The holidays are notorious for extreme merriment. If you’re trying to stay sober, it can be a challenging time. Here are some tips that can help you stay on the wagon.
This time of the year is filled with great things, like a break from work and spending time with family and friends. Still, it’s a highly emotional time, where tensions can feel like they’re about to bubble over, making alcohol a tempting option to soothe our concerns. And while there’s nothing wrong with this, spending the holidays sober has some perks, especially if you feel like you’re in a vulnerable place.
Trying to get through the holidays without the help of any kind of substance is a tall order, but it’s still possible if it’s a priority. Here are some tips that can help you stay sober through the holidays.
Spot your triggers
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Most of us don’t think about what makes us want to have a drink, so a plan to spend the holidays sober can be a great opportunity for introspection. A helpful thing to do would be to think about your relationship with alcohol, jotting down your thoughts whenever you feel the urge to have a drink and trying to figure out what prompted that reaction. After a couple of days of this, you’ll start spotting some trends and patterns that can help you steer clear of triggering situations, making it easier to stay sober.
Keeping track of your triggers is also a helpful practice when using alcohol or substances to numb emotions, which should be cause for concern.
Days of celebration, like Christmas or New Year’s Eve, are usually associated with a lot of drinking, making it more difficult than other days to stay sober. Make a plan for these dates and try to stick to it, waking up at a certain time, adding a workout if you feel like it, and planning whatever it is you want to do to celebrate. If you’re feeling like lazing out over the holidays, the advice still applies; plan out your movie marathon, your phone calls with friends, or your video game binge.
If you’re spending the holidays with someone, let them know of your plans for sobriety. There’s no need to go in too deep as to why you’re not drinking or consuming any substances for the holidays, but verbalizing your feelings will likely reduce people harassing you to have a drink when you don’t want to.
While there’s still a lot to learn about how cannabis works, it may help in improving your workout performance, and may have the potential to help you achieve your fitness goals.
With some states legalizing the use of cannabis, the social stigma on the subject may start to loosen up. Today, cannabis seems to have become more popular and accessible to people. In fact, there are fitness gurus and athletes who even start to speak of its positives. In facts, there are benefits of incorporating cannabis into your fitness routine.
Nowadays, some fitness enthusiasts incorporate cannabis before or after their workout routine and believe working out while high is beneficial. Aside from that, cannabis is believed to improve overall fitness, too.
To put your mind at ease, here are some claimed health benefits of cannabis, as well as how it’s supposed to level up your fitness game.
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Minimizing Inflammation And Pain
One of the most promising areas of cannabis research is its capacity to reduce joint and muscle inflammation. Studies have tried to prove that the nonpsychoactive cannabinoid in cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD), could help in reducing inflammation.
Related to its anti-inflammatory properties, cannabis is also known to relieve body pains and soreness derived from working out too much. CBD may reduce pain by influencing endocannabinoid receptor activity, interacting with neurotransmitters in the nervous system, and reducing inflammation. It’s said to be effective in lessening acute pain, pain caused by twisted muscles, and chronic pain.
This could be beneficial for athletes and fitness enthusiasts dealing with inflammation and pain in the muscles and connective tissue. It could also be helpful for those recovering from surgery or past injury.
This is perhaps the primary area of cannabis research that seems to have shown positive results. It may be good news for fitness enthusiasts looking for alternatives to opiates.
Improving Sleep
Sleep is critical to overall fitness as it gives the body enough time to recover and repair damaged muscles after exercise. This is because it’s also the only time when the body produces growth hormones, which are necessary for recovery.
Unfortunately, many people are sleep-deprived. That is, they don’t get the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep every night. When this happens, it could mean sabotaging their own fitness goals.
However, cannabis may be able to help in this area as it’s believed to aid in inducing sleep. It’s said to help restore the natural sleep cycle, which usually falls out of sync because of the daily schedules and stressors of modern life. Because of its claimed antianxiety properties, cannabis could also help soothe a stressed mind and body. And if you find it hard to get a good shut-eye at night due to chronic pain, cannabis may help in its relief.
Cannabis is also believed to help people suffering from sleep apnea. It’s said to suppress dreams by reducing the amount of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep you get. This could be beneficial for those with posttraumatic stress disorders since it could mean fewer nightmares.
