Long-standing Cannabis Co-op Welcomes New Members

[creekfeet]

My family farmer gave me the okay to share this. He calls it ...

... a Socialist Organic Cannabis Cooperative.

Patients with valid, current Medical Marijuana Recommendations can join, and receive organic cannabis products, directly from the farmer, in exchange for low reimbursement fee.

Some patients qualify for free meds.

Some patients contribute labor to the cooperative.

Some patients who are able pay for their meds, but the farmer keeps fees lower than dispensary prices for comparable products.

Products available have included not only buds but also edibles, tinctures, balms, butters, oils and concentrates. The farmer grows organically and co-ops with other growers to provide a wide range of strains, indica and sativa, high-CBD and high-THC. So we're working together to provide the best range of medicines for varied patient needs.

My personal endorsement: the co-op has been an extraordinary blessing in our lives. My daughter and I have relied on dispensaries in past, but since hooking up with the co-op, we have not needed to use dispensaries. I guess it has been about three years now, that we've been involved.

Not only do we receive high-quality medicine in a timely manner, but we also have the satisfaction of knowing we're contributing to others' health and well-being through our contributions to the cooperative. I can't tell you how gratifying that is, to someone who is fully disabled -- to feel like I'm doing something useful for others!

Please post any questions you might have, or contact me privately for more info.

To our health!
Creek

[creekfeet]

This post is getting great response, via private messages, but no public replies. I just want to encourage folks not to be shy. Please feel free to post here to discuss or ask questions. I promise I won't think you're a stoner! :wink:

One funny thing is, I am so not a stoner. Back in my youth, people would assume from my looks or the crowd I hung out with or my jazz-listening habits? or I don't know what... my laid back attitude? ...anyhow, they'd assume I was a pot-head. I wasn't, and haven't ever been. I had tried pot and didn't like its effect. I didn't like having a fuzzy brain.

When my kids and I became ill with a neurological disease that causes, among other symptoms, dizziness, confusion and forgetfulness -- in short, a fuzzy brain --- and a neurologist at Kaiser suggested we try cannabis for the migraines, I thought, "Get stoned? That's the last thing we need!"

The pain increased, we developed associated vision problems, neither conventional nor alternative medicine provided any relief, and a friend told me her dad, using cannabis for cancer, said, "It doesn't get me stoned. It gets me normal." So after years of suffering I finally tried cannabis.

Wow.

It's true. It gets me normal. Not only does it relieve pain and inflammation, but it improves my eyesight and far from making my brain more fuzzy, it actually improves my mental clarity.

The key is in finding strains of cannabis, and delivery methods, that suit the patient and the illness. The farmer who organized this co-op has lots of experience with this, and there's a lot of info available online, as well.

So, if any of you hippie dippy west county folks have always been closet squares like me, take heart. Cannabis may be a great medicine for you, after all. And the co-op makes a great communitarian way to share its benefits.

[creekfeet]

Yes, this does need to change. Federal agencies have said they will no longer make raids enforcing federal laws that run counter to our state laws which allow medical cannabis use, so I'm hoping federally-funded housing will stop prohibiting residents from its use.

ETA: Seems like a basic civil rights question and possibly a housing complex trying to enforce a ban on much-needed medicines could find itself the focus of a lawsuit that would serve as a test-case...but who in the federal housing income bracket, who is also a chronic malady patient, has the money and energy to bring such a suit?


After a series of hospitalizations for internal bleeds,...

[Shandi]

You don't have to be drug tested, do you? You don't have to smoke cannabis to benefit from it. There are many ways to use it. I'm thinking that edibles or capsules would work for you, and no one needs to know. How would HUD know that you had a MM card and were registered with a co-op? I knew a family that lived in HUD housing, and grew their own. The son had a brain tumor. I bet a lot of people in HUD housing use cannabis.

I do understand the fear of losing your housing. Unfortunately, fear is how we are kept in line.


After a series of hospitalizations for internal bleeds,...

[creekfeet]

Some complexes have frequent inspections at short notice, and then even if they don't, and even if you don't smoke, growing would be a risky undertaking. If there were some emergency or even ordinary repair that required maintenance people to enter, a grow might be noticed, and what if your watering system leaked or your lights shorted...? Oh dearie me. I'm good at thinking up pretty-bad-case scenarios!

But I think chances are you could get away with it in a lot of homes.

There are definitely lots of methods of delivery that aren't as stinky as smoking. Lots of people, and I'm one, prefer to vaporize. The lower temperature, well, I dunno the science behind it all but vaporizing is lower temp then smoking and thus activates different compounds. I get less THC that way, so therefor less "head-effect."

And yes, as Shandi said, capsules, or edibles. Or tincture drops, or topical ointments (another method I like: absorbs well through skin and gives quick pain relief) or oil concentrates...

But to risk homelessness for even the best medicine? It's a tough call to make, and one that patients shouldn't have to make.

Oh, sealwatcher, thanks for the heads-up. I'll get a Bohemian tomorrow.