It started with a wake and bake...

The concept of consuming cannabis in the early parts of the day was an ethos that up until recently was associated with either the hard-core stoner or the casual smoker with a whole day off.  All one had to do was to roll out of bed,  grab a sack of the kind and hit the couch for a couple of hours.  This stereotype of the chronic pothead is embraced by Hollywood for obvious comical reasons.  Many folks from the non-consuming community unfairly associate this archetype as the standard for all cannabis use and I hope to show that this is far from the reality witnessed on the big screen.

We use cannabis for a multitude of reasons.  Today I want to touch on one area of treatment that is close to my heart, Focus.  It seems that in the modern age ADD/ADHD is a condition that seems to effect most people to some degree.  We are overloaded with stimulus from the time we wake until the time we go to sleep.  What bills are due?  What activities do the kids have this week?  What am I going to cook for dinner?  Are the Bruins playing tonight?  Facebook.  Twitter.  Blogs.  Porn.  Email. Television. Spotify.  There is a constant 24/7 feed of data, choice and obligation that seems to shackle us to our busy minds.  When the time comes to dig in and focus on a single task we find ourselves in a constant state of deflection from all distractions pinging though our minds.

Modern psychiatry has embraced the use of the heavy stimulants like Adderall(file under crank) for the treatment of ADD but I believe the longterm effects on the body and mind can be quite damaging.  The logic behind these drugs is that focus is gained by overloading the body with amphetamine to assist in increasing the level of dopamine in the brain.  During this process you may also experience:






A better approach to the treatment of attention disorders may be Cannabis.  Thanks to modern breading technologies, we now have a wide variety of cannabis strains to choose from and certain strains are better at treating ADD/ADHD than others.  A good strain for focus would be one that is a sativa-dominant hybrid.  Sativas are the go-to choice for the cerebral/creative high but you also need the dopamine increasing qualities of a good indica to complete the treatment.  One beautiful example of a strain that I use for focus is Blue Dream.  Below is a graphic that I lifted from Leafly.com(www.leafly.com/hybrid/blue-dream) that explains the effects of Blue Dream and below that is the little nugget that I rolled up prior to writing this blog.

Blue Dream

Blue Dream does not come without a couple of side effects including dry mouth, dry eyes and increased levels of anxiousness(a by-product of the raised dopamine levels in the brain).  These side effects are minimal compared to the potential side-effects of long-term stimulant use.  The active effects of cannabis consumption disappear after a few brief hours(one of the great pros of using cannabis as an ADD/ADHD treatment).  When your focus is no longer needed, you can go back to your "normal" self.  Our world is moving at a breakneck pace and as we evolve ADHD is going to become the standard.  In order to check out and be creative, we will need to seek out the refuge of our favorite gift from Mother Earth.  Next time you have a home improvement project, a paper to write or a mundane task that requires focus, I suggest you go for the green.