It’s winter now. We are entering the season when balance is most important. The freezing-in effect of this time of year when most of nature itself crawls to a stop can have similar consequences for us if we are not mindful. This is both the “Wake me when spring comes” and the “Shining”-crazed “Heeeeeere’s Johnny” phase of our annual cycle around the sun, when seasonal depression and cabin fever creep like snowdrifts, threatening to engulf us within their smothering mass. There are, thankfully, ways around the less-pleasant elements of our hemisphere’s dormant phase, activities and tools to keep us level and content as we wait for the green to return.
It’s easy to be active, happy, and high in the summertime; everyone wants to be outside – hiking, camping, swimming, some 3-on-3 down at the park, the farmers market, street fairs, taking your friend’s new puppy for a walk. There’s almost no limit to the shenanigans. A joint as you embark and you’re as content as that meandering stream the puppy splashes in as you cross it in the forest. Summer is the time to be thankful for tetrahydrocannabinol and the breeders and growers of the last generations who have given us the bounty of strains that run into the 20-plus THC percentage range.
Add six months to that scenario and you may find yourself carrying that puppy because the chest-high snow drove it to a state of refusal-to-continue as you cope with one wet boot from when you broke through the stream, which you could not see under its winter blanket; all the sudden, you wish you hadn’t smoked that joint because it’s not doing much to help you think your way out of this frosty fiasco and is, in fact, contributing to your rapidly-elevating blood pressure which manifests in the pitch of the scream filling every corner of your head, rising like steam as you panic amid thoughts of hypothermia and pray to a god who is obviously hibernating that the wind hasn’t filled the tracks that should lead you, Hansel and Gretel-style, back to civilization.
Life during the colder months can be tough, but cannabis blesses us with an ally against the lack of light, the physical discomfort, and the general malaise. It’s called cannabidiol (aka CBD), a non-psychoactive component of cannabis that has powerful anti-seizure, anti-anxiety, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects that make it very useful in medical applications. The first time I smoked a CBD-dominant strain, three things happened: I felt as if one hair on the crown of my head was being gently – but definitely – pulled upward, all the physical pain that usually plagues me was instantly relieved, and a general sense of well-being settled over me. It was not the usual marijuana high; there was no real sense of being carried away to a state of exhilaration, but rather a simple gentleness like the experience of a really good hug. Imagine cannabis as a dualistic goddess – THC is the belly dancer and CBD is the Earth Mother.
Take some time during this intraholiday week to head down to the Olde Weede Shoppe and grab yourself a supply of CBD, found in strains like Charlotte’s Web, Harlequin, and Cannatonic, and see how it hits you; you can also blend it with your favorite high THC strains to feel a gentler effect than you’re used to. We’ll continue here next week with a discussion of the wonders of cannabidiol; be well til then.
Christopher Gallagher lives with his wife and their four dogs and two horses. Life is pretty darn good. Contact him at [email protected].
