Few of us have heard of the ‘combat cocktail’. For combat vets returning from the front line, it’s all too familiar. Soldiers who come home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), insomnia, depression, anxiety, or chronic pain are commonly prescribed a potent blend of medication. This is the combat cocktail, also known as ‘zombie dope’.

While these meds are intended to soften symptoms associated with psychological and physical trauma, veterans commonly report that zombie dope throws a new set of side effects into the mix. Vets who swallow the daily dose of benzodiazepines, SSRIs, and opioids often report feeling on edge, irritable, drowsy, or zombie-like.

Of even greater concern is the potential link to increased suicide. More than 20 veterans succumb to suicide every day, with one recent headline proclaiming that suicide has been more deadly for the military than combat.

For veterans who want to ease the trauma of combat and reintegrate into civilian life, cannabis may be the answer. A movement is taking shape among veterans who have seen or experienced the healing potential of cannabis in managing their symptoms, and they are demanding access.

Steve Ellmore, a veteran, filmmaker, photojournalist, and activist, is convinced that cannabis can provide relief for veterans across multiple fronts. Ellmore set out to make a film highlighting the benefits of cannabis for vets. Unprescribed, which recently won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Film at the Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival, Best Feature Documentary at the 2019 Cannabis Culture Film Festival, and was the Be The Change Winner at the Colorado International Activism Film Festival, is his offering.

“The idea to make Unprescribed came after a couple of veterans asked me to document a marijuana grow that they were trying to establish in the Midwest,” explains Ellmore.

“At the time, I was working at the Pentagon, and as we all know, marijuana is illegal at the federal level. So, a lot of vets, like me, can’t use it without risking our jobs, even if it’s in a legal state. Of course, I was skeptical, but wanted to help them out. “

Ellmore began helping them while undertaking his own research into cannabis. In the process, he uncovered diverse ways that cannabis was assisting veterans, from PTSD to traumatic brain injuries. While the initial plans for documenting the marijuana grow got scratched, Ellmore became convinced of the therapeutic potential of cannabis for veterans.

“I began realizing that we had just been lied to all these years about the dangers of marijuana,” he reflects. “What stood out most was the idea that it could help reduce veteran suicides. For me, that was the personal connection.When I learned about the positive effects marijuana has on anxiety, I was determined that it needed to be taken off the federal drug schedule.”

Ellmore started filming in 2017 at the peak of the opioid crisis, and numerous veterans he encountered were on a mix of pain meds, antidepressants, SSRIs, and sleep meds. “It was turning them into zombies,” says Ellmore.

“For a lot of these guys, suicide seemed like the only escape from this fog they were under. Everywhere I went, the stories were the same. These guys were given boxes of pills each month, which took them further down the rabbit hole until someone suggested they try marijuana. And then, boom! Just like that, they felt normal again.”

Ellmore views Unprescribed as an advocacy tool — it’s a documentary that intends to ruffle feathers and blow open conversations about making cannabis accessible for veterans.

“The goal of the film is to remind the general public that cannabis is still inaccessible to a number of people, and to break the stigma in the hearts and minds of the American voter in hopes of influencing our lawmakers to remove it from the federal drug schedule,” Ellmore emphasizes.

With cannabis now legalized in 33 states, Ellmore laments that many assume the battle for legitimacy is over. For veterans who rely on veteran healthcare benefits, however, cannabis is off the table. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) falls under the umbrella of federal law, which dictates that marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance with no proven medical benefits. The VA website disavows cannabis as a treatment for PTSD and labels it harmful to veterans.

Research suggests otherwise, with several recent studies, such as this one, highlighting that cannabis can reduce the association between PTSD and severe depressive and suicidal states. That’s not to mention the host of other research that indicates its therapeutic potential in treating insomnia, anxiety, and chronic pain — conditions all commonly experienced by combat veterans.

