Menieres, Diverticulitis, Cancer .... enough already. Guys, meet Dr. Cannabis.

[Freakears]

Hi, I'm kind of a new guy here. Figured it was time I introduced myself. I've been a patient for about a year now. I got out of UCLA's Head and Neck ward two years ago - I'm still here.

My story with cancer and cannabis goes back a bit longer, thirteen years or so, although I never would have believed that until after having made the leap into becoming a patient in January of 2010.... in lieu of the salient radiation and chemotherapy prescribed to me by americas university system.

Cannabinoids inhibit cellular respiration of human... [Pharmacology. 2010] - PubMed result (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516734)

I still have a mandible and most of the parts that matter to a gardner - and I think I might have found a calling in this, so I'm trying my hand at gardening indoors this winter.
If it goes well, and I stay healthy enough to do it, I want to become a caregiver and volunteer... perfect kind of gig for a guy with my limitations.

I've been reading a bit of this and that here - and its been helpful. I really can't say enough - Even used one your links to order some beans.

Thank you all for doing this.
Peace

[Freakears]

I've worked in LA most of my life and lived in SoCal on and off for the last 50 years. I've come home to Michigan from California for the winter to do a little research into this. I started this little project too see if becoming a Michigan based Caregiver, hoping to work Pro Bono with other Cancer patients with limited means.

Now I know I've got a long way to go to take my gardening skills to the level of the guys providing Harborside or Cornerstone... most likely, I'll never get close. But I got to try - for my own sake if nothing else. Besides, I love gardening - and I've always had a green thumb.

I don't want to go negative in any way, but as a patient that needs quality medicines to follow his treatment plan as well as his pallative needs, I should point out what I'm witnessing... as a patient.
I'll say this without reservation. During this transition, being essentially a resident of both states I had the good fortune to experience being a MMJ patient in both Michigan & California, at the same time. In my view, Michigan is in tough shape and has miles and miles to go in terms of production and in terms of attitude. The local quality & potency and perfectly clean medical grade Cannabis available in California are not in the same league. I don't care what Hightimes price guide is reporting to the masses. The dispensaries here in Michigan, and I've tried several of them, the products are not even in the ballpark yet. I have been offered products I wouldn't use to make Butter from.
Offering patients anything that walks in the door is not the way to stay in this game. It is the way to posion your patients that have compromised immune systems. - I've seen dirt weed being sold as meds here that couldn't treat a hangover. To risk sounding like I'm exaggerating -The best medicines and concentrates available here right now, wouldn't be given away to the poor at my LA clinic.

With the help of the good people here, and a few more good Michiganders trying to get it done, I like to believe we could get it fixed.
F

[rollzone]

hello. i am an older guy, new here. my style of sarcasm is dumbfounded. people speak of a compassionate care medical solution, and never comprehend the active ramification of their statement. not only does cannabis relieve your suffering and encourage personal better health, without the serious harmful effects of alternative treatments; it enables and influences you to compassionately share your benefits with other sufferers. i am profoundly humbled by your loving heart. already you have strengthened me to crusade for medical cannabis legislation in Alabama today. thank you.

[Lynhal]

I wish you all the best in your upcoming endeavors with being a CG, Freakears. You must have a really big and good heart from what I have read. The fact you want to help others who are suffering is really commendable. :thumbsup:

Best regards!

[BackWoodDrifter]

Hi, I'm kind of a new guy here. Figured it was time I introduced myself. I've been a patient for about a year now. I got out of UCLA's Head and Neck ward two years ago - I'm still here.

My story with cancer and cannabis goes back a bit longer, thirteen years or so, although I never would have believed that until after having made the leap into becoming a patient in January of 2010.... in lieu of the salient radiation and chemotherapy prescribed to me by americas university system.

Cannabinoids inhibit cellular respiration of human... [Pharmacology. 2010] - PubMed result (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516734)

I still have a mandible and most of the parts that matter to a gardner - and I think I might have found a calling in this, so I'm trying my hand at gardening indoors this winter.
If it goes well, and I stay healthy enough to do it, I want to become a caregiver and volunteer... perfect kind of gig for a guy with my limitations.

