk for Medical Marijuana
ever-growing popular consciousness of tobac- from Boston to D.C. in fall 1997, brought
co’s dangers—may in the end be enough to Ibogaine to U.K. in 1998, initiated the Million
change European tastes. This changeover can Marijuana March in 1999 and co-sponsored
and should be augmented by all the publicity First International Ibogaine Conference
tools of a full-fledged public at NYU in November, 99.
health campaign, with slo-
gans like “Pure Pot Tastes
Even Better!”
A better understanding of
the mechanism of marijuana
as a glutamate antagonist
versus the licit glutamate
agonists, alcohol and nico-
tine, raises the interesting
prospect of the next logical
step for our worldwide
movement being not strictly
medical, but public heath
marijuana. In a generation or
less, all carrots and sticks of
public health policy may be
enlisted in a conscious effort
to REPLACE alcohol and
cigarettes with a marijuana
monoculture, and to
REMOVE all cannabis
opponents from any role in
setting that policy. The bene-
fits of saving up to 600,000
lives a year from cancer and
auto accidents in the U.S.
alone will make the switch-
over well worth it!
** I will explain the health
benefits of melatonin supple-
ments for regular cannabis
users in my next article.
page 13
LAURENCE OF AMERICA
THERAPEUTIC HELP FOR M.S. FROM CANNABIS
In the early 1970s, shortly after my book
Marijuana Reconsidered was published, I
was invited to appear on Bill Buckley’s show
Firing Line along with Laurence McKinney, a
prominent Cambridge drug educator. He
suggested that we meet at Logan Airport
and fly to Washington together. When I
boarded the plane I found Laurence hidden
behind a large potted marijuana plant which
reached from the pot in his lap to the ceiling
of the airplane. I could scarcely believe my
eyes. Laurence, on seeing my dismay, with
his characteristic ebullience quickly assured
me that it was a synthetic plant he had
obtained from a police supply firm (one with
remarkable similitude) to use as a prop on
the show. It must have been a strange sight
to the crew and other passengers, but,
probably because it was early in the war on
marijuana, no one else apparently recog-
nized it as the evil and dangerous weed and
we had an uneventful flight. To my relief and
Laurence’s disappointment, Mr. Buckley
decided against using the plant.
-Lester Grinspoon
At a time when his peers were dropping acid
and dropping out, rising from out of the conser-
vative wasteland of Massachusetts, came a self
made new age business man with the spirit and
beliefs of the counterculture and the entrepre-
neurial wisdom of a Harvard grad.
In the mid 60s Laurence O. McKinney had
already started a three-state chain of summer
surfboard shops. In 1969, he received an MBA
from Harvard Business School. His first startup,
an educational publishing firm, gave him exten-
sive experience in most forms of media from
print to the first videocassette drug education
instruction used by the military. During the next
thirty years he founded and managed a number
of other small firms that developed and intro-
duced to the marketplace products ranging from
award winning curricula to better appliances.
Founded in 1970 by McKinney and Richard
Hawkins, the Media Engineering Corp. and the
Creative Learning Group introduced America to
drug education. Their curricula offered a
straightforward approach to youth in language
that young people could understand and identify
with. The program rejected fear tactics, encour-
aged an open and honest dialogue and offered an
intellectual and balanced scientific analysis of a
wide range of drugs and their effects on the user.
The program focused on the underlying emo-
tional problems faced by persons of any age that
lead to drug experimentation and to abuse.
The curricula came in kits containing teaching
aids, manuals, books, demonstrations, audio
tapes and slides. The program was widely
embraced and financially successful. McKinney
received critical acclaim from the likes of
William F. Buckley Jr. of the New York Post,
14
who in August 1970 wrote,
“ I rejoice that some of the
brilliance of Mr.
McKinney should have
come up with a program so
artful, informed and ingen-
ious.” Only a month later,
on his yacht the Cyrano
and outside the three-mile
limit Buckley actually
tried marijuana, and has
argued for better laws
since that time.
The Creative Learning
Group was praised by the
U.S. Government, and its
materials were used in
every state, as well as the
US Navy and Army. Then,
in one of his last moves
President Nixon created
the D.E.A. and withdrew
all government funding for
school drug education.
Only the Drug War DARE
program was now allowed.
By this time, McKinney, Laurence McKinney
working with U.S. Govt.
cannabis strains. Then, in 1975 it was McKinney
marijuana farm founder Dr. Norman Doorenbos,
who connected medical cannabis pioneer Robert
had founded the Cannabis Institute of America
Randall to his UCLA doctors who created the
(CIA) to research the patent to control THC in
first U.S. “medical cannabis” program.
cannabis. The C.I.A. was founded the same year
McKinney was at the center of both events.
as NORML, and by 1973 was publishing
Now he realized the patent could also be used to
Cannabis Rx, The Journal of Cannabis
purify THC from cannabis in India where it was
Therapeutics. The first research journal dedi-
legal for encapsulation and consumption in the
cated to cannabis, it was also the first to report
US. The giant Perdue Pharma drug company
the appetite-stimulating effects of cannabis and
was willing to back him. The drug company’s
boasted a board of leading scientists. All the
original owner, Dr. Robert Sackler, had once
drug abuse materials, as well as early copies of
been a subscriber to Cannabis Rx. Everything
Cannabis Rx can be seen at McKinney’s web-
was working out.
site ThinkAboutIt.org.
So McKinney then founded the first legal
By 1980, McKinney had obtained the first
cannabis company in the world, appropriately
cannabis improvement patent. Building thou-
titled The Cannabis Corporation of America.
sands of dollars of research into a $29.95 appli-
In a stroke of genius, he gave a free share to each
ance called “The Maximizer”, the company sold
of his Harvard MBA 1969 classmates. A third
6,000 of them with huge High Times double
registered their shares, giving McKinney 200
page ads in six months. Then the “Anti-
millionaire ”stockholders”. After printing the
Paraphernalia” laws decimated the business. It
