Cannabis and The Realities of Hope
In the third part of our ongoing Cannabis, Legalization, and New Hampshire series, Bill Mullen explores Rick Simpson Oil and the limits of medical legalization
May 15, 2019
Somewhere over the Eastern Seaboard, at 35,000 feet.
We had settled in, myself and my fellow passengers on this sweaty tube full of people, and we were cruising at 35,000 feet. We were heading towards the sun, sand, palms, and warmth of South Florida. The flight was only half full, so the stewardesses were in a good mood, letting us move freely about the cabin. I had been stuck in between two nice folks, but the air conditioner was being troublesome. I asked if I could re-seat thought I would miss my new friend Brad,flying with his girl seated several rows back.
He and I bonded immediately. Leaning over in his direction I asked a question I often ask on domestic flights: “Don’t you think they should allow open weed smoking on these things?”
He looked at me out of the corner of his eyes, with a bit of hesitation. He said, “well, they could just eat it.”
“Yes!” I roared.
My enthusiasm clearly unsettled him further, but he seemed to be determined to see where this would go. “I ate some gummies,” he said, and then I saw the shiny evidence in his eyes.
“Sweet!” I returned. “I ate a big wad of Rick Simpson Oil earlier and it’s really hitting home right about now.”
He turned, cracking a smile. “Seriously?”
“Fuck yeah, guy!” I said, smiling. “Only way to fly.”
He loosened up a bit, realizing I was not an Air Marshal. I told Brad my secrets of how to travel with all your needs safely, and that you can bring nip bottles of whiskey through the security checkpoint and mix your own drinks in the gate area before you get on the plane. Makes everything better, I told him. He laughed and just kinda stared at me.
He asked me about the Rick Simpson Oil; he wasn’t sure what it was. I told him that Rick Simpson Oil, or RSO, is some of the serious medicine from cannabis.
First made by Rick Simpson, the father of cannabis as medicine in the modern world, in the nineties, it has gained notoriety as a successful treatment of various cancers. In fact, thousands of people worldwide have been cured of cancer by Rick himself. In the ever-embattled pursuit of truth around cannabis, this fact has met with loud criticism and hostility from those who can’t or won’t believe. I’ll admit, it sounds crazy, but I have witnessed the cancer cure with my own two eyes.
In order to make RSO, the “cancer cure”, one needs large quantities of cannabis — around two pounds . This is impossible to acquire through the Therapeutic Cannabis Program in New Hampshire, and even if it were, it would be so vastly expensive that very, very few could actually afford to treat themselves with RSO.
So Brad asked the logical next question,”So how can you do it?”
Well, I say, I know a warrior, a serious green warrior. I tell him about the Dr. Ronald Berner, which is another tale -or at least will be. But, to bring you all up to speed, Ron is a guy who, I guess you’d say he’s one half old school cannabis bootlegger, and half magic doctor. I got to know Ron by chance, and have valued his special madness ever since. I have personally watched Ron heal a friend with stage 4 lung cancer with RSO. The doctors had all but written my buddy off. By the grace of god I know Ron, and his amazing growers in the great state of Maine.
But I’ll explain all good things in all good time.
I settled into my new seating taking a moment to walk back to my old seat and grab my luggage out of the overhead bin. Brad was happy, as his girl got to sit where I had been. They thanked me and traded fist bumps. I looked into Brad’s girlfriend’s eyes and had to laugh as I thought, “Jesus, how can she see out of those shiny little eye slits?”
Apparently Brad and I weren’t alone on our edible adventuring.
New Hampshire legalized therapeutic cannabis on June 18, 2013, and then Governor Maggie Hassan signed it into law on July 23, 2013. Access to medical cannabis at a sanctioned dispensary, A.K.A alternative treatment center, for patients with a written prescription, became available in 2016. This was a great win for those in need of cannabis therapy, as well as socially and politically: the public’s familiarity with medical cannabis is needed to further legalization of recreational cannabis.
As I covered in part one of this series, CBD helped tremendously with my battle against Lyme Disease. But I eventually needed more than just CBD.
My primary care physician listened to my progress with the cannabinoid CBD, and recommended that I become involved in the New Hampshire Therapeutic Cannabis program, thinking that I was a sure fit. And she was correct — to a point.
The first time I visited a medical dispensary, I was awed by what was spread out on tables or in cases behind glass: flower, concentrates and extracts, edibles, capsules, topicals, and a whole range of paraphernalia. There was a staff to help, and people coming and going.
I was initially thrilled, but my dismay was not far behind. I found that I knew more about various aspects of medical cannabis than the staff at this dispensary. In fact, on that first visit I found myself answering a few questions from other patients.
