As an avid recreational smoker of ma*****na, I was always interested in the idea of the legalisation of ma*****na, but I never thought it would change my life the way it has.
Back in 2014, I had the opportunity to work with the original and only CannaPharmacia association, which has since become the general name of a ma*****na club here in Lanzarote.
In that time I was lucky enough to have worked alongside thecannabicultor, a cannabis activist for over 20 years, he taught me the history of modern day ma*****na and how the associations here in Spain came about and Amsterdam.
After years of research, I began learning about ma*****na as an alternative medicine for healing various illnesses, from everyday joint pain and headaches to insomnia, and not just a drug as they would like you to believe.
My wife has Lupus, which is a long-term autoimmune disease, which causes her lower back pain as well as her other joints and skin problems.
At that time she was on a lot of pharmaceutical prescription medicines. Each one seemed to help for a short time after starting it, but would quickly become non-responsive and at which time the doctors would just add more drugs to the list.
All of this and she was still in pain every day and had continuing problems that seemed to be multiplying (mostly due to the side effects of the number of drugs she was on), it is safe to say that she had a less than acceptable quality of life.
Now even though I smoked ma*****na she did not and even found the high that you can get from smoking it uncomfortable, so when I suggested trying ma*****na as a medicine, her initial reaction was one of scepticism.
After she did some of her own research and myself showing her some information I had found on the internet, and the understanding that it is taken as an oil in the night while asleep, and not in the day when an effect could be felt just as with smoking it, she decided what the hell!
In the next weeks the change I saw, and she felt, was nothing short of amazing. Soon after, she was able to stop all the daily pharmaceutical painkillers and medicines and the constant doctor appointments to monitor the side effect of the drugs she was on. Today she is 100% more active and almost without pain but with the quality of her life improved remarkably.
It was after this that I started doing a lot more research into the benefits of medical ma*****na and how best to use it as a medicine. Thanks to the ma*****na associations we have here in Spain, I had the freedom to work with ma*****na on a daily basis and soon I started a European Medical Extraction brand for research purposes.
In this time I learned about Cannabinoids such as THC, CBD, CBG, CBN, CBC and the endocannabinoid receptors we have in our bodies, and not just us but all living things, and how the 100 or so cannabinoids work together to reinforce and boost our natural immune system.
I also learned about the many extraction techniques for the cannabinoids, in particular, the technique of alcohol extraction, a type of alchemy, that results in an activated cannabis oil that has become known as RSO (Rick Simpson Oil), named after the activist Rick Simpson from Canada, who has widely publicised the benefits of using full spectrum cannabis oil to help for all types of illnesses.
In the beginning, and still now, the first thing everyone wants to know is “how much to take?” and “what dose is right for me?”. The main problem with this is that everyone is different and needs to find their own level.
Up to now the most common way to consume cannabinoids were inedibles such as brownies and cakes and alike, but this was always done using an old technique of macerating cannabis in heated butter and then filtering out the plant material leaving what’s called Cannabutter, which you would then cook with.
The problem is that depending on the strength of the cannabis to start with and then the 2 cooking processes, each time there would be a difference in dosage strength per snack and therefore not really helpful for long term medication.
So the first thing was to perfect the extraction technique so to consistently arrive at the same quality RSO concentrate. From there I needed to dilute the RSO concentrate into oil so that the dosage of each varies product could be as accurate as possible. Allowing that once a patient had tried a certain dose and understood the pain relief strength and high effect if any!
That same patient could receive the same dose and have the same effect each and every time. Once I had perfected the whole process, I decided to make capsules and oils dosed with milligram amounts of the diluted RSO. Then I started recording the effects different milligram amounts gave for different problems and any other effects experienced, and over the past 6 years have come to a good understanding of how cannabis helps the different disorders and the ruff dosage requirements.
In 2017 CannaPharmacia was unfortunately forced to close, and so to ensure the continuing access to medical ma*****na for everyone, myself and some friends started the association GratefulMeds. Now today we continue to spread the good word about this amazing medicine.