first Annual Report (see end of story) he was
was still the first patented device that was guar-
able to raise $150,000 to start work creating high
anteed to improve cannabis, and was used by the
THC strains for cloning and extraction.
Mayo Clinic as well as many happy customers.
The Maximizer remains a legend in America. CCA, as it was called, was operating years
Author Bill Novak used McKinney as a major before HortaPharm was started in Amsterdam,
source for the book High Culture during this and a full decade before GW Pharmaceuticals.
period. He’s mentioned seventeen times in the McKinney knew all the Hortapharm founders
book. At this point, McKinney took some time and he has spoken with Geoffrey Guy.
off, spending time living in India and Nepal, McKinney says, however, that if there is any
meeting among others the Dalai Lama and chance cannabis should be legally regulated in
Mother Theresa. the U.S. he would be able to raise $100 million
in a week from some of the most respected
In 1985 the U.S. had legalized THC to make it
financial institutions in the States.
possible for Marinol to be released for
chemotherapy nausea. Ironically, cannabis seeds I asked McKinney about the publicly traded
McKinney sent to Dr. Doorenbos in 1970 marijuana company, Amigula. McKinney was
became the basis of the original medical highly skeptical of the company and it’s CEO,
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
 LAURENCE OF AMERICA
since the Cannabis Corporation had done the ing pieces. Recently, they created the on-line
same work twenty years earlier and he knew catalog for Harvard merchandise,
exactly the expertise required. If you want to EverythingHarvard.com. Over 7,500
know all about liquid chromatography to sepa- Harvard alumni visit each month, assuring
rate cannabinoids, chat him up. McKinney of a very influential audience if he
As the only legitimate pharmaceutical corpo- ever decides to revive his Cannabis
ration involved with cannabis, McKinney and Corporation.
his company were one of four parties in the his- The couple live in Arlington, Massachusetts,
toric 1985-86 D.E.A. medical marijuana hear- only four miles up the street from Harvard,
ings. This is where, he feels, he made the great- where McKinney got all his degrees. In 1994,
est contribution. With NORML lawyer Kevin he published a groundbreaking book,
Zeese (now Ralph Nader’s campaign manager) Neurotheology, the study of the interface
being regularly admonished by Judge Young and between religion and the mind. Well reviewed
Robert Randall represented by a pro-bono by Arthur C. Clarke (2001 Space Odyssey), the
lawyer who was legally and actually blind, Dalai Lama, and dozens of others, it was (as
McKinney had hired a top drug lawyer. As a usual) ahead of the curve, predicting and
result, the D.E.A. judge ordered the de-criminal- explaining many global problems in terms of
ization of cannabis based largely on McKinney’s the clash of cultures. He still chats with Lester
arguments, not those of NORML or ACT. Grinspoon (who was on the Cannabis Rx
President Reagan’s appointee rejected his own board), Dr. Tod Mikuriya (who was on the
judge, but the defense, often called the Olsen Cannabis Corporation board), Robert
Defense, remains the best legal argument. Connell Clark and “K” – the grow-room genius In 1970, at the US marijuana farm, scientists dis-
In a nutshell, McKinney demonstrated that of the West Coast. After a three year study by a covered cannabis didn’t make THC, but its pre-
THC from a test tube and THC from a plant local hospital, which demonstrated that he had cursor, THC acid. This converted to THC gradu-
were identical molecules. This made cannabis the best lungs of the study group, he believes his ally by the effects of heat. The perfect
simply a raw material in the production of a 40 year relationship with the plant demonstrates temperature was 100 degrees centigrade for 90
legal drug - THC. As sesame oil and gelatine that it doesn’t take a vaporizer, just common minutes. When McKinney saw the paper he
capsules were food products, in legalizing THC, sense, to keep ahead of the cannabis curve. recalled hashish included a heating step, by boil-
the agency had effectively legalized cannabis ing or steaming. This must be why hashish was
into Schedule 2 as a necessary precursor of legal so potent! McKinney patented the process, and
SPECIAL FOR OUR READERS the laboratory version worked. He then hired
THC. This totally confounded the drug agency
McKinney has agreed to release onto the Harvey Levine, a brilliant designer who invented
because it meant that the moment THC from
“cannabis collectibles” market both the 4-color the Toast-r-Oven, the Shick hair dryer, and later
cannabis was sold, no matter how pure, cannabis
Cannabis Corporation annual report for 1986, the first vaporizer (called the “Tilt”). They retro-
would become legal. The drug agency informed
the VMW (Veterans of the Marijuana Wars) engineered an available appliance to create the
Perdue Pharma that they would be forced to test
posters, extra CCA stock certificates, and Bill heating and timing cycles, using the boiling
every-single-other-molecule in the plant before
Novak’s High Culture – all at a special set of water itself as a timer. The Maximizer is an auto-
they could get cannabis-based THC legal.
pages. Go to ThinkAboutIt.org/hc/items.htm matic self-timed decarboxylator.
Perdue Pharma dropped out and made
Oxycontin. At the same time, Bill Novak gave
McKinney the rights to re-publish High Culture,
which is why it is still available at Amazon.com
or directly from McKinney’s site (see end of
story).
In many ways McKinney, being the first at so
many cannabis landmarks, should have ended up
with either fame or fortune. People have made
money in hemp, in their institutes, in publishing,
and in pharmaceuticals. Instead, without the
backing of a pharmaceutical firm, there was no
real future. He re-named the company
Cambridge Pharmaceutical Laboratories. It still
exists selling natural skin products at
OilofTara.com but there is no connection to
cannabis. In fact, aside from membership in
ICRS, the high-tech International Cannabis
Research Society, McKinney doesn’t have much
involvement with the cannabis movement these
days.
Laurence now lives with his wife Suki who,
in 1997, began designing websites with him.
As their businesses expanded she became book-
keeper and clerk, maintaining several company
sites, creating and producing surveys and com-
munications documents, exhibits, and market-

CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal 15

THERAPEUTIC HELP FROM CANNABIS
by help@thc4ms.org
Thc4ms is a Medi-weed Co-operative based
in the UK that produces cannabis chocolate
bars free of charge for Multiple Sclerosis suf-
ferers. All that is required to be accepted as a
recipient of cannabis chocolate is a doctor’s
note confirming diagnosis of MS. A weekly
supply of Canna-biz chocolate will be sent
upon request. Thc4ms was originally founded
in 1993 following a chance meeting of several
MS sufferers who appeared on The Kilroy
Show.Thc4ms is a self help group, working
along side groups such as Alliance for Cannabis
Therapeutics (ACT) run by our good friend
Clare Hodges, a fellow MS sufferer.
Thc4ms works as a first point of contact for
MS sufferers who wish to use cannabis as a
medicine, but who have no access to it. Time
after time the same two questions were being
asked, “Where can I buy some cannabis?” and
“I have some cannabis in a pot in my cupboard
that so and so gave me, but I do not know what
to do with it?” Through networking with other
Medi-weed co-ops, such as The Medicinal
Marijuana Cooperative (MMCO) founded by
Colin Davies and the Free Medical Marijuana
Foundation (FMMF) Glastonbury and, more
recently, The Herb Connection (Chris Baldwin)
and Tony’s Holistic Centre (Kingscross,
16
London), Thc4ms are able to direct the MS suf-
ferer to the Medi-weed co-op most suited to
that patient’s needs.
During this time, members of Thc4ms
became aware of the work of Biz Ivol of
Orkney, also an MS sufferer. Biz was produc-
ing cannabis laced chocolate bars for her
friend, Bill Reeves, an MS sufferer who lives
on the next island. Bill wished to use cannabis
as a medicine, but did not want to smoke.
Thc4ms was producing herbal cannabis and
giving it away to a small group of MS sufferers
in emergency situations only (i.e.: their normal
route of supply had exhausted) and began to
send herbal cannabis to Biz so she could pro-
duce the cannabis chocolate bars. Thc4ms also
started making small amounts of their own
Canna-choc, and distributed it free of charge, to
MS sufferers who were worried about smoking.
Unfortunately, Biz was raided by the Northern
Constabulary in 2001, after a local Police
Constable decided to act after reading about
Biz’s activities in a national newspaper. Upon
hearing of Biz’s plight, THC4MS immediately
increased production of Canna-choc so the
service could continue uninterrupted.
The case against Biz Ivol was dropped in
June 2003, after it was decided Biz was not fit
enough to stand trial, thus denying her a court
The important thing was it’s the moment when all of that
generation of hippies looked at each other and said,
“Wait a minute, we’re not a fringe element.There’s millions of us!“
-David Crosby, describing Woodstock
victory. She had pled not guilty to all charges
against her. Following the collapse of her trial,
Thc4ms decided to rename Canna-choc to
Canna-Biz in her honour.
The media became aware of our work and
articles began appearing in the national press.
The numbers of MS sufferers who wished to
try Canna-choc increased rapidly.
It was decided that the product needed to
look more professional. Chocolate moulds and
melting pans were imported from Belgium,
food grade wrapping was sourced and labels
printed listing the ingredients, thus complying
with food regulations.
It was not long before it became apparent the
service could not be sustained without help
from the wider cannabis community. Thc4ms
decided to appeal to the UK home grower for
help in maintaining a supply of canna-choc to
MS sufferers.
Most home growers when asked will say they
grow their own for two reasons: to save money
and to escape the stress of having to score from
a dealer. When the crop is harvested many
home growers end up with an excess of
cannabis and have several options for disposing
of the surplus produce. Once self sufficient,
many home growers, do not wish to venture
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
 RECIPES
back into the illicit market to sell their sur- Chocolate Chip Cookies
plus, and prefer instead to donate the sur-
plus to Thc4ms. 1 cup special butter 2/3 cup chocolate syrup
Thc4ms regularly appeals on the internet ? t salt 2 eggs
message boards such as www.uk420.com 1 t vanilla 1/3 cup Kahlua
and other cannabis related magazines 1/3 cup Baileys Irish cream 1 t baking soda
requesting donations of surplus herbal ? cup brown sugar 3 ? cups flour
cannabis. Slowly the donations from grow- 1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup walnuts
ers began to arrive.
To date, Thc4ms has now helped over
1,200 Multiple Sclerosis sufferers with Cream together the butter, syrup, Kahlua, Baileys, vanilla, and eggs. Mix together dry ingredi-
regular supplies of Canna-choc, and con- ents. Mix wet and dry well. If mixture is too wet, add a little extra flour. If to dry, add a little
tinues to send out supplies on a weekly extra liqueur. Add chips and nuts. Spoon mixture onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 for ten
basis to those MS patients who request it. minutes.
Cash donations and volunteer support
maintain, stamps and envelopes and Special Butter
enables the purchase of chocolate and
other consumables. Put marijuana in large pot with water. Make sure M.J. is covered. Bring to a boil then add
If you are a home grower and wish to butter. Let simmer for twelve hours. Make sure water doesn’t boil away or the butter will burn.
donate herbal cannabis so our work can Strain out and dispose of the leaf. There is nothing left in the leaf. It is now all in the butter.
continue or require further information, Put liquid in the freezer to harden the butter. It will float on top of the water. You can pull the
please contact us by e-mail. All major butter off the top of the water once it has hardened. Dispose of the water. All the bad stuff is in
benefactors are invited to oversee the pro- the water and the good stuff is in the butter. Use about 1 lb of leaf or shake to 3 lb of butter.
duction run. We look forward to hearing Strength will vary and you can use more or less of either ingredient depending on how strong or
from you. weak you like your cookies. If the butter is to strong you can mix part special butter with part
ordinary butter for baking. This butter can be used for any recipe but it will have an M.J.
Many thanks.
flavour. My cookie recipe is the best I have found to get rid of that taste.
For more information, contact:
help@thc4ms.org

CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal 17

 FA C T S A B O U T H E M P H E A R T S ( S H E L L E D H E M P S E E D S )
ENERGY: Middle aged and older individuals
who eat at least four measuring tablespoons of
Hemp Hearts each morning, usually raw on
fruit or oatmeal, notice increased, long-lasting
energy. Many individuals comment that they
are more productive and much less affected by
stress.
APPETITE: Except for those with diabetes and
other conditions which require individuals to
eat more frequently, most of our customers
report that they are not yet hungry at lunch
time—often only slightly hungry at two o’clock
in the afternoon. Those who are overweight can
quite easily limit themselves to a pot of tea for
18
lunch and a large salad without dressing in the
early evening, losing up to one pound per day.
Because those who eat Hemp Hearts in quanti-
ty every morning are nutritionally satisfied,
they have less difficulty avoiding foods made
