And some things I didn’t say on the podcast.

Hello! This is the fourth (and I believe final) post on this series about medical marijuana and the stigma and politics around it.

As you may have gleaned from the first three blog posts, I was trying to lay a foundation of information that we would be discussing on the podcast, so anyone who wanted to learn more, would get a chance to read this information, and do so at their leisure.

In the first three posts we discussed some of the details around medical marijuana and the stigma that surrounds this awesome little flower, as well as the politics around it. Last night, on the podcast, which I have linked below-

https://t.co/p8bQCU127K

But- there were some things I didn’t get to say, and as you can probably tell from the link, I was pretty nervous. So, to discuss what all I failed to mention, let’s go over yesterday, from my perspective.

So, I had a hectic day at work, and when I got home, I had a few crisis to deal with, which stopped me from getting my smoke on, re-medicating after a long day at work, and getting my brain ready to kick ass and take names.

So, with about an hour until we were starting the show, I ordered a poke bowl, and twenty minutes later, scarfed it down, and began trying to catch a buzz.

Then Terry messages me, saying, hey, go ahead and call now.

PANIC!

PURE PANIC!

I have no buzz. Hell, I have barely swallowed all my fish from my poke bowl.

Quickly, I begin searching for the call in information Terry had given me the day before.

I can’t find it.

WHAT?!?!

I panic, again.

Trying to sound calm, I send him a message, hoping I don’t sound like some burn out stoner. Here I am, unable to even navigate calling into a conference call for the podcast.

Terror and a minute passes, and I wait.

I hit my bong, reopen my Twitter messages, calmly scroll up, instead of panicked frantic searching, and find the info, easily.

Of course.

So, I hit the bong again and call in. They are chatting football. I stay deathly quiet, realizing just how terrified I am, and how much more I need to smoke.

But my bong makes noise. Can’t really hit it, can I?

Son of a bitch.

So, I grab my vape pen, which I had just gotten, of Durban Poison, and get introduced. Terry says kind words, my anxiety soars, “will I even live up to this hype?!” I panic, my mouth goes dry, I chug water and hit the pen, hoping my “I’m doing good, how are you?” doesn’t sound as stupid as I think it does.

I think to myself. “Really, really Abbi? You are ‘GOOD’? NO YOU ARE WELL!!!” I chastise myself, angry, as I always say “well” but here, when I am being recorded, I can’t even navigate the nuances of conversation. I hit the pen again.

The podcast continues, and I realize that while in college I had a radio show, we were in a studio, so I could see if someone wanted to speak, just know the flow of a conversation a bit better. I don’t want to interrupt, I hate being interrupted, after all, and they began discussing some medical marijuana.

Maliik Obee, the co host of the Black Tuesday Podcast, joins us, and while the two of them talk sports, I lament the things I want to say, to myself; but as a super nonathletic person, I fear jumping in would be rude.

BUT! Now, I am on my blog, and it isn’t as rude!

Here is some information on athletes and marijuana!

Marijuana, I believe, is a gateway drug alright…a gateway drug to GREATNESS.

A gateway drug to Olympic Gold.

A gateway drug to being your best self.

And boy howdy, is it obvious with sports people. On the Podcast, Biggs and Obee were kind enough to tell me about the bogus ass rules that govern some athletes, and I got pretty bummed.

I had an idea, a knowledge, that smoking weed wasn’t allowed, but it is WILD to me how harsh those punishments are for smoking weed.

The NFL knows that smoking weed isn’t as bad as beating women, right?

No, they don’t, apparently.

Turns out kneeing and smoking weed? HORRIBLE DO NOT DO.

Beating women, fighting dogs, and raping people? TOTALLY FINE.

Bogus. But, I don’t want to be negative, I just want to cover the topic.

So, I don’t know why the NFL has banned weed, unless they are following the Olympic committees logic that it is a performance enhancing drug, in which case, yeah, man, cannabis probably does make you a better athlete. Most medicines that help your body operate at their best, make you a better athlete.

Michael Phelps smoked weed, he seems pretty good.

Plenty of athletes smoke weed when they are no longer drug tested, sometimes for fun, but more for the medical benefit of the wonder flower known as cannabis.

In part two of this blog series, we discussed some of the science behind the plant, and how CBD, CBG, CND, and THC, various parts of the cannabis plant, all work in our bodies to fight illness, kill bacteria, fight free radicals in the blood stream, generate new cellular growth, provide anti-inflammatory assistance, and overall, help people heal.

