TRURO, N.S. — In her heyday, Diane Kerr was a hippy who smoked pot in the Swinging Sixties.
Fifty years on, chronic arthritis means that she is once again using cannabis – but as a medicine to ease the pain.
“This is a plant created in our world and I believe that plants have special gifts to give us,” said Kerr, who lives in Great Village.
Wanting to learn more about such medicinal gifts, Kerr attended the Seedy Saturday workshop in Truro on Feb. 23, where cultivation expert Av Singh taught several dozen attendees how to grow cannabis plants.
The ingredient that helps soothe Kerr’s arthritis is CBD oil, which is often used to relieve pain and seizures, but is currently sold out at NSLC stores as demand surged across Nova Scotia after cannabis was legalized last year.
However, Nova Scotia allows people over 19 to grow up to four plants at home, which Kerr and her husband Russell wish to do.
Kerr said CBD oil from the plant’s leaves can easily be mixed into a smoothie to ease her chronic pain.
“I don’t want to take anti-pain medications, because I don’t trust them and I think they’re very addictive,” said Kerr.
Singh, who co-owns Flemming and Singh Cannabis Inc. in Wolfville, drew on his organic farming expertise to show people how to grow their own cannabis at home.
“We’ve all lost people to cancer and we’ve all seen people go through pain and illness,” said Singh. “Knowing this medicine was available and the government, academics and police forces have kept it away from us is definitely a crime against humanity. Now we’ve unleashed this amazing medicine.”
According to Singh, many organic farmers quietly grew cannabis on the side during the decades of prohibition in Canada, often for medical use.
According to Singh, demand for medicinal cannabis products was boosted across northern Nova Scotia by Amherst resident Rick Simpson, who claimed to have cured his own cancer using hemp oil.
“A large population was really waiting for legal weed,” Singh told the Truro News. “They were not negative about cannabis, but they did not want to partake in something that was deemed illegal.”
When asked why he entered the cannabis industry, Singh mentioned his Indian Hindu ancestry, saying the drug is used in many religious rituals and most notably by devotees of the god Shiva. Many of these devotees consume the substance as ‘bhang lassi’, a cannabis-based milkshake.
Singh said that cannabis is also part of India’s traditional ayurvedic medicine, where it is used to treat ailments like high blood pressure.
“For many Hindus, ayurvedic medicine is essentially a spiritual medicine,” said Singh. “Cannabis is one of the [most] revered plants in the Hindu philosophy and it has been used for thousands of years.”
Seedy Saturday ran at the Douglas Street Recreation Centre on Feb. 23.
The four-hour event consisted of a series of workshops covering topics from low-maintenance gardening to growing mushrooms, as well as a seminar on preventing tick bites and Lyme disease.
SIDEBAR – TIPS FOR SAFELY GROWING LEGAL WEED
Cannabis is a pretty finnicky plant.
And marijuana expert Dr. Av Singh would know, having put his organic farming experience to use in teaching people on how best to grow plants.
“It’s a plant that says to the grower, ‘if you don’t know what to do, I will stop growing for you’,” said Singh.
For best results, growers should use unfertilized female plants, but leaves from male ones still have medicinal properties.
For those wishing to grow legal weed, Singh gave the following advice:
- Growers can legally grow up to four plants at home, but for renters this is dependent on prior approval from landlords. Any plants must be kept away from minors.
- Growers should keep their plants in a secure location that will not invite theft or unwanted attention, such as away from streetside windows and front yards.
- Cannabis plants need plenty of water for growth, but must not be over-watered and should be kept at a temperature of 22 to 28 degrees Celsius.
- While new growers use soil, more experienced ones use a ‘hydroponic’ mix of water and dissolved fertilizer and use special tents or rooms with ventilation.
- For a cannabis plant to grow properly, it needs 18 hours of light per day, be it natural or artificial. When light is cut back to 12 hours, growth stops and the plant will flower.
- When stressed by lack of water, nutrients, or other factors needed for good health the plants can become hermaphrodites, showing both male and female traits. Such plants will not yield a good-quality product.