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Boosting Energy And Mental Acuity
Numerous factors could affect your energy levels and concentration, including chronic pain conditions, too much stress, lack of sleep, and even diet. And lack of energy and focus could prevent you from attaining your fitness goals. For instance, you may find it hard to finish a half-hour workout routine if you feel tired and lethargic.
Fortunately, cannabis could help with this, and it’s easy to find the best strains for energy and mental boost. Cannabis is said to directly improve energy and promote wakefulness in people. It’s believed to activate the neurons in specific areas of the brain responsible for activity and alertness.
Besides that, cannabis is also claimed to indirectly boost energy by improving other issues. For one, it could help in getting enough sleep. Also, it’s said to be great at reducing stress and anxiety symptoms, plus it could reduce pain, which may cause you to experience fatigue and lethargy.
The popular belief is cannabis hampers brain functioning. However, this may not always be so. As some studies have shown, low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component in cannabis, could restore cognitive functioning in mice.
By helping improve mental acuity, cannabis could help fitness enthusiasts get in the ‘zone’ with their fitness routines. It could help their mental game while boosting focus by reducing anxiety and keeping them calm and relaxed.
Assisting In Weight Loss
Another area in which cannabis is said to improve overall fitness is assisting in weight loss. There are claims that cannabis could help in losing weight. For one, it’s believed to help in reducing appetite.
The general belief is cannabis stimulates appetite since marijuana users are said to feel hungry after smoking. However, this may only be half true. While THC in cannabis could cause hunger, CBD is said to do the opposite. In fact, a study revealed that CBD is a CB1 receptor antagonist, which means it could deactivate or block off the receptor. This could help in reducing appetite and controlling hunger pangs.
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Moreover, cannabis is said to turn bad (white) fat into good (brown) fat. While white fat is responsible for increased risks of chronic conditions like diabetes, brown fat, a metabolically active form of fat, could burn off energy and generate heat. This means it could burn calories.
CBD may play several roles in how the body interacts with these fats. Not only could CBD help in the conversion of harmful white fat cells into brown fat cells, but it could also stimulate the body to efficiently break down these fats. For this reason, CBD may be a promising therapy for obesity prevention, though this claim still needs more clinical and human studies.
Lastly, cannabis is believed to reduce the risk of metabolic disorders causing weight gain. The overactivation of CB1 receptors may be partly responsible for increasing fat tissue throughout the body and contributing to obesity and other metabolic risks. As mentioned, cannabis is supposed to deactivate these receptors, which could help in reducing the risks of obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol levels.
Conclusion
While there’s still a lot to learn about how cannabis works, it may help in improving your workout performance, and may have the potential to help you achieve your fitness goals.
The holidays can be extra joyful with the help of a little weed. Here are 5 reasons why you should explore Santa’s little green helper.
The holiday season is a time for indulgence. It’s a time when we’re expected to huddle up, reminisce over the happenings of the year, prepare cozy and comforting foods, watch tons of movies and enjoy ourselves. It is also when we are with the people who sometimes drive us crazy and are schedules are topsy turns. Here are reasons to consume weed during the holidays.
One thing that reliably makes the holiday celebrations better is weed. Whether you’re spending your days alone, with roommates or with family, the festivities will get an added gloss of greatness if you add some weed into the equation. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider weed this holiday season:
Holiday food will taste better
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We tend to overeat during the holidays and that’s okay. This year, no matter your circumstance, you can use weed to really enjoy all the food you eat during the holiday season. Make plans to cook something delicious or bake holiday cookies, whether you’re alone or with friends and family. Smoking weed and eating these delicious meals will allow you to have a deeper appreciation for them and have a really good time while you’re doing it. (And we’ve got some answers for anyone wondering Why Does Weed Give You The Munchies?)
You’ll get much more fun out of your holiday viewing
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Whether you’re watching Christmas movies, the best movies of the year or simply binging reality TV, weed will make it all better. You’ll find all the dialogue and plot points deeply intriguing, you’ll have a deeper appreciation for the colors and cinematography, you might even fall asleep without meaning to and wake up feeling rested and rejuvenated. That’s what we deserve this holiday season; go for it.
Not all gifts are the same, with some people being great gift givers and others lacking this very specific talent. Weed will allow you to become a better actor and to find something charming about whatever strange gift you were gifted.
Watching Christmas lights can be a full night activity
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Christmas lights are beautiful under normal conditions. They’re extra awesome with weed. Since we’re lacking a lot of fun activities during this holiday season, a good and safe way to pass the time would be to go to a place that’s known for their Christmas decorations, toke up and relax.
