· case. i am not just doing this for myself but for the millions of poorly and sick people like...

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started to smoke it daily and now I have completely come off all of my tablets. I’m still on the Sativex and I smoke roughly 2-3g a day depending on the quality.

I met with my local MP, Andrew Turner, 18 months ago to speak about Bedrocan products from Holland and also the Schengen Agreement and he asked in the Houses of Parliament if doctors can prescribe Bedrocan products. The answer was yes, but a few days later it was no - so I contacted Peter Reynolds, the leader of Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR), and he said that we needed to see my MP. We arranged a meeting with Jeremy Browne MP (who refused) and so asked Andrew Turner to arrange a meeting with Keith Vaz MP (the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee) and he agreed to an inquiry into medical cannabis. Mr Vaz also said that he will arrange a meeting with Norman Baker MP, the new Drugs Minister.

I also went to Holland last November with a private prescription from my consultant physician for 60 grams of Bedrobinol (a Bedrocan product medical cannabis) at a dosage of at 2 grams a day for 30 days; I arranged with a Dutch pharmacy to cash my prescription and they said it needs to be signed by a Dutch doctor so I managed to arrange this and they changed it for me. I openly declared it at Southampton airport when I returned and after a few hours they took it from me and issued me with a warning along with an appeal form (which was submitted a bit late but they are considering giving it back to me the next time I return to Holland. The inquest is very soon. I am also holding the Home Secretary to judicial review for refusal of my import license and I have instructed a top London fi rm of solicitors to handle my case.

I am not just doing this for myself but for the millions of poorly and sick people like myself. I think it is outrageous that our UK government want me and the millions of other sick people who rely on cannabis as medicine to break the law just to have a better quality of life - all my doctors and my local MP support me on this and I would like to say that I will not give up on this.

I would like to say a big thank you to my wife for standing by me on this, Dean Price for all his help, Peter Reynolds from CLEAR: Cannabis Law Reform, Andrew Turner MP for all the work in parliament and my doctors who all know that cannabis works for me.

If you have a story to tell, please send it to: [email protected], or message us on Facebook or Twit ter.

George’s story...My name is George Hutchings. I live on the Isle of Wight and I am 46 years old, married and I have three wonderful children. I’ve been with my wife for eleven years now and we got married six years ago. When we fi rst met, she noticed a limp in my left leg which I always put down to a broken ankle when I was younger - In August 2008 I went to my GP because I kept tripping and falling over. He checked me over and referred me to a neurologist at my local hospital who, after a long, painful and complex diagnostic pathway, diagnosed me with hereditary sensory motor neuropathy (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2a) in 2012.

My condition is a progressive degenerative neurological condition which means it is gradually getting worse: I have extreme muscle wasting in both my legs, hands and arms, meaning that I have to wear leg braces all the time - the professor who diagnosed me said that I will be in a wheel chair within the next 5 to 6 years; that was 2 years ago.

I was prescribed Sativex by my consultant physician after going down the prescribing route of so many tablets - 25-28 tablets a day for neuropathic pain, muscle relaxants, antidepressants, depression, nerve damage, spasticity as well as sleeping tablets and erection tablets. Due to the opiate laxatives and so many others I became addicted to the sleeping pills and Tramadol.

I smoked cannabis recreationally (about 1.5 g weekly) until a very good friend, called Dean Price, who owns the islands only grow shop ‘Hydrosence’ said to smoke it as a medicine, so I did - I

THIS INFORMATION IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES

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CANNABIS COMMUNITY

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Fifteen years ago, if you had walked into a coffeeshop in Amsterdam and asked about the CBD and THC content of cannabis, the odds are you would have been greeted with a look of confusion from the person behind the counter. If you had found your way to the Cannabis College and asked the same question, however, it’s likely that one of the volunteers would have drawn you a basic pie chart to explain the balance of the three cannabinoids that had been studied most: Tetrahydracannabinoid (THC), Cannabidiol (CBD), and Cannabinol (CBN). At the time, CBN was thought to be an entirely separate cannabinoid to the other two; we now know it’s actually a metabolite of THC, which is converted into CBN as the THC ages.

