What's the Deal with Weed

Hello my pint-sized party of perusers (Jury is out on whether or not 'Perusers' is a word because google was very undecided). I have been amiss in my writing and for that I apologize. I have a thousand rough drafts waiting to be edited and published and without further ado, this begins my blogging once more.

As per usual, I want to start with a little disclaimer. I am not an expert, nor will I ever claim to be. I am simply a person with an opinion. I do my best to research but, I can't cover all my bases no matter how hard I try. I welcome kind corrections, but will definitely delete dancing dickwaffles who are simply out to fight a stranger on the internet. Do your own research, form your own opinions, and if you want to have a discussion don't be a dickwaffle.

I am launching straight into the spicy topics. Fair warning, this is going to ramble a tad bit and has not been outlined like some of my other articles. I want to talk about the world we live in currently as a disabled, bisexual, 24 year old, woman in the United States. Those identifiers are mainly there to give you some background that I don't feel like going into currently, simply because it's only relevance is in how each identifier has impacted my view point.

Today, and increasingly often, my social media feed has been full of people calling others to action. There are hundreds of people in our country that are speaking out about the changes we are currently undergoing. I personally, have not kept up with everything that has been going on. I simply can't. I try to stay as current as possible, but my day to day living typically takes priority over what some asshat in DC is doing. And when I say asshat I'm being general. I know that Trump is being an asshat, but so are 90% of the people around him or against him. Again, since I am not up to date on much of the decisions being made, I am just gonna stick to some specific topics and my thoughts on those topics.

First off, I live in Texas and right now the Texas government is on a crusade to ban all forms of THC. Legal or not, they want it gone. I work full time in a vape shop. This is my one and only paycheck. I am unable to find work almost anywhere else that works with my disability so well. I barely make enough to live and up until recently, I wasn't even part time and literally couldn't not afford to live. I have relied on my mother for most of my bills and housing over the last 8 months. If the Senate Bill 3 is passed my entire way of living is going to go away. I highly doubt I will be able to work full time, if we don't get shut down that is. The bill has passed in the Senate and the House is set to vote on it later. I have done minimal research and will mainly be referring to the official statement Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has up on his website.

A direct quote from our lovely Lt. Gov. is as follows, "I named SB 3 a major legislative initiative of mine because I will not allow retailers to circumvent the law and put Texans', and especially children's lives in danger." Pretty aggressive for a drug that both the DEA.gov website and the National Library of Medicine say has never caused a death from that specific substance. Sure they both are quick to tell you that your chance of death through a motor vehicle accident or some other incident that wouldn't exactly benefit from a lack of motor function are higher but, neither of the government sources say that THC can kill you, even when you overdose. And then there is Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's claim that "these stores which often target children with their marketing" are spreading dangerous THC products through communities. To that I say, fuck off.

Oh and when I say fuck off, what I really mean is, fuck off personally, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. I don't know what stores he's been in recently but there is this whole thing about selling to underage kids being illegal and shit. Oh and if we really want to talk about who markets to kids let's look at the differences between Geek Bars, the leading disposable nicotine vape brand and some of the THC brands I know and love. Geek Bars come in pretty colors with super sweet and fruity flavors. Most of my customers who are over 40 lament that there isn't more variety in flavors that don't feel like you ate the entire bag of Halloween candy. They have bright and shiny wrap around LED screens that light up to tell you just how much nicotine is left in your handy dandy disposable. Or what about those flavors called Slush or gummy. Those seem pretty marketed towards kids, specifically female kids. Now, the THC disposables don't have LED screens, they are neutral colors like Mellow Fellow and pretty discreet like the 21 cannabis brand that is designed to look like a USB drive. Sure, those colorful boxes like Dozo or Pressure seem like they market towards kids but you don't see energetic ads for legal THC gummies or vapes. You see adults in their 30's popping a gummy and zoning out on the couch or you see billboards that tell you it's time to pick up Granny's gummies.

So, not actually marketed towards kids and not actually dangerous. Geez, Lt. Gov. Dan is 0 for 2 right now. So what about his 3rd accusation, "These rogue retailers are selling THC products containing several times more THC content than marijuana purchased from a drug dealer off the street." After some quick 20 minute researching, I can say that this accusation is also pretty bullshit. So, the big hype is over THCA and THCp. THCA for those who don't know, is a naturally occurring cannabinoid that is the base form found in the plant. Once heated it turns into THC. Although, not all THCA turns into THC. THCp is a little trickier. So, it is naturally occurring in the hemp plant and was discovered in 2019. The problem is that it is found in such tiny quantities naturally that it is damn near impossible to extract enough of it from the plant to use. So, some clever scientists have found that you can make it from CBD. They start with CBD and use a process of solvents and acids to form the same chemical compound that is found in the natural plant. It is considered synthetic since it has to go through these processes, but news flash, that shit is better done in a lab than by joe blow on the street.

