How fractals and nature (and reduced alcohol consumption) enhance brain function.

Is it just coincidence or do more satisfying things happen when one’s cannabis consumption and alcohol intake are drastically reduced? I’m certainly noticing the difference. What with the awkward divorce I’m embroiled in and the corresponding necessity of carefully monitoring finances, I’ve radically cut back on both escapist/enhancement modalities. Obviously there is more cohesion in my thinking and strategies but it’s something more. Something different. A kind of calm and Zen has descended over me. At times it can be troublesome in that it directs my energies into what may seem to others like selfish tunnel vision. But rest assured it is not myopic. I simply feel more confident. I’m just finding it easier to move along, to accept in simplistic language; ‘it is what it is’. Don’t get me wrong. I still love the alternate pathways that alcohol and cannabis (and any mind bending substances for that matter) bring to one’s consciousness. They just don’t suit me at this moment. It may also have a lot to do with the fact I live at the end of the road, literally. In the forest. Near the river. Surrounded by nature and its multifarious calming sounds and sights.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to this excellent essay by Sam Pyrah in ‘The Guardian’ health & wellbeing section. (I’m not making it easy, if you want to pursue this line of reasoning you’ll find it!) This link between nature and our mental health is more than just speculation. There is a developing science establishing “a clear connection between nature and brain function”. One intriguing concept is the role of fractals in actually boosting cognitive skills. “Fractals – naturally occurring patterns that are repeated at different scales within a structure, such as a snowflake, a fern or a tree – have been found to elicit soft fascination……processed more fluently by the brain….urban settings are typically less fractal, with more hard edges and straight lines….crowds, adverts, social media pings – clamouring for your attention and you can see why they could be more taxing on the brain.”

It’s a fascinating read, look for it! Have a fascinating fractal filled day y’all!

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Your brain is always on drugs

Your brain is always on drugs. That is, there is always a neurochemical correlate to any of your conscious perceptions whatsoever.

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Strike Singapore off your bucket list of travel!

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/man-executed-in-singapore-for-coordinating-delivery-of-over-two-pounds-of-weed

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Charlotte’s Web cannabis

Hybrid 50/50 : THC 1%, CBD 20%

Charlotte’s Web is an evenly balanced hybrid strain (50% indica/50% sativa) created through crossing unknown strains with a hemp strain. Known for its high medicinal power, Charlotte’s Web was first created for a young girl named Charlotte Figi, who suffered from a rare disorder known as Dravet Syndrome. She was effectively treated using this hybrid. You will feel soothing relaxation and calm. The high is super mellow from start to finish, with an elevated and calming sense that helps you feel happy yet relaxed for hours on end. I found it quite effective in overcoming negative tangents more quickly and smoothly. You know how we can get lassoed by issues that can be obsessive; worries and fears? Charlottes Web smoothly gets you back on a positive calming track. It makes it easy to feel good while eliminating the often disorienting ‘stone’ of high THC cannabis. I recommend this as the perfect strain for a first time indulger.

‘Charlotte’s Web is the perfect medicinal strain for treating chronic pain, inflammation, chronic stress, anxiety and fibromyalgia. This bud has a lightly sour citrusy flavor with touches of woody pine. The aroma is of earthy woody pine with hints of sour citrusy lemon and a hint of sharp mint. Charlotte’s Web buds have small and airy minty green grape-shaped nugs with orange hairs. (AllBud)’

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Can consciousness be expanded?

Here’s some food for thought from Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, a brilliant psychologist. I was going to post a review of a new varietal I tried ‘purple widow’ but found my recollections and experiences of that cannabis were too scattered, random. I’ll try it again another day and see if I can give you a better review, one that makes sense to me before I post it! In the meantime, check out Csikszentmihaly’s take on activities that transform the way we perceive reality. Hmmm……

Vertigo is the most direct way to alter consciousness. Small children love to turn around in circles until they are dizzy; the whirling dervishes in the Middle East go into states of ecstasy through the same means. Any activity that transforms the way we perceive reality is enjoyable, a fact that accounts for the attraction of ‘consciousness-expanding’ drugs of all sorts, from magic mushrooms to alcohol to the current Pandora’s box of hallucinogenic chemicals. But consciousness cannot be expanded; all we can do is shuffle its content, which gives us the impression of having broadened it somehow. The price of most artificially induced alterations, however, is that we lose control over that very consciousness we were supposed to expand.

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Malta 1st in Europe to legalize marijuana

Malta will this week become the first European country to legalise the cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal use, pipping Luxembourg to the post, as the continent undergoes a wave of change to its drug laws. Possession of up to seven grams of the drug will be legal for those aged 18 and above, and it will permissible to grow up to four cannabis plants at home, with up to 50g of the dried leaves storable. The move by Malta, the EU’s smallest member state, is likely to be followed by reform across Europe in 2022. Germany recently announced a move to establish a legally regulated market, following announcements from the governments of Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. A referendum in Italy is planned, while Canada, Mexico and 18 US states have already enacted similar legislation.

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California’s legalization of cannabis a failure.