with sugar, flour, potatoes, pasta and rice and
they are less inclined to regain lost weight.
DIGESTION: Customers report efficient diges-
tive systems without sluggishness and they
seem able to derive much more benefit from
less food. Because Hemp Hearts are so easily
digested, customers claim that Hemp Hearts
have cured or reduced the effects of chronic
problems of the digestive system. There are no
known allergies to Hemp Hearts. Because they
are a well-balanced source of all required pro-
teins and all essential fats as well as most vita-
mins and enzymes, Hemp Hearts are of special
benefit to those who are unable to eat gluten,
lactose, sugar, fish, nuts, meat and other com-
mon foods.
CLINICAL STUDIES: Analysis indicates that
Hemp Hearts are unmatched in nature for their
balance of all required proteins and essential
fats as well as most vitamins and enzymes.
Analysis also indicates that these beneficial
nutrients are concentrated in Hemp Hearts
without sugar and with only minimal quantities
of carbohydrates and saturated fats. Many clin-
ical studies associate excessive quantities of
sugar, saturated fats and carbohydrates with
chronic disease. Other studies indicate that
hemp products reduce inflammation and
improve circulation, factors of primary impor-
tance in the cure and prevention of many dis-
eases. A large percentage of older customers
have selected Hemp Hearts in desperation
because of failing health. and within three
months report significant improvements in
cholesterol and blood pressure. Diabetics,
especially, report that circulation improves.
Pain and inflammation, characteristic of arthri-
tis and many chronic diseases, are often much
reduced. Health care professionals are using
Hemp Hearts to achieve great results.
HEMP HEARTS COMPARISON WITH
OTHER FOODS
*Contains more required amino acids (proteins)
than milk, meat or eggs.
*Is a complete protein source—much more bal-
anced & digestible than Soy products.
*Contains about 47% oil, 78% of which is
omega 3 & 6—the essential fats.
*Contains all the essential or omega fats
required for human health.
*Contains several times more omega 3 essen-
tial fat than any fish.
*Provides more energy than energy bars—with-
out their sugar and with much less saturated fat.
*Is suitable for those unable to eat gluten,
sugar, milk, nuts & meat.
*Is perfect for those troubled with constipation
and for those avoiding carbohydrates.
Rocky Mountain Grain Products (299614
Alberta Ltd) is a small Alberta company with
about twelve employees situated in an irrigated,
food producing area of rural Alberta. For the
past thirty years we have worked with other
local farmers to produce specialty crops on irri-
gated land. For the past three years we have
been selling increasing quantities of Hemp
Hearts (Shelled Hemp Seed) to health food
stores and to health care professionals for use,
especially, by older individuals with chronic
health conditions.
Hemp Hearts are available from Rocky
Mountain Grain Products
Box 550, Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 3Z4 T:24 hr
403 329 1380, F:403 756 3997
Email: snowrk@telusplanet.net
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
COMING
SOON
 NEW CROPS FOR OLD LANDS
by Howard Semenoff tein. Oil pressed from the seed is of highest
for Iskra Magazine, 1995 quality for cooking, can be burned for fuel, and The plant was extensively cultivated for seeds,
made into lubricants, plastics and other prod- along with flax and poppies. Oil was pressed
Most Grand Forks residents know well that the ucts. The seed cake (the part left after the oil is from all of these seeds, but hemp oil was the
industrial and economic base of this valley is pressed out) makes high-protein food for live- most valued, having the best taste. In Grand
undergoing rapid and dramatic change. Mills are stock and people. All of this comes from a plant Forks, these oils were once extracted with a
laying off workers and threatening to close that is ideally suited to the climate and soils of handmade press in the complex at the site where
down. Much of the discussion has centered this area and grows like a weed! the Flour Mill now stands. In addition to cloth,
around forestry issues, but I believe that diversi- It should be noted that hemp is closely related rope, and oil, hemp was valued by many
fication into other economic activities would to marijuana. However, the plant used for smok- Doukhobors as an herbal tea.
serve us better than continued logging and ing contains a drug called THC. Varieties of Although hemp is just one piece that could fit
milling. In Water and Wilderness (ISKRA No. hemp used for fibre and oil contain very tiny into the current economic and environmental
1797, page 14) I mentioned one source of future amounts of THC—they have no drug properties. puzzle, it may become a very important one. If
employment—tourism. However, our needs can- It was an accident of legislation that the plant legal barriers are overcome, our future will cer-
not be met just with tourism. called hemp, grown for industrial purposes, was tainly include the cultivation of this miraculous
banned along with mari-
plant.
juana. Thus, the legaliza-
tion of hemp is distinctly
not the legalization of any Members of the Union of Spiritual
drug. Communities of Christ (USCC) share a rich her-
Growing hemp is one of itage and eventful history spanning centuries
the aspects of Doukhobor and continents. They are descendants of
heritage and the history of Russian peasants, derisively named
this area. In Grand Forks “Doukhobors”, or “Spirit Wrestlers”, for their
(and other places), rejection of icon worship and other church ritu-
Doukhobors grew hemp als. They adopted the name, stating they wres-
for fibre, seed, oil and tea. tled with, not against the Holy Spirit, using the
The fibre was spun and power of love to live in harmony with the Law
woven into cloth, often of God and the Teachings of Jesus Christ.
mixed with flax. This ISKRA: Voice of the Doukhobors has been
yielded a garment that was published by the USCC Organization in Grand
comfortable and long-last- Forks, BC, since 1943, and is produced tri-
ing—many of the old weekly throughout the year.
“linen” clothes that are
now collectors’ items are For more information, visit www.iskra.ca
actually made from hemp
Agriculture is an ancient and essential pursuit fibres.
that is a large part of this area’s history. Sadly, it
has become uneconomical in recent times
because of the lack of reasonable markets for
traditional crops. However, many presently
obscure crops hold the promise of renewed vigor
for our agricultural economy. One of the most
exciting opportunities is the production and pro-
cessing of hemp.
Hemp is an extremely valuable and versatile
crop. The fibre from the plant makes excellent
cloth and rope, having greater durability and fire
resistance than any other natural fibre. An acre
of hemp produces four times as much fibre and
cellulose for paper as an acre of trees, and can be
processed in any standard wood pulp-and-paper
operation. Moreover, hemp paper can be made
with bleaching technologies (using oxygen
rather than chlorine) that are non-polluting and
much safer for workers. Hemp can be formed
into building panels and used as an ingredient in
particle board producing a lighter and more fire
resistant product than the board made from pure
wood fibre.
Hemp seed is a source of high-quality food—
the whole seed is among the few plant products
(such as soybeans) that contain a complete pro-

