Search Results: letts (37)


By Sharon Letts
Knee surgery this past week has me thinking about pain, true tolerance, and why so many Americans are bent on being anesthetized. 
The Institute of Medicine states, 100 million Americans suffer from some kind of pain at a cost of $635 billion a year.
ABC News reported in January of 2012, 80 percent of the world’s pain meds are consumed in the good old U.S. of A.
Experts site our increased life expectancy, cancers, and a soft, sedentary lifestyle as the cause, but what of the rest of the world? Why are Americans suffering so? Or are we?

Sharon Letts

By Sharon Letts
After just a few weeks of ingesting raw cannabis and taking Nternal oil at night, the spider-web-like mass found in my left breast during both a mammogram and subsequent ultra-sound, was nowhere to be found during the first scheduled biopsy. 
While there was still a target point for a biopsy, and the oncologist wanted to proceed, I made a deal and bought another month of time. I continued to ingest a green drink made with cannabis in a blender daily, and began ingesting RSO (Rick Simpson Oil), also known as Phoenix Tears, nightly.
During the second scheduled biopsy one month later, the “target point” was gone, with the attending physician declaring, “No biopsy needed.”

Sharon Letts
Dr. Marion Fry believes that cannabis is good medicine, and that God will save her.

Exclusive Prison Interview:
Dr. Mollie Fry
Story and Photos
by Sharon Letts
It’s been one year and five months since Dr. Marion “Mollie” Fry and her husband, Civil Attorney, Dale Schafer, surrendered to Federal prison for manufacturing and distributing Medical Cannabis in California.
More than six years of litigation and three years of appeals rendered “no defense,” insuring mandatory five year Federal prison terms, respectively.
In 2001 the Fry/Schafer family home located in the hills just north of Sacramento was raided by Federal authority under then President George W. Bush, Jr. during the failed “War on Drugs.” 
Thirty-four plants were confiscated – 20 were infested with spider mites, sitting near a compost pile. 
44 Plants in a Pile
According to Schafer, the couple had never grown more than 44 plants in a given year – well below the 99 plant limit set forth by the State of California for medical use – and never sold a leaf.

All photos by Sharon Letts

“It’s not Weeds, it’s Real.”
By Sharon Letts
Jake hung up the phone and turned to Lewis who was busy helping take down a room. “She’s raising the rent again. That’s $950 a month now. Three increases in just over a year.”
“So much for the great deal of $650 a month on Craig’s List,” Lewis said, picking up another large, black container and pulling the root ball out onto the floor. We tried to warn you, dude. Three, bedrooms just don’t go for $650 a month in Humboldt.”
The woman in question was a Humboldt slum lord, referred to with disdain as “Dragon Lady.” She was a pot plantation belle, reigning over a pot plantation rented out by the green, or how many plants you were physically able to grow per square foot.

Sharon Letts

Humboldt Stories
“It’s not Weeds, it’s Real.”

By Sharon Letts
Nick turned off Myrtle Ave onto Park Street, and down a dirt road. Caitlin had been living in a trailer on someone’s property since leaving Jake. Today, they were traveling together to an historic apple orchard he was looking to restore, with an eye on good medicine.
“Why shouldn’t cannabis be grown with food,” he argued to a circle of self-righteous, back-woods growers. “Why shouldn’t farmers be allowed to include Cannabis and Hemp?”
“Because they will throw your ass in Federal prison,” someone responded to howls of laughter.
Caitlin was waiting at the end of the road, smiling and waving as he pulled into the drive.

