In this week’s podcast we chat with Karen Burge, Vice President of Church of Ubuntu about cannabis as a food, the ‘pre-legalisation’ cannabis community, compassionate care and patients and law enforcement in the “green market.”

Key Points

1:17 – Karen Burge, who is the vice president of Church Of Ubuntu, started this church along with her housemate about 6 years ago after successful experimentation with cannabis hemp plant. She has personally experienced its positive and long term health impacts so she delved into research so as to improve quality of life for people suffering from Cancer, Epilepsy, Autism, Parkinson’s, seizures and other grave diseases.

6:07 – Karen iterated that she started her research long before cannabis was legalised.

6:38 – Karen agreed that cannabis could be consumed for nutritional, medicinal and disease prevention benefits. She demonstrated the role of clinic in provision of dietary guidelines to individuals along with consultation regarding the disease preventive aspects of cannabis.

8:31 – Karen informed that based on high nutritional value of hemp seeds, the church always recommended its consumption as food. In this regard, she was working with DPI and lobbying so that the hemp consumption laws could be modified. She termed the concept a game changer for enhancing access to locals.

11:45 – Karen delved into her past as a spiritual teacher and spoke about her role in guiding and mentoring individuals through church. She talked about increasing awareness regarding the detoxifying benefits of fresh hemp and cannabis seeds on the endocannabinoid system.

14:26 – Karen explained that since the majority of clients are seniors, therefore, minimal dosage is started in the beginning and gradually the dosage is increased. She also recounted testimonies of clients depicting their beautiful transformations.

16:30 – Karen narrated exceptional stories of individuals whose lives improved tremendously through cannabis.

18:57 – Karen explained that through regular use of cannabis, numerous problems like anxiety and chronic pain could be alleviated, thereby improving the sleep cycle.

21:58 – Karen expounded upon church’s support for domestic production of cannabis. She not only praised the compassionate response of judges but also criticised the slow response of politicians in facilitating the cannabis users.

25:28 – Through her church, Karen encourages transition to plant based diet so as to reduce toxin intake. She spoke in favor of using cannabis on priority basis instead of employing it as last option and believes mental peace to be on priority basis.

28:34 – Karen clarified that the members of her team along with consultants usually keep an eye on developments in the legal access scheme. She also checked MCUA’s Facebook page regularly for any relevant information.

30:12 – Karen agreed that people have been prescribed to contact them for affordable cannabis access since it is a popular belief that oils are superior.

31:17 – Karen believes that affordable access could be increased by permitting hemp growth within domestic setup. She also acknowledged the fact that hemp growth depends largely upon the environment and not every environment in Australia is suitable for growth.

34:12 – Karen enlightened the audience that church will continue to serve 13,000 clients from community. She spoke passionately about hemp production and the possibility of rebuilding economy around this plant. Additionally, she iterated that she has been working with her team to setup a self-sustainable infrastructure for growing hemp plants in Hunter valley.

36:08 – Karen spoke excitedly about the possibility of a number of farms for growing hemp plants as food for export purposes.

37:02 – Karen praised the positive role of community for her hemp farm and was hopeful that, once successful, this experiment could be replicated in other places as well.

Church of Ubuntu:
https://www.churchofubuntu.org/

https://www.tga.gov.au/medicinal-cannabis

AltMed: https://altmed.com.au/lifestyle/cannabis-cbd-oil-and-driving/