The holidays are great but they’re also stressful, whether you’re celebrating them in person or through Zoom. (Are people still doing this? Just us? Okay.) But may we suggest adding some weed to the mix. That way, you’ll have extra patience when your friends and family members are very loud or forget to unmute themselves.
Smoking marijuana doesn’t really impact your performance, it simply enhances the traits you already have.
There’s a lot of negative stereotypes when it comes to weed smokers: lazy, unproductive, easily distractible. And while this is empirically false, there still is some truth to it all. And it’s not necessarily stoners either!
The fact of the matter is that procrastination is something that everyone is dealing with at some level. It doesn’t matter whether you’re stoned or not. Most of us try to do anything other than the thing we need to get done, especially if the task isn’t “enjoyable”.
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This is because we’ve been trained like space monkeys to respond to dopamine spikes due to our interaction with our technology. These days, “instant gratification” has made tasks that provide “delayed gratification” seem more difficult to do.
And while cannabis doesn’t make you lazy, unproductive, and easily distractible per se – there is an extra layer of “the fuck its” within your consciousness when you’re under the influence of cannabis.
This is why today I’m going to be giving you some tips on how to deal with procrastination as a stoner and how you can level up your game for 2023.
But first, why should you listen to me?
There was a time in my life when I was led to believe that I was lazy. This was prior to smoking weed.
For years this plagued me, despite the fact that I’m a high achieving individual, in the sense that when I enjoy doing something, I over achieve.
For example, while I may have written a shoddy essay for a teacher on a subject I had no interest in, I could write volumes of intricate storyline on games I was developing, or books I was writing for fun.
As I grew older, I came to understand that it’s not that I’m lazy, It’s because I have no interest in the tasks and therefore my attention is easily diverted from the difficult task.
There are a few approaches one could take when dealing with this issue. First, you could only do tasks that you enjoy. However, in life there are a great number of tasks you “won’t enjoy” but which are absolutely necessary.
For example, if you want to gain muscle, you need to go to the gym. You need to work out. Sweat, get sore muscles, maybe even hurt yourself a bit. You will endure pain, and will be challenged to push yourself beyond your current self in order to attain the muscle mass you desire.
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Within this process, many “non-enjoyable moments” are critical to your success. Therefore, only doing things you like is not a viable option.
The other way is to simply force yourself to do them anyhow. This is what most successful people do. They just do it anyway!
While it sounds easy, it isn’t and these people exude tremendous willpower. However, when you look at most “high functioning execs”, they are either drinking themselves or smoking themselves to death. When you force yourself to do things you don’t like, you may begin to notice some advancement in your life objectives. However, if you don’t learn to be gentle with yourself, you might also find yourself becoming something you don’t like at all: an overworked, unhappy, stressed out individual that needs drugs, sex, alcohol, and other kinks to get them through their days.
Which is why you need to learn how to push yourself without scolding yourself.
You don’t need to scold the monkey; you simply need to direct it with care and listen to it when it speaks!
Wait…monkey?
I find that when you personify a concept, it becomes easier to understand. The “monkey” is the personification of your mind when it’s being challenged with something it doesn’t want to do. The monkey will tug at you and say, “Dude, have you seen this YouTube video?” or “Just one more and then you’ll get back to work.”
When you give into the monkey, you might find yourself in a state of perpetual pleasure seeking, which then after a while leaves you empty and drained. Self-loathing typically follows suit. You feel like you’re wasting time.
When you’re high, the monkey can be louder still and find things that actually is something that adds value to your life, but isn’t necessarily the most important thing you need to do in that moment.
What this does is creates problems in the future that you could solve in the present, but since you procrastinated, it piles up since “TIME NEVER STOPS MOVING!”
What you leave for tomorrow is “today + tomorrows load” and in turn, the weight of “tomorrow’s load” is significantly more than today’s, and requires an even greater assertion of effort.
So what do you do?
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How to train your monkey (even while stoned)
In the beginning, I tried everything in my power to stop the monkey. I would force myself to do the things I hate. But eventually, I started hating the things I did.
Eventually I learned that when the monkey beckons and demands my attention, I sort of give it to it, but I don’t do what it wants me to do!