All photos by Sharon Letts
The Bud Sister’s Pain Relief Salve, infused with lemongrass

Lotions, Salves & Oils… Oh, my!
By Sharon Letts
“Why would you put something in your mouth, you can’t swallow?” my friend asked, showing me the label of a trusted tube of toothpaste. 
It was 1975. I was 16, she was 17, and the “Clean Air & Water Acts” were in effect, opening up a whole new topic of conversation at home…. How would we make our own difference? Shortly after that conversation I bought my first tube of “Tom’s of Maine” (Fennel) toothpaste, and have not looked back.
Around that same time my mom gave me my first bottle of fancy face lotion – “Oil of Olay.” The glass bottle of thin, pink cream with its black cap seemed elegant and French to my young, impressionable mind. It smelled good, was soft on my face, and I had seen it in magazines. It must have been alright, right?

All photos by Sharon Letts
Trimming Sour Diesel

“It’s not Weeds, it’s Real”

By Sharon Letts
Nick drove down Samoa Boulevard from Arcata onto the South Spit, and into the town of Manila, where Greg lived. Tonight Greg was paying $200 a pound, plus a bag of popcorn, for the most tedious, boring work in the industry. 
Getting onto someone’s list for trimming is all about relationships, trust, and if the group wants you there. For the hours are long and often run into the wee hours of the morning. 
There was also the issue of vehicles in front of the house to finesse. Too many, too many days in a row, and red flags would be raised. Greg was a musician, so if you had an instrument you carried it inside, and, if anyone wanted to jam on a break, so much the better.

Hercules Health Center is located in a state-o-the-art medical facility in Hercules, California, just north of Oakland

Story and Photos by Sharon Letts
Hercules Health Center, named after the bedroom community by the same name just north of Oakland, California, is located in a well-manicured, modern industrial park in a state-of-the-art, modern medical facility.
The large building is occupied by dozens of medical specialists who are no strangers to the dispensary or the magic of cannabis.
“We have many specialists in the building who send patients here for alternative therapies,” said Ed Breslin, co-founder of the center. 

All photos by Sharon Letts
Sharon Letts uses one big handful of fresh chopped leaves per one glass of purchased green drink to make a healing smoothie

By Sharon Letts
As detailed in my last essay, a spider-web-like mass found in my right breast during both a mammogram and ultrasound found me looking at a biopsy for possible Lobular Carcinoma.
In the past month pending the biopsy I began upping my ingesting of cannabis in tinctures, oil, and raw leaves.
The morning of the biopsy I ingested a tablespoon of infused honey tincture, rather than the usual “Valium” needed for my “medical procedure phobias,” as I’m replacing most everything I can these days with the green.
I was completely relaxed as the technician rolled the ultrasound’s magic wand around my breast, thinking to myself, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if the minimal amount ingested was enough to make that spider-web disappear?”  As I lay there further telling myself, “Too good to be true, not going to happen to me,” the technician informs, “I can’t seem to find it.”

Juror 110
A photo found on “Juror 110’s” blog site, with a declaration from Jury Nullifier “Peter”
 

Retrial Begins August 28

By Sharon Letts
Two years, twenty thousand dollars, and one hung jury later, Orange County “Pro 215” collective Executive Director Jason Andrews, heads back to court August 28 with a retrial on State (Yes, State, not Federal) charges for “Sales and Trafficking of Marijuana” in the medically legal State of California.
Jury Nullification 101

The trial is a lesson in Jury Nullification, as defined by Merriam Webster as “The acquitting of a defendant by a jury in disregard of the judge’s instructions and contrary to the jury’s findings of fact.” In other words, if one juror disagrees with the evidence before them, they can render a “not guilty,” rendering the entire proceedings a hung jury, with subsequent acquittal.
This process can be traced to early colonial legal matters from 1735 and the case of John Peter Zenger’s trial for seditious libel, as stated:
[Juries] have the right beyond all dispute to determine both the law and the facts, and where they do not doubt of the law, they ought to do so. This of leaving it to the judgment of the Court whether the words are libelous or not in effect renders juries useless (to say no worse) in many cases.
The practice was due to the colonist need for their own laws, in disagreement with the often brutal mandates brought down by British rule an ocean away. That said, it works well within the confines of State vs. Federal laws, especially concerning Cannabis as medicine.