The Cannabinoid Pie-Chart

The pie-chart explanation was an over-simplified way of explaining the effects of different types of cannabis – after all, there are over 85 different types of cannabinoids that occur in cannabis, not just three – but it got the job done. If the THC slice of pie was larger than the CBD and CBN slices put together, the effect was going to be high and uplifting. If the reverse was true and the THC was the smallest slice of pie, then the effect would be more relaxed and soporific. Virtually everyone understood this immediately.

Due to the THC component being the one causing the soaring, giggling, energetic high that was pursued by a great many people, a great deal of time, energy and resources were devoted to breeding strains of marijuana with as high a THC level as possible. The success of this trend culminated – at least in the Netherlands – with proposals from concerned (and generally ill-informed) parties to make the sale of cannabis containing more than 15% THC illegal in coffeeshops. On the mainly 90s – 00s quest to find the ultimate cannabis high we gained strains such as Silver Haze and NYC Diesel, but CBD and CBN were overlooked or forgotten

by many of the commercial branches of the cannabis industry as a whole – except for the scientific and medical communities.

As previously mentioned, CBN is created when THC degrades; the two cannabinoids occur in inverse proportion to each other. This explains the fact that harvested marijuana buds, when kept for a long time (and especially if exposed to light and air), can produce a stoned effect even if the plant has mostly Sativa genetics. CBN is only mildly psychoactive, and so far has not produced effects beyond those that THC and CBD already cause to a stronger degree. CBD, on the other hand, has displayed a host of properties that continue to have a significant impact on the field of medicinal cannabis use.

The Entourage Effect

By 2014, CBD has become more widely known and been the subject of many more in-depth studies. These have shown that, despite being regarded as non-psychoactive, CBD does have a soporific effect and acts as a mediator for the effects of THC. Experiments on the effects of THC when administered with and without CBD have shown that THC, when used alone, is more prone to cause feelings of anxiety and even morbidity; when used in conjunction with CBD – as, let’s not forget, nature intended – the uplifting, euphoric, giggle-inducing effect that most of us identify as the sign of a good sativa is strongly experienced. Outside of the laboratory, it is virtually impossible to consume pure THC as, in all natural forms of cannabis, all the other cannabinoids come along with it, tempering its effect in ways that actually enhance the high for the user; this has been called ‘the entourage effect’. It is research such as this which strongly suggests that medications isolating THC or made from synthetic THC are both less effective and produce far more unwanted side-effects than the unprocessed, natural plant form. Since cannabis contains such a large range of cannabinoids that we currently know very little about, and produces them in a delicate and complex balance that science cannot, currently, hope to emulate, it is not very surprising that the vast majority of medicinal cannabis users opt for the un-tempered herbal form.

CBD without THC – pain relief without the high



CBD

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PROFESSOR LEE GOES TO THE 2014 DENVER CANNABIS CUP

IMAGES COURTESY OF BLACK DOG LED AND CHRIS GUINN

So, I flew into Denver International on Friday the 18th of April and took a gypsy cab from the airport. It might have been an okay ride when it was brand new, but the refurbished SUV was quickly living its final days. The interior was cracked and faded and smelled of sweat and fear; except the seatbelts, which were missing entirely. The driver lurched his dying behemoth onto the highway and jockeyed with other cars and eighteen-wheelers like a New York City cabbie on crack. When he discovered that construction was cutting off our most direct access to my hotel he pulled a U-turn on the highway and backtracked to the previous exit screaming insults at the oncoming traffic in Farsi. But, I did survive the journey and even managed to save seven dollars off the usual airport/hotel fare. In retrospect, I should have spent the money.

