 I'm Marcia Joyner, and this is Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000 year odyssey. So tell me news of that plant of many resources, which wonder far and wide, fuel, fiber, cultivated for millennia. As we venture through the past 10,000 years, we will explore and discover the plant from which cannabis derives. The many uses of the plant, hemp, cannabis, hashes, hashes in religion, hashes in medicine, hashes in dear old Uncle Sam. And so our odyssey begins. Today, our odyssey is not long ago and far away. It is right now in progress, and it is an area that we don't talk about much, and that is cannabis and medicine. So today, our guest is Cynthia Lee Sinclair, and she is a host here at, where are we? I'm not expecting the chaos. Okay. I am so happy you're here today. Thank you, Marcia. I have been wanting to visit with you from the day I met you. Let me tell you why we need to have this conversation, and many of them like this. Cynthia is living with Lupus and Crohn's disease. Can you imagine Lupus and Crohn's disease? Now, I have no idea what Lupus is or Crohn's disease. So this brave woman is going to tell us all about living with these incredible, is it a disease? It is. It's an incurable disease. An incurable disease. They call them chronic diseases. They don't know what causes them and they don't know how to cure them. Oh boy. Okay. Let's start at the beginning then. But now you are living with it. How long have you had? I was officially diagnosed with Crohn's disease 30 years ago, but my initial diagnosis came when I was 15. And they just said that I had spastic colitis is what they said it was. I don't think they really understood Crohn's disease at the time. Even still they're learning now as we go kind of thing. But then when I was 30, I was officially diagnosed with Crohn's disease. So what are the symptoms of Crohn's disease? Crohn's disease, you get a lot of cramping in your stomach. You get a lot of diarrhea, bloody diarrhea. You get joint pain. And now it's inflammatory bowel disease, not to be confused with irritable bowel syndrome. There's IBS, which causes all sorts of things like that too, right? Which is just irritable bowel. Which just gets upset if you don't give it the right food. Which is kind of what happens with Crohn's disease too. And then there's inflammatory bowel disease. And you can have, there's colitis, there's proctitis, or ulcerative colitis. There's ulcerative proctitis. And then there's Crohn's disease also. Crohn's disease is everything from canker source to hemorrhoids. Your entire digestive tract can be affected. So you don't just get like... So it's basically in the digestive tract. It is in the digestive tract. Okay. Yeah. Instead of getting like one ulcer, you'll get a chunk of your stomach or your intestines that will ulcerate. So that whole chunk is like ulcered. Oh my. I've had several resections where they go in and they take out the diseased part and sew it back together. And lucky for me, you got miles of that stuff, right? Yes. So I got a little bit more, a few more miles left to go. No, actually I don't have much left to go with that. One time I was so diseased that I ended up having to have a colostomy. Which is where they actually cut the colon and stop it. And then they make a stoma on the skin. And they have it come out. So then you have an appliance. You have a pouch right there. Oh my goodness. That makes life a lot easier. It was really hard. I was so lucky that I was able to get it reversed. Not everybody can. They give you one chance at having a reversal. And if it doesn't work, then you're stuck with the colostomy for the rest of your life. And mine worked. I was determined to make it work. And a lot of it is, you know, what we eat really makes a difference. Oh it does. And so my children were really young when I was first diagnosed. I did about five or six years where I just, I did what they gave me, which was prednisone and percocet. And I describe it as being a manic zombie because the prednisone made me manic. And the perc set make me a zombie. So I was like a manic. It's looking like a chipmunk. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You bet. The cortisone is what makes you get into being a chipmunk. So I said, there's got to be a better way to live. I went to my doctor and they said, please, you know, and he said, no, if you don't do what I tell you, then I won't even treat you anymore. And I'm like, okay, then bye. It was nice going, yeah, without the door. I went to an herbalist and a nutritionist. And I just really started to learn what foods are inflammatory type foods, what foods are anti-inflammatory foods. And my kids were little when I was first diagnosed. So when you have a child, you introduce one food at a time. Right. And know what they're going to react to. Well, so I thought, well, why don't I do that for myself. Right. So I went on a little fasting and then I just introduced one food at a time. And it took me a couple of years to really get. So I knew what worked and what doesn't. And then there's all the herbs that come for you in the chamomile that you can use capsaicin. But capsaicin is a pepper. Yes. And turmeric, which is like the best anti-inflammatory on the planet. I can't use it because it's, unless I can figure out a way to ingest it. The terpenes. Right. So that on the turmeric I can't take because it just is too spicy for me. It's