Passing the Dutchie with Dean Blundell!

High! Canada Magazine got to speak with Dean Blundell!

I was always a long time fan of his, and I was surprised when my buddy forwarded me his Twitter feed looking for a “cannabis weed guru guy”.

I automatically applied and we started talking within the hour and it’s amazing about some of the stuff we are talking about lately, and I have to ask you “What was your cannabis “Aha” moment?

You know what I think, it was out of necessity that I found it, because of what I was struggling with it at the time right. Like I was drinking a lot and I was really unhappy and drinking because I was unhappy. So you know there's a million reasons why I tried it.

I didn't try it till I was probably about six months sober. And I use “sober” like it's a cool word to use like alcohol, I mean, was I an alcoholic or was I sober? People will ask those questions because I use cannabis, right?

So yes I am, you know because it's a plant and when I decided to get sober, I decided to stop drinking because of what it was doing to me physically mentally and emotionally. I just started to ask questions. You know, people that I asked for help from when it came to therapy or when it came to getting processes in place to stop drinking, were the same people I asked about cannabis because of what I was reading and what I was hearing and the stories that other people were telling me about not being on antidepressants or you know, getting off of them.

Getting out of a bad medical spot or pain relief and I think when you've lived a life like I have, you know any, anything that helps you be a healthier person is of interest. So I don't know if it was an awakening or if it was just me saying okay now I can look around for something that I was very careful, I didn't just start smoking all kinds of dope I just made sure that I knew what I was doing and talked to the right people so you know and it's obviously made a massive difference in my life.

And how has that kind of cannabis journey been for you so far?

Good! Would you call it a journey? I find that dramatic! I would say that the things that I've learned because I don't want to go backwards. You have to learn if you want to go forwards. I forgot who said it, but he said the difference between happiness and knowledge is the people that a man or a woman meets and the books that they read.

That's the only difference. Knowing where you're going to get better. You know I tried to be really careful because of when you drink too much, or when you have when you're sad or depressed or you get anxiety for a number of reasons people would go through it. You don't want to go back to that darkness. So I had to be really careful with what it was that I chose to use, when I would use it, how I would use it. I couldn't use it if I was stressed out. I couldn't I couldn't use it if I was going to a party. That was my thing because I thought I need to get better and experienced the reality of life before I disconnect. And I found that cannabis didn't make you disconnect. Cannabis accentuated where I was and how I was feeling at the time. And so you know, I had to learn the differences. I don't smoke sativa’s for a reason. All I know is that there's an indica and a sativa. I know that I err on the side of caution when it comes to all that stuff because sativa makes my heart race, a lot of it does. And you know you go through these stores or catalogs now, and you see names like Alaskan Thunder Dick or the Elephant's Anus, and you're like ‘You know what, I wish they had names for these according to how you wanted to feel not trying to you know how fucking high a guy was when he spliced that plant!’

And then this week you were introduced to CBDs?

Yeah and that was so new to me, and I don't want to call it a miracle. But to me it was like because I'm so careful when I got a chance to try some CBD. Pure CBD, in you know it's been I don't know four or five days now since I've tried it. This person that we met with said listen I know you get anxiety. Try this, one drop in the morning and I'm good for the day. And I was taking two to one different medication but two small pills it was a maintenance thing and I was really worried because it's kind of like there they were my anchor, my safety thinking that this is why I'm better it's the drugs I'm getting from the doctor that made you part of it.

For sure it has helped, but I slowly got off of those by half the dose each day. Today I know it's just two days now and I have to take, so who knows I may crash and turn into a total moron, now that I'm relying on the patchwork of this for now. I’m mindful of the therapy that I've gotten that says you know hey this is just a moment in time and nothing was different yesterday. If something changes I can go back to my routine but you know this is the safest way for me to not feel like everything's fucking terrible.

You have said so many times that cannabis saved your life from alcoholism and that's something that you're really positive about, as I have heard you talk about how cannabis could be the “exit” drug?

Yes and I'm shocked that it is but like you know my sponsor who's going to sponsor - these are all AA terms you know - he's turned a buddy of mine who hasn't had a drink for 30 years, and yes very much a proponent of it That's when I started to go, maybe this is a big deal, you know maybe this is something that I could use because again I don't like to use the word alcoholic but I just I was I was just a fucking dick. I was miserable, I was sad and I was like everything was everybody else's fault.

When you internalize or you medicate with alcohol specifically or opioids; it destroys the lining around your brain and lowers all your chemicals to the point where you're like literally bottoming out. Yeah that's why people crash. That's why they go into these massive tailspins just because they literally cannot imagine living without that hit of alcohol and its different now because I think I would be dead if I didn’t stop drinking. Just because I didn't want to be here it wasn't like medically speaking I would be dead in five minutes. It was like, I can't be here anymore. You know for a variety of reasons and in cannabis as part of that journey that helped me out of that. But I mean it comes with a bunch other stuff like cannabis isn't and weed as they say isn't a miracle drug. I mean what they're doing with it is incredible, what they're doing with it to help people live a healthy happy life is unbelievable. But that comes with therapy that comes with the ability to go with talk to somebody or help somebody live out of yourself.And so that's you know in a nutshell did it save my life? For sure, that’s one of the things it did, but yeah I don't I don't attribute cannabis saving my life, I attribute cannabis giving me the opportunity to save my life which would not have been there because after four or five months I was just as miserable not drinking as I was drinking. You know I was like when is this going to end, when I can get back to normal. Cannabis gave me the ability to not to be high and use that as an excuse but CBD specifically. And the strains that I used gave me the ability to feelgood. Good enough above me to continue my journey and that's all I needed!

As an exclusive to High! Canada Magazine, check out the full video interview at www.deanbludell.com.