"I went on social media, and I caught the attention of this guy who called himself a what? A compassion provider. He came and knocked on my door. He had a grateful dead shirt on and a cowboy hat."
We discussed Mike Robinson’s experience with social media censorship, but we left out a critical question. Would Robinson be in the position he’s in today, a cancer survivor in the process of adopting a daughter if it weren’t for two things — Medical Cannabis and Social Media? The short answer — is probably not — but we have to first explain Mike Robinson's introduction to cannabis. The life saving medicine found him and began a journey that culminated in the adoption of a family with daughters, Genevieve and Sydney.
In 1995, I had a high-speed wreck on a professional racing tour. I hit the wall at 181 miles per hour, paralyzed on the racetrack. I spent years in a wheelchair, and I got severe epilepsy. — Mike Robinson
With acquired epilepsy, Robinson had a century of albeit suppressed medical data to support his eventual cannabis use. Literature discusses cannabis oil for epilepsy before cannabinoids were first discovered in the late 1800s. Yet, Robinson had yet to grace the height of the plant’s medicinal skyscraper.
I actually got introduced into the world of cannabinoid medicine working in law, working as a civil rights lobbyist representing kids with disabilities pro bono nationwide. I used to travel around representing kids that were restrained or abused in special ed. And I would go to the school and sue them; I was a civil rights lobbyist — it was my job. But in 2013, I unknowingly ingested cannabinoids.
Finding herbs for pain
Robinson suffered numerous ailments after his 95′ crash. Epilepsy causes severe seizures for an indeterminate period. During that period, a person will thrash about and possibly deprive their brain of oxygen for dangerous lengths of time. Some individuals, especially, his now adopted daughter Genevieve, lose certain functions to the condition.
I actually fell out of my bed in a seizure and tore my ab muscle. And my Korean roommate, nobody could pronounce his name, so I just nicknamed him Henry and it stuck. But Henry always made these herbal balls.
And I came back from the ER with my torn abdominal muscle with a rib belt on, trying to use a bong. Henry comes up and says [in a heavy Korean accent] “Michael- you can’t eat it all. Can’t eat it all.”
Robinson’s roommate gave him herbal medicine for pain associated with his torn ab muscle. But he understood Henry poorly through the Korean accent, which created a happy but confusing period of discovery for Robinson. This meant that Mike initially overlooked the identity of Henry’s herbs.
“What stopped my epilepsy?”
After consuming larger than recommended quantities of Henry’s herbs for a week (which we only suggest under proper guidance), Robinson’s other roommate chimed into the situation. John noticed that, despite regularly picking Mike up off the floor, he hadn’t seized since tearing his ab muscle. But it took a while before they got Henry to clearly describe the herbal medicine, at first blaming something in the fridge — a food allergy, perhaps?
They needed to know why his seizures stopped, so he handed Henry a pen and paper to avoid the language barrier. Henry began to write down c-a-n-n-a-b-i. Robinson cuts in, “S! So what? I Smoke weed?”
Mike’s lighthearted nature further muffled the situation but his curiosity drove him to an internet search. A Daily Mail story appeared on his screen about a young girl, Charlotte Figi. Cannabi —diol. Henry’s herbs contained CBD from hemp.
That whole week I couldn’t smoke my weed. So I would grind it all up. I made weedfu — pressing it into my tofu — cooking it. I ate it raw. I had no idea that I was ingesting THCa, THC decarboxylated, and CBD that whole week long.
I had to actually research to figure it out. But what I did that night was mind-blowing. I went on Facebook — I need the weed they grow in Colorado.
Calling the compassion guy
CBD and CBDa comprised some of the magic behind Henry’s herbal medicine. And Chemotype III cannabis cultivars express predominantly with CBDa relative to an almost non-existent THCa presence in the bud’s glands. They should further contain more CBDv, which, next to linalool, forms a strong entourage against seizures. The latter information was on the cusp of discovery in 2014 when Colorado was one of the few places growing Chemotype III strains in North America, possibly the globe.
I went on social media, and I caught the attention of this guy who called himself a what? A compassion provider, he came and knocked on my door. He had a grateful dead shirt on and a cowboy hat. Can I help you? And he pulls out 40 ml of RSO. ‘I saw your post on Facebook, you need to use this oil.’
But how do you know where I live, I told you a whole city, man. So this guy introduces me to compassion, to giving. So, at first, Henry gave me ‘can’t eat it all’ [cannabidiol]. And then some guy shows up at my door, unnamed, giving me oil and I use that stuff to quit the — I counted — twelve drugs I was on.
The mysterious Compassion Provider told him, “I’m a friend of Dennis Peron’s,” which ushered an abrupt response. In any case, Mike Robinson continued treating epilepsy with cannabinoid medicine for three months and regrets putting down the cannabis. Ten years earlier, he faced Non-Hogkins lymphoma for the first of now three battles. Unfortunately, cancer is stubborn when mutations originate from stem cells, often leading to recurrence after five to ten years.
In 2003 I had non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the first time. Six treatments into chemo — it caused paralysis to come back from the racing wreck. So Non-Hodgkin’s actually paralyzed me for three years.
I truly believe people should pay close attention to the cannabinoid CBN with cancer battles. It was my first presentation of Academia: CBN, The Cancer-Fighting Cannabinoid. And the reason why CBN is imperative is it modulates T-cell counts. So you can kill cancer cells all day long, but if your other biomarkers are all off, it's just going to grow more. So you have to do more than just kill cancer cells, you have to treat your body right. The CBN does that, too.
Building on misfortunes with cannabinoids
Counting the events — misfortune, a roommate from a diverse cultural background, social media, and medicinal cannabis gifted Robinson the wisdom of compassion. Because the mysterious man in a Grateful Dead and cowboy hat brought more than cannabis, he brought Mike the inspiration to begin working as a compassion provider.
‘You talk to people extracting, you put them together, you get their stuff and you give it to the kids.’ That’s what Dennis told me. Give it to the kids. — Mike Robinson
At the time, CBD was a popular topic for children with epilepsy, although accurate dosage information was scarce outside a few online publications, magazines, and technical science journals. This prompted Robinson to answer the call of duty, which catalyzed his introduction to a family he now happily calls his own. A meeting occurred intended to simply guide a new client and their daughter’s use of cannabis oil for CBD.
Silencing scientists
In the dark ages of cannabis, compassion providers were people who knew the medicinal value of cannabinoids and shared their knowledge. Before the internet, two magazines offered cannabis information written, at best, by rouge journalists who scraped up the little available information from UN textbooks and science conducted by researchers abroad.
Today, we have a free well of information that regulators are attempting to seal off. At the same time, we can’t take the opportunities cannabis granted us under semi-prohibitive regulations. The compassion provider’s role fades when recreational laws sweep in over medical programs. Mike Robinson this year faced his latest recurrence of Non-Hodgkins in the form of Stage IV lymphoma. While compassion providers no longer work in his home state, his family and New Venture, Nanobles, kept him stalked up on cannabis oils, CBGa, and saran wrap for novel and intensive nano-cannabinoid patches.
Mike Robinson spoke in depth about his latest cancer battle and his upcoming adoption of Genevieve’s sister, Sydney. Keep in touch with our network to read more about the Cannabis Love Story and Robinson’s cancer battle.
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