Mary Jane

If you have been watching the stock market lately, or if you tend to follow business or financial news, you will know that the various marijuana stocks have been going crazy lately – gaining as much as 20% a day in value! Now I am not one to “play” the markets, though I do try to take an active interest in my investments, but even I found it hard not to get caught up in the hype. I tend to choose what I think are good, long term stocks that will outperform market funds and I buy to hold for the long term. I own stocks like Google, Apple, Dollarama, Amazon, and as of last week - Aurora Cannabis (ACB).

Now before you get all moral on me – hear me out. I never smoked marijuana (OK maybe once in college) and I actually chose this stock after doing a lot of research. It was, I will admit, the recent rally though that got me off the fence and made me purchase. And am I ever glad I did. It has gone up 50% in the last week. Ups and downs of the stock aside, I was researching cannabis because after a few bad years with my autoimmune arthritis, I was looking for an alternative to the array of drugs the rheumatologist had me on. They seemed to be causing more problems than they were helping, and I was desperately looking for some alternatives that were less hard on my body.

What I have learned from reading literally dozens of medical research papers is what has convinced me that marijuana is an amazing plant with an incredible amount of medicinal properties that science is only now beginning to research and understand and that the potential has genuine far reaching consequences for the medical community, government policy, and of particular interest to me, those people over 50 who, by the way, are the fastest growing demographic of new marijuana users.

So if you are like me, and never used recreational drugs, here are a few basics: Marijuana (or cannabis) is a plant that has many different substances called cannabinoids. The human body produces cannabinoids on its own and has receptors for cannabinoids. One type of receptors (CB1) are found throughout our body (but mostly in the brain) and they attach to THC – the cannabinoid that makes you feel “high.” THC does a whole lot more than make you feel euphoric though. Think of that as a “side effect”. (Beats the hell out of some other drugs' side effects). THC can affect coordination and movement, pain, emotions and mood, thinking, appetite, and memories, among others and it is used medicinally to help people with cancer, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, MS and many other diseases.

Our body also has CB2 receptors which are more common in the immune system. CBD, the non-psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana, has both pain relief and anti-inflammatory properties, so has proven incredibly useful in treating many autoimmune diseases that cause both: diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis and Crohn’s Disease.

After years on high doses of anti-inflammatories and Disease Modifying Drugs like Sulfasalazine, Methotrexate, and Hydroxychloroquine, not to mention prednisone, I was not only having to deal with the disease, but with the side effects of all the meds that were shredding my guts to bits. Like many others, I became desperate for an alternative. Fortunately I have an open minded Doctor, who after discussing the research with her, was willing to let me try medicinal cannabis.

Within 3 days of taking 10 drops of CBD oil twice a day, my tendonitis was gone for the first time in months. I have had no joint pain in months, and no side effects. It has helped my tendonitis, enthesitis and arthritis, I am sleeping better than I have in decades, and my gut issues are completely gone. I wondered if perhaps there was a placebo effect going on, but soon learned that was not the case. You see, although cannabis is legal in Canada with a prescription, and it is legal in Mexico with a prescription, it is ILLEGAL to take it out of the country. So after months of being symptom free, I left for Mexico on Oct 28th without my CBD oil. By Nov 1 my tendonitis was back, by the end of that week I had gut issues, and I was back to waking up and going to the bathroom three times a night.

CBD works. The researchers suggest that not only has it been incredibly effective at treating ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s and Irritable Bowel, CBD is showing promise as an effective treatment for heart disease! Legal access to cannabinoids has been a life safer for me and literally thousands and thousands of people who suffer from chronic illness, including children with severe forms of epilepsy.

By December, desperate for some relief, I turned to the Puerto Vallarta Expat Facebook group and asked if anyone knew of a Doctor here I could get a CBD prescription from. Within minutes dozens of retirees had hooked me up with various places I could purchase it - both legally and illegally. When I contacted one place in Lake Chapala, the owner of the store, who also has inflammatory arthritis, sent me the CBD oil immediately, saying, "send me the money when you get a chance." Then, later that day, after lamenting the return of my tendonitis to the owner here at Los Arroyos Verdes, she said, "I will give you some!" Within minutes she had run home, returned, and handed me a Tupperware container full of a big old marijuana bloom (Bud? Flower?...I really am not sure of the lingo) floating in some alcohol tincture. “Rub this on your shoulders” she says, “I had 13 broken bones in my legs and this is the only thing that helped with the pain.” Not too surprising to me, it did help, immediately. And now that I have some oil, I am back to sleeping and best of all, my shoulders are functioning and it has enabled me to become quite the pickle ball player (If I do say so myself)!

It is no wonder cannabis stock is going through the ceiling.