Stuff that I Have Noticed #35 Mary-Jane
Recently Elizabeth and I saw Jim Belushi on Bill Maher’s show discussing his marijuana farming. I’d never given much thought to this fellow. I knew he was John’s brother, I’ve seen him in a few movies and thought he was a good actor but that was about it. My impression of him, while not exactly negative, was of a somewhat brash, loud guy and I never thought of him as a man of much substance.
Those impressions were reversed with this interview.
Belushi spoke with intelligence and sensitivity about the medicinal and healing qualities of cannabis and was very specific, quite articulate on the subject.
I was a regular (recreational) grass consumer from the mid 1960s until the mid ‘80s. Never a “pot-head” who smoked all day but an after dinner and social toker plus occasionally as a creative stimulus when stuck on a writing project. (It invariably worked.) I grew my own in a barrel on our terrace and had enough to share with friends. Around 1985 I simply stopped. It wasn’t as though I thought it harmful or anything of the sort, I just didn’t feel like smoking it any more.
In our early months together Elizabeth had been curious and tried it a few times but never became a user. She was scared off it completely in the 1970s after a near “bad acid-trip” experience with some heavily laced banana bread that really freaked her out. It was frightening! I had been with people who were having extreme reactions to dope and knew it would pass but Elizabeth didn’t and she was scared. I got her stretched out on a sofa and slowly she began to calm down but it took a couple of hours before she got hold of herself. After that untoward experience she was off Mary-Jane for good.
Until… March, 2011
During what would turn out to be the second of her three bouts with cancer (She’s cancer free now.) Elizabeth was on a chemo-therapy that made her quite sick. When nothing proved to ease her nausea, one day she asked me if we had any pot in the house. I searched a few niches here and there and found a one inch roach of unknown provenance and age, fired it up and she took a small (mouth-to-mouth) hit.
Within less than three minutes her nausea was gone, as was the roach which I had polished off. I called a friend and he delivered a couple of joints and at the rate of one toke per chemo treatment there was one doobie left over when the treatments were finished. That joint went into a drawer.
Jump ahead three years when I had my own little cancer event at age 80, my prostate; what else? My brilliant urologist did a procedure known as cryosurgery and I came home with a catheter (and pee bag) for four days. The catheter caused painful spasms in my urethra about once an hour. The second day it occurred to me that maybe grass might relieve the discomfort so I found that stashed number and when the next spasm came I lit up. Bingo! Instant relief almost by the time I exhaled.
The surgery was successful with no side effects and life went on.
Shortly after Elizabeth had recovered from her third cancer event … she fractured three vertebrae. We are talking serious pain. Just getting into and out of bed was a major event featuring operatic (she was an opera singer) screaming that would levitate her 180 pound lover-boy right off the mattress.
Once again old faithful, once recreational, now palliative MJ came to the rescue. It did nothing for the healing process (which is ongoing) but it sure did help with the pain and the viability of my eardrums.
It was around this time that I read an article about the efficacy of cannabis in preventing prostate cancer. While Dr. K was legally unable to prescribe it (or even comment on it) he took a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” approach when I shared the info with him. Since that time about two and a half years ago my prostate cancer has not returned and my thrice yearly exams show no indication that it will.
So now I keep a small stash of upstate New York organic homegrown in a drawer, take one toke from my pipe after dinner for the prostate (plus the fringe benefit of a slight buzz) and give Elizabeth one mouth-to-mouth (referred to as the healing kiss goodnight) at bedtime for relaxed falling asleep.
It works for us and if you have pain and don’t want an addictive prescription drug with side effects…
“Try it. You’ll like it.”
PS: Here’s an interesting medical article on the subject.
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