Recent studies have come out to show that weed not only helps with the recovery of injuries by proving not only pain relief, but anti-inflammatory assistance, and mood elevation, to help injured players get back to their peak condition.

Weed isn’t trying to medicate the issue until they don’t notice it, which is what a pain pill will do, no, weed is trying to actually HELP the problem at hand, by treating the injury, helping with pain, and keeping the morale up.

Anyone who has suffered from a physical injury, myself included, know that the mentality you have will play a large factor in your recovery. You need to stay positive, happy, and most importantly, not wallowing in depression from the injury.

I can also attest to the difference to healing with and without marijuana.

With weed is way better, despite me being more injured.

I have sprained my ankle, in my life, many times. I have broken it a few times, torn ligaments, sprained it, twisted it, “tweaked” it, and any other kind of “hurt my ankle” short of chopping the whole damn foot off, you can imagine.

I have sprained it once on weed.

That was the last time I sprained my ankle.

I am not joking.

I have sprained my ankle, honestly, probably, twenty or so times. My mother would probably say more. If you add up all the injuries, it is definitely more. This last time I sprained it because I was racing out of the house, with my shoe half on, I tripped, and fell.

I did the usual R.I.C.E. method with my ankle. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, and I added “Smoke hella weed” to the mix.

I continued to smoke while I healed.

I am not claiming weed has suddenly made me less lazy, but I have never in my life gone this long without spraining it. I think it was the weed making me a bit more aware of the muscle, but some science would suggest that the weed helped my ankle finally heal properly, so I wasn’t constantly reinjuring my ankle.

As I mentioned in Part Two (https://medium.com/@abbigrasso/part-the-second-medical-marijuana-the-stigma-and-politics-f74bc38e64d1) THC and CBD, two of the active ingredients in marijuana, slow and decrease inflammation, as does the lesser known CBC and CBN. This alone is why many athletes who do partake in marijuana find it to be so beneficial for not only recovering from injuries, but also as an aid to the body while training. THC, CBD, CBC, CBN also all have pain relief properties, which help with both healing for injuries or for any aches and pains associated with a workout, weight training, etc.

Additionally. CBN and CBD suppress muscle spasms, CBG and CBC stimulate bone growth and cell growth, and THCU helps control obesity, which may explain why I didn’t bloat up with my last injury.

The medical science suggests that the weed may have helped my ankle heal, and yes, it may have helped me from getting another injury. I may still get another injury, but it won’t be because I wasn’t able to heal properly.

As more and more states legalize medical marijuana, more and more research is being done with how well it can be used to treat people. Sports science has begun looking to see if weed can help with concussions, being as it does slow and reduce swelling, helps with pain, is non addictive, and also may help in other ways with concussion patients.

Overall, the world of sports can use cannabis, and cannabis is ready to help.

So someone call the people in charge of sports and tell them to pull their heads out of their asses, and stop being scared of a flower.

Disclaimer- I am not an athlete AT ALL. I’ve sprained my ankle over 20 times, it should be obvious. I am not trying to talk crap about sports or their organizations, I am trying to make sure athletes get access the medicine they could find incredibly helpful to their health and their performance, in a way that doesn’t generate a horrible drug problem.

So, this was a big part of what I wanted to say, as is what follows.

So, Biggs was kind enough to share about his beautiful daughter, who is nearly five, and autistic. Biggs has been researching if medical cannabis, be it oils or whatever, would be a viable option for her.

I am not one to jump in with personal stories, but I would have said if I weren’t a coward, that it probably will. I, as well as my partner, are both highly (key on the high) functioning, but on the spectrum, and it is, and has been, the key to us being able to navigate the world. For me, the marijuana helps calm my anxiety, and, if you can believe it, keeps me from getting lost in my own world, which I will easily do if left alone.

I don’t know at what age, or the best way to treat a child, because I am not a doctor or a parent, but, I will say that marijuana is amazing, and, I know a lot of research is being done to see how much cannabis can help with various mental issues. Autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s, bipolar, schizophrenia, all have studies either published or ongoing in which marijuana has been indicated to be possibly helpful, with more research needed. Every time we research marijuana, we find a new cool thing it can do, which is why the legalization is so important.