20 C A N N A B I S H E A LT H J o u r n a l

by Lorraine Langis, Cannabis Pilgrim
On April 28, 2004, we were honored to be
invited to participate in the Vancouver Magazine
Promenade, held in the Vancouver Public
Library building. The BC Magazine Publishers
Association (BCAMP) hosted the event which
was well attended by people from every walk of
life. Here’s a peek at what happened on the 10
hour pilgrimage from Grand Forks to Vancouver
and at the event.
We received great response from striking HEU
workers in Keremeos. They were very support-
ive and took lots of copies to pass out to co-
workers. (Thanks, ladies!) There was also a
hitchhiker in Keremeos who took a copy after
we apologized for not being able to pick her up.
SOMEDAY
WE WILL
ENLIST
POLICE
OFFICERS
TOO.
(Hope you found your ride!) Then there were
the six older (55-60) gentlemen at the Princeton
Hotel pub. They each took a copy of the
Journal, asked Lisa a thousand questions, turned
on the overhead light and devoured theJournal!
(Thanks, guys, you’re awesome!)
The reactions we received in Vancouver were
quite interesting. Some people gravitated to our
booth, some smiled and walked on by, some gig-
gled. We noticed some people would not even
look our way and some stopped dead in their
tracks and came back when they realized what
our banner actually said.
We had some negative responses, like the
group of folks who were sitting next to us in the
Princeton Hotel pub (all smokers and drinkers)
and the older gentleman in Vancouver (an admit-
ted smoker and drinker) who all agreed that
“marijuana is dangerous”, but had no response
C A N N A B I S H E A LT H J o u r n a l
C A N N A B I S H E A LT H O N T H E R O A D
when we asked if they felt the same about alco-
hol and tobacco. After seeing my ID tag, an
older lady in the elevator said, “Oh, you’re with
those drug people.”
There are still those out there who believe in
the myth that marijuana is the gateway drug.
The most interesting mixed reaction we
received was the StatsCan employee who gladly
accepted a copy of the Journal, but declined
when asked to write an article revealing the fact
that the real problem in Canada is alcohol, not
marijuana.
The demographic we found to be most inter-
ested in medical cannabis surprised us a bit.
There were mostly professional males (40+),
seniors wanting to talk and get information and
non-smokers wanting to know more about the
medical value of cannabis. In general, the peo-
ple who picked up our journal were professors,
lawyers, nurses, university students, business- Lorraine Langis and Lisa Smith
people…every walk of life.
we can educate, the better off we’ll all be.
The three most frequently asked questions
If you would like Cannabis Health to attend
were; “Got any free samples?” “Is marijuana
legal?” and “What can you tell me about the an event, drop us a line at
medical value of cannabis?” We had a great distribution@cannabishealth.com.
time. For more pics of the event, visit our web- Also, check out the summer events listings on
site (our hits tripled after the show) page 32. You just might see us there!
www.cannabishealth.com.
In closing, I’d like to take this opportunity to
thank all of our advertisers, without whom the
Journal would not exist. Thanks, gang!! I’d
also like to thank all of our subscribers and
everyone who picks up the Journal when they
visit our advertisers; we value your support
more than you know. Lastly, thanks to our driv-
er and best friend, Corrina. (We love you, girl!)
You all help us fulfill a vision. The more people
21
SENIORS MAKING A DIFFERENCE
by D. Strohm
Joanna McKee
Born: Dec. 7, 1942 in Miami, Florida
Joanna McKee became active in the political
arena of the marijuana movement while living in
Fairbanks, Alaska in 1973, when she became
involved in the Raven case. For those of us too
young to know, the Raven case involved the
right to use marijuana in the privacy of your own
home. This was Joanna’s first struggle, for the
right to cultivate, posses and administer
cannabis (marijuana) medically, but not her last.
In 1981, Joanna was involved in a terrible
moped accident that resulted in serious head
To whom it may concern,
Joanna McKee has a number of prob-
lems some of which followed a head
injury in August of 1981. She has back
pain and episodes of depression for
which she uses marihuana sparingly
with beneficial results. I have not dis-
couraged this since it seems to help and
she seems to control its use.
Holmes Johnson Clinic Doctor’s note
6-12-87
injuries and a sprained neck. She was in a coma
for 6 days. By 1982, Joanna was using marijua-
na for the pain that is a result of her spinal cord
injuries.
While in Kodiak, Alaska in 1986, Joanna was
busted for growing her own medicine. She
earned the nickname of “Dragon Lady” from the
prosecuting attorney for refusing to state her
marijuana was something besides medicine.
Since no one in Kodiak had heard of such a
22
thing as marijuana being used as a medicine,
Joanna pleaded No Contest! People didn’t know
much about medical marijuana in Alaska then
and Joanne thought that she had invented her
own defense, because she knew nothing of the
lower 48 medical marijuana movement. In
1987, Joanna received her first letter from the
doctor stating it helped her medical condition,
even thought there was no evidence available
stating marijuana could be effective as a medi-
cine.
After being told by the District Attorney in
Kodiak that her letter was a joke and no one
would believe it, Joanna never paid attention to
the doctor’s letter for another 2 or 3 years.
In October 1990, while still on probation from
the 1986 bust, Joanna learned through Jack
Herer, that there really was a valid argument for
medical marijuana. Mr. Herer had gone to help
in Alaska’s battle against the re-criminalization
of marijuana and the reversal of the Raven case
decision. Joanna was helping Mr. Herer get
around when Jack introduced her to Stick.
Stick (Ron Miller) went to Alaska for 2 weeks
with Jack Herer as a volunteer to help keep
cannabis legal for all adult use in the privacy of
their homes. It was love at first sight, even if
they didn’t know it yet. Joanna followed Stick
back to California.
Together, Joanna and Stick traveled to the
Seattle area intending to purchase a sailboat, fit-
ting it out and then sail on to Europe. Since it
was difficult to obtain decent marijuana for med-
ical use in the area (Seattle’s buds were almost
always too wet) and Joanna gained such relief
from the pain caused from her injuries, they
decided to grow their own. Yes, you got it, grow
on the boat! Joanna and Stick were soon stuck
in Seattle. Why? “Because you can’t grow pot
on a boat!”
In 1991, a kindred spirit approached Joanna
with the comment, “This bud’s for you, from
someone who knows about your need,” and
shared a cigar-sized bud with her. “I was so
blown away that someone who I didn’t know
understood how desperately I needed this medi-
cine!” Joanna then began to think that if she felt
that good when someone shared medicine with
her, “How much better if I passed it on?”
In 1992, Joanne saw a television special about
AIDS patients using marijuana to combat wast-
ing syndrome. The marijuana gave them the
munchies so they could eat and keep their food
down. This special motivated her to pursue her
goal of sharing her medicine with others.
Joanna went searching for information on
medical marijuana organizations across the
country. Her thought was to find the medical
clubs and use them as models. Joanna called San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and
even NBC news trying to locate an example of a
medical marijuana group.
Next, she called the local AIDS coordinator in
the County Department of Health and stated that
if anyone needed medical marijuana, she would
share hers with them. A discussion ensued, but
no names were supplied at that time. Joanna left
a contact number with the AIDS coordinator
“just in case” it was needed. Four people con-
tacted Joanna as a result of this encounter. Then,
one day a letter arrived from NBC news. It con-
tained a list of individuals seeking information
on “providers” of medical marijuana. Not know-
ing what to do with this list, NBC had sent it to
Joanna. As a result the Green Cross Patient Co-
op was formed, 12 members strong.
It was during this time frame that Joanna real-
ized that the patients should have “notes” from
their doctors similar to her own. Not only to pro-
tect the new patient co-op, but to also help pro-
tect the patients from adverse drug interactions
with their current medical treatments and the
marijuana.
As membership in the co-op gradually
increased, Joanna recognized another need; and
with her partner, Stick, and her service dog,
Lumi, they attended a meeting of the Bainbridge
Island City Council and requested the council
assign those who use medical marijuana, the
lowest priority for law enforcement. The city
council gave the pair 3 months to gather the sig-
natures of 1,000 supporters of their proposal; 2
weeks later the task was completed.
Ms. McKee and Mr. Miller would not have
attended the City Council meeting that was to
address their signature drive and nothing farther
would have developed if Ch 7, KIRO News, had
not notified them of the impending meeting of
the City Council when they called Joanna
searching for an interview.
The Co-op continued in this fashion for a cou-
ple of years and by 1995 the membership num-
bered approximately 70, each member possess-
ing a doctor’s note, when a local DEA agent
ordered that the small band of medical marijua-
na users be busted. The authorities wanted to
prove that Joanna and Stick and their patient Co-
op were not really what they professed to be, but
were indeed criminals who only wanted to get
C A N N A B I S H E A LT H J o u r n a l

high and sell dope.
In 1995, on Bainbridge Island, the founders of
the Green Cross Patient Co-op were busted for
manufacturing with intent. Joanna was released
on her own P.R. and another individual posted
bail for Stick. He wanted the money returned
because he really wanted a trial more than the
Prosecuting Attorney.
After a lot of publicity and an apology from
the police, their case was thrown out because of
an improper search warrant. The warrant was 3
pages long and the word “marijuana” was not
included anywhere!
Hearing about the first conference in 10 years
about medical marijuana being held in
Washington, D.C., Joanna asked the judge for
permission to attend. The Judge did not want her
to go, because he thought it was a publicity
stunt. Joanna was determined and went to
Washington, D.C. anyway. Upon her return, Ms
McKee was escorted to jail for 2 days as a disci-
plinary action. The DEA wanted her bail
rescinded and her incarcerated for the entire 5
days she was away. Although the Judge didn’t
want to discipline her, he had no choice.
The case was dismissed. It took the submis-
sion of 7 briefs before the “m” word was
entered. The state appealed. (of course)
Eighteen other cases were pending in the legal
system with the same type of warrants. They did
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
SENIORS MAKING A DIFFERENCE
not want to lose on Joanna and Stick; it could
affect the other cases.
The appeals Judge also dismissed the case.
Some of the testimony given by Joanna to the
Bainbridge Island City Council in favor of med-
ical marijuana had been used against her.
Because of this victory in the courts, the 1995
Hempfest was dedicated to Green Cross Patient
Co-op.
Wanting to be closer to the patients, in 1996,
Joanna and Stick moved inside the Seattle city
limits. 1996-98 found the Green Cross Patient
Co-op (founders and members) helping to
write the I-692 initiative, gathering signatures
and encouraging people to vote. The new law
RCW69.5/a is the result of their efforts.
After all of this, you would think she was
done and Joanna’s mission to provide access to
medical marijuana was over, then you would
be wrong! To this day, she stands up for med-
ical marijuana patients by providing expert wit-
ness for patients when called to court. She has
testified in both the House and Senate
Committee meetings in Olympia, and acts as
an advisor on the legal-political aspects of set-
ting up a medical marijuana patient Co-op.
“I would not have been able to do any of this
without the help and support of Stick and a lot
of good people,” is all Joanna McKee wants
others to know.
23
 SPOCANNABIS: SIXTH GLOBAL MARCH FOR CANNABIS LIBERATION DAY

