Episode 169: Medical Marijuana

Salty and Spice discuss the prepping aspects and usefulness of medical marijuana. Go to Beans, Bullets, Bandages & You by clicking HERE!

Transcript

spk_0:   0:00
Hello, everybody.

spk_1:   0:01
Hello, everybody. And welcome to the show The big show. The most important end, dare I say critically acclaimed podcast was recorded in our car. You can say anything. I could say anything. Some of it's even is true. Who knows by accident by accident Stop clock, sir, we're stopped. Clocks are right twice a day. At least they got their hands on them. But you don't see too much of anymore. So welcome to the show. We're heading east today. Unfortunately, we're heading toward the People's Republic of Illinois. We just almost but not quite a political statement because we don't do politics that three b y. But anyway, in fact, little just mentioned here, if you leave because this particular podcast and story that goes with it may illicit some political comments left in our comments section on three b y. And I want to just safely and in a friendly way assure you that if you write a politically flavored comment on our website, it will never pass moderation. We will not let it in there. So don't waste your time. We had one yesterday that waas who? My goodness me virulent not directed towards us, which you don't care what they are. We both got incredibly thick skins, but it was it was. Would you say it was politically charged?

spk_0:   1:33
I'd say it was politically cannon fired, not just charged. They just fired it right out and she's got immediately deleted,

spk_1:   1:42
she said. Well, to be fair, she said, Well, there's one here That's just way. No, I don't believe it. I won't read it. I wanna read it. Let me kill it. Kill it.

spk_0:   1:55
Normally we value comments from our

spk_1:   1:57
readers. Absolutely. But when they start out with a political insult and then go politically downhill from there, it's a fast rant past fireball past, no clear all the way to downright nasty. No. Any night eso we have, ah topic that we're not. It's a politically charged topic for some people today that we're just not gonna talk about the political side of it at all, because that's not what we're here for. Yep, we're going to talk about the medical side of it, the prepper side of it, and the Does this theory hold water side of it? Because bottom line, we're always looking for ways as preppers, too, buildup the medicine chest to build up the nontraditional oh, remedies remedies. And so we took a look at medical marijuana as a prep. Now we go in the story, we say this and I'm gonna go ahead and say the caviar before I turn it over to somebody who actually knows a little bit about science. Unlike me, we're going thio Little disclaimer out there that we do not break the law. We just don't We do not advise you to break the law. In fact, we advise you not to. Marijuana is legal in a couple of states. I think I know it's Colorado. Two or three states have decriminalized marijuana is not legal nationally. So you're still Really? Yeah, really.

spk_0:   4:06
And if you're a gun owner, that is a consideration because gun ownership and drug related charges do not coexist. Well,

spk_1:   4:18
exactly. And you know, if you want to give the local sugar a reason toe make it illegal for you to own guns, that's a really quick way of doing it. But anyway, long story short, don't break the law. You need to know before you even consider even slightly exactly what the laws of in your state or your country are towards marijuana and medical marijuana. All right, some places we have listeners where it's legal to just buy marijuana. So this will be a particular interests people in those states,

spk_0:   4:54
because medical marijuana is different from recreational marijuana only in intent and legality,

spk_1:   5:03
right? So that's where I saved you. Don't break the law. If you do break the law that's on you, that's not on us. We're not advising you to break the law. And the law on this medical marijuana stuff is so all over the place. It really does depend on where you live. I know in Missouri, where we live, it's just became legal to have medical marijuana and the It's not like just getting a prescription from a doctor and going to the pharmacy. Is this really gonna weird special dispensary things? Let's hope we're going Thio. Don't let her talk about this because she did that part of it of the story. And, uh, I'll fill in when I can when I can. No, I'm no expert, and she's I wouldn't consider her an expert on it, either.

spk_0:   5:53
No, it's just something that one runs across one's one studies path of physiology,

spk_1:   5:58
and I've never I've never seen the the prepping side of it covered, you know, because I do. A lot of preppers are just like a lot of Americans smoke marijuana. They just It's just a thing that people do. But the question becomes is we know it has some drug effects. I mean, actual pharmaceutical effects. What are they? What do they help? Are there significant side effects and take it away?

spk_0:   6:37
The biological background of it is that the brain uses chemicals to signal from one brain cell to another brain cell. So although a lot of what goes on in the brain is electrical, a lot of it's also chemical. And when you take in chemicals that have a shape very similar to the ones that your brain uses to communicate from one spot to another, then you can interfere with that communication, either the mimicking signals to a certain place or blocking signals from a certain place. Some of the year receptors for those chemical signals are called cannabinoid receptors because they are activated by a shape of molecule in the class called cannabinoids, which of course, primarily come outside of our bodies from cannabis sativa the marijuana plant. So this marijuana plant is making a neurochemical that is very similar in shape to things that activate segments of our own brains, probably in an attempt to deter predation. To be honest with you, we had a building folder.