The young girl behind the concierge desk was quick to remind every guest that the hotel was completely non-smoking including the balconies. I nodded my approval at the hotel’s policy and headed up to my room where I tossed my luggage onto the bed and paused only long enough to confirm that it did indeed have a balcony (aka smoking area). Ten minutes later I was in another, this time legal, taxi heading across town to the 3D Dispensary (www.3dmmc.com) for a quick interview with owner Toni Savage, a tour of the viewing garden, and a bit of a shopping spree.

THE DISPENSARY

3D (Denver Discreet Dispensary) was the site of the very first legal recreational sale on New Year’s Day. Along with its historic notoriety, the dispensary also boasts a wide variety of buds and waxes and the only garden-viewing windows in the country. Being the start of the 420 weekend, I expected mayhem with lines down the block and bidding wars over quickly dwindling supplies. Instead, I walked into a well-organized operation with friendly staff and even friendlier customers. There were plenty of other media groups there beside myself and when I signed in I got a sticker I.D. that proudly declared me a part of the Media, January 1st 2014. They had run out of the newer stickers earlier that day, but

were able to dig up some leftovers. I didn’t mind, in fact I’m kind of kicking myself for not keeping it.

I had drawn up a list of questions for Toni, but turns out I didn’t need it. She had given so many interviews that her mouth ran on some kind of autopilot that answered most of my questions without them being asked. I just kept my recorder running and watched the show. Every now and then when she’d pause for breath, I asked a question. I found her to be a passionate and dedicated whirlwind who feels that using marijuana shouldn’t be a crime. I happen to agree with her. Toni had to head downtown to deal with some red tape so she left me in the capable hands of her staff as, by law, somebody has to stay with anyone visiting the gardens. I snapped pictures and some video before getting in line



CELEBRATE!

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have enough food for their last weeks of life. I use bio-stimulators every week to increase flower production and to add catalyst enzymes that considerably improve the taste.

But there are other variables affecting the final taste, such as the amount of Nitrogen present in the plant (dark green leaves) or mineral salts accumulated in the soil when harvest time approaches. To soften this situation, we can wash the soil a few days before harvest, forcing the plant to use the last nutrients accumulated in the leaves. Other specific products can be used to help with this procedure, like adding sugars to the water as the plant needs them during the last days. Temperature and light spectrum also have some impact, but as

long as they are kept within the optimal parameters it will not be significant.

Something much more important is choosing the right moment to harvest. If you harvest your plant too early, with whitish trichomes, the taste will be less accentuated. If you only harvest when they start to turn amber or a bit later than that, the taste will be full and the effect much stronger and prominent.

For the final touch, the grower should give special attention to the drying and curing process. If you are strict and you let them dry well, giving them 3 months of curing before sampling the fruits, taste will be totally pure and the smoke or vapor will be soft for the throat, without roughness and with a clear taste that would delight every user.

BLACK JACK F1 FAST VERSION

Growing this strain was very simple. From germination they started showing their vigor. After 24 hours in a glass of water they were passed into pressed peat moss jiffys. Only 2 days after that they were already asking for a new home and I transplanted them to a small 7cm container where they grew for 20 days. At this point they were transplanted to the 7 liter final pot. They were grown in soil and the pH was not adjusted, ranging between 6 and 7.

During the vegetative phase they were grown under 150w of CFL lights and for the flowering phase I used 600w of HPS for the 16 plants in a 1 square meter area. They grew for 20 days and the average flowering time was 52 days…with some plants almost ready in 40 days!!

A flavorsome end product is a sign of good care and respect for the plant. That’s why I advise people to use products that are as gentle as possible for our plants and the environment. This will have an effect on your health, on the planet and on the final quality of the flowers obtained. If you subject them to excessive feeding, whether mineral or organic, you can turn an exquisite plant into something mediocre. In my growing procedures, I usually transplant twice during the vegetative phase. Always using a good soil, which will do its job to keep the plant nourished from the first days to at least 30 days after. When the soil loses nutrients, I add liquid organic bloom fertilizers to the water to make sure that the flowers



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