In addition to Unprescribed’s efforts to foster awareness, advocacy groups such as the Veterans Cannabis Project and the Veterans Cannabis Coalition are springing up across the U.S. Their demands? That Congress authorize doctors to make medical cannabis available to veterans, and engage in ongoing research about its benefits.

Unprescribed is currently weaving its way through film festivals in the U.S. Follow the film on twitter to find out about upcoming screenings.

The post Unprescribed: Cannabis as a treatment for veterans appeared first on Flowertown.

As most of the country just got buried in a winter storm the Sunday after Thanksgiving, it appears as though there’s no two ways about it: Winter is here, whether you like it or not.

And, unlike Jon Snow, we know a thing or two. Especially about how to keep your skin healthy and happy during these harsh, dry winter months where you’re either huddled indoors or exposed to the elements in your outdoor adventures.

So we made a list of our favorite cannabis products for skincare that are especially helpful during this upcoming winter (and could make a good stocking stuffer or two, if we’re being honest).

The post FT Favorites: Three products your skin needs this winter appeared first on Flowertown.

Finding the right legal dispensary in Southern California can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Here are some of the top dispensaries that are great to visit with your skeptical folks, your stubborn aunt with back pain, friends from out of town, or just for some good holiday cheer.

Coast to Coast Collective

Opened in June of 2014, Coast to Coast Collective has five years of experience in the evolving cannabis industry, which makes their staff knowledgeable and helpful. The clean, modern aesthetic feels like you’re walking into a top-notch electronic store with well-lit display cases featuring just about every product you can think of. Coast to Coast offers up to 30 strains cultivated and cured from in-house master growers and cultivators under the name 3C Farms. Located in Canoga Park, in the San Fernando Valley, Coast to Coast is easy to get to and has ample amounts of parking in back. There’s a 15 percent discount for first-time shoppers, and daily deals are posted on the website.

Cornerstone Collective

In these days of mass retail cannabis, it’s refreshing to find a patient-focused collective. Cornerstone Collective has been providing patients with cannabis products and education since 2007. The staff pride themselves on being research and evidence-based when it comes to curating products, which means they’re very educated and more than willing to have a one-on-one discussion about your needs and how best to meet them. If you’re looking for an informative visit, and a variety of products focused on healing and wellness, this is a good stop. Cornerstone’s smaller size means you’ll get personal attention from the budtender, so you’ll be sure to get the goodies you’re looking for. Cornerstone Collective is in the Glendale/Eagle Rock area. First-time shoppers receive 15 percent off their total purchase.

The Kind Center

If you’re in Hollywood looking for merriment this holiday season, The Kind Center is full of great deals to stock up on. It offers great daily deals on certain types of products, and promotions like Munchie Monday (10 percent off edibles) or No Tax Thursday, which covers the tax portion of your bill (around 20 percent). Located in the heart of Hollywood, there are plenty of places near The Kind Center to explore after your visit — and if you’re staying in the area, delivery is available through the website. There’s a 15 percent off first-time discount, and if you visit on a Saturday, you can spin a deal wheel for prizes!

Bud and Bloom

If you find yourself in Santa Ana, or near Orange County, you have to stop by Bud and Bloom. It was named one of the most beautiful dispensaries by Leafly, and for good reason — its high ceilings, dark wood and brick decor are gorgeous. Bud and Bloom’s staff is super friendly, and products are displayed right in front of you so you can browse freely, and actually handle items, while budtenders guide you. There’s also an educational space for seminars and community talks with industry professionals and community members. First-time shoppers get 25 percent off, and there are daily deals with up to 20 percent off. All medical patients, seniors, veterans and students receive a 10 percent discount.

Look for more about where to find legal dispensaries near you on Flowertown.com.

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There’s a lot of evidence supporting the multitude of therapeutic uses of CBD. There’s even a FDA-approved CBD medication, Epidiolex, for epilepsy. But there’s also uncertainty surrounding long-term effects of CBD use, as well as the impact of consumption in conjunction with other supplements and medications. And when it comes to the interaction between CBD and birth control, there’s still plenty we don’t know. So what’s definitive?