I've been reading a bit of this and that here - and its been helpful. I really can't say enough - Even used one your links to order some beans.

Thank you all for doing this.
Peace

We be needin more pilgrems in the world like yu
Folk like yu are welcomed to set by my fire anytime partner I would be honoured to chit chat anytime. My wife is battlin cancer as well speak and to read what yu be sayin makes me feel we will win in good time. Be thankin yu for this.

BWD

[Freakears]

Thanks for that warm greeting. My heart is no bigger than the next guys ... I just want to contribute to the world in whatever way I can. To still have purpose. MMJ has become my life-line, although you would be hard pressed to find an Oncologist or a ENT that would be willing to entertain that notion as fact.
I intend to spread the word and give back what I can, with the time I have left.

Funny thing is, goddam cancer took everything else I had, career, wife, house, athletic lifestyle... got nuthin left to lose but an SSDI check.

I'm in if I can build it.

[Freakears]

We be needin more pilgrems in the world like yu
Folk like yu are welcomed to set by my fire anytime partner I would be honoured to chit chat anytime. My wife is battlin cancer as well speak and to read what yu be sayin makes me feel we will win in good time. Be thankin yu for this.

BWD

Thanks for that Drifter. I'd gladly sit a spell with you, anytime. You sound like my kind of Good-ol-Boy.

My hat is off to you and your wife. I pray that a year from now or so, we'll all find a way to sit around that fire you speak of and share survivor tales.

[BackWoodDrifter]

Thanks for that Drifter. I'd gladly sit a spell with you, anytime. You sound like my kind of Good-ol-Boy.

My hat is off to you and your wife. I pray that a year from now or so, we'll all find a way to sit around that fire you speak of and share survivor tales.

Set with yu anytime pilgrem anytime!

BWD

[Freakears]

Now I don't want to give the wrong impression about the young budding medical cannabis pioneers in Michigan. I salute them, one and all. I thank them for helping me obtain meds that I need, despite the risk. There is some sucessful growing going on and everytime I visit the dispensary, things seem to be improving.

I digress -

Most folks I've met here are curious as to how and what the dispensaries in Calif are like, and how they differ here.

The biggest curiosity I have today is the difference in potency and flavor I see in the buds between Cali and Mi. Personally, the purity of the oils manufactured here is for me, a bigger concern - for all the obvious reasons.
But that is a processing issue only, yes? Not a gardening issue.

So I'm left to ponder, as a gardner, is this just a matter of early harvests or missing peek ripeness? Poor handling and storage? Could it be due to a poor or hasty cure or is it something more difficult to manage. MicroClimate? Is there a Napa effect for Cannabis? Is there somethin in the grow - something in the cloning process that can weaken potency... or is it just me and my lack of adult experience as a Bob Marley saying: "Hey Mon, did someone switch out the cheese when I wasn't lookin"?

I still remember hearing talk about the same issues when Colorado was ramping up production... but I know longer hear that kind of thing being discussed.

I ask you my friends - Is it just a matter of a learning curve for growers, or is there a Micro-Climate issue even for indoor gardening? Are we trying to grow flowers in the dessert?

So much to learn - so little time.

[Freakears]

I went to our local dispensery again yesterday evening and showed them some literiture I had for asperillius, solivent and toxic free oils and gave them the web address for Steep Hill labs. They seem very excited about the notion of using research quality labs to do testing and analisis of Medicines.

The collective is still without any good product and when anything of medicinal strength comes in, it's gone in a few hours. I'll just have to keep checking back.

Its time for me to start doing my part.
I'm flipping the switch.

[Freakears]

So since this thread has devolved into the FreakEars bitch thread rather than the "why do I have a sausage fest going on in my tent" thread, I'll post my activist rant of the day here.... just in case the authorities don't know that I'm still here.

So today I made the mistake of reading the news..... read about Montana wanting to try to overturn the peoples vote, and then I read about this from the AG here in MI.
"The law is an absolute disaster," Schuette spokesman John Selleck said. "It has created the No. 1 growth industry in Michigan, but these are not the kind of jobs we need. Our attorneys are looking at the issue right now to determine the best ways the law could be clarified."

