MEND Season 1 -Episode 9

The Work of the Healer...

Welcome Back to MEND - Episode 9!

We’re continuing to seek out stories from the Elders, the Wise Ones, and the Healers of our tribe.  

In this interview, we’re delighted to sit down with Jane Bothwell, owner of the Dandelion Herbal Center - a local school for Herbal Studies in Kneeland, where she has been training, educating and empowering people from all walks of life to learn the ways of Plant Medicine and Holistic Healing for over 30 years now.  

Jane brings the great perspective of the Healer into this Conversation and provides some wonderful points of reference on how we can cultivate a more sustainable, relational & reverent working relationship with the Cannabis plant.  

We talk about the power of Naming things and how this alters our perceptions.

About the increasing legitimacy of Marijuana as a recognized medicine within the Herbalism world & some of the wonderful uses she’s found for it’s curative powers within her own life and practice.

There’s some important information in regards to THC vs. CBD formulations and strains within here. As well as some great references for those who wish to know more about the Healing Properties and possibilities inherent to Marijuana. Plus, the inherent differences between what it means to ingest a plant recreationally vs as part of a larger ceremony.

Most significantly, Jane speaks to us of the importance of continuing to work organically, sustainably, and with great Reverence as we move forward cultivating this plant.  And how one person, working honorably, humbly, & well - can seed an impact for great, societal & cultural shifts.  

To find out more about the resources Jane mentions in our time together, check out the following links:::

The Dandelion Herbal Center  - www.dandelionherb.com

The Medicinal Cannabis Conference - medicinalcannabisconference.com

United Plant Savers - unitedplantsavers.org

Humboldt Apothecary - humboldt-apothecary.com

MEND Season 1 - Episode 8

Seed-Smuggling, Lawsuits & Humboldt's Brand.  

Woods, a longtime Southern Humboldt resident, environmental activist & one of the founding members of HUMMAP (Humboldt Mendocino Marijuana Advocacy Project), shares with us some of the stories of the evolution of Humboldt County's Marijuana Culture.  

He laments the presence of greed in our overall culture, and it's rise in the subculture.  He stresses the need for balance, and offers a vision of how we can move forward sustainably, on the cultivation path.  

Here, we share a portion of the original Vision Statement put forth by the organization (that we also share at the end of the show).

WE SEE a continuing bright future for the marijuana industry of Humboldt County.

We are the origins of much of the marijuana awareness, use, and cultivation in the Western World. This vision was born of a lifestyle devoted to self-realization and environmental and social respect and reverence. This lifeway is an essential to the preservation of the Earth and the reverence for the healing, sacramental, and caring social roles that marijuana gives us. Our vision is to honor and extol those roles. To this end we honor the righteous cultivation and sharing of this sacred herb.

Humboldt herbal cannabis is world famous, we are proud to say, but this has not come without problems. There are many who do not sanctify the herb or partake of its glory, but they grow money. Our revolution was accomplished in part with money, for which we all find some necessary and reasonable value. But when weed becomes primarily a money crop it loses its sacred value, its healing properties are compromised, and the social world it propagates is ruled by greed. It is against what the Earth is crying for.

If you're interested in learning more about HUMMAP, or getting involved in their work and mission, visit their website.  

We hope you enjoy.

MEND Season 1 - Episode 7

The Peace of Wild Things...

Welcome back.

In this hour, we talk to Salmon Girl - a longtime SoHum resident & outspoken member of the community.

She talks about the vast changes she’s witnessed in & around her beloved home over the past 40 years - about the shift from Wilderness to encroaching Industry and pollution - including sound, visual, and environmental - taking its toll all around.  

We speak about the loss of connection to the land itself.

Both physical but also spiritual as well.

About the problems surrounding Regulation - which, in many ways, is geared to support and promote Industry, above any real concern for the natural habitat.  

She tells us her own ideas about the marijuana plant - in her words, a “white-man luxury crop” - and the “cult” she sees having sprung up around it’s cultivation, use and promotion.  

As always, our hope here is to incite useful, instructive and in-depth conversation.

These words may leave you with more unanswered questions.

But may they also spur you to find the solutions, as well.

Oftentimes, it’s from the places of deep questioning, and heartache - that we unearth our own Salvation.

We hope you enjoy.  

MEND Season 1 - Episode 6

The Plant as Medicine...

In this episode we speak with a mother, medicine-maker and small-scale farmer who understands cannabis to be not only a medicine for physical ailments, but also a spiritual medicine and teacher. 

She speaks of ceremonies, cannabis as ambassadors between the plant world and human world, and growing her plants with prayer and intention. 

She shares with us her hopes for Humboldt’s future and offers gratitude for having a place to share these stores with the bigger world because, as she says,

“Yes, we might be outlaws, but we’re really good people…” 

This interview takes us deep into the soul connection that is possible with marijuana and hopefully inspires others to question what is lost when money and quantity become the main driving force of cultivation.

MEND Season One - Episode 2

A Brief History of Place

In this episode, we have the great honor to sit down for a lengthy & illuminating talk with Ms. Jentri Anders, Ph.D.  

Anthropologists sometimes get accused of "going native".  In this two-part episode we speak with a native who went anthropologist.  After dropping out of Berkeley, and society, Jentri Anders made her way to Southern Humboldt county where she spent the better part of 15 years living and working amongst the, as she calls them, "refugees".  

She eventually went back to school for her PhD in Anthropology, writing her dissertation on the people and society she was a part of.  Her book, Beyond Counterculture, The Community of Mateel, gives a unique and thorough perspective on life and people in the hills of Southern Humboldt before the marijuana boom.  

We are so grateful to begin this season with her story and perspectives on the formation of this unique community and the people known to many as the ‘back-to-the-landers’.

And to start off with this insightful and spirited entry into the land and people we'll be meeting along this path.   Enjoy.