What is CBD?

CBD or cannabidiol is a non-intoxicating cannabinoid, or chemical compound, found in the cannabis plant.

Usage/Potential Side Effects

CBD can be used to treat anxiety and manage pain, amongst innumerable other ailments—from seizures to arthritis, to so much more. But unlike THC, the cannabinoid responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis, you won’t feel intoxicated when consuming CBD. The WHO (World Health Organization) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence concluded that, in its pure state, “cannabidiol does not appear to have abuse potential or cause harm.” You could, however, experience dry mouth, fatigue or diarrhea when using CBD, and in some rare cases, it has been thought to cause liver damage.

According to available data —which is minimal — there could be adverse effects with the coadministration of CBD and certain birth controls. Specifically, contraceptives containing estrogen or Ethinyl estradiol, (synthetic estrogen) which includes most birth controls, may have some adverse effects when used with CBD.

Interactions

The interaction between CBD and estrogen could theoretically decrease the effectiveness of the contraception, decrease the elimination of cannabis from the body, and cause drowsiness, as well as breakthrough bleeding.

Progesterone-only contraception, such as the Depo-Provera shot, may be a more effective option when consuming CBD.

The decreased efficacy of birth control in combination with CBD could be exacerbated by using tobacco products. This is keeping in mind that the dual usage of contraception with tobacco in itself has proven to decrease efficacy of the former, as well as increasing the risk of a number of health issues.

Possibility vs. Likelihood

It’s worth noting that, while examining the warning labels of contraceptives, you’ll find exhaustive lists of possible negative side effects. This includes everything from bleeding gums to ocular discomfort to sun sensitivity. The popular pill-form contraceptive Yaz warns “Keep out of the sun. […] Do not use sun lamps or tanning beds/booths”. Does everyone experience these negative reactions? No. Do most users experience negative reactions? No. But, for good reason, these warnings must exist.

Conclusion

Currently, there isn’t enough information to make a definitive statement. There are some isolated studies, but nothing is conclusive yet. While current evidence suggests that the use of CBD with birth control decreases the contraceptive’s performance, there’s no information on how prevalent this effect is. If the potency is decreased by .05%, that’s a big difference from a decrease of 20%. We don’t have the answer yet. But it is advised that if you’re a regular user of CBD, you should either use a progesterone-only contraceptive and/or use condoms.

The post Does cannabis affect my birth control? appeared first on Flowertown.

On a foggy Monday morning, I settled into a velvet emerald chair and admired the ornate ceiling of the historic Giannini building in downtown LA, now the trendy Nomad hotel. I sat across from Nicole Fox to talk about her new brand, Aeon Botanika. A “cannabis-inspired wellness company,” Aeon Botanika is an ambitious vision including a retail store and one of the first consumption lounges in West Hollywood.

Nicole Fox has been a staple in the industry since 2003 and founded early Los Angeles collectives like The Green Goddess and The Higher Path. As CEO and founder of Aeon Botanika, her hope now is to provide cannabis options as a part of a complete wellness program. She envisions her retail store not just as a one-stop cannabis shop, but a holistic wellness store where you can also get products that enhance whatever you are seeking from cannabis. The new location will provide integrative medical services, a health cafe, and an onsite consumption lounge.

“This is such a nutritionist-approved meal,” Nicole observes before diving in. Before cannabis, Fox specialized in improving health through customized regimens based on blood testing. Now, she incorporates cannabis as part of a complete wellness strategy for clients. An integrative dietitian with a functional medicine focus, Nicole Fox has a different take on cannabis than many execs in the industry who are in it for the green (money, that is). Her motto is not only to do well but to do good. As we enjoyed cauliflower soups and citrus salads, we talked about what that motto truly means.

Sarah

Tell me a bit about Aeon Botanika’s vision. How do you see Aeon Botanika redefining cannabis?