So I get all pissed because he's talking about me and my lifeline so I send a hotheaded email -

Dear Mr. Schuette,

With all due respect, I'm writing in regards to your spokesman's statement as reported by the "freep" - "The law is an absolute disaster," Schuette spokesman John Selleck said. "It has created the No. 1 growth industry in Michigan, but these are not the kind of jobs we need. Our attorneys are looking at the issue right now to determine the best ways the law could be clarified."

My story -
My family has lived in Michigan for six generations. I was born and raised here.
In 1998 I was diagnosed with an illness that compelled me to seek treatments beyond my home based physicians. In seeking help from Doctors outside of Michigan I found myself as a healthcare tourist long before it was popular- traveling to meet with doctors in Canada, London, Bangkok... As it were, in 2004 I moved to California seeking treatment from anyone willing to try something, anything to improve upon or slow the deterioration of my health. I found help, help for a time, until in 2008 when I was diagnosed with a rather nasty form of head & neck cancer. While I remained in the care of UCLA for my initial treatment, it was my desire to return home so that I could seek my long term recovery or demise in the family home with my Mother and friends close at hand.
It is with this in mind that I am saddened to learn of your decision to address the voter initiated Medical Cannabis law in a negative light.

Cannabinoids inhibit cellular respiration of human... [Pharmacology. 2010] - PubMed result (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516734)

You see Mr. Schuette, while I was in recovery in a UCLA cancer ward I learned about the successful palliative treatments and even remissions that are being achieved by some brave patients and doctors with Medical Cannabis. It was shortly after this time that I made the choice to investigate that course of action. I am alive today because of it.

As a significantly disabled native of Michigan compelled to live in California due to medical-care issues, when Michigan voters passed Michigan's Medical Cannabis law, I celebrated the voters wisdom and started my plan to return home to the land, friends and the family home that I love. I decided to move back ASAP, buy a new house and start a modest home based cannabis caregiver business... finish up my travel days, by writing and trying to find a way to help other Cancer patients who don't have the resources or support I have. I'm have been here full time for a few months - my cancer is already under the watch of U of M, but I have decided to wait to purchase a home or start a business.

The matter is this: The safe and simple plant my doctors and I have decided to try as medical treatment- a natural medicine that many "independent doctors" and even the AMA now claim is worthy of intense research as an anti-tumor drug, is medicine. It is not a party favor despite the fact that you think it is.
Fact is, a senior member of U of M's Oncology department told me I have been smarter about this than some of my doctors have been. That this could be the significant contribution to what is keeping my body from succumbing to the metastasis it has withstood for the past year. Thats the good news.

The bad news is it seems many of Michigan's politicians are belligerent to the law, seemingly because it was passed by the voters. Just so you know the facts, this simple plant has been part of the human races pharmacopeia for thousands of years. The majority of Americans have had enough of legislated healthcare mandates and political pandering to the healthcare industry. If a vote of the people to remedy the destructive and immoral prohibition of a plant is so scary to the current politicians of Michigan that they would use the dying and disabled as cannon fodder in overturning the will of the voters, then I'll be altering my residential plan until after the next election.

Rest assured Mr. Attorney General - I am not a boozer, or drug addict, or a criminal, and I will not be silent as any legislative body anywhere attempts to paint and cast the infirm, ill, crippled and disabled into being criminals and miscreants because of the palliative care they chose. I believe the world witnessed that approach to manipulating the public opinion of the ill and infirm in 1933, and I for one, will not let it happen again without speaking up.
Lacking a positive response in the media within the next few weeks, I'll be letting my cancer doctor, (the department-head that currently oversees my case at U of M's Head & Neck Oncology Department), that I will be moving away in the spring. That I will soon be unable to continue my chosen treatment and retirement plan here at home as Michigan's Attorney General feels I'm not a suitable resident. Apparently they don't want my type here... you know, that movie biz type.

Perhaps I'll just have to move back to San Francisco and work on the GM advertising business,.... see if I can't win them a few more marketing awards.
Better yet, I could move to Portland or Seattle or Maine or LA or Phoenix or Santa Fe or Denver or Big Sky, or any city with a growing economy and responsible, responsive, and REPRESENTATIVE government.

