CBD Shopping Tips, Cannabis + Parenting & Much More
Check Out This Chat I Had with The Lovely Mary Jade of HoneySuckle Magazine
Q: Why did you pick The Cannabis Cutie as your name?
A: For me it was an act of defiance, embracing finally that I am an attractive woman, and I’m going to use it as a weapon in my arsenal. I don’t need to hide this part of myself anymore.
Q: How do you feel about the legalization efforts we’re seeing in my state of New Jersey and other places?
A: Well, I believe in NJ it’s on the backside of the ballot, and most people don’t even know there’s a backside! But you have to look at the neighboring states of New York and Pennsylvania, who don’t have legalized adult-use yet. If NJ legalizes, it’s going to bring them an influx of people and cash from those states, and it’s going to essentially force NY & PA to play ball—because in this economy, the last thing these states want is to lose people, businesses, and income.
That’s why I believe NJ is THE state to watch with this election, because it’s going to affect that whole area.
But also, if they don’t have decriminalization and reparations for the War on Drugs worked into the legislation, they’re missing the point. Historically in this country, promising reparations after the legislation passes doesn’t work, it never comes. So it really needs to be worked in now.
Q: What are some organizations or ways you can recommend for people to advocate for decriminalization?
A: I’d recommend checking out The Last Prisoner Project, and also reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. There’s such important information in there that you can use to just start conversations.
Ask questions like, why if you have a legal cannabis market are people still being arrested for something that’s legal? And it happens to skew towards groups that are poor or live in low-income communities. People that live in suburbs are using cannabis at the same rates, but the police aren’t going to the suburbs and policing them the same way.
It’s the State’s job to be protecting you if they give you this right to cannabis. It’s completely contradictory that it can be legal and still parents can be taken away from their families and whole generations can be affected.
Q: Another issue is the limitations they have on how much you can buy & the price points.
A: Yes, the limitation of an eighth that you can buy at once is ridiculous. For most people with chronic pain, especially think about athletes who are not using opioids, but just cannabis, to manage their pain—an eighth won’t even get them through the day. They’re so quick to put these limitations on cannabis, but where are the same limitations on opioids?
And when an ounce can cost anywhere from $400-$600, you have to ask who is the target market for this medical cannabis? These price points make medical cannabis inaccessible to the inner-city, and to the middle class.
It definitely shows that the people creating these laws don’t have an understanding. Putting a limitation on cannabis is useless because you can’t have a deadly overdose on cannabis. Also how can you be sure that a given patient has the amount of receptor sites needed so that that amount of cannabis can accommodate them for a whole month?
There’s clearly a lack of understanding of the science and biology when it comes to these laws. I believe it’s Illinois who has different pricing & taxes depending on the THC content. This is hilarious—it’s like taxing one strawberry for being more red than another strawberry.
It makes no sense. Especially when you consider that CBN and Delta-8 are legal many places, it’s all so contradictory. And it should be illegal for these lawmakers to make laws that affect peoples’ health when they don’t even fully understand the medicine.
Q: I also get asked a lot about the fact that it’s legal here for patients to medicate outside their home, anywhere smoking is legal. And people always bring up the issue of being publicly intoxicated.
A: Right, but it’s no different than taking insulin or heart medication or anything else someone needs to make it through the day. And why is it that an officer can tell me how to medicate myself or heal my body?
Q: What should people be looking for when they’re purchasing CBD? Aside from, obviously, not purchasing it at a gas station.
A: Yes, don’t ever do that! You want to make sure your CBD has a COA, which means there’s a Certificate of Analysis that shows what’s in your CBD—and stay away from anything with heavy metals.
Hemp is a bioremediator, which means it takes all of the heavy metals, toxins & even radiation out of the soil and sequesters it inside the plant material. So some people will grow hemp to clean their soil, and then make oil and sell it!
Also make sure that the COA matches the actual company name because sometimes they use fake ones.
And if you’re not having any success with isolates, find some CBD with terpenes or other cannabinoids added, at least 1 mg of THC. Because you have this plant with hundreds of cannabinoids, flavonoids & terpenes, and when you just take out one and ask it to do everything the plant can normally do, it just doesn’t always work.
Q: Let’s talk for a minute about terpenes. I tell people all the time about how different terpene profiles affect the outcome. Do you have any specific terpenes that you lean toward for certain uses?
A: There’s a terpene I try to stay away from during the day, and it’s limonene. Typically limonene gives people energy, but for whatever reason it makes me lethargic.
But my favorite terpene is myrcene. It helps me with my high anxiety & high energy. Myrcene helps me calm down enough to focus. It’s like a deep breath. For many people though, it can be highly sedative.
You can also start to use your nose and recognize that cirtus-smelling weed makes you feel a certain way. You don’t need to know the names, just pay attention to the smells.
It’s so important for you to be your own scientist & track how different strains and consumption methods make you feel. That’s why I’m a big fan of Goldleaf’s cannabis journals.
Q: What do you prefer THC for?
A: I’m a big fan of THC for parenting. I’m so much more into cartoons and imaginative worlds when I use THC. It also helps me post-workout, for pain, and to help me sleep.
Q: What do you think of THC-infused tampons? I make them myself.
A: In the UK they actually sell those! They also sell CBD-infused tampons. Infused tampons or suppositories can knock out menstrual pain in just a few minutes because most of your body’s CB1 receptors, if you’re a woman, are on your uterus!
Q: I also just use cannabis a lot when going for long hikes. It helps me to free my mind.
A: Yes, I think a lot of people discount cannabis for spiritual practice, but it’s part of what connected me back into being a more positive, spiritual person, and helped me to be more at peace. Cannabis history is rich with religious sacrament as well, so I believe it’s intended to be used that way too.
Q: Do you ever take tolerance breaks to gain clarity or perspective?
A: I should probably do more T-breaks than I do. I last did one in 2018, and the whole time I was annoyed. It was so I could pass a drug test for my life insurance. I took a 4-day break and I still tested the maximum!
They are necessary though to reset your receptors. It’s recommended that you break for at least 72 hours, and then when you smoke again, you only smoke until you’re high & then you stop. You have to ease back into it the first few days.
Q: Let’s talk about cannabis and parenting.
A: It’s funny because I wish my mother had smoked when we were growing up because she was always stressed to the max raising two twins as a single mother. And I think it would’ve helped her to be more tolerant, I know it helps me.
I’m very open with my kids about this plant and what it’s used for. My daughter has watched a cannabis plant grow from a seed next to her herb and pepper plants. So she understands that it’s not evil, and she understands the medicinal benefits for Mommy and many others.
The only thing I don’t do is get intoxicated when my children are present. And for me, intoxicated means taking edibles where I’ll be incapacitated.
Q: Why do you think there’s such a stigma against being “high”?
A: So many people who’ve never been high have been taught that getting high fries your brain. You remember the commercials: “this is your brain on drugs.”
I thought the same thing, so I didn’t touch cannabis until I got to college. And it took me getting a 0.8 GPA my freshman year, and seeing the pothead on my floor getting a 3.6 GPA. It really made me start to question that conditioning.
And the more you learn, you start to understand that a Runner’s High and a THC high are basically the same damn thing. They feel the same.
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