too strong. I can't figure out a way to make it so that it works. So when I started to use all of the herbs, and this is, you know, I was still a young hippie at the time, right? In California. And before they called it medical marijuana, all I knew was when I used it, my stomach stopped hurting. Back then anyway, I don't smoke it anymore. I use it as tea or I sometimes use the edibles, but they're kind of strong. I'm not so sure I like those. The CBDs are great. But back in the day, and everyone's small, I still will, but I could, if I have terrible cramps, so bad I couldn't stand up. I could just take one small hit and it'd be gone. I wouldn't be nauseous anymore. My stomach wouldn't be cramping anymore. I would be able to eat and it would be okay. And so I know that that has really followed me. So I smoked it for quite a long time. And then I was a minister in the South and I wasn't about to, you know, disrespect my congregations. By using it then or do something that would compromise them. So you were a Methodist minister? I was. I was a Methodist minister in Alabama for 10 years. Oh wow. For four years? Four years. They wouldn't take any too kindly to your smoking. No. It's like the last eight million in a liberal legal. I don't even know if they'll ever come around to medical use. Who knows, right? But now I live here. Okay. So it's finally legal. I have a medical card, all that stuff. But I live in a condominium and I can't smoke in my condominium, which is one of the reasons why I use tea, which works really well. And I've always used tea because with tea you don't get any of the THC. You just get the CVDs. It gets hot enough to release the CVDs, but it doesn't get hot enough to release the THC. Yeah. It's like the ultimate cup of chamomile tea, right? And talking about a relaxing cup of tea, it really works. Okay. Just for anybody that doesn't know, the CVD does not make you high. Right. The THC is the part of the cannabis that makes you high. Right. More and more the studies are, because of the Feds, not allowing so many studies, but more and more they're finding that the CVD is really excellent. Yes. Excellent for so many illness. So many things. Arthritis. I mean, think about what it's doing with the kids. Right. The kids that have epilepsy and have all these horrible seizures and they put one drop of CVD underneath their tongue and they stop shaking. There's this one gal who, against medical advice, against what the law would allow, she gave her child the CVDs anyway, he stopped having seizures completely. I saw a film just last week. Weed Children is the title of the film. And it showed people that had to go against what the doctor said. Right. Like this one. Yes. Right. In order to have their children, some of them had cancers, some of them had all kinds of things, and nothing worked until they did. And I don't know if they use THC as well as CVD. I don't know. I don't think that the film was that... I don't think so. I think it's just the CVDs that the parents are using for the kids. But this showed parents all over the country, different places with different ailments. Right. And even Canada. All of these ailments that I, you know, because I have healthy children, so I never dreamed that little kids had all of these issues. Oh, it was just awful to see these little kids suffer. Suffering. And this helps them. Yes. Right? Yeah. And there's always been a real stigma against it ever since what was in the late 60s when that show Evil Weed or whatever the name of it was that came out. Yeah, 60s. Right? Oh, yeah. You know, and then in my family, I came from a fairly conservative family, and so I was a drug addict. Of course. My whole life growing up. Of course. Right? Because I'm not my whole life because I didn't smoke until I got a little bit older. But yeah, they would point a finger at me. You're a drug addict. And it's like, no, you know, I'm not. But according to them, because it was illegal, no, great. Take all these legal meds that really mess with you. Yes. And then you manic and crazy and or just a zombie, they just put you out cold. Right? Whereas this doesn't. So now at Christmas, I was visiting my sister for Christmas and now it's California. Yeah. It's legal for recreational use, even legal. And so also people in the family are starting to use it. And I'm like, uh-huh. But I really want you to talk about Lupus. Okay. Tell me the difference. With Crohn's disease, it's all about your intestines, right? And with Lupus, it's another inflammatory disease. They're called the autoimmune, MS, Lupus, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis. Those are all considered autoimmune. Right? And so they're all inflammatory. So even the Lupus is inflammatory, too. I've had a stroke. It first started in my bloodstream. And so I would throw blood clots in my bloodstream. I'd get all these blood clots all over the place. And then that's how I had a stroke. I've had three heart attacks. I had blood clots from blood clots. And this is because of the Lupus. From the Lupus. And now the Lupus has gone from my bloodstream. And now it's systemic Lupus. So that's, it's attacked my heart and my head and attacks all these other places. And so the cannabis helps with- Helps the inflammatory condition. Absolutely. It helps with inflammation. I have really severe arthritis that could be from the prednisone over the years. It could be from that