On May 1st and 2nd, an event was held on the

North Shore of Riverfront Park in Spokane
WA to celebrate Global March for Cannabis
Liberation Day, formerly known as the Million
Marijuana March. SpoCannabis leader Darren
McCrea organized the event with the help of
the following sponsors: Luigi’s Italian restau-
rant, Printing Inc’s Print and Copy Center, Top
o’ the Line, Total Health Shoppe, Six-Nineteen
Bar and Grill, Motives Cosmetics, Collage
Tattoo, Scotty’s Bar and Grill.
Thank you also to our sponsors who believe
in our cause but, because of the negative stigma
associated with this plant, have chosen to remain
anonymous. Thanks to the following bands for
providing the entertainment: Melefulent, James
Neil, Rich Clark, Oblique, Incident, White
Knuckle, Control-Z, Deaconess, Fatality, Soma
and Anomaly.Extra special thanks to Cannabis
Health Journal for attending and helping to pro-
mote the cause of Medical Marijuana and to
Green Cross of Seattle. We had a great time with
good friends for a great cause. We had a lot of
great feedback and plan on keeping it an annual
Soma (www.somaband.net) photo courtesy of logos@marijuana.com
tradition.
Update on Cliff Chadwell’s legal case.
SpoCannabis blanketed Spokane and the
vicinities with posters alerting our fellow
humans to the mistreatment we face as sick peo-
ple in the land that claims to be free and demo-
cratic. We spoke of the hypocrisies on radio and
TV and we held rallies in Cliff’s defense in front
of the courthouse during his scheduled hearings.
The prosecutors finally recognized Cliff’s stress
level and declining health and offered him a
deal. His relentless fight against the system
moved the prosecutor to reduce the pending
felony manufacturing conviction to a misde-
meanor charge. The prosecutors moved his court
date twice before offering him this deal. Cliff
would have fought on, but a month later, the
stress from the ordeal still finds him spending
most of his time in bed.
We at SpoCannabis are honored to have been
able to help Cliff’s grandfather, father, uncle,
brother, cousin, neighbor and fellow human
beings fight this unjust system that it sometimes
feels like so few are fighting to change.

The 3rd Annual

Vancouver
Drug War Film Festival
will be held
September 24th and 25th
To encourage a wider spectrum of partici-
pants to view the films, this years event
will be staged at a theater separate from the
Toker’s Bowl.

Our group, The Drug War Vigil Memorial

Society is honored to be affiliated with this
festival and we thank Marc Emery, Chris
Bennet and the crew of Pot-TV for sup-
porting this event; extraordinary activism
in action!

It is our hope to inspire independent and

amateur film makers to produce inspira-
tional works. Entries in this contest must
be submitted by Sept 10th/04.

Visit:
www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3400
for details on how to enter.

24 CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal


Good Medicine, Great Sex! - How Marijuana
Brought Me Creativity, Passion, and Prosperity
by David Ford
Also by Ford, the critically acclaimed
marijuana book, Not Guilty As Charged
Good Medicine, Great Sex is a completely
uncensored, amazing autobiography filled with
wild adventures, laughter and tears.
A former CBS journalist, David describes how
marijuana has touched his life for over 50 years.
Cannabis helped David overcome cancer, it
helped him write creative lectures (non cannabis
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
BOOK REVIEW
related ) and he found himself winning awards
for his creative efforts. Marijuana gave Dave the
vision to take any job or company he was
involved in and make it flourish while remaining
kind and considerate to others. David watched
and listened his whole life to stories of how mar-
ijuana had helped so many. How can any herb
that has so many healing qualities, be deemed so
evil?
It is this question that sent David on the search
of a life time. Along with David’s adventures his
book provides extensive research about marijua- Author David R. Ford and his book.
na’s prohibition. David recounts his own experi- I was fascinated as I read David’s stories
ence in uncovering the “truth” and responds to about of how cannabis increases sexual pleasure,
every “Drug War” lie with documented and creativity and enjoyment of life. His true life
credible science. story is a touching tale of one mans love of life,
For the past 30 years Ford has lived in beauti- family, people, and the many friends he met
ful peaceful Hawaii. Much of the book takes through one of the oldest social icebreakers,
place in Hawaii, the last state to be impacted by sharing a joint.
the drug war. Visit David Ford’s web site,
www.davidrford.com to read free chapters and
When the full effect of the drug war reached
learn about his one million dollar challenge to
Hawaii, it made marijuana very hard to find and
the DEA.
expensive. Not surprising methamphetamine
Review by Lisa Smith
use and overdoses rose dramatically in a state
that did not have these problems before.
David fights the insanity of marijuana prohi-
bition in every chapter. His job with CBS in
Hawaii, allowed him to question Hollywood’s
finest on their thoughts about cannabis. Some
great responses from the stars are revealed in
the book. David interviews persons from all
walks of life on the subject and readers will
relate to these experiences.
MUSIC REVIEW
by Lorraine Langis
If you’ve ever been just a
little curious about hemp,
you should give this CD a
listen. Music wise, there’s
something for everyone
and in between songs,
Garnet Kranz speaks
about hemp in his parents and grandparents time.
The CD conveys a very strong message about hemp
and its ability to help save the environment. Garnet
talks about hemp rope, hemp milk (which was
apparently a cure for TB in the 1930s) and a lot of
other uses they had for hemp when it was legal. He
also talks of the criminalization of hemp and the
penalties that were associated with it.
I found this CD to be very enjoyable and easy to
listen to (my favourite track being “Tasty Hemp
Seeds” done to the tune of “Day-O”). If you want to
learn more about hemp and be entertained at the
same time, this might be the CD for you.
The Hemp SeeDee (A Compilation of Songs and
Stories Celebrating the Many Uses of Hemp).
$20.00 call 1-800-385-FOLK to order or visit
www.coolhemp.com
25
26 CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
 CANNABIS INSIGHTS
by Sebastian Schulz
There is a famous claim about the effects of
cannabis made by many consumers, a claim
that has often been ridiculed as a legend. Critics
say that the allegation has only been made up
by “potheads” who tend to overestimate the rel-
evance of their trip experiences and want to
rationalize their smoking habit. Briefly, the
claim is this: The use of cannabis can help a
consumer to gain valid and important insights.
Now, even before we look at the claim in detail,
let us anticipate some reactions. The mere men-
tioning of this hypothesis instills terror in the
camps of both proponents and opponents of the
decriminalization of cannabis. It seems accept-
able for many to say that cannabis can be used
therapeutically for cancer patients to reduce
nausea, or for AIDS patients to stimulate
appetite and thus help them gain weight. But
aren’t those psychedelic “side effects” just
annoying and dangerous? Don’t they lead only
to a distorted and false perception of reality? Sebastian Schulz
Even most proponents of medical cannabis or
those who argue for other reasons for its legal- quently used with into. i.e., He had an insight cannabis may indeed enhance our capacity to
ization choose not to stress its psychedelic into almost all the secrets of state. gain insights.
effects, let alone name them as a plus. Usually, 2. Power of acute observation and deduction; Before we look at those effects, however, let
the psychedelic effects of cannabis are seen as penetration; discernment; perception. me point to an important ambiguity in the notion
the “recreational” side of the drug and taking of insight, which comes out in the definition of
mind-bending drugs for fun is just not accept- (Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary Webster’s dictionary. Generally, an insight is to
able to a society whose members are supposed to 1996, 1998, Micra, Inc.) be seen as a sudden, new understanding of a sit-
function in a rational way. If at all, it is appro- Insight:
priate to mention the relaxing properties of
cannabis that help a user to bring himself back to “The immediate, spontaneous grasp of a fact or
a functioning state through “intensified recre- a context due to an imagination which re-struc-
ation”, just like Disneyland or a mainstream tures the task or issue or which transfers prob-
Hollywood movie. But the mere supposition that lem-solving principles to new situations.”
a “drug” like cannabis can lead an individual to
important insights and thus, may have the poten- (Meyer’s Dictionary/Germany)
tial to help him lead a more meaningful life
sounds outrageous to most. Also, even if this Those definitions remain somehow neutral,
were true, wouldn’t this be the wrong signal to but our everyday notion of an “insight” often
give to our children – or even worse, to the gen- seems to have an intrinsic mystical or religious
eral public? connotation to it, probably even more so in the
context of psychedelic experience with its age-
I suggest being philosophical about it: let’s
old history of shamanism and religious and
care about truth first, then about politics. If we
mystical ritual uses. Nevertheless, I would sug-
want to evaluate the insight claim, we should
gest that even though insights may come to a
first try to understand what it means. What, gen-
subject like sudden quantum leaps in under-
erally, do we call an insight? Here are two defi-
standing, they should be considered the result of
nitions found in dictionaries:
cognitive processes which are no more mysteri-
In”sight`\, n. ous than other human cognitive skills. In the fol-
1. A sight or view of the interior of anything; a lowing I will try to briefly outline how I think
deep inspection or view; introspection,-- fre- that a combination of psychotropic effects of

CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal 27

 CANNABIS INSIGHTS
uation, fact or problem, but there is also a more
restricted sense of insight, which is that of an
enhanced capacity of introspection into one’s
own mind. Insights can be of a more general
kind, but often they come as a form of intro-
spection into one’s own mental states, producing
in particular insights about the individual con-
sumer himself. I am firmly convinced that
cannabis not only enhances our capacity to gain
general insights, but also especially enhances
“introspective” insights. Due to space restric-
tions, however, I cannot argue the case here.
Instead, I will try to give you a rough impression
of how a combination of the psychotropic effects
of cannabis may generally enhance our ability to
gain insights.
Let’s first look at a few of the well known psy-
chotropic short-term effects of cannabis known
from scientific psychological studies and from
anecdotal evidence. Cannabis consumers often
experience short-term effects such as a malfunc-
tion of short-term (or “workspace”) memory, an
enhancement of their ability to retrieve episodic
memories, mindracing, hallucinations, a change
in pattern recognition, and a change in their
attention. These, to name only a few, are the
short term effects of cannabis which I take to be
relevant for the production of insights. The neg-
ative impact on short-term memory is visible in
Cannabis Health Friendly
BB U
U SS II N
N EE SS SS &
28
speakers who often lose the thread while they
are speaking or listening to a story. In contrast to
this, many users under the acute influence of
cannabis have reported an enhancement of their
ability to deliberately retrieve memories or to
erratically produce memories about episodes in
their life. Often, these memories are “re-lived”
more vividly, accompanied sometimes by vivid
imagery of remembered situations. It also seems
that under the influence of cannabis, a consumer
accesses memories which he usually cannot
retrieve at all. A cannabis high also often pro-
duces mindracing, an accelerated stream of asso-
ciative thoughts almost similar to dreaming.
Further, it has been observed that the influence
of cannabis leads to “increased perceptual
organization” or in other words, a better pattern
recognition, like a tendency to perceive faces in
mountain or cloud formations.
It seems obvious to me that in particular cases
a combination of these effects can lead to altered
patterns of cognition and, consequently, to
insights. Here is a report of one type of insight:
I remember saying to [my husband],
‘Sam, do you have a sense of what your
daughters will be rebelling against in the
next few years?’ And he replied, ‘Why
do you think they will rebel against any-
Distributor Directory
thing?’And this struck me, and made me
realize that Sam had never rebelled
against anything or anyone in his life!
The next day, this insight seemed pretty
ordinary, but I notice that I have always
remembered it, and ever since then I
think I have understood Sam a little bit
better” (personal report cited in High
Culture: Marijuana in the Lives of
Americans, by William Novak [1980]).
Now, as the insights’ originator herself noted,
in a way, this insight doesn’t seem to be spectac-
ular from an intellectual point of view, however,
remarkably, it is a new perception that will stay
with the woman and have a significant impact on
her thinking about her husband for the rest of her
life. I suspect that her judgment about her hus-
band strongly depends on a rapid retrieval of a
long list of distinct episodic memories concern-
ing her husband with reference to the question
whether he ever rebelled against anything, or
told a story of rebelling against anything.
There seem to be at least two basic short-term
effects of cannabis involved here: mindracing
and the enhancement of episodical memory
retrieval. The latter effect made it possible for
her to access episodical memories which are
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
 CANNABIS INSIGHTS
usually not that easily accessible to her, whereas
the former effect (mindracing) enabled her to
retrieve them in a rapid manner, allowing her to
form a new generalization about her husband
despite her cannabis-induced shortened work-
space memory. Note also, that what made this
insight possible was what we could call a “shift-
and-zoom” effect of attention. The couple was
focussed on the issue of the children’s future, but
then the woman’s thinking shifted to a focus
extensively on a character disposition of her hus-
band. Presumably, this “shift-and-zoom” effect
also has to do with the negative effects of
cannabis on our workspace memory. In the con- sumers, where the insights have a rough and as me that most of us now perceive a large part of
versation cited above, the woman probably did yet hypothetical genealogy. our external reality by looking at representations
not quite stick to the original topic (the children) Let me cite just one slightly more complex on television and on the internet – representa-
because her memory of the original topic of the insight. I remember how I was watching televi- tions which will more and more lose their
discussion had quickly faded away. Her atten- sion, smoking marijuana and suddenly realized integrity for us. I also thought that the movie
tion then slipped to another topic, where she tar- that my trust concerning video and photo cover- “The Matrix” was an excellent example of this
ried reminiscing about her husband (zoom age shown in the news had already started to loss of integrity.
effect). Certainly, this insight is nothing that fade as a result of my knowledge of modern Just a comment on another aspect of insight:
couldn’t have happened to her in a sober state of post-production manipulation techniques. For an Cannabis seems especially to enable us to “feel
mind. But we can see how and why the use of instant, I felt I was able to put myself subjec- from within” as if we were in a different situa-
marijuana enhanced her readiness to come to tively into the position of a viewer in a possible tion, or as if we were a different person. As a
that perception of a fact about her husband future where we watch the news with the same matter of fact, this underlying capacity of men-
through certain types of the short-term higher disbelieving attitude as most of us now watch a tal perception has come to be recognised as one
cognitive effects of cannabis. digitally created movie effect, like in the sci- of the basic mental capacities of human thinking
The example above is only one example of ence-fiction movie “Godzilla”. It really felt and become a focus of modern cognitive sci-
one of the typical insights reported by con- strange to watch the news this way. It then struck ence. Based on my experience and my study of

