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Cannabis Pill Review

I went up to Santa Fe to a public hearing about proposed new rules for the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program. The rules they wish to implement are crazy at best, and will definitely ruin the model Medical Cannabis program at grave cost to its program participants, but that is another story to tell. One of the good things about such a gathering, though, is meeting people from all over the state, and even though we are from all walks of life and of different ages, we all with something in common. We all choose to use a safer and more effective medicine for whatever ails us, from chronic pain to Multiple Sclerosis.

When I left the meeting I had a pretty long walk to where I parked and met a man along the way who had also been attending the rules meeting. He was on the board of a Medical Cannabis dispensary in Santa Fe, and since one of my goals on this trip to the City Different was to visit a dispensary, I gave him a short ride over there. The name of this dispensary is Sacred Garden.

I found SG to have a fabulous menu that included smokeable bud, including high CBD strains, (my daytime pref.), smokeable/vapable oils and hash, a huge variety of baked and candy edibles, beverages, topical lotions, tinctures, and something I wasn’t expecting but was elated to find…capsules.pill1

The capsules are called “Canna Caps” and contain Sacred Garden’s own Honey Hash Oil and Hemp Seed Oil. Honey Hash Oil is a concentrated extract that may be up to 70-80% THC, (potent stuff that is targeted to become illegal in the state’s proposed “new rules”). Hemp Seed Oil is made from cold pressed hemp seeds and is a powerful medicine in itself but is without cannabinoids such as THC, thus, no high at all.

Their capsules come in three varieties, Sativa, Indica and CBD, and varying strengths, 12mg, 30mg and 50mg. The downside is the cost, and by no means am I saying these capsules aren’t worth it, I just couldn’t possibly afford to depend on this method of ingestion all the time because of cost, and that’s too bad because I really like them. They are $3, $5 and $8 per pill depending on potency as stated above. Ouch.

I wasn’t sure which kind to get so I went for the middle – 30mg, but of what I’m not sure of, and herein lies another problem and my ONLY beef with Sacred Garden – there was no labeling in regards to potency/content, and this really sucks in so many ways. I lost my receipt and it was more than a week after I bought them before I tried one, and was unsure which kind I bought. I thought it was CBD, but I couldn’t confirm that on the label.

Before I go off about labeling, let me tell you about my Canna Cap experience. Whenever I try any new cannabis product, especially edibles, I like to be sure I’m going to be home for a few hours, because you never know how you will react. I recommend this to anyone. Safety first! I took one capsule in the late morning and got on with my chores – re-potting plants, watering the whole yard, laundry, and then into some accounting. I never noticed anything other than I wasn’t in pain at all throughout the whole day. Pretty nice! The second time I took one I had the feeling like I’d just smoked a bowl of mid-grade bud, and I was like that for about two hours. It wasn’t debilitating, it’s just that my head wasn’t as clear as I like and that feeling lasted too long, but I was absolutely pain free for about 6 hours. Nice, but not as perfect as the first time with the Canna Caps.

Cannabis Pill BottleBecause I was unsure of exactly what I bought, having lost the receipt and nothing on the label, I called Sacred Garden and had a really nice chat with a young woman there. She was more than willing to spend as much time on the phone with my ignorant self as needed to clear up the info I lacked, and was very gracious. I discovered that I had indeed bought CBD Canna Caps, and that the hash oil used to make this variety is from CBD rich cannabis strains that have a much lower THC content and higher CBD content than the straight indica or saliva strains used to make the other 2 types of Canna Caps. I was thinking they were made with CBD-only oil with no high at all, and I was mistaken, but this new knowledge certainly explained my two different experiences. One may have been made from a CBD strain with a little higher THC content than the other. Good to know. Important enough to be put on the label though, and Sacred Garden graciously allowed me to rant about that too. In fact, they welcomed the feedback.

I’m eager to try my last CBD capsule to see what happens, because I really want to find the miracle pill – the cannabis pill that will get rid of my pain from fibromyalgia and arthritis, and will leave me clear headed and alert. I don’t mind the high from smoking or vaping, and adjust my strains and high times accordingly, but there are times you just need a pill, like when away from home for extended periods of time and especially for traveling. I have also met a good number of people who have said they will not smoke cannabis. They say, “I’ll try it when it comes out in a pill”. Well, to those folks I can now say, that time may be here.

To credit Sacred Garden, all of the products I purchased from them have been high quality. Their buds are tight, sticky, very well cured and provide a non-harsh smoke in a bowl. The hard candy was well made, flavorful and effective. And of course – I love the Canna Caps. I was going to search out similar capsules here in Albuquerque, but Sacred Garden will deliver to me, free of charge, once a week, so why bother. I did happen to find some Dixie Elixirs’ CBD Capsules at another ABQ dispensary. These caps contain no THC at all and are quite a bit different, but I still look forward to trying them soon, and I’ll report back.

Sacred Garden also had a “First Timers” package of useful info about their dispensary as well as info about the science of cannabis, history, and the New Mexico MC Program. This is good, essential info for people new to the world of cannabis medicine. If they lab tested all batches of their product for cannabinoid content and thoroughly labeled everything, they would be my perfect dispensary. No kidding – they are that good. They do test their own products the old fashioned way (microscopically) for mold, and don’t use pesticides, so that is covered, but I am one of those people who feel that if you are selling medicine – you should provide details about content right on the label so we don’t have to remember or write down everything while in the store, and that will be the focus of my next post – my rant on labeling.

Thanks for a quality experience, Sacred Garden of Santa Fe.

Sarijuana

7 Comments

  1. also, try ‘kratom’ i get that from a wellness website, its a powder, i mis it with apple sauce or yogurt or sometimes make it in to tea, but it acts ike a stimulant in small doses, and a sedative in high doses. it lasts way longer than a marijuana high and its just as enjoyable. theres plenty of research you can do online about it.

    • Online – only in a CBD capsule, but really, I don’t trust the online CBD only products because so many of them, even ones claiming to be “All Natural” buy hemp from Asia and God only knows what is in it. Whistle Blowers in the industry attest that the hemp and hemp mash coming from Asia is full of pesticides and worse. Be careful. If you live in/near a state with a legal program you should be able to find caps made from CBD FECO (full extraction cannabis oil) and CBD oil is legal to transport across state lines.

    • Yea, right! It’s hard to judge, and varies greatly on how much and what kind of food your body is already processing. But we need to figure it out for ourselves and stop relying on “medical professionals”. We all need to take charge of our own health situations. It is so sad how reliant we have all let ourselves become on a messed up system.

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