Nicole

Our mission for our company is to shift how the world views plant medicine, inspire true self-care, and foster a connection with everyone Aeon Botanika touches. We aim to reposition cannabis as a wellness product for people who want to find and try low dose cannabis products. I think we’re in a great place to do that because I am an integrative dietician. I’m the only health care professional in California to have founded a dispensary so far to date. Over the years, I’ve helped a lot of clients incorporate cannabis into their health and wellness routine –from older people needing to increase their appetite, to women that want to lose weight after years of stress eating. For instance, with the clients who stress ate after a long day with the kids, I’d suggest replacing the bag of M&Ms with a specific strain of cannabis that’s not going to give you “the munchies” (make you hungry). Use that to manage your anxiety instead of food or alcohol or shopping or all the not-great things people do to destress. Cannabis can be a safer alternative–like a form of harm reduction.

Sarah

How did your healthcare experience play into your brand creation?

Nicole

As dietitians, we’re health educators by nature. I have a Master’s in Public Health from UCLA, so the biggest part of what I bring from my training is that I was taught to always move toward educating people from an evidence basis. So really looking at what’s in peer-reviewed scientific literature around health and wellness, rather than anecdotal evidence. 15 years ago when I opened my first dispensary, there was very little published literature around the endocannabinoid system and health. So providing information based on solid evidence is the bottom line to your question.

Sarah

That’s a great distinction to make in an industry that relies heavily on anecdotal evidence. From my understanding, the concept of Aeon Botanika is to restructure the cannabis retail experience as we know it. What are some of the ways you plan on doing this?

Nicole

Everything in our store will be arranged by health goals. At most other retailers, everything is arranged by ingestion type, like edibles and flower. For us, we’ll have different health goals that the products are organized around, like sleep, digestion, pain, etc. We’ll have not only cannabis products but also a highly curated selection of wellness products. We’ll recommend a strain or tincture, but we’ll also recommend you take this probiotic or that digestive tea. It will be like a modern integrative pharmacy to buy cannabis and other products that are all in one beautiful ecosystem.

Sarah

I love that you are using cannabis as an adjunct therapy. It’s not a fix-all. Real change happens with lifestyle choices that may include cannabis.

Nicole

Exactly. We are also going to have a wellness center, with a nurse practitioner or an integrative medical doctor consulting people, along with other holistic health practitioners. It follows that whole line of thought–that cannabis doesn’t solve everything. Take pain, for example. Somebody can’t just rub some topical on their injury or smoke some indica and think it’s all going to be better. They also need to stretch and exercise or even receive bodywork. In our wellness center, we’ll have master bodyworkers who can provide myofascial release massaged with a Papa and Barkley’s balm. That can open up your whole back and the pain goes away. So I really believe in the whole services and product ecosystem.

Sarah

And what’s your plan with the on-site consumption lounge?

Nicole

It will be a Moroccan-inspired lounge because I love Morocco and I wanted something unique. We’ll serve complimentary fresh mint rose tea, with coconut sugar instead of regular sugar. We’re going to have table service with cannabis sommeliers. You can get food–we’ll have a full menu for people to nosh on. Our Master Botanikists (cannabis sommeliers) will come around and help educate people about the cannabis products we offer. They’ll sit down with them, have a conversation, and help them dial in the best options based on their level of experience.

Sarah

What was the application process like for your retail store and lounge?

Nicole

Applying for a consumption lounge in West Hollywood was a competitive merit-based process. Over 300 companies applied for 8 retail licenses, 8 full lounge licenses (what we have), and 8 edible only lounge licenses. So there are actually 16 lounges in total. About 25 percent of that application was dedicated to your community engagement strategy, describing how you were going to give back the city. Because that’s what West Hollywood is all about. I remember reading that criterion on the application and thinking “that it is us!” We didn’t have to make it up just for the application.

Sarah

Right, because Aeon Botanika is also about social impact. How do you envision your company, and cannabis in general, benefiting the community?