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CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal 29

 CANNABIS INSIGHTS
reports, I believe that cannabis can enhance intu-
ition and sometimes even dramatically affect our
capacity to “feel from within”.
Generally, I would argue that we can distin-
guish between several specific types of typical
insight which are traceable to various basic
short-term psychotropic effects of cannabis. Of
course, cannabis will not ‘deliver’ the contents
for those insights; it will only help to “catalyse”
thoughts and memories and alter our cognition
in various typical ways such that we come to
new perceptions, ideas and conclusions based on
our individual intelligence and knowledge.
If we want to understand better how cannabis
produces these types of insight, we will have to
work from two ends. First, we have to gather and
classify reports about certain types of cognitive
effects and insights reported by users of
cannabis. Second, in order to better understand
the various basic effects of cannabis on the
human brain, we have to combine a lower-level
scientific approach inspired by neuropsycho-
pharmacology with other neuroscientific disci-
plines, including in particular, the new knowl-
edge of the endocannabinoid system. This would
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30
then allow us to understand the more complex
patterns of short-term cognitive effects of
cannabis which can trigger the production of
various types of insight.
We have only just begun to understand the
basic psychotropic effects of cannabis, and what
is required is a more in-depth and complex
inquiry, an exploration of the combined impact
of cannabis on higher human cognition. The
result of such an investigation could produce
significant knowledge on both an individual and
a cultural level. On the individual level, we
could understand more how cannabis, as well as
other psychedelic substances, contribute to help-
ing us obtain significant insights about ourselves
and about the world in general. This interdisci-
plinary “neuropsychedelonautic” research will
not only produce significant knowledge about
the psychotropic effects of cannabis, but can
reveal important facts about the most fascinating
aspects of human cognition itself, like creative
thinking, pattern recognition, or the architecture
of our memory. It will enable us to better evalu-
ate possible use of cannabis for specific medical
treatments, conceivably even something like
insight therapies. On the cultural level, we will
probably have to re-evaluate the impact that
drugs like cannabis have had, not only on indi-
viduals, but also on societies in general, through
the new thought patterns cannabis has generated
in thinkers, artists and musicians who influenced
and inspired their cultures.
Hopefully, as we would learn more about the
historical, religious and traditional inspirational
uses of cannabis and about the motivation of
consumers today, cannabis consumers will focus
more on the inspirational potential and less on
the recreational or “party” uses of cannabis.
Dr. Sebastian Schulz holds a P.H.D. in philos-
ophy and specializes in the philosophy of mind.
He is currently writing a book about the subject
and is looking for additional grants to fund the
research.
CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal

After the plants have been growing a while
you will need to get your root-bound seedlings
into a larger home. Timing depends on the size
of the container, sooner for smaller pots. Failure
to do this will cause undue stress on the plants,
potentially stunting their growth or worse, forc-
ing the female plants to hermaphrodite, turn both
male & female.
When you notice the pots drying out faster, it
indicates the young plants are increasing their
requirement for water and need a larger footing
and longer lasting moisture supply. Two-inch
pots need to go up to 6-inch pots before the next
larger ones, so to save time, germinate in a 6-
inch pot for the first 2-3 weeks knowing they
will be going into a 3-5 gallon pot or larger for
inside. I will pot them up to a 1 gallon if they are
going into an outside garden plot to finish.
Prepare soil using 4 parts black potting soil, 1
part Perlite, and 2 parts composted matter to
provide good soil fibre. For every mixed batch
of soil add in 1 cup of wood ash. mix thorough-
ly, and prepare your larger pots, filling each one-
third full with the soil mixture.
While still in the small pots, flush each plant
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CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal
REPOTTING
so that the water coming through the soil is clear
and not yellow when you’re finished. This will
require five times the volume of the soil in clear
water to make sure the yellow, brackish organic
matter is cleared from the root-ball. This will
flush plant excretions from the processes of the
growing seedling, and failure to do so can result
in high pH levels and excessive acidity. If these
residues remain in the new soil, they can impede
the nutrient uptake to the plant.
Take the pot in one hand, and holding the plant
stem between your middle fingers, turn it over
so the plant is hanging upside down. Gently
squeeze the pot to loosen the soil. Slide the pot
off upwards, and there, you have the plant in
your hand.
Turn the plant over and place the root ball in
the center of the new pot so that one to two inch- will ensure your plants will not suffer potting
es of the lower stem is buried under soil. Fill in shock by drying out. The first fertilization can be
with more soil, packing it evenly, making certain done on the next watering, and will not be
it is not too loose. Bring the soil level in the pot required again for around 4 weeks.
up to within an inch of the top. Leave enough Have a great summer, everyone. K.K.
room so it may be generously watered. Once the For more growing tips, go to:
babies are in their new home, water the plants
generously; soaking them so the water comes www.cannabishealth.com
out the holes in the bottom of the new pot. This
31
 2004 SUMMER EVENTS
Hemp Festival, 2004, Atlantic The next issue of
Canada Cannabis Health
Festival of Freedom
July 31 to Aug 1 will feature
the art and at the Forks
chair@mumm.ca spirituality July 23-25, 2004
of cannabis Grand Forks, BC
Krieger Smoke Out, Regina We encourage readers A musical celebration of
August 7 to 8 to send us your art, Peace, Environment, and
music, cartoons, fash-
Freedom!
ions and your spiritual
Shambhala, Nelson BC For more information call:
experiences. Deadline
August 13 to 15 for submissions is 1-866-442-2833
July 15/04. or visit: www.f3u.com
www.shambhalamusicfestival.com

Seattle Hempfest, Washington

August 21 to 22
www.hempfest.org

Hempfest 2004, Northern Ontario

August 26 to 29
www.hempfest.ca

Drug War Vigil Film Festival,

Vancouver, BC
Sept 24 to 25
www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3400

Cannabis Culture Toker’s Bowl,

Vancouver, BC
Sept 24 to 25
www.cannabisculture.com

The 100 acres of the Salmo River Ranch,

deep in the heart of BC’s Kootenays, will
be transformed into a multi-media musi-
cal empire. There will be DJ’s from
around the world, cutting edge technolo-
gy, and thousands of people having an
amazing time celebrating music, diversity,
creativity, and individuality.
For more information, check out the
Shambhala website at
www.shambhalamusicfestival.com
e-mail info@shambhalamusicfestival.com
or call 250.352.7623.
Escape, come see what the world could
be like at Shambhala.

32 CANNABIS HEALTH Jour nal