By Hakeem Alexander

(Exercising Your Mind) As of this publication, I have maintained a Physician's Medical Marijuana Referral in accordance with California Health and Safety Code 1136.2, Prop. 215 and S.B. 420.

I began smoking marijuana with my best friend at the time, Mike, when I was 17 years old and I still do today. Out of these 14 years, I have smoked weed almost seven of them, less than half the time. This is because I would quit or abstain for long periods of time (1 year and 3 months was the longest), for various different reasons.

On May 1st, 2008, I stopped smoking marijuana with the intention of complete and sustained abstinence. As of October 1st, 2008, only five(5) months later, I started eating marijuana in brownies and other edible goodies so I wouldn't have to smoke it. But the edibles were not readily attainable in organic varieties where I live, and they soon made me sick. So I have been smoking heavily again. The main reason I stopped smoking in the first place was because I noticed I wasn't having lucid dreams as readily as I do when not getting high. I find lucid dreaming to be quite a powerful experience and wanted to continue them freely. It hasn't been easy.

Unfortunately for me, even though I used a very gradual tapering off from the herb, I began to have return visits from an asphyxiating succubus I came to refer to as Cynjina, (sin-jeen-uh). Well, its not always her, sometimes it is a pair of "grays". You know the extra-terrestrials with the large heads and shiny black and bulging eyeballs set within a suit of gray skin? Yes. One time, as a gray guarded the bedroom door, another gray stood on my chest, rapidly shaking its head back and forth with its tongue hanging out. They were both only about 3 or 4 feet tall(.91 and 1.2 meters).

I will leave it at that. I have been having hallucinatory, sleep-paralysis experiences back to about age four(4). When I started smoking weed at age seventeen(17), the demonic and alien visits stopped, and my sleep and breathing returned to normal. I took digital video of myself sleeping to confirm this. If I don't smoke or eat marijuana as I have recently discovered, for at least one(1) week, it is back to being violently disturbed from my sleep by immobilizing, suffocating, and sometimes, no matter how often it happens; excruciatingly horrifying attacks from beings that no one else can see, hear or feel.

Recently, I decided to taper off and find the minimum therapeutic dosage for myself. I have limited myself now to once per day in the evening after I have settled in for the night. One of the first consequences of this reduction has been agitation and anxiety, along with restlessness and racing thoughts. My hands and feet sweat profusely during the day, and at night, my whole body becomes drenched in perspiration. These withdrawal symptoms have been the result of only two(2) months of moderate smoking (.5 to 1.5 grams per day); and two(2) weeks of gradual tapering down to only less than .125 to .25 grams daily.

Withdrawal was something that I foolishly thought was only a symptom from street-weed. This time, I have only been using cannabis from the legal dispensaries. Perhaps the sweating and agitation are the result of some additive(s) used in the growing process, or afterwards. It could also simply be a normal part of withdrawal from the active ingredients in marijuana, which you may know as THC, or, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.

A good thing about the dispensaries though, is that I never get headaches from their herb, no nausea, stomach cramps or teeth grinding. For me, the street stuff has these undesirable characteristics in many cases. Also, edibles that are not organic, begin to make me ill after about 3 to 5 days of one per day dosing. Another problem is the lack of consistency in strength or availability of strains.

Apparently, I can manage quite well on relatively low doses. And I am pretty sure that the sweats will go away between doses, because the anxiety already has and I am familiar with inter-dose withdrawal subsiding from other observations I have made. The feelings of panic and agitation are also easily remedied by a game of Capoeira or a Yoga session; and I am quite sure any moderate to intense physical workout with stretching and breathing meditations would be helpful. This is quite powerful to know because it offers a way to reduce the consumption of herb to the lowest therapeutic level while at the same time eliminating the unwanted side-effects of: short-term memory dysfunction, reduced cardiovascular capacity, increased flem, mucus and coughing.

On the other hand, organic edibles do not impose any of these negative symptoms. Probably because of the much slower rate of absorption and the lack of irritating, particulate-matter from the smoke. However, if you eat a very large dose, or gulp down a liquid infusion very quickly, you may have some short-term memory impairment. If they are available, organic edibles are the optimum way to medicate with marijuana for me. In general, taking care to drink adequate amounts of water and to eat well, are very helpful in easing a variety of symptoms.

Another very important experience is that I have had a significant increase in my strength, balance, endurance, speed and flexibility. Keep in mind I have merely reduced my use, not completely quit this time. As soon as the sweating goes away I am going to reduce to every other day; then every three(3) days, and so on until I am at once-a-week. This way I will reap the therapeutic benefits with little or no unwanted side effects. But if Cynjina and the gray twins return, I am gradually stepping up the dosage until they leave me alone.

So far, I have already noticed an enormous burden lifted from my physical body by reducing the smoking. This is especially apparent during Yoga or Capoeira sessions; especially when practicing "crow" from Yoga and "corta capim" from Capoeira where the body is low to the ground, while being supported by the hands and arms alone. I am convinced this is a result of changes caused to the marijuana through combustion alone, or, of agro-chemicals used during the growing, because when I am only using cannabis in organic-edible form, none of the negative physical symptoms appear.

The next step is to visit a fully organic marijuana dispensary, to see if the negative effects from smoking are related to the chemicals that are in the conventionally grown plants being burned, or if it just a natural artifact from when any substance is heated until only charred carbon remains. We might suspect a little of both. It will be also interesting to see if the withdrawal syndrome is related to these same adulterating contaminants.