Treating Yourself Expo - Toronto

[+JuztBudz]

Well, I am off to Toronto tomorrow to attend the second annual Treating Yourself Expo. Marco Renda and his gang of COMPASSIONATE folks at TY have been comrades in arms for many years now, looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends and to meeting many new ones. Hopefully the meds will be better this year. I was a judge last year and wasn't all that impressed with what was presented as Canada's best. Toronto is such a sweet city, so much to see in those few short hours. Hope to see some of my Michigan compadre's again this year...see ya there...Peace ... j.b.

[Otter]

Have fun !!! Marco is a good man!

[Ms Chocolate]

Well, I am off to Toronto tomorrow, looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends and to meeting many new ones. Hope to see some of my Michigan compadre's again this year...see ya there...Peace ... j.b.

Hey Budz, I would have liked to hang again this year, but live is in the way. But who knows. I may hop the train and be there for Saturday. If not, bring me something back. There were some great freebies last year. Look for Linda, I believe she’s going.

[+JuztBudz]

Had a wonderful trip to Toronto, all told it is only about a 5 hour drive and the weather was most agreeable most of the trip. We left on Thursday, spent the night at my brother's home then headed up to Toronto. We got to town at about 4 p.m. after getting somewhat lost, those GPS machines are usually great, but the tall skyscrapers of the city blocks the signal quite often. We let my brother make our reservations for the hotel, he picked the Downtown Hilton. After checking in and getting into our room we headed over to the Expo. Got there just in time to listen to Dr. Robert Melamede speak. He told us that there are two types of animals on the earth, those with cannabinoid receptors and those without. Insects make up the bulk of those without such receptors. Then he went on to state that humans were divided into two subgroups which he called FLiPs and BLiPs. Flips are Forward Looking People and Blips are Backwards Looking People. The flips are folks like you and I, he used a picture of Mahatma Ghandi as an example of a FLiP, used a picture of former Vice President Cheney as a prime example of a BLiP. Of the flips many of them had had their cannabinoid systems kick started as suckling children, while most of the blips had not breast fed as children, and had not had their cannabinoid systems flooded by the cannabinoids in mothers milk.

 

To be frank, I had never looked at things from this perspective, so I learned much.

 

 

 

I ran into several of my old TY friends over the next couple of days and got to talk to many great folks. I'll go into more about these discussions in the next installment...Peace...Doug

 

 

[+JuztBudz]

Installment II - Toronto

 

Met with a member (Mike) from the BACC and went out to find a restaurant...not hard to do in downtown Toronto. We were looking for a Mexican place that my wife, Kathy, had picked out, but it wasn't where she thought that it should be so we walked a few blocks. We ended up at a nice Irish Pub and had a great meal and a couple of beers. Then we walked back to the hotel, Thank You Mike for providing the wife and I with a wonderful meal. Mike came up to our room, as it was a smoking room, and we proceeded to get totally medicated. No problems falling asleep that night.

 

We paid an additional $15 dollars for our rooms so that we could do the buffet breakfast in the a.m., it was priced at $59 for that same breakfast without the meal tickets. There were so many items to choose from, one could have gone back to the buffet 3 times and not come back with the same items.

 

We were just finishing up breakfast when my brother and nephew got to the hotel, having travelled to Toronto early Saturday morning. We grabbed a cab up to the Expo site and spent the day visiting the booths, there were several breeders booths to peruse including companies like Serious Seeds, Island Seeds from Vancouver and the Toronto and Niagra Falls Seed Banks. There were also several start up companies like The Cali Connection who were plying their new strains. There were also many booths manned by doctors who would assist patients in getting their recommendations. Presently there are only about 3,000 patients throughout all of Canada, quite a contrast to the nearly 100,000 here in Michigan alone. My brother runs the Advanced Nutrients Canasuer nutrients and spend a lot of his day finding out all he could from their representatives. He is completely changing his regime, still using the AN nutes, but much more smartly than he ever did in the past, likely saving half of what he was spending. He ended up buying a bottle of every nutrient and additive for the cannasuer line for about $750 Canadian. ($800 U.S.). He figures that this will be enough for 3 complete runs of about 25 plants each. ... Peace

 

 

[+JuztBudz]

Got to meet and talk with Alyson Myrdon, she is an ex prison guard who works closely with LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition). Positively one of the busiest activists in the country (US) and she knows quite of few of the activists from Michigan. Then came what is the highlight of my weekend, sitting and talking with Irvin Rosenfeld, author, stock broker and one of the remaining 5 patients from the US Federal Medical Marijuana Program. Born with a disease that causes his bones to add additional boney material to his body he survived years of surgeries that removed the additional boney material(Multiple Congenital Cartilaginous Exostosis). The pain that he lived with as a boy and young man was incredible, and he took the usual plethora of pain meds. Then, in college, he was persuaded to smoke cannabis, to become part of the crowd, but to his surprise (and chagrin, as he was very anti recreational drugs, of any type) the cannabis relieved his pain without all of the side effects that came with his regular pain meds. And so, he went on a campaign to find a way to become the second federally legal cannabis user. It took years of work, but eventually he convinced the government to send him 300 pre-rolled joints a month.