spk_1:   7:48
There were kind of building collapsed.

spk_0:   7:50
A CZ were driving by it. We're looking at

spk_1:   7:53
one that has been collapsing for years, filing on.

spk_0:   7:56
So the brain's got these cannabinoid receptors in a bunch of different places responsible for a bunch of different functions. And cannabis Sativa has a whole bunch of different individual compounds that are in this class tetra high. But hydro Kanab it all, or T H. C is the most well known of him because it's the one that affects your cognitive processes and makes you stone.

spk_1:   8:22
It's the Whoopi part.

spk_0:   8:24
Yeah, the other ah, very well known. One is Kanab in Denial, which does not make one stone that doesn't have cognitive effects. But it has a bunch of other Canavan oId effects in the brain, so those two are pretty well known. There's a whole bunch of other ones in the plant you can sometimes by these separately, like you can buy CBD oil, or you could buy him as a plant extract where you get a whole bunch of stuff in there at once, and all of them are going to do things to the brain. Regions that use cannabinoid receptors sometimes activate him. Sometimes they block him, spends on which particular chemical you're using in which particular area of the brain you're looking at. We know some of the things the cannabinoid receptors, d'oh! And we know some of the things that the marijuana plant compounds do to them. We don't know everything. The cannabinoid receptors d'oh! And we don't know everything that the plant compounds do with him. So there are some well known effects, and there's also a whole lot of could be a whole bunch of other stuff going on. But where we're not really sure going on and because, uh, cannabis is a schedule one drug. It's very hard for legitimate researchers to do legitimate research with it. It's hard to get ahold of the tracking is a complete pain in the tail. It's really stifled good scientific research on the stuff, so there's a whole bunch we still don't know, but we do know some things all right? Does it have medical uses? It demonstrably has medical uses. It's useful for pain control. It's useful for nausea, suppression and appetite enhancement. And if say, you are on chemotherapy, appetite enhancement is something that could be useful. In fact, when I myself was on chemotherapy, I could go. I could not eat all day long if I didn't set my clock and look at the clock. I would not notice. I would start to feel low on fuel about four o'clock in the afternoon and go, Wow, I guess I haven't eaten a single thing. All dance. I'm not supposed to do that

spk_1:   10:50
right? Ondas a slightest side, you know, it was kind of one of those deals where I was making her favorite foods all the time, whether they were healthy or not. And I was finding all kinds of ways to sneak extra calories in her food

spk_0:   11:04
premium ice cream with nuts on top, and I couldn't even enjoy it because my taste receptors were trashed. How fair is that?

spk_1:   11:12
Oh, the worst part of that summer, though, wasn't that the worst part of that summer.

spk_0:   11:19
I turned green thinking of it, uh, deep fried Twinkies. Guys are not the thing when you're on chemo.

spk_1:   11:28
She was She was just coming out of chemo and she was said that it was her first day of feeling decent. She wanted to ride her bicycle on the Katy Trail, which is something we do. We ride a bicycle on the Katy Trail. It's a bit of a trip, you know, we go to town, we go to Columbia and we'd ride their bikes. They're on the trail and she was feeling really good. So we rode from from, uh, uh about 10 miles, which is when you're on chemo or just coming off a chemo

spk_0:   12:02
20 mile ride.

spk_1:   12:05
Ana, normally on a flat trail, it's no big deal, but so she was coming into town. We're coming into Hartsburg Hertzberg and they're having their pumpkin festival. The fall

spk_0:   12:20
will stop. Look around them

spk_1:   12:21
and we always start whenever we happen to be there. We don't usually go there for the festival crowded, but we you know, we happen to be there. So we're like, Okay, let's just go walk down through the vendors. We walked out. The first thing we come to was a fried Twinkie stand right he's ever seen Oh, Tommy, that color of green before or sense when she's small. Smelled those fried Twinkies. I

spk_0:   12:49
don't even really remember the rest of the festival. It was just mostly

spk_1:   12:53
get me out of here.

spk_0:   12:55
Let's leave no hurls. Let's leave.

spk_1:   12:59
No, no world for the others. Thousands of people around. He's tried not five. The nearest place to hurl, which might well have been all over me. You

spk_0:   13:12
can't pick on the bike. It would rust.

