Originally published at Ladybud Magazine

For years I have viewed Western medicine as a necessary evil in my life. While I will not stop seeing my doctor, I have a natural distrust for the industry-side of healthcare. When I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, I asked the doctor how I should change my diet to keep the symptoms under control. I was told to eat whatever I wanted and stop eating whatever bothered me.

If you have never tried to do this on your own, it amounts to clinical research, which is a pretty hard concept to grasp for a busy at-home DIYer. My doctor didn’t know the answer to this question because she wasn’t paid to know the answer to this question. Research costs money and money comes from billion-dollar companies that need to make a profit.

So, having a mind for scientific experimentation anyway, I did my own series of research and have found pretty effective solution in whole foods, gluten-free foods and a diet with a lot of vitamins and nutrients. The other thing I have found is essential– getting as much cannabis into me as possible.

Here is how it works– your body has an endocannabinoid system all throughout it, the highest concentration of endocannabinoid receptors (which need active cannabinoids, found in… yeah, you guessed it, cannabis!) is in the large intestine. Get cannabis to those receptors, inflammation is reduced, Crohn’s goes into remission.

Sounds easy enough, except, I don’t really like being very high. I especially don’t like being stoned when I need to get things done and the paranoia of traveling to places where I can go to jail for it sometimes overcomes my need to use it. I also get serious anxiety when I smoke certain strains– or smoke weed with sketchy people. Thankfully I live in a state where I have safe access medically and have access to great patient consultants who have helped me discover just the right hybrids for me.

Ground cannabis, coated in coconut oil

I incorporated some research on natural food inflammation reducers to create this tea. I like to make it like a concentrate, water it down, and drink it all day long. I never get that high and because it’s a liquid, it goes right where it needs to. The other bonus, you can take it to work and no one knows you are medicating. One day you won’t need to hide it, but today isn’t that day.

I have also experimented with various other teas in making this but find this is the absolute best. Ginger is long known as a digestive aid as well as an inflammation reducer. Tumeric, in its own right is a great medicine because it too reduces inflammation. It’s also just a beautiful yellow color, and that is fantastic.

Ginger-Tumeric Cannabis Tea

Ingredients:

Dried ginger-tumeric tea, brewed and iced
1 oz. dried cannabis “trim” (1/8 ounce if using whole buds)
1/4 cup coconut oil
water

Grind the cannabis in a food processor. Melt the coconut oil in the microwave and pour over the buds. Toss until well coated. Pour boiling water over the mixture, cover and let it sit awhile. Go out and run errands, go to work, whatever.

Strain the mixture into a pitcher through a cheesecloth, wring out the remaining fluid from the leaves. Add in iced tea, put in large pitcher and stash in refrigerator. That’s it

I have bought cannabis teas from dispensaries and find they don’t work. Here is why– the cannabinoids need to be bound to some sort of fat: whole milk, butter, oil or something along those lines. Because this is a tea and I don’t drink dairy milk, I find coconut oil to be the easiest thing to use to extract the cannabinoids. I like to keep Nalgene bottles of it in my fridge so I can grab them on the go.