For example, let’s say I’m commissioned to write a blog I don’t want to write. Let’s say it’s about the fascinating world of hand woven garden chairs. I don’t have any personal interest in this topic, but I have a deadline and it’s money in the pocket.
As I am about to write, the monkey is like, “Dude, you’re stoned…why waste it? Why not instead, you work on that thing you’ve been wanting to work for the entire time, but don’t ever have time for it…what if that time is now?”
Now, I know if I ignore this, I’ll be constantly getting distracted, or I may even get physically or mentally tired as a result.
Therefore, instead of ignoring it flat out, I stand up, and do five or six sun salutations.
I take in a deep breath, focus my mind back to the body, get the blood pumping, stretch out my sore muscles, and take a minute to just clear my mind.
You see, the monkey isn’t really there to distract me as much as letting me know that it’s time you do something else; you’ve been sitting on your ass for hours and your body needs a break.
However, instead of doing the thing that my mind wants to do, I do something else that benefits the body/mind.
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You could literally take a power nap, meditate for 10 minutes, go for a walk, do 30 push ups…whatever. As long as it’s not the thing that your mind wants you to do.
The monkey gets stimulated either way, except in this way, you’re actually replacing a “bad thing” with a “good thing”. You increase focus, you increase energy, and at the end of it – you’ll be ready to do the thing you don’t want to do.
You’ll get to a point where you’ll say, “Enough of the bulls**t, let’s do this!”
It works even if you’re stoned!
Smoking marijuana doesn’t really impact your performance, it simply enhances the traits you already have. If you’re a loser smoking weed, you’re probably one even when you’re not smoking it.
If “weed” is your excuse for “not doing” then quit or learn how to get stuff done even if you smoke weed.
I just taught you a major life hack. The question now is, will you use it or not? That’s entirely up to you!
It is still unclear if the sudden suspension of the feature was the result of an expired arrangement between Twitter and SAMHSA or of it was removed due to policy changes.
In 2020, Twitter began suggesting to users who searched for specific drug-related words such as “cannabis,” that they might consider getting help for substance use. This feature, which was created in agreement with the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is now suspended, reported Marijuana Moment.
The note suggesting help, which did not appear when people searched for alcohol, had been roundly criticized by marijuana advocates. They argued that Twitter was implying that any interest in marijuana indicates a potential substance misuse problem. What about medical marijuana? Or policy reforms? Or job searches in the industry?
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“Help is available. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, you are not alone,” the standard warning said, directing users to SAMHSA’s helpline and website.
Why the sudden change?
It is still unclear if the sudden suspension of the feature was the result of an expired arrangement between Twitter and SAMHSA or of it was removed due to policy changes stemming from the platform’s new owner Elon Musk.
It seems both could be possible in that SAMHSA functions within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which recently tweeted about cannabis policy changes.
At the direction of @POTUS, we’re continuing to examine how marijuana is scheduled. We’re looking at what the evidence tells us – and that will guide what we do. https://t.co/KrGPLfXjff
On the other hand, the Tesla CEO has been known to publicly discuss cannabis and even consume it. Musk stirred up controversy when smoked a joint on a 2018 Joe Rogan podcast.
In August, Musk tweeted a humorous screenshot about what it’s like to get high on weed.
After only 33 minutes of its posting, the tweet had received 29,000 likes from people around the world who apparently could relate to it. Comments were going from “LMFAO”, to “this is the richest man in the world.”
The Tweet went public shortly after the recent Nelk Boys “Full Send” podcast, in which Musk revealed that his pot-smoking incident on the Joe Rogan show came with consequences.
He said he was drug tested for “everything” after that.
Musk said there were consequences not just for him but that his SpaceX staff was also randomly drug tested.
Musk did clarify that he is not a regular marijuana user, as he believes it is not good for productivity — at least not for him.
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Known for his bold stances on various issues, he has often asked pertinent questions about marijuana — if weed is a legal business in the U.S. why are so many people still imprisoned over it? Some two years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, Musk tweeted: “Selling weed literally went from major felony to essential business (open during pandemic) in much of America & yet many are still in prison. Doesn’t make sense, isn’t right.”
More recently, he voiced the same concern over the Brittney Griner case when he shared a meme of a man with his hands on his hips saying, “people in the US in jail for weed while the government trades a Russian war criminal to free a woman’s basketball player in jail for weed.”
Musk wrote, “Maybe free some people in jail for weed here too?”