Lupus or the Crohn's disease itself. It could be from a lot of different things. Uh-huh. Well, so, yes, but you are doing the cannabis. You got a card. Oh, I have a card. So you're doing- I do. And I use the CBDs. I don't get as much relief from just the CBD drops in my food or something than I do from actually using the flowers to make tea. Uh-huh. And it doesn't get hot enough, like I said, to release the THC, but it does release the CBDs. And you get relief. And I'll tell you, after I had a colostomy, I went back to smoking weed. I went, wait a minute, okay. I stopped when I end up with a colostomy. Uh-huh. Maybe I want to go back. Yes. And so I started smoking a little bit, and I started drinking tea again. And sure enough, I was able to, you know, reverse it. Okay. We need to take a break. And when we come back, let's tell them more about you. Okay. Okay. We'll be right back. Here. Aloha and welcome to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Keisha King. You can catch me every Wednesday, 5 at 5. I'll see you there. Hi, Mabuhay. My name is Amy Ortega Anderson, inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power Hawaii. With Think Tech Hawaii, we come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday. We invite you to listen, watch for our mission of empowerment. We aim to enrich, enlighten, educate, entertain, and we hope to empower. Again, maraming, salamat po, Mabuhay, and aloha. Aloha, and we're back. And we're talking to my new best friend. But of course, you know, we only talk to best friends. So, Cynthia, everybody in Think Tech knows, Cynthia. This is, she does, respect after the... Finding respect. Finding the chaos. Respect in the chaos. Because there's plenty of chaos out there. There is. And I'm out there trying to find as much respect as I can. Really, specifically my show is a safe place for survivors of abuse to come and tell their stories and a place for advocates to come and share important resources. And so I am a survivor of domestic violence and child abuse. Oh, wow. And I believe that it is my child abuse that led to my Crohn's disease for a bunch of different reasons. One was when I first was diagnosed with my Crohn's. I went to join a group, a support group of other people that had Crohn's disease. Well, I was so surprised that almost every single person in the group had been abused as a child. Then, a little bit later, right, I joined a group for survivors of abuse and almost all of them have some form of autoimmune. Most of them have Crohn's disease. They've all got stomach issues and I'm thinking there's got to be a connection here somewhere. And as I started to learn and explore what exactly Crohn's disease is, they don't know exactly what causes it. They know that it is an overimmune response coupled with the introduction of some sort of bacteria. I would think so. So, if you think about it, the overimmune response would come from what triggers your immune response is your adrenal axis, right? The fight, flight or fright or freeze, right? So, that being in overdrive because I've been being abused as a child you're right, well, I've been abused. The body puts up its defenses. I've been terrorized, I've been abused, so I've got all this cortisol and all these hormones and things and all these chemicals running around inside my body. So, that's the overimmune response and then being sodomized is the introduction of the bacteria. And I was sodomized at a very young age so there you go, there's the introduction of the bacteria. And so, I believe that that is at the base of what caused my Crohn's disease. Because they don't know. They say we don't know what causes it. The only thing I say that they have is that basis of an overimmune response with the introduction of a bacteria. Now, they don't know what causes the overimmune response but I think it came from my views. Yes, I would think so. I mean, it sounds like your body putting up a defense. Right. And it was. I don't know because I'm not a scientist but it just sounds like because the body does try to protect itself. It absolutely doesn't and the adrenal axis is your protection system. That's the part of your body and of ourselves that is our protection. It's that fight, flight, or fright, or freeze thing, right? One of the best books that I've read was The Body Bears the Burden. So while... because I didn't remember my abuse as a child until I was 30. And funny thing, that's right when my Crohn's disease was diagnosed also, right? So, you know, we don't always know exactly in our heads but there's something still in our bodies reacting to that specific... Yeah, exactly. And of course you tend to block it out. Absolutely you do. My abuse was very severe and so because of that I especially blocked it out. Right, of course. And it's, you know, at first I thought, how could I not remember? How could I not know? And then I think about it and I was reading and doing a little exploring and investigating. You know, it's like somebody... I read this one thing that says, how are you supposed to go and play two square with the other kids at school if you know what's going to happen to you when you get home at night? Of course. One of the things that my father would do is he would take a hammer. Yeah, I was molested by my father and he would take a hammer and break my toes and break my feet. Oh! And if he didn't have a hammer he'd use a rock and he would