spk_1:   13:14
So yeah, that's a real thing. Now, of course, you're probably not gonna be taking chemo when the stuff hits the fan. Yeah, because there are still times when you know when you're gonna have to recover from. I mean, if you get a nasty case, the flu, you don't want to eat for two weeks. And if you need your strength

spk_0:   13:34
and some of the other intestinal disease, it's used for Crone's disease sometimes because that's one of the effects to bring up appetite,

spk_1:   13:42
right? Gives the month. The

spk_0:   13:43
reason I brought it up is that while I was on chemo, a person of my acquaintance offered to help me in that way by supplying me. And it wasn't legal medical marijuana. There wasn't any in Missouri at this time, and I I kindly turned him down. Uh, I appreciate the thought, but no thanks. But anyway, that's That's one of things that is used for now. And it is commonly prescribed for people on chemo to bring their appetite up and for chronic pain control. Sometimes for things like anxiety and PTSD, we need to

spk_1:   14:22
throw in there. The caveat that needed she ever I have ever smoked a joint. Now we do this. It's just never have not interested, had the opportunity of many, many times, didn't do it. I mean, I usedto travel toe travel around and go to rush concerts, and I don't know if you've ever been to a A concert in the early eighties

spk_0:   14:41
concept in the eighties there ways there

spk_1:   14:44
was. But I will admit that I passed past the joints along, but I did not actually, it just didn't interest me. I was there for the music, not for the not for the drugs,

spk_0:   14:57
my personal opinion, and it's just that is, I'm not interested in introducing chemicals. I know we're gonna mess with my brain chemistry, but I don't know how they're gonna mess with my brain chemistry. But that's just me. Unless there's a really strong need, I will do it if there's a really strong need.

spk_1:   15:13
And we both absolutely despise smoking. Yeah, smoking is just not our thing.

spk_0:   15:21
So at any rate, it does have legitimate medical uses, Uh, some particular compounds of it. The CBD has now been purified and has been certified by the FDA for treatment of a couple of seizure disorders that are really intractable to other forms of treatment. So absolutely there are medical uses for it. Those that make it a good, proper drugs. Yeah.

spk_1:   15:50
This is where we start. There's

spk_0:   15:51
some other things going. Oh, yeah, Side effects. I was gonna talk about side effects. Does it have some? Absolutely. Do we know what they all are? No. Because of the regions of the brain thing.

spk_1:   16:02
And also, I was the one thing I do know. I do know the side effects. This is one of their some drugs that are really, really, really um person dependent on their side of excellent espo. All drugs are but cannabis can really throw out some really weird side effects for certain people and not for others.

spk_0:   16:24
Yeah, because it affects cognitive function.

spk_1:   16:26
But this is a particularly wonky one per side effects because some people really, really, really get them with very minimal exposure. For example, my sister Mammy is large to him. That'll do it. Write their

spk_0:   16:46
hemp is the same species. But it doesn't have anything like the Canaveral content.

spk_1:   16:53
No, I

spk_0:   16:53
smoked weed, but she's allergic to the oil

spk_1:   16:57
it would

spk_0:   16:59
have that would trash her because she's allergic, not because

spk_1:   17:02
some people are, Yeah, that's true. That is a side effect.

spk_0:   17:07
That's a side effect.

spk_1:   17:08
And if you don't know with the stuff, hits the fan is not the time to find out.

spk_0:   17:13
Now. Heavy use is known to cause memory impairment, learning, impairment and loss of motivation. But frankly, as far as side effects go, although it's absolutely got some, they aren't as daunting a list as the side effect lists of the drugs. It's being taken to replace chronic pain, opiates, highly addictive, nasty side effects, chronic pain, marijuana side effects. Yes, it is addictive for some people, but it's not nearly as addictive is opiates. It works on the reward system, too. But not in as a direct with sledgehammer kind of way is the opiates do.

spk_1:   18:02
And the Opens will do. I mean, you could weaken, overdose die. Really?

spk_0:   18:07
Yeah. It's really I don't know that you can do that,

spk_1:   18:10
but you would have you

spk_0:   18:12
actually could, because in some people, it has a blood pressure lowering effect. But

spk_1:   18:17
not like you

spk_0:   18:18
have to go out of your way. So yeah, side effects like you

spk_1:   18:22
can get oxygen toxicity, but you really have to go out of your way to do it. You have to go out 300 feet out of your way right now.

spk_0:   18:34
Story a little cough there.