Neither Twitter nor SAMHSA immediately responded to the outlet’s request for comment.
Since many of our endocannabinoids are similar to the phytocannabinoids found in cannabis, we could see how it could replenish the loss of endocannabinoid production caused by aging.
The stereotypical weed smoker is depicted as a slow dimwit with the inability to harbor productive thoughts for more than a few seconds. They are motivated by their hedonistic tendencies and want to get “high” as much as possible.
In 2022, we know this is not true considering that almost half of all U.S. adults have tried cannabis at one point in time. While this harmful stereotype was used to deter people from smoking under the assumption that cannabis negatively impacts the brain, science is shedding new light on this topic.
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Like this 2021 PBS piece on whether cannabis reversed brain aging. The studies are currently being conducted on mice, meaning that there is not a whole lot of human-evidence to suggest that cannabis helps slow down brain aging, but in mice, the results have been consistent.
One theory is that as we age, we significantly begin to produce fewer endocannabinoids. This affects our endocannabinoid system that is responsible for maintaining homeostasis in the body. The endocannabinoid system helps modulate mood, pain, appetite, immune response and much more.
Therefore, theoretically, since many of our endocannabinoids are similar to the phytocannabinoids found in cannabis, we could see how it could replenish the loss of endocannabinoid production caused by aging.
What did the mice tell us?
The current evidence on this idea comes from the study of mice done by several researchers. There are several studies done in Israel, Germany and in the US. One of the researchers featured in the PBS story is Nicole Ashport, who explained how they tested the cognitive decline for mice within an established experiment:
“When we take young mice and we put them in a learning and memory maze, they will very quickly learn to find the escape. Our aged mice will also learn how to escape the maze but they just don’t learn as efficiently. So it might take a young mouse 16 attempts in the maze to master it. But it might take an old mouse 25. And so we can see that the old mice can still learn. They just don’t learn as quickly.”
This allows researchers to observe how older mice take longer to process the information and commit it to memory. Theoretically because of inflammation associated with aging, however it could also be a lack of endocannabinoids reaching certain parts of the brain associated with memory.
However, when administering low doses of THC to the mice, Ashport observed something interesting:
“When we treated old animals with a synthetic version of THC at low doses, we would see a stimulation effect. They would move faster, they would move more. They had increases in their ability to be able to solve the mazes more efficiently. That is consistent with what had been reported by the other groups showing really low doses could lead to a beneficial effect.”
We are also seeing this anecdotally within humans. Many older patients have reported that they “feel alive” and “have more energy” after taking cannabis. Could this also be simply because of a lack of endocannabinoids that led to heightened inflammation, which is a cause or symptom of many different conditions.
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“One of the biggest hallmarks of aging that we see that can contribute to frailty and other impairments in advanced age is increases in inflammation,” said Ashport. “Cannabis and many cannabinoids can reduce inflammation within the brain and throughout the rest of the body. And so it’s likely that when we’re administering cannabinoids that are acting as anti-inflammatory signals, that they are inherently improving the aging system by simply taking away the stressors of inflammation.”
Good endocannabinoid health
Perhaps, we’re entering into a stage of societal life when “consuming cannabis” will become as essential as consuming vitamin supplements. The fact of the matter is that our endocannabinoid system plays a vital role in our health and well being.
The endocannabinoid system is said to be fully matured roughly by the time you’re 25-years old. Up until this point, your body creates a significant amount of endocannabinoids. Once it’s fully mature, the endocannabinoid production drops significantly.
While you can get cannabinoids from many different foods and activities – the best source for cannabinoids in nature is cannabis. The whole plant provides a wide range of cannabinoids and terpenoids that interact with your internal organism at a very efficient rate.
If many of our old-age problems arise due to a lack of cannabinoids or an endocannabinoid deficiency, then consuming cannabis as a supplement makes sense.
Some people, however, are not interested in feeling “high” as they still have some prejudices about euphoria in medicine. However, with cannabis, you don’t necessarily have to get high. In fact, juicing raw cannabis should be more than enough to replenish your endocannabinoid system without running the risk of getting high.
Photo by Flickr user Courtney Boyd Myers
This is because when cannabis is raw, the phytocannabinoids are in their “acid” state, which makes them non-psychoactive. Seeing that non-psychoactive cannabis would also work in replenishing your endocannabinoid system, it should stand to reason that a “smoothie of cannabis” a day can keep the old age at bay!
