Okay, I'm going to try. I already forget half of your question.
What I can tell you is that cannabis saved my life, for one. All the other opioids destroyed either my brain or some function, like speech. I had to learn to talk again, actually, after I was put on quetiapine, which is an anti-psychotic. Obviously, there's a place and a time for everything. Western medicine has its chance. I don't see cannabis as a western thing. It's been around for thousands of years. Nobody ever died from it. It even supplies its own antidote. If you take too much THC, take some CBD and it will bring you back to a normal level.
If people want to learn and listen, that would make my life a lot easier. I have no problem educating people, but I had to learn on my own how to manage everything, within the cannabis community, with people who have been doing it for even longer. I make my own oil. I can order it, but the big thing is, I'm being responsible in the way I use it.
When I came back from Afghanistan, all the pills and all that destroyed my liver. My thyroid was shot. It took years to get everything back up. It saved my life in that respect. I can be a dad, not a zombie on the couch who doesn't want to do anything—even leave the house. I think it allows me to function better. Is it perfect? No, it's not perfect, but that's my reality. It will never be perfect. Nobody would say it is perfect, but you know what I'm saying. If I didn't have it, I would be on cocktails of pills, which create suicidal thoughts. I did try in the past, you know. How can I live like this for the rest of my life? It's not a life. Cannabis gave me that option of functioning. I'm medicated right now. I can talk to you without stuttering too much, because it inhibits my stuttering. In that sense.... I don't know, I can function as a normal person.
I do want to mention Dr. Walsh's point on combining with treatment. I completely agree with that. It should be combined with some treatment. I went to Camp My Way in B.C., which we talked about. It changed my life completely. Stop looking at it as a medication, but maybe more as a holistic approach, as with horses, dogs and this and that. It's a tool. If you look at it as a medication or drug, you need to get educated.