with casseroles and sympathy were suddenly showing up at the kitchen door with well- thumbed Altoid boxes spilling moist bud. Someone brought her a little water pipe to soothe the bite and hide the smell. She snuck off to the spare room to try it while I kept the kids occupied elsewhere. After a while I went up to check on her. She had on a bag-of-chips smile and said, “I can’t tell if I’m high or not.” I kissed her forehead and put Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon on her iPod. “You’re going to be just fine,” I said. Of course, cannabis is about more than getting high these days. It’s been proven to help with things like low appetite (duh), nausea (as in my wife’s case), glaucoma, nerve pain, chronic pain, tremors from Parkinson’s Disease, and PTSD in combat veterans. It would take a cruel scold indeed to deny access to a drug so kind as that. And then there are all these CBD products lining shelves from pot dispensaries to food co-ops. CBD is cannabidiol, extracted from the flowers and buds of hemp plants. It does not get you high because the THC, which does, has been removed. CBD oils, drops, and balms are thought to help with a wide spectrum of problems from epileptic seizures to anxiety. It is reported
to have particular success as a treatment for muscle soreness, arthritis, and other inflammatory ailments. As with almost anything you find in your natural foods store’s health department, there hasn’t been much study to support the claims. I did try some CBD cream on my aching arthritic finger joints, and it seems to work. I’ve been using it whenever my arthritis flares up from the weather or too much time in the woodshop. It continues to help, and I’m getting used to smelling like someone spilled their bong water on me. The new panacea (Latin for “snake oil”), CBD has a cult following of supporters you don’t want to argue with. The jar for my arthritis actually says “Nature’s Panacea” on it. How does it work? Magic. And I must repeat – It is working for me. But over the years, so had sugar abstinence, a low-fat diet, veganism, arnica, witch hazel, tiger balm, turmeric, and Bengay... Until they didn’t. You will not find CBD in any search history of mine. (Placebo is a powerful drug.) If you know anything damning about CBD oil, I’d appreciate you keeping it to yourself. Now that I’ve broached the subject of magical thinking, it’s time to talk about the children. No serious person would advocate kids smoking weed. Even if there weren’t hard evidence that it has a negative effect on brain development into a person’s 20s, kids don’t need another reality-distorting force in their lives. That’s what social media is for. At the same time, I don’t believe pot is the gateway drug so many opponents of legal
There are not very many things you could subject to the scrutiny marijuana has endured for decades that would come out the other side looking like a great idea.
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March 2019
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