Nicole

I think that the cannabis industry has the ability to affect major national and global change. If every cannabis company agreed to give 1 percent of its revenue to specific causes, we could make such a difference. For me, it’s not enough to just do well; it’s also important to do good in the world. I’ve been involved in the Conscious Capitalism movement for about five years and a lot of my business model is based on it.

I think of Aeon Botanika as being an activist company. I’m in the business of helping people change their lives and that also means people that can’t necessarily afford our products. Now with the Compassionate Care Act, we’re going to create a fund where we will have a certain amount of cannabis products that we give to people who need it but can’t afford it. In addition, we’re planning to gather a percentage of our profits from each store and use it to support local non-profits where we can measure and report on impact, not just money donated.

Aeon Botanika will be opening its doors in West Hollywood Spring 2020. Stay informed on their upcoming launches and events at aeonbotanika.com or www.instagram.com/aeonbotanika.

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Originally called Armistice Day in 1919, then-President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the holiday to memorialize the end of World War 1. After being made a legal holiday in 1926, and then expanded to include all veterans, not just those that served in WWI, the day was officially renamed as Veteran’s Day on June 1st, 1954, becoming the holiday we celebrate today.

The American relationship with its military and particularly its veterans is convoluted, to say the least. As one of the most powerful militaries on the planet, American military pride is often baked into nationalist sentiment, often at odds with the “peacemaker” perception that is so pervasive domestically. But while Americans love to proclaim their love and respect for those that make the sacrifice, the systems in place to help those that have suffered the most in the name of our country are afterthoughts– sorely under-funded and unable to provide support for the country’s most vulnerable.

Flower Co. Veterans Day Semper Hi

Our first recommendation is Flower Co.’s Veteran’s Day special, their Semper Hi pack of pre-rolls. Available in packs of 6 or 12, these half-gram pre-rolls are a special Veteran’s Day blend of flower strains GG4 and Purple Punch. By combining the euphoric, anti-anxiety effects of GG4 and the bodily relief of the Purple Punch, Semper Hi offers a balanced effect perfect for any veteran’s aches and worries. The best part about Flower Co. however, is their ongoing US Military Veteran’s Free Annual Membership Program. In partnership with the Veteran’s Cannabis Group of California, Flower Co. offers their annual membership (which normally costs $120 for the year) absolutely free for any verified veteran. The membership includes speedy 2-day delivery, and a whopping 40% discount, basically wholesale, on all products.

Dr. Norms Chocolate Chip Cookie 10mg

The perennial gold standard in edibles, Dr. Norms is run by a brother-sister team. Bringing together the lessons from their mother’s secret cookie recipe and their well-loved father’s medical career, they made Dr. Norms Cookies, one of the most consistent edible brands to date. We’re recommending the stock-standard 10mg chocolate chip here, but they also come in a vegan-friendly peanut butter flavor, as wells as dosage options like 5mg THC, 1:1 10mg of both THC and CBD, or pure 15mg CBD. Honestly, the infused part is just a bonus, the cookies are pretty great as is.

Kikoko Positivi-Tea

In a world of gummies, cookies, and vapes, infused tea stands out as one of the few cannabis ingestion methods that resembles the slow, meditational ritual of flower. Unlike many of the modern pop-and-go options, you’ll have to boil some water, steep the tea bag, but you’ll be rewarded with an inimitable cup of hot, sippable tea. The Positivi-Tea line is a mint green tea with a 2:1 THC to CBD ratio, the mint and caffeine great for adding an energy-kick for a day off or time with family and friends. If you’re looking for something a little lower key, Kikoko also offers their Sympa-Tea line, which contains only 3mg THC to 20mg CBD, which can be better if you’re tackling specific pain or anxiety. A useful tip: the bags are not totally spent after one use and can be used for subsequent brews. They’ll be lighter in potency, but we’ve found it useful for getting a couple extra, easy-going cups out of each bag.

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