Bottom line
We’ve been told repeatedly that cannabis is bad for your brain! Except now, we are finding that it can be your last line of defense against mental decline as you age. Of course, this information is still in its infancy, and as we continue to progress and move forward with global legalization, we’ll discover more accurately how cannabis interacts with our minds and bodies.
In the meanwhile, the early evidence suggests that cannabis could be a very effective medicine for any condition involving mental decline as we age. This includes dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other neurocognitive diseases.
I know for certain that I’ll be consuming cannabis well into my old age. I might not be smoking it always, but I’ll most certainly be using the raw plant in my smoothies every now and then, just to replenish the loss of endocannabinoids that occur naturally as we age.
New York Gov. Hochul announces official start date for recreational marijuana sales. Here’s when they’ll (finally!) begin.
Following months of planning and preparation, finally, New York announces when weed sales start! In a prepared statement, Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Wednesday that the first legal cannabis sales will take place on December 29.
Hochul also shared plans for the future of the cannabis industry, which hopes to provide opportunities for communities that have been affected by the War on Drugs and to provide funding for schools and communities.
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“We set a course just nine months ago to start New York’s adult-use cannabis market off on the right foot by prioritizing equity, and now, we’re fulfilling that goal,” said Hochul per ABC7. “The industry will continue to grow from here, creating inclusive opportunity in every corner of New York State with revenues directed to our schools and revitalizing communities.”
Sales will launch at the Housing Works Cannabis Co. dispensary, located in the Manhattan location of Housing Works, a nonprofit that has multiple thrift stores located all over the city, providing services to people who were formerly incarcerated, those living with AIDS/HIV, and more. They were one of the first groups to be awarded some of New York’s first cannabis retail licenses, which prioritize social justice.
All sales from the dispensary will be directed to the nonprofit.
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Charles King, CEO of Housing Works, said that their dispensary would continue to further the goals of the nonprofit. “At our core, we’re a healing community dedicated to providing housing, healthcare, and vocational programs for New Yorkers. This opportunity will not only give our team the resources to further our overall mission but to feature and elevate products coming from LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and women-led cannabis brands across the state.”
“We are eager to take the lead as a social equity model for America’s cannabis industry, specifically with our hiring practices and continued support of individuals and communities disproportionately impacted by the unjust War on Drugs,” said Natasha Nugent, the store’s manager, according to Bloomberg.
Housing Works Cannabis Co. will be open daily, and will provide pick-up and delivery services for shoppers.
Getting high when you’re home over the holidays isn’t the easiest of tasks. Here’s how you can smoke weed while avoiding suspicions from family members.
The family and friends gathering season is upon us! Whether that means you’re hosting some guests at home or traveling to visit family members, it’s a tough position for anyone who likes to get high on the regular. Here are some tips on how to be discreet with your weed when home for the holidays!
While everyone has a different tolerance for the funky smell of weed, it’s nice to be polite when spending time with others, especially if you’re staying in their space. The holidays are also not the best time to have a weed argument with your family, which is why it’s understandable to seek discretion.
Thanks to the large variety of marijuana products that exist, now it’s also the easiest time to smoke and consume weed discreetly. Here are some options that could make it easier for you to get high, no matter who you’re spending the holidays with:
Find the right time
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While the holidays tend to be cluttered with activities, there are always small pockets of space where you can have some alone time. Take advantage of these, whether you’re home alone or are leaving for a quick trip to the grocery store. To hide the evidence of weed in the car, keep it stashed in a sealed container and make sure to leave your windows open. A sploof or a smokebuddy is also helpful in these instances.
The best thing you can do for discreet smoking is to purchase a vape pen. This item is not only useful for the holidays but year-round, simplifying the smoking process and allowing you to get high without releasing weedy odors and without having to pack a bowl, roll a joint, etc. If you want to be super safe, test the pen with a sober friend, who can let you know if the cartridge is doing the job or if you need to purchase something that has a lighter smell.
Getting high outside is the smartest and easiest thing to do, but it’s also important to be mindful of others and to obey the laws of your state. While this isn’t a full-time solution, adding weed to your walks and times of escape can be a healthy way of escaping your family and getting some much-needed alone time. Keep in mind that you’re gonna have to come back to your place and face whoever you’re living with, so don’t get too high and carry some gum and perfume.
