Canada’s Cannabis Journal since 2010
Cannabis in the Common Era In the first part of this series on Cannabis Extracts in History I looked at references from Before the Common Era or 1CE. In China, where we find the earliest advancements in cannabis/hemp production (5000 BCE), physicians beginning with Hoa-Tho (200 CE) prescribed cannabis mixed with wine as an analgesic […]
(image of Ted Smith, Owen Smith and Kirk Tousaw from Times Colonist) It has been almost 5 years since I was arrested as the baker of the Cannabis Buyers Club in Victoria. It has been over two years since we won in the BC Supreme Court, removing the restriction to “dried marihuana” for patients who are […]
In order to advance our understanding of the potential of cannabis as a medicine, it is helpful to look back through history at the many times and places that this plant has emerged into the local materia medica. Cannabis may be set for an archaic revival as modern science is now exploring the neuroprotective qualities […]
For four weeks in February of 2012 I witnessed the demystification of Health Canada’s arguments against cannabis extracts in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The main showdown in this constitutional battle was between two scientific wizards, where the struggle for truth finally loosened this healing plant from governments’ steely grip. Two years earlier I […]
by Owen Smith Dr. William Courtney is the co-founder of Cannabis International Foundation, who are helping pioneer a movement toward ingesting fresh, raw, non-psychoactive cannabis juice. When fresh, the plant contains a lot of non- psychoactive precursor Cannabinoids such as THC acid. THC acid (THCa) has recently been shown to have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective […]
By Owen Smith While working at the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club I was able to teach some of the members about Black Pepper. While benefiting from the medicinal effects of THC, these patients suffered from bouts with anxiety while medicating. Most patients who have tried this simply took a few sniffs of the black pepper to receive an […]
image: Dr. David Allen shakes hands By Owen Smith Cannabis Digest Blogger Dr. David Allen is a retired heart surgeon who moved to California after there medical cannabis referendum passed and started a medical office that recommended cannabis to patients. He left his fifty-acre property in Mississippi in the care of his sister and […]
A future for Cannabis in Costa Rica As we move into July, the Costa Rica Medicinal Cannabis Movement signature gathering campaign has surpassed 100K and are now seeking more in case of invalid or duplicate signatures. Costa Rica has only had one successful referendum in the past. The citizens decided by vote that […]
Photo from www.TicoTimes.net Costa Rica’s Sloth Kong enjoys some legal weed from Uruguay after success at the World Cup The 5th Latin America Drug Policy Conference Costa Ricans (and mascot Sloth Kong) are doing a lot more than just knocking top teams out of the World Cup. In my previous blogs on Costa […]
What will the new law look like? In the previous blogs I gave my personal impression of prohibition in Costa Rica and I looked at the likelihood that the Costa Rica Medicinal Cannabis Movement would succeed in their attempts to trigger a referendum to legalize medical cannabis. If they gather all of the signatures they […]