say to me, he wanted me to remember with every step I took what he would do to me if I ever told anybody what he was doing to me at night. Oh my! And that's just sort of a small piece of the kind of horrific things that he would... And there's no way anybody else could protect you. No, that's the person who's supposed to. Well, your mom, maybe, but she was his victim too, so... Sure, of course. So she didn't, you know, she didn't... Yeah, what could she do? She was just as much of his victim as I was. Oh! And of course, we had the above suspicion, right? Yes. Um, thing that so many abusive parents do. They want... They don't want anybody to know what's happening. So they go to church. They are the perfect family. They run the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts and all the stuff and things is above suspicion. They don't want anybody to know. So they took us to church, which was wonderful because I got to meet God when I was really young. Right? And so that's where I saw family and that's where I learned how to love and learned what was right and what was wrong. And because you know in your heart and soul you know what's happening is wrong. But you don't because you've lived with it your whole life. So you don't... It's a very complicated issue for a young kid, you know. And so then here I get to church and I'm like, this is right. You just know. So that's how you became a minister. That's how I became a Christian. And then that led to being coming to minister. Yeah. So this was the Episcopal church? The Methodist church. Methodist church. Yes. Well I was in a Presbyterian church when I grew up. But then I joined a Methodist church. Later on when I got married because I hadn't remembered my abuse yet or anything else I ended up you know getting married to a man who was just as bad as my... Oh dear. As my father basically. He fractured my skull put me in the hospital a couple of times. Wonderful guy huh. Oh yeah. My dear. You know what he probably is he just... There was a lot of abuse in his past that he never dealt with you know. So. But I'm saying that to move into being a pastor a minister that's quite a journey. At 15 I was called to be a minister. The age of 15. And then and I don't take me wrong I don't have anything against LGBTQ. But my pastor my assistant pastor who was a woman and this is in the 70s okay so because I'm old. Oh come on. So. They didn't have women pastors back then. She was like quite the you know unique example so I just thought she was my hero and then and I wanted to be a minister too and when I got called like that that day I went to her and she counseled me and I was going to go to a Christian college and I had it all set up and blah blah blah and as a senior in high school she came out of the closet as a lesbian. I babysat her kids I let her husband adored her her all of that and when I you know it destroyed her kids and I'm one of those I believe once you're a parent you don't get to be selfish you don't get what you want anymore you have to until your kids are grown you've made that commitment and so I turned my back on the church and everything else for quite a while and went to Alaska instead of going to college which is why I'm in college now at the age of 60 so like I said I don't have anything against the LGBTQ community or even against her but I think she should have waited until her kids were grown before it happened yes that's quite a journey for the children yes it's been very hard for them I know they still struggle but then it took me about 25 almost 30 years to come back around to I was still in church all the time and stuff but I didn't really get that leading to get into the pulpit and really serve but now you are a volunteer with what is the family promise right my church our church are one of the sponsors for family promise so me and one of my friends from church we go and we spend the night because you have to have a chaperone on site every night that it's open so we go and spend a month and spend the night so now back to we only have a couple seconds how are they they don't know about the cannabis actually some of them do but they're all going to know now that's where I was going with that you know and you said you've been wanting me to come on the show for a while and it's one of the things that I struggled with because you know it's like hmm I don't want people to think badly but then I also you know God's the one who put it here it is a 10,000 year old plant and the side effects are almost nothing compared to the side effects of the medicines they give oh there's nothing like now 1949 if you anybody that's watching the cannabis patent marijuana patent that says it cures all these things is owned by the United States government in 1949 and then they made that movie called Evil Weed well that's a different story we'll talk about that the next time it's been a real pleasure spending this time with you and you will come back I will it goes so fast right it does oh my goodness it goes so fast and the industry changes so fast too things are changing so fast people are knowing more and more about the benefits of it yes right so well again thank you so much for coming thank you for having me we've been asking for a year and a half a year and a half every time I see you okay when are you coming on the show thank you again you're welcome thank you for having me aloha we'll see you next time