The THC of the products sold in the stores verses the ones sold on the streets isn't the issue here. The issue comes from the guarantee of safety. I don't know about you but I trust the company that sells product to a bunch of stores and has government goons regulating them out the ass than your cousin bobby who swears he's the only one who has touched the little baggie of weed he's handing you. Now, I have never bought "illegal" weed. I just stick to my legal THC and it suits me fine. I don't smoke flower or prerolls. I stick with my vapes and gummies. I can tell you that I have taken too much at times and regretted it the next day. I have laid on the floor wishing the room would stop spinning and watched as a friend had a panic attack triggered by the half a gummy mixed with her med. I won't say it is without it's downsides.

THC like any other vice has it's drawbacks. But we aren't hearing Lt. Gov. Dan calling for a ban of nicotine and alcohol. Until he decides to grow up and realize that there are more dangerous things about alcohol and nicotine than THC then we are screwed. He will crusade for the children of Texas who aren't in danger from this. He will continue to say it is what Texans want and need without actually listening to the Texans in front of him.

Now, I want to talk about the upsides of THC and what Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is trying to strip from us. THC isn't used just for a fun night on the couch with some movies and munchies. This is a mediation to some people. I am not talking about the FDA approved medication which is not tested for THC content. I am talking about woman who only started to take gummies in her 50's because she couldn't sleep at night. She had tried prescription medications and hated how they made her feel. She started using Delta 8 gummies every night and she sleeps like a baby, with no side effects to boot. The couple that I just spoke to last week were thankful for the THC gummies and balms. One had insomnia and needed only a little bit of the gummy to drift of to sleep. The other used the balm for nerve pain after a surgery. The sweet older couple who are in their 70's would come in every once in a while for a restock. They would get our full spectrum cbd gummies since just the broad spectrum wasn't enough but our full thc products were too much. They loved our roll on cream that helped with their arthritis and the husband had an old knee injury and was so thankful he had our full spectrum warming balm to help with the excruciating pain.

I spoke to someone 2 weeks ago and I won't forget him. He was in a horrible car wreck and it had crushed his legs. The doctors had repaired everything the best they could but told him he would most likely need to be on fentanyl and other strong opioids in order to handle the pain of living every day. He had started using THC gummies shortly after they told him that. He is not on any opioids and he isn't in pain every day. He still gets moments of pain and there are days where even the thc doesn't help enough but he was so grateful that he had the option of THC to turn to instead of the addiction that awaiting him at the hands of well meaning doctors.

I personally have been using CBD or THC for almost 4 years now. I started using it for my tourett's. At the time we didn't know that's what it was. I was simply having painful muscle spasms every single day and hitting myself or others uncontrollably. Doctor's can't and won't prescribe medication until they have a concrete answer for your symptoms. This meant months of waiting and testing before I was finally put on a med that didn't work. Wanna know what does work? THC. Once my Tourrett's was under control for the most part I started using it as a catch all. It became my emergency medication for panic attacks, nerve pain, insomnia, migraines, and so much more. I still use it to manage my pain, my insomnia, and to help me eat. I tend to have extremely severe reactions and side effects to medications. I have to be on several medications for my Narcolepsy and they make me hate the idea of eating. When I get home and hit my THC vape, I want to eat. It helps me not starve myself. My balm that I use for my excruciating nerve pain has been my godsend. I would have spent much more time writhing in pain in an ER waiting room if I didn't have THC.

This. This is what Lt. Govenor Dan Patrick is trying to take away from us. He is trying to take away our health. He is trying to take away our options. He is trying to take away our autonomy. If he gave one single iota of a rats ass about the children of Texas then he would be pushing for plain packaging laws or he would try to ban nicotine which has proven damaging effects. Don't let his rhetoric fool you. People who genuinely care for others find solutions. They don't take away options.

If you live in the state of Texas, I call you to email your Representative. I will link the correct pages to go to so you can find who represents you in the Texas House (https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home)

You don't need to do a long drawn out email and swearing or insults will get us no where when it comes to asking for things. As rude as I am here on this blog, I do try to be respectful when speaking to others in real life and I ask that you do the same. No one listens to a karen. So, educate yourselves, decided on your values, and if you choose to reach out, thank you on behalf of us THC loving Texans.

Well, I think that is all for this article. I planned on ranting a hell of a lot more on some other topics but we will save that for another delightful evening. This has been your weekly, not weekly rant and I hope you join me for the next installment of "What the fuck is even happening in this Dumpster Fire".

This is Emma, your Pro Quirk, siging off.