Seems to me that a few Michigan politicians might want to consider carefully the ramifications of telling Michigan voters that they have no idea what they are doing in the voting booth.... that only a political pundit can save us from our own stupidity. Worked out great for the Detroit Mayor.... lets see how it works out at the state level.

Good luck with your new endeavors as AG and thanks for listening to my opinion.

Respectfully,
*********** Television Producer, Cancer Patient, Menieres sufferer and 5th generation but soon to be ex-ex-Michigander.


Thats me - makin friends wherever I go. (Sadly, I do find if I run out of meds I can get cranky with folks that are giving me a hard time of it.)
...... hopefully in a few months I'll still be able to still say; I'm still here!
Peace

[Freakears]

So after sleeping on this I figure - in for a pound in for a penny.

So rather than just poke the bear with a stick and hope a google search gets the message to his aid, I decide, what the heck, theres got to be another stick around here.

So I learn that the new Michigan AG is a supporter of The Else U. Pardee Foundation. Sounds to me like the new AG, while belligerent to Cancer patients that chose to use Medical Cannabis, must have lost a family member to cancer.
I hate to generalize, but most folks that give to Cancer Research Foundations have lost a loved one and ergo, give in that memory.

So I figure - What the heck - its time I sent the Else U. Pardee foundation an email with my Cancer/Cannabis story.... and hope they pass it on to the AG since they are close. I know it won't happen - DOW has other agendas I suspect, as does the AG. Anyway, if I'm going to be driven out of Michigan by the AG's hostility to Michigan patients and will of 60% of the Michigan voters, and I find myself moving to Shasta, I might as well speak my mind and leave a suggestion.
Here's the note -


Dear Foundation Trustee,

My name is *****. I am a two year Cancer survivor.

Due too my career and its social requirements I used cannabis recreationally from 1978 - 2004

I was diagnosed with pre-cancerous oral lesions in 1998.

In 2008 one lesion turned cancerous and became very aggressive moving from stage 1 too stage 3 in six weeks.

I was scheduled for a glossectomy and neck dissection for the oral cancer at UCLA.

Nodes from the neck dissection were positive for metastasis.

Due to metastasis I was scheduled for radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

I was warned by several doctors that the likelihood of losing my Mandible was almost certain. At best, following radiation I would lose my teeth and be on a G-tube for the rest of my life.... that life was expected to have a 60% chance of continuing for 5 years if I had the radiation, with the odds of survival dropping to 50% for 5 years if I were to not have the radiation.

Rather than live like that, I passed on the radiation and looked to alternative methods of beating this that would not leave me unable to eat, swallow, speak or be seen in public.

In time, that search led me to this study - PubMed - Error encountered (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516734).

I have been a medical cannabis patient for over one year. It allowed me to get off the pain killers, the anti-fungal drugs and helped my digestive pain and problems that I had since my g-tube became infected and had to be removed. Cannabis allowed me to get away from the anti-anxiety medication and the sleeping pills... yep. Replace it all, and heres the rub. Still no sign of the metastasis or any cancer.... oral lesions are there, loud and proud.... but to this layman it looks as if something is keeping the lesions from turning cancerous and the metastasis - well, as a senior doctor at U of M's Oncology department said the other day - "I guess you were smarter than the doctors on this one".

I thought you should hear my story. If you want to hear the details or see records or anything.... just ask and I'll provide them.

One more thing - I recently learned that one of your supporters is Michigan Attorney General Mr. Bill Schuette. I hope that if you feel there is any validity to getting Cannabis into the research labs that you would use your influence to inform Mr. Schuette that we need to support the notion of getting this miracle herb rescheduled so that we can study this unimpeded by politics.

Thank you very much for all you're doing to fight cancer. God bless you!

************* - Cancer Patient.



PubMed - Error encountered (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516734)

Pot Compounds Inhibit Oral Cancers, Study Says - NORML (http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=8233)

Cannabinoids and cancer: pros and cons of an antit... [Br J Pharmacol. 2006] - PubMed result (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16501583)

PubMed - Error encountered (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516734)

[Freakears]

About that Box Canyon comment and the whole herding thing I saw earlier... I'm starting to get the notion thaty we might need to look at that feeling a little closer.