spk_1:   18:36
Yeah, we're gonna cost going on. Okay. So, podcast, with your coffee

spk_0:   18:43
side effects not that bad compared to some of the drugs it's replacing. Uh, no one. What you're getting is a much bigger problem, because it's not the cannabis plant as a whole. With the exception of those couple little compounds for that rare kind of epilepsy. This stuff is not FDA controlled. The various states control who can sell it, but they don't really regulate its production and labeling and things like that, and I read some studies on guys who had gone out and bought medical marijuana legally, too. Test the composition of the compounds, and they found that 17% of the edible compounds they bought actually had pretty close to the amount of cannabinoids that the label said they were gonna have about 23% head more than the label claimed, and 60% had less thin, the label claims. Sometimes quite a lot less thin, the label claimed. So you don't really know what you're getting. In a lot of cases, even if you're buying medical grade marijuana, Yeah, even off the shelf, you don't know exactly how much is in there. The other issue is shelf life and, of course, for shelf life. To do it well, you need to actually have this stuff sitting around under various conditions of controlled conditions for a while and then re testing it. So there was not much at all of what I consider good quality science on this. But I found a variety of statements made by a variety of people who were interested in the marijuana industry. For whatever reason, I don't say they were good sources, but I say I looked at a bunch of him to try and get an overview of what they were saying, and it went everywhere from depending on quality of the stuff you get in the first place. Exact method of refinement and methods of storage. The shelf life went from, uh, six months to a year for the lower grade products to what was claimed to be almost indefinite. But since they haven't been refining the compounds in the way they were describing for more than five years, calling it almost indefinite shelf life is pretty much of a stretch show with a they don't know yet highly variable shelf life, depending on exact product bought. Yeah, the other thing is, how much can you stock now if you live in a state where it's legal to buy, that might be cake. If you are using ah medical marijuana dispensation to buy it, that might be hard. Everything I could see that they used this compound four is a chronic chronic condition, which would require chronic dozing, and that adds up to big stocks to make a useful prepper store stuff.

spk_1:   21:56
Chronic versus a cute is a big deal when it comes to reprimand, and we should probably d'oh a podcast on a story just on chronic vs acute when it comes to prop it because it is a big yawn. And if you're got chronic problems, you just really, especially if their life threatening problems, you know, if that spit becomes tough. So anyway, I just want to jump in there. I'm thinking about Yeah, it could become tough.

spk_0:   22:29
Yeah, so storing enough to be useful as a chronic use preparation would be a challenge for most people I know of no where, where it's actually legal to grow for personal use. But I haven't really No, it's not really haven't looked deeply into it. Yeah, and I don't know anything really about growing it other than it's a plant. And I know a few things about growing plants in general, but nothing particular about this. So I'll just leave that ideal laying there and go on. But we're backing it up. Yeah, it doesn't really look very plausible.

spk_1:   23:08
Were starting to think about trying some, uh, aquaponics and AARP onyx and stuff like that. But we're talking about Yeah,

spk_0:   23:21
I have heard from some gardener friends who do the indoor gardening thing that it does get you on watch lists for marijuana growing. If you buy much in the way of indoor gardening equipment by a lot of grow lights by a lot of hydroponics stuff, big green houses, all of that will draw attention from the people who are interested in tracking down illegal, uh, marijuana growing use. If we've got any other plant around at all, it's because we have some hemp rope somewhere in the world. But so we're not concerned about that. But still, I don't like attracting attention from people who make it. Their lives work to sniff around in other people's business.

spk_1:   24:06
We have no interest in that now. One thing I want, I want to point out again is where we have nothing to do. We're not gonna talk about the legality. Oh,

spk_0:   24:19
what will It should be legal or we're not. We're not gonna go there because it's probably

spk_1:   24:23
hard. I do want to touch on is the fact that this is a politicized product and therefore, ah, lot of the literature that you're able to find is very politicized. It's either extremely four the product. It's extremely anti the product and they're trying to either sell you on or dissuade you from the whole idea of medical marijuana and that Pulis politicalization of it. It's something you really have to look out for when you're looking at the literature you know, trying to find sources that are scientific, as opposed to the pro beside or the anti sides foundation. If you do this, you'll have a life living in heaven on Earth or you'll go straight. It's a living as a gibbering reefer madness, because there's to both of these sides are really, really engaged in this debate, and they both put out a lot of information, and a lot of it is contradictory. Yeah, so watch for the political is a If you try to find information, watch for the politicalization on this particular topic. It's really out there. I read several sites in the when I was I was thinking about starting the story, and I was not surprised at how much direct confrontation there is on the subject. How much the information, both sides politically complex, correctly conflicts. Yeah, with the other.

spk_0:   26:26
So my summary on this would basically be that although I am convinced that it does have legitimate medical uses. I'm not very impressed with it as a prep because of shelf life, knowing what you're getting and quantities you can store all kind of pretty big deals in that discussion. And it doesn't score well on those venues.

