#devils cabbage

Remember a decade ago when this video was uploaded to youtube in which respected British TV presenter and journalist Jon Snow tried the devil’s cabbage on TV for the first time? As part of a completely open minded, totally non-biased experiment without any predetermined outcomes whatsoever, they gave this intensely respectable, public facing person (who had never tried cannabis before) two vast whoofs from a vaporiser (scientific measurement: enough to make an elephant need a cup of tea and a lie down for 45 minutes minimum) while meanwhile in the interests of science and of not influencing the outcome whatsoever either way a person sat behind him in a darkened room quietly counting upward and another person filmed him after which because this is definitely not going to influence outcome whatsoever he was taken from the very dark room suddenly to a very bright room where he was put into an MRI scanner, because MRI scanners are known to be potentially desperately anxiety inducing even for the not stoned and that would mean his judgement of the experience would definitely be representative and non-biased as part of this important public facing conversation about cannabis for medical use that just happened to be going on in Westminster at the time, and then he went into the MRI scanner and had to exit and end the experiment after only a few minutes because the experience of taking a gigantic dose of cannabis for the first time in his life and then getting an MRI scanner was tuning out to be deeply up upsetting and frightening.

To the surprise of nearly everybody who has ever used cannabis, all of whom know well just how enjoyable being stoned immaculate while experiencing claustrophobia and bright lights is, Mr Snow had a shit time and went onto denounce the hairy sacrament on national television, and shortly afterwards (if memory serves) the government held a consultation and responded reasonably to the overwhelming evidence in favour of cannabis legalisation for medical and recreational use in the UK by making it clear that, consultation or not, we all accept that this was never going to happen.

Interestingly, some three years later, cannabis was made legal for medical use while Theresa May was prime minister and Sajid Javid was Home Secretary.

It’s very good that it eventually happened. It’s such a pity that Jon Snow has probably been put off cannabis use for life, and would almost certainly struggle to benefit from it if, in future, he developed one of the many chronic conditions that it can be beneficial for and can be prescribed for by private clinic in the UK.

Cannabis – particularly high-quality, strong cannabis – is effective in very low doses and the side-effects, though generally not unpleasant for the experienced user even at medium doses, can be overwhelming for the new user, and time should be taken to get used to them. If you ever take too much cannabis (by the way, by too much I mean a dose in the order of 2 to 5% of what Jon Snow took in the above experiment; that’s potentially too much. The dose he took, I would call an overdose) then the best thing to do is drink some water and lay down. The overwhelming effect will last maximum 30 to 45 minutes, and it’s very likely that if you lie down quietly and let the increased heart rate pass, you’ll begin to feel better within 5 to 15 minutes.

If you take as much as he took in the video, it will take you longer to come down, but even if you have a real freak out, it’s still only going to last half an hour or so. It will take less time to feel better than it does from having too much coffee, and when it does come off, you’ll probably start to feel really quite nice. If you can, have a cup of tea.

This is not medical advice. Presumably, the video above is not either, but I can’t find a disclaimer anywhere.