Scientists, in labs, are not about to break the law and call up your dealer to see if the weed will help Grandpa’s dementia.

But, if you work for legalization, maybe we can get there.

(Also, yeah, sure, I am not a doctor, but…uh… totally get gramps high, it works for my grandpa beautifully. My entire family, and most of his doctors, are convinced the only reason he is still alive has been his near everyday cannabis use for the past 40 years.)

As the podcast continued, the conversation starts to sound a bit more fluid, if you listen carefully, you may notice Abbi starts to open up, and is contributing a bit more to the conversation.

But to what do we owe this?

I kept noticing Obee sounded like maybe he was muting headphones. One time, I thought I heard a “smoke” sound.

Then it dawned on me.

“Abbi, you simple moon pie…You can mute your phone.” I said to myself.

So, I muted my phone, and smoked. Terrified of being “too high” something I never accomplish but as soon as I am on a podcast I worry about, I only it the bong twice, and we carry on our conversation, discussing the politics of weed, which I discussed at length as well in part three of this blog series, (https://medium.com/@abbigrasso/part-the-third-medical-marijuana-the-stigma-and-politics-fb72472e2417) and the conversation flowed well.

Then we talked Game of Thrones.

Obee was not pleased with the Finale, but Biggs and I have been in agreeance on most of the season, if I recall Twitter correctly, so we discussed why.

Thankfully, the three of us seem to agree on most of what Obee was saying, and I know I did. I see why he had the issues he had, and I stated some things I believed as well, like how simply adding two episodes and rearranging key events in different orders could have allowed for better story and characterization arcs, BUT, overall, I am not disappointed, but I didn’t add this.

I think that translations are always tricky, more so when source material runs out. I think what the show writers did a fundamentally decent job making a bunch of stuff happen when they didn’t really have as much to go on in the beginning. Of course the stuff doesn’t feel as good. No offense to those dudes, but they aren’t exactly George R. R. Martin, who has been literally writing this kind of stuff for decades.

What they did do though was provide something I wanted to rewatch at least a few times. My partner, Bret, and I are looking forward to some down time to rewatch the seasons.

Rewatching is a good reason to be pleased with a show, but there is another.

I saw the internet EXPLODE with the theories, the conjectures, the alternate wishes…Yes, even silly petitions.

I saw it explode with creative ideas. I saw content creators make entire channels for this stuff.

Guys, they made a bunch of artists out of y’all.

And, better yet, and something I hope Mr. Martin considers, he got so many of y’all to write.

How many times have I seen “Martin inspired me to…” followed by some story or another in which a kid FINALLY put the words to a page, and birthed their universe.

Birthed a universe, with their minds. A large achievement, sure, but what Mr. Martin did was inspire that, with his OWN universe, he made, out of his head.

Crazy, the beautiful ripple effects of art that has been created. I think for that reason alone; I will forever be very pleased with how Game of Thrones ended. Yes, seeing a woman painted as crazy without proper descent to true madness was maddening. Yes, seeing Drogon sad made me want to burn my own city. But the whole thing made countless people turn to their own writing, be inspired to write fearlessly, to not care what anyone thinks of their stories, their characters, their ideas, to write, with abandon, as complicated and involved stories as possible, because it turns out some people really love it.

Game of Thrones inspired writers, so for that, I say, Bravo.

So, these are the things I meant to say/ was way too nervous/sober at the time to say, on the amazing podcast I was lucky enough to be invited onto.

I will probably do doing a more “Personal” style blog soon, to talk about the things I learned from the experience, namely, that I do miss doing radio shows, I do love the idea of doing one, and, as I learned today, I hate listening to my own voice. I think some of you may understand that.

Thankfully, cannabis helps all sorts of anxiety disorders and side effects, so tune in to future blogs as I explore that. Hopefully I get invited back and I will be sure to smoke enough weed to not be nervous before hand.

For those of you struggling with staying medicated and the stigma of being a stoner, or being “too stoned” like I was, remember, there is a reason you use this as a medicine.

I hope this multi part blog series has helped you learn a thing or two about medical marijuana, and that hopefully it helps to end the stigmas against marijuana.

.

❤

Abbi

Feel free to follow me on all the social medias: @AbbiGrasso on Twitter, Instagram, Speekin’, LinkedIn, Pinterest, WordPress, Medium, YouTube, WeedTV, and any place else I have forgotten.