These days, it’s not as easy as you think to find information about how cannabis affects the human body. You can’t simply go to a doctor because most of them know little about it and every conversation can mean liability.
You can spend a lot of time researching the subject but it takes energy, something that sick people are in short supply of. Not to mention, you need to know enough about the subject in order to decipher what is good information and what isn’t.
A few years ago, this wasn’t the case. Cannabis dispensaries were prevalent and most of them catered to medical patients. Society recognized a crack in the medical system and the role dispensaries had in filling it.
On October 17th, 2018, cannabis was legalized in Canada but the government began with recreational use. Rather than take care of the needs of the vulnerable, our government decided to focus on getting everyone high. Why? There’s money to be made in recreational cannabis use.
Fast forward to almost three years later and we are still waiting for medical regulations. The provincial Community safety unit has been hard at work shutting down any cannabis business that does not fit into the retail model, even if it means crippling medical access to cannabis. Even longstanding, non-profit compassion clubs like the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club have not been spared enforcement action.
If you walk into a Provincial retail store, the staff are not allowed to talk about the effect that cannabis can have on the human body. In fact, if you ask any questions about the subject, regulations dictate that you should be denied service for the rest of the day. No kidding. If you go to a recreational store and ask what can help you sleep, they are supposed to kick you out.
Back in the dispensary days, it was the opposite. Budtenders were obsessed with the plant, continually studying and learning so that they could share that information. Their role was to act as guides, not pretend to be doctors. As the dispensaries have closed, this collective knowledge and experience have also disappeared.
So where exactly does that leave a person with a genuine need for medical cannabis? How do they know what to use or who to turn to? Could they come to you? What do you know? Yes, this might be putting you on the spot but the reality is that this could come up in the future. If you use cannabis openly, having a loved one ask for your advice is something to expect.
So again I ask you, what do you know about cannabis and the human body? Maybe it’s time to find out. Your cannabis experience is more valuable than you know and one day, you may need to use it. Test your knowledge with a crossword puzzle and see how well you know this topic.