 

Mr. Rosenfeld has been an activist ever since and has travelled all over the world promoting the paliative properties of cannabis therapy. He came to Michigan and testified on our (all patients) behalf when the legislature was looking into the medical feasability of cannabis. I firmly believe that his testimony was very important to winning the support that we had when the law passed. I thanked him profusely for what he had done for the (now) tens of thousands of patients who needed this alternative. He stated that the Michigan presentation was one of his best, that minds were changed by that testimony.

 

Over the past couple of days I have read Irv's book, "My Medicine - How I Convinced the U.S. Government to Provide My Marijuana and Helped Launch a National Movement". Published by Open Archive Press, copyright 2010. With forwards by Mitch Earlywind, Ph.D. and Juan Sanchez-Ramos, Ph.D., M.D. It tells the entire story of his trials as a child, young man, and as an activist. Well written and an engrossing read, I recommend it to one and all.

 

 

 

All in all it was a most informative and enjoyable trip to Toronto. I managed to pick up a few new genetics for us, made new contacts that will be invaluable to the club and it's members. Will be going back next year (if they still allow me in the country)...lol...

 

 

 

Peace and Respect y'all ... j.b.

 

 

 

p.s. picked up Larry's O.G. Kush, Chem 4 O.G. Kush from the Cali Connection, Ice Cream from the folks at Serious Seeds and was gifted Dream Police from a rep from a new company, Crazy Diamond Seeds.

[Afi]

That is so cool. I am glad you had a safe and fun trip. So they allow Mi med cards in Canada or did you have to know someone to get meds? I went to Toronto a few years ago and it was easy to find meds but everything I found was just mediocre as well. I am going to have to make sure I make it next year.

Peace, Afi

[+JuztBudz]

Afi, as a carded medical patient I was allowed to utilize the "Worlds largest vapor lounge" but had to supply my own medicine. Fortunately, most of my family in Canada is involved in the business of supplying patients with their meds, so I had no problem getting meds. As I have stated before, the meds that were being judged in the TY Cup weren't all that great, and once again, my brothers strains (Trainwreck, amongst others) were much better than the 16 strains they judged this year. Other TY members were really into the hashish that is available on the streets of Toronto, but once again, I've had better made right here in Michigan. Right now I am smoking some hash made from Jack Frost strain, it is a full melt hash that I'll be hard pressed not to use up in the next few days...lol...Peace

[Afi]

I hear you there, Mi growers rock! So would they let you buy seeds?

I love me some full melt Afi hash, and I am still on the search for something stronger.

 

Peace, Afi

[+JuztBudz]

p.s. picked up Larry's O.G. Kush, Chem 4 O.G. Kush from the Cali Connection, Ice Cream from the folks at Serious Seeds and was gifted Dream Police from a rep from a new company, Crazy Diamond Seeds.

[Afi]

Nice choices. I have been thinking about trying Ice cream from Paradise seeds. I didn`t know Serious Seeds had one to.

[The Digital Nomad]

Thanks for the Report!

 

Kind of tickled to hear we got good meds this side of the border...

 

Afi - you'll have to try Blue Widow..and my Wonder Haze BHO.

 

-DN

[Afi]

Thanks for the Report!

 

Kind of tickled to hear we got good meds this side of the border...

 

Afi - you'll have to try Blue Widow..and my Wonder Haze BHO.

 

-DN

So are you telling me you want me to bring my oil pipe to the party?

I got a blue widow seedling in veg right now. How do you like it?

Peace, Afi

[+JuztBudz]

Nice choices. I have been thinking about trying Ice cream from Paradise seeds. I didn`t know Serious Seeds had one to.

 

 

Afi, you are right, they did come from Paradise Seeds...I passed these along to a friend to grow and bring me some clones, so the package wasn't right there in my hand, so I forgot who I got them from...duh! Thanks for clearing up that one...Peace

 

 

 

p.s. Congrats on post #420...

And, no I didn't run into any of the old school breeders...of course, I wasn't around the X-po all of the time, so they could have come thru unbeknownst to me...

[Kingdiamond]

I hear you there, Mi growers rock! So would they let you buy seeds?

I love me some full melt Afi hash, and I am still on the search for something stronger.

 

Peace, Afi

I need to talk to the admins about adding a drooley faced emotioncon because i sure wish i had one now .....

 

Very nice is that BHO?

[Afi]

Yes it is. The bud is Julius Caesar. The perfect combo If you got nothing else to do for the day>

Peace, Afi

[DreamWarrior67]

I think I met you there. I also put some videos on here