But the longer we allow cannabis to remain state-legal and federally illegal, the harder it will be to fix. Though botching weed legalization sounds like a trivial issue, it intersects with many of the issues that are fundamental to our lives, from criminal justice to public health, gang violence to economic inequality, the opioid crisis to the wellness craze. Cannabis is the second-most-valuable crop in the country, after corn and ahead of soybeans. It’s the most common reason for arrest in America. And in spite of marijuana’s dubious reputation, research has shown the plant “may have therapeutic potential in almost all diseases affecting humans”.

Legalization remains trapped in a bizarre netherworld of low-priority, high-complexity issues that are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Yes, it’s cool that you can legally buy watermelon lemonade weed gummies with consistent dosage at hundreds of stores across California, and yes, it’s great that far fewer people are being arrested for cannabis crimes. But if legalization was supposed to convert California’s marijuana chaos into an orderly, legal, and profitable industry, the first five years have been a failure. (Amanda Chicago Lewis, The Guardian)

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Girl Scout Cookies cannabis

Girl Scout Cookies is an indica-dominant hybrid with a strong sativa component (60% Indica and 40% sativa). This strain can reach THC levels of up to 28%, meaning it’s one of the most potent strains available. It is very low in CBD, 1% so I don’t quite get how this is often classed in with other medical marijuana. The high is powerful, happy, and euphoric, but with couch-lock body effects and feelings of lethargy. (That sentence from allbud, it’s kind of a generic description of all cannabis!) Girl Scout Cookies tastes sweet and earthy, and I find the aroma to be quite generic, it just smells like cannabis. This strain began as a crossbreed of OG Kush and a near-even hybrid; (Durban Poison X F1). Girl Scout Cookies first appeared in California and is now one of the most popular strains in North America. The high can last a long time so don’t plan on driving or being around people who are not cannabis friendly. I did not find any feeling of lethargy. Then again, I don’t overdo my cannabis anymore. Just enough to heighten the senses. So, a little bit of Girl Scout Cookies will impart a welcome sense of calm. My first reaction (used a little pipe) was a kind of light headedness, but that might just have been a result of not having eaten much. There was however a softness of thought if that makes sense. Like riding the crest of a gently rolling wave. Warm. And that very unique sensation one gets from most cannabis, a heightening of observation and surroundings. But without a desire to do something , it is a calming cannabis. I sat at the end of my dock, no wind, sun descending and light reflecting off the surface. Aromatic cigar in my right hand and Barley Days Oyster Stout sitting on the left arm of the Muskoka chair. It felt like a perfect close of the day, gave me opportunity to reflect on a perfect tree drop. Ash trees are dying in droves, victims of the ash boring beetle. We dropped one in the back yard that afternoon and it fell exactly, I mean right on the line, where we had planned it to fall. That one tree should provide enough BTU’s for two months worth of burning in the air tight. Sun has sunk far below the horizon, stars are coming out, and I can say it has been an almost perfect day.

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Luxembourg to legalize growing and using cannabis.

Adults in Luxembourg will be permitted to grow up to four cannabis plants in their homes or gardens under laws that will make it the first country in Europe to legalise production and consumption of the drug. Under the legislation, people aged 18 and over will be able to legally grow up to four cannabis plants per household for personal use. Trade in seeds will also be permitted without any limit on the quantity or levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive constituent. Under a softening of the law, however, the consumption and transport of a quantity of up to 3 grams will no longer be considered a criminal offence, but classified as misdemeanour. Luxembourg will join Canada, Uruguay and 11 US states in flouting a UN convention on the control of narcotic drugs, which commits signatories to limit “exclusively for medical and scientific purposes the production, manufacture, export, import distribution, trade, employment and possession of drugs” including cannabis. Uruguay became the world’s first country to create a legal national marijuana marketplace when it legalised the drug in 2013, and Canada followed suit in 2018. (Daniel Boffey, The Guardian)

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God Bud

God Bud is a widely popular and loved cannabis that’s known for giving the user an intense feeling of uplifting and euphoria, creative energy, and then a sense of laziness, without overwhelming side effects. Patients often describe the God Bud’s high as being taken to heaven and back, ergo the name God Bud. This strain is a hybrid crossbreed of the insanely dank Hawaii and Purple Skunk strains with about an even 50/50 balance between Indica and Sativa. This bud was created by breeders at the infamous BC Bud Depot Seed farm and boasts a moderate 14-22% THC level. God Bud is widely used as a treatment for chronic pain, stress, and anxiety, and it’s also prescribed as a treatment for severe depression in higher doses. (The more I read about various cannabis strains, the more I see all of them being suitable to treat these issues! It’s kind of like saying alcohol can lift your mood and elevate your sense of happiness.) It is said God Bud tends to keep you awake for long hours even after its other effects have faded, but I have not found this to be the case. So caveat emptor, remember your reaction may not parallel mine. With a tropical, earthy smell, and an herbal, musky taste, this strain is a popular weed for many smokers. The bud features flaming orange hairs and abundant white crystal trichomes and is truly a God among buds. I found the buds to be enormous relative to the usual size one finds in dispensaries. All in all, God Bud is one of my favorites if I’m looking to boost creative energy and mood.

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