Buy edibles
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Edibles are convenient, eliminating smoke or paraphernalia, which are always pesky things to deal with when spending time with others. They can be consumed around other people without them knowing any better. Just monitor your dosage in case you don’t feel like pretending you’re not high when you very much are.
When using weed around parents or disapproving roommates, it’s always important to be discreet. Be mindful of other people’s preferences and make sure that your marijuana use isn’t an inconvenience for anyone. Practice your poker face and relax as best as you can; most of the time, people are too busy to notice if your eyes are a little red and you’re acting a little giggly.
Coconut oil contains a high amount of healthy fatty acids, which not only have tremendous health benefits, but also act as an effective binding agent for the cannabinoids.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the two primary compounds in cannabis. Both these cannabinoids require the presence of fat to become bioavailable once consumed within the human body. They are also fat soluble, which mean that cannabinoids are stored in the fatty tissues in our body.
THC especially has been noted by scientists to have a high affinity for fats. Whenever making cannabis infusions, one always needs a good fat for the cannabinoids to bind themselves to.
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Many cannabis products are infused into a variety of popular fats. Butter is the most common, especially for cooking and baking, though other widely-used fats include coconut oil, olive oil, walnut oil, and avocado oil to name a few others. But coconut oil is still the best among all these types of fat.
Benefits of Coconut Oil for Cannabis Infusions
Coconut oil has an endless list of versatile uses, and it’s also vegan-friendly. It can be used for cooking even in higher temperatures.
Coconut oil provides the greatest number of health benefits especially when combined with cannabis. It contains a high amount of healthy fatty acids, which not only have tremendous health benefits, but also act as an effective binding agent for the cannabinoids. Just one tablespoon of coconut oil already meets the 13 gram per day recommendation for saturated fats by the American Heart Association.
Additionally, it contains over 80% saturated fats, which is why it’s such a great carrier oil. Other oils, such as olive, only have a saturated fat content of around 20%. Saturated fats are usually found in animal products and by-products, such as butter, though butter isn’t vegan-friendly.
Meanwhile, other plant-based fats such as avocado and sesame oil are virtually unsaturated. Saturated fats normally will cause detrimental health problems such as high cholesterol when consumed in high amounts, but coconut oil simply doesn’t have that effect on the cardiovascular system. It’s the perfect healthy fat since the medium-chain fatty acids do not clog the arteries.
Saturated animal fats are the most efficient way to deliver the therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids when consumed.
Now when you combine that with the health benefits of cannabis, you have yourself one extremely powerful and therapeutic infused cannabis oil.
Photo by Anna Efetova/Getty Images
Types of Coconut Oil You Can Use for Cannabis Infusions
There are basically two kinds of coconut oils that are sold in the market: refined and unrefined. They each have their own advantages, though all of them can be used to make a variety of cannabis oil infusions. What makes them different are the methods of processing that they undergo.
Virgin Coconut Oil: Virgin coconut oil, sometimes known as unrefined coconut oil, is essentially coconut oil that has not been processed. It’s extremely smooth and has a gentle taste, so much so that it’s easy to consume on its own.
Some unrefined coconut oils are sold and marketed as ‘cold pressed’, which means that they didn’t use any heat in extracting the oils.
Refined Coconut Oil: Refined coconut oil is widely sold at supermarkets. It has a more neutral taste and a much higher smoke point, making it more suitable for cooking and baking. The refining process does remove some of the nutrients. Just be sure to purchase refined coconut oil that’s solvent free.
MCT Oil: Medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil can be used in any cannabis infusion recipe, especially for gummies and candies. It’s flavorless, making it a great carrier for making tasty foods and dishes. It goes through a process that separates the different kinds of fat within the coconut oil, leaving just the medium chain fatty acids. The medium-chain triglyceride content makes the smaller molecules in this coconut oil easier to digest, and more efficiently absorbed in the blood stream.
In doing so, it can be converted into energy much quicker, which is why MCT oils are popular among keto diet enthusiasts. MCT oil is also known as fractionated coconut oil.
Whenever buying coconut oil to use in infusions, it’s always good to go for organic especially if you are using these products for health benefits.
Conclusion
Cannabis coconut oil is such a powerful combination that can be used for improving overall health as well as reducing the symptoms of chronic pain, heart disease, inflammation, diabetes, cancer, migraines, obesity and so much more. This is primarily because of the high concentration of saturated fat and medium-chain triglycerides in coconut oil, allowing it to work synergistically with the therapeutic cannabinoids in marijuana. As a result, the human body can absorb and metabolize these compounds efficiently compared to other carrier oils.
