Canada is "legalizing" cannabis extracts (like budder, oil, distillate, or this shatter) in 2020. What will a legal dab look like?
My wife @MediKatie has a prescription for cannabis (from her cancer specialist) which says she can use as much as she needs to, in whatever form she needs it. It's not covered, but the prescription protects her from some (I say 'some' because she has been arrested & jailed for cannabis!) interference from law enforcement and/or righteous family members stuck in 1960s Reefer Madness.
There's 1/4 gram of shatter (strain: Girl Scout Cookies crossed with Tangerine). MediKatie takes that amount to relieve her neurological symptoms and chronic pain (courtesy of conventional cancer treatments as a child) every few hours of the day. Here's a video of her doing a gram of that size.
So that's 250mg (milligrams) of pure cannabinoids. About 85% of it is THC in an active form, ready for vaporization and inhalation. One of the planet's most perfect medicines.
Problem is?
The problem is that's 100 times what will be considered a legal dose in Canada! (Now listen, I understand the concept of "start low and go slow" with extracts and edibles, and nobody wants anyone to overdose and throw up or have a panic attack. But limiting everyone, even patients who need the medicine to stay alive, to a certain government-decided arbitrary number? That's dangerous to say the least.)
I set out figuring how I could divide this little chunk of goodness up into 100 relatively equal parts, to show myself (and you!) what a "legal" dose would look like.
I was happy with the results upon snapping it up into 10 parts. Great consistency. Man, I love the free market! Picked this stuff up today for a tiny fraction of what a legal store will be selling it for. And I can actually know the grower/extractor.
But each of those is still 10 doses! I chose the most average-sized piece, and rolled it out into a thin 'snake', then snapped that up into 10 parts. After rolling them into little balls, here's what they look like:
I chose the most average-sized piece, and set it next to a 5-cent coin for comparison:
THAT is what 2.5mg of cannabis extract (the legal maximum) looks like!
And that's going to cost HOW many dollars? Oh, and many licensed producers (fuck all those insider profiteer monopolists!) are talking about 2mg and even 1mg products. Ugh.
I put it onto a dab tool for a final photograph:
I showed it to MediKatie, who squinted and responded "looks like your dab tool is dirty". (Clearly, not impressed.) It is 1/100th of a proper dose for her. She would need to open and consume 100 packages of extract, at who-knows-how-much cost, multiple times a day!? The resulting mound of plastic and cardboard containers would itself become a problem. It's just not possible.
And it's not meant to be. The black market is meant to thrive under "legalization" so that enforcement (and crackdowns on our rights) can continue. The government insiders get to sell, everybody else goes to prison for 14+ years. It's all about control. Legalization is a lie.
I've shown for 2 years on this Steem page that I can grow and extract cannabis safely and effectively. I should be allowed to do this under a legal system, but I'm not, and I risk prison even for some of the posts I put out. Legalization has made it impossible for my wife to get the lifesaving medicine she needs - which she has a prescription for, even - and made us criminals for doing everything it takes to keep her healthy.
We'll never support the legal regime in Canada, which directly funds enforcement against the free market, including peaceful patients, activists, and gardeners.
Now we're off to try out the other strain we picked up today, Mendo Breath. Smells incredible and looks fantastic. Absolutely tiers above anything the legalized market will ever achieve, even at astronomical prices.
DRutter