Then the real shock hit me: sticker shock.The prices were more than high, they were, in my view, criminal. For instance, at the dispensary an ounce of flower runs near $400; my understanding is that medical “black market” cannabis can be had at a rate less than half of that. Similarly, vapor cartridges at the dispensary are priced upwards of $75 for ½ ml cartridges, as opposed to black market cartridges that will retail for around $35 to $45. One gram quantities of concentrate such as BHO (butane honey oil) or CO2 purged shatter run in the $90 range as opposed to around $50 on the black market.
If I had to rely on the dispensary I would A) go broke and B) not be able to get the quantities of material needed to support my current usage. And I am not alone. I have spoken with several people over the last several weeks who share this experience. George* said that he had so much hope that the program would help his chronic pain, but as he progressed through the months he eventually returned to the black market. “I was getting higher quality flower and concentrates from sources via friends, and at substantially less cost than I could have ever acquired from the dispensary,” he told me.
Joan* said, “They had good product, but the staff didn’t really know what they were talking about, and I felt ill-advised me, ultimately wasting me a lot of money — the product is super expensive.” She also went on to imply that the dispensary had missed a vital drug interaction, potentially causing serious health effects for her.
I also spoke with a man from Connecticut — showing the national scope of this issue — who grew disillusioned with his state’s program. Brian* says, “You know, I loved the access. I mean I drive a few minutes from my house, and walk into a shop that’s got a ton of product, but it’s so much more expensive than what I can get from guys I know, I just couldn’t continue going on like that, wasting money.”
*All names in this section have been changed
Over the past several months I have been using Rick Simpson Oil to treat my Lyme disease.
I first read about this possibility a few months ago while researching RSO as a potential cancer treatment for friends. I was skeptical. I had been treated with everything doctors could throw at me, for years, with no luck — nadda. I decided that I had an opportunity to easily treat myself, using cannabis oil suppositories, with little to no collateral psychoactive effects. I had nothing to lose. I began the therapy 5 weeks ago, and it has been nothing short of miraculous. When I started I was reaching a breaking point. I had a really bad autumn, leading into a worse early winter. CBD was helping, along with another cannabinoid CBN (cannabinol) for sleep, pain, and anxiety. But it was only going so far.
There is an uncomfortable and unfortunate side effect of treating Lyme disease known as a Herxheimer response. This is caused when bacteria die off in your bloodstream. This die-off results in a toxic mass of dead bacteria filling your body, and your body working overtime to clear them out. It is painful, it is exhausting, it is mentally traumatic, it is hell.
But, to be certain the cannabis treatment was working,I had to have a Herxheimer.
Day three it hit me. It came on slowly, with me thinking that I felt a bit extra “Lymey”. Day four I wanted to die. I could barely make it out of bed. I was sweaty and cold. My feet hurt so bad it was difficult to walk. My thoughts were a jumble. My spirits lower than low. But I held out hope.
I spent close to two full weeks like that. Then, as quickly as it hit me, it started to subside. Nothing like the relieving feeling of having felt close to death, then feeling the life returning to limbs, body and mind. Over these last few weeks since, I have experienced a level of activity, freedom from pain, and a feeling of normalcy that I have not felt for at least 15 years.
I am fortunate to have had this opportunity which would not have been afforded to me through the dispensary. Neither would I be able to purchase the quantities needed to treat myself, nor would I be able to afford the treatment. It takes a lot of cannabis to make high quality medical oil, roughly two pounds. At New Hampshire’s legal limit of six ounces per month it would take 5 and ½ months just to acquire the cannabis required to make the oil needed for a 90-day treatment..
What’s worse is that those two pounds would cost about $12,000 from a dispensary. Wrap your head around that.
Now imagine you are chronically ill, not working, already wracked with medical bills. Now you have to travel to the dispensary, get rolled over on pricing, and ultimately, not be able to get the medicine needed. This is the big break down in the New Hampshire Therapeutic cannabis program. So just who does it help?
I find that intent with cannabis says a lot about who is using, or producing, or selling the product. At the unfortunate pricing at the dispensaries, are they helping the most in need? Are they providing fair access? Are they providing actual medical help — or providing a mainly recreational product for the bottom line: profit?
I can surely say from my experience that it is the latter.
Additionally, the annual paperwork, registration, and fee required to be paid by medical card patients is, in my view, hostile to those in need: you can be part of this system for your health — but you’ve got to pay to play.
Cannabis has the potential to be a health care game changer for a multitude of medical issues. It has the potential to heal, relieve, revive, and replace — but only if our legislators and governors listen to the people. And they should know; the world, and your voting public is watching.
-WJM