2022 is quickly coming to a close and we’re getting nostalgic about the cannabis news that graced our headlines this year.
As we approach the end of 2022, we are looking at the top 10 national cannabis stories of the year. Here is what we view as the most important cannabis stories of 2022.
1) Joe Biden’s Statement on Cannabis
On October 6, 2022 President Biden announced that he would pardon all Federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, urge governors to do the same for state offenses, and instruct his administration to initiate proceedings to reschedule or deschedule cannabis.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services have the power under federal law to move marijuana out of Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Biden’s announcement could very well be the beginning of the end of Federal cannabis prohibition.
2) Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act Is Signed Into Law
In December, President Biden signed the first ever standalone cannabis bill into law. The new law will allow US researchers to study cannabis without cutting through quite as much red tape. The research conducted under this new law could be used to reevaluate marijuana’s status as a Schedule I substance.
In 2022, several states faced legal challenges related to the Dormant Commerce Clause (DCC). The DCC is based on the Commerce Clause in the Constitution which grants Congress the power to regulate commerce among the states. The DCC is a well-established legal doctrine establishing that because the Constitution granted the power to regulate interstate commerce to the Federal government, states are prohibited from enacting laws that discriminate against or unduly burden interstate commerce.
In August, a federal judge nullified Maine’s residency requirement for cannabis business, as covered by MJBizDaily. Regulators in New York have faced a similar challenge. Green Light Law Group has sued the state of Oregon on behalf of Jefferson Packing House on the grounds that Oregon’s ban on the export of cannabis violates the DCC.
You can read more about that case and the DCC issue in New York here:
4) US Court of International Trade Allows for Cannabis Paraphernalia Importation
In the case Eteros Technologies USA vs. United States, the US Court of International Trade held that Washington’s repeal of certain prohibitions related to marijuana drug paraphernalia exempted the Federal prohibition on importing drug paraphernalia to ports in Washington.
5) DEA Considers Cannabis Seeds With Less Than 0.3% THC to Be Hemp and Not Marijuana
In January a letter from the DEA stated that the agency does not consider cannabis seeds with less than 0.3% THC to be marijuana. Instead, the DEA considers such seeds to be hemp, which is federally legal, though tightly regulated and not as a controlled substance.
6) Federal Court Rules Delta-8 Smokable Products Are Federally-Legal Hemp
On May 19, 2022, the United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (9th Circuit) ruled that the plain and unambiguous text of the 2018 Agricultural Improvement Act (2018 Farm Bill) compelled the court to the conclusion that e-cigarette and vaping products containing delta-8 THC are lawful under Federal law.
The FDA has sent more enforcement letters to CBD businesses in 2022 than in any prior year, with the latest batch sent in November pushing the total to 33. The FDA also expanded its focus to products containing Delta-8 THC.
Over the summer, Minnesota lawmakers passed legislation allowing THC infused food and beverage items containing up to 5 milligrams per serving and 50 milligrams per package but did not outright legalize “marijuana” (i.e., cannabis plants with a THC concentration of greater than 0.3%).
Instead, THC products in Minnesota must be derived from hemp plants and cannot exceed a total concentration of 0.3% delta-9 THC. This makes Minnesota, at least temporarily a hot spot for hemp products containing an intoxicating level of THC. While a single item can only contain 50 milligrams of THC, there is no limit as to how many such products one person can purchase or possess.
On Election Night, cannabis-related initiatives five states considered initiatives that would legalize cannabis with only two passing. Despite these high-profile losses, 2022 saw major legislative victories for cannabis.
Brittney Griner, two-time Olympic Gold medalist, WNBA Champion and Phoenix Mercury all-star, spent nearly ten months in Russian custody for the possession of less than a gram of cannabis oil. On December 8, President Biden announced that she would be released in a prisoner-swap with Russia. She is now safe back in the US. Hopefully, seeing the harsh penalties imposed by Russia will cause the Biden Administration to fast-track legalization in the US.
Daniel Shortt is a corporate and regulatory attorney based in Seattle, Washington who works extensively with entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry. You can contact him at info@gl-lg.com or (206) 430-1336. This article originally appeared on Green Light Law Group and has been reposted with permission.