spk_1:   26:52
Yeah, I'm afraid I'm gonna agree, either. I think we're leaning towards being buzz kills on this literally were leading towards being Buzz kills.

spk_0:   27:00
Oh, side note, probably out. Add in before we go the CBD oil. You could buy that online a lot of places. Now

spk_1:   27:08
it's all over the place now and is really being promoted. There's lot of

spk_0:   27:13
Yeah, I have some friends who are very much

spk_1:   27:16
multi level man's that has gotten their hands on this one.

spk_0:   27:19
Yeah, and they're pushing it very hard on Some of them are strong believers. I have a friend who uses it for nausea, suppression and anxiety suppression as well as, ah, reduced pain after workouts. How much of that's placebo? And how much of that's riel? I don't know, but I know this person is a big believer in it,

spk_1:   27:44
You know, she

spk_0:   27:45
butt, and though

spk_1:   27:46
she does have a way, you know she does.

spk_0:   27:55
That's a pre game jitters are something she has experienced in her athletic past

spk_1:   28:00
every bloody time. In fact, this this is true. I was I saw her right towards a trash can pre game and dumping her head the trash can and throwing up. And I'm like, Girl, you're not even playing in this one. Your daughter is no e no. Anyway, so, yeah, it's a real thing with her. She has a very tender stomach.

spk_0:   28:38
Yeah, but what of the things they push hard is the fact that the CBD is not intoxicating and they're right, it's not. But what is? Yeah. Is it addictive? And what else does it do to brain activity? I don't know. And they don't know.

spk_1:   28:56
And the cast the thing that's really concentrated too, you know? You know, I don't know. And again, this is this is a drug.

spk_0:   29:06
Yeah, and the T H C is intoxicating. Don't get their

spk_1:   29:09
own. But this is ah, drug put. Isn't FDA approved?

spk_0:   29:18
Only in a couple of only a couple of the CBD preparations. The other preparations are not. Don't have the quality control that FDA approved medications have? Yeah, Who

spk_1:   29:29
knows what's in it?

spk_0:   29:32
According to the sampling and analysis I saw, you don't

spk_1:   29:39
No. So, Okay, well, it's just one. Yeah, that was I was wanting to throw that out there because I know that and that's a big one. These multi market or multi level marketing schemes, that's where that's kind of rushed. The driving force behind. Like to be like the old Metabolife used to be.

spk_0:   29:56
Yeah, whenever a new herbal supplement. And that's how they're treating it, Whether or not it's legal. To sell it that way is a great question, but at the moment they're doing it and nobody's getting too uptight about it. So there you are. It's happening. Whatever that kind of supplement comes out, they tend to take. We have not firmly established that there are these negative effects to there are no negative effects, and that's ends up. Being a bigger leap in is justified in many cases, shown. Yeah, because people doing the selling have zero interest in doing that kind of research, and they haven't had to do that kind of research because it's not under FDA oversight and people who are interested who are legitimate. Researchers have had trouble doing the research because of the limitations on availability of the compounds. So yet still kind of

spk_1:   30:54
a kind of crap shoot wants to pay for it, too, you know, paint paying to disprove something that makes no financial.

spk_0:   31:04
That's the sort of research that gets done at universities because they can do it as, ah side. You know, they can do it in conjunction with their teaching, and they don't have to have a strong additional financial motive to make it plausible. But those

spk_1:   31:20
but those those are not the very first research projects did get done. Those get done over time,

spk_0:   31:27
they get done eventually, and they get done in small numbers and they get done with smaller sample size because that's what those people can afford. They don't have as much money to spend is the people who are making profit from this stuff. So

spk_1:   31:38
So there we are. There you have it. Medical. M. J. We're gonna we're gonna leave you with We're not We're

spk_0:   31:45
not prepping it. You do what you like,

spk_1:   31:47
but we're gonna leave you with a comment that if you decide this is something you're really interested? No. The law in your statement of the federal law. No. So long. Don't violate the law on you. So you guys may be out there, said, Well, I'll just grow it months. LF that's your thing, okay? That's your thing is not my thing. That is your thing. You're on your own on that one, because that's not what we're recommending. Okay? We're recommending. Keep it legal. You do what you want. That's up to you. But that's not. And this isn't even a nudge. Nudge, wink, wink recommendation. This is, really I mean, this to me is not worth losing my right to own firearms. It's just not okay. I don't think it's worth the risk to my right to keep and bear arms, which can be whether it's Lee moral or not. But it can be taken away from you by the court, so Yep. Okay. Thank you for listening.