C
hris Woodney’s good friend and
daughter’s godfather who has
suffered with Crohn’s disease
since he was fifteen, had a turn
for the worse in 2010. Chris started
to investigate cannabis to see how he
could help him.
Chris continues: “From attending and
educating at three doctors conferences, I had
learned that 79% of doctors surveyed knew
nothing about our Endogenous Cannabinoid
System (ECS). I felt helpless because I had
insufficient knowledge of the rest of the body’s
functions to explain how this vital regulatory
system works within all living things (except
insects).
Chris spoke to ihemp magazine about his
journey around the world, to investigate hemp “It was at this point in my life I decided to be
helpless no more, and so began my journey
as food and health supplement and cannabis
around the world to try and figure out how
as a medicine.
these things called cannabinoids work.
“I help to feed and clothe the homeless
“We actually produce them endogenously
through our backpackers business: We started
(inside our bodies) and they are found in many
a $10 Food Challenge, gifting $10 worth of
plants: Cacao, Liver Wart, Echinacea and in
food to someone in need. One day I tried to
abundance within the Cannabis Plant.
buy a steak for a homeless guy and he said...
“And just so we are clear: Hemp is Cannabis,
yet iHemp is naturally grown Cannabis as
‘Nah mate I can’t eat meat -
it was in times of old, males and females
I’ve got no teeth!’
together, keeping low THC, now referred to
as Industrial Hemp (iHemp). iHemp is legally
regulated and defined clearly within New
“That highlighted to me how nutrition and
Zealand legislation as approved cannabis
mental health issues in homeless could go
cultivars, with almost no THC
hand in hand: A lot of folks living
(Tetrahydrocannabinol), so it’s
on the streets aren’t able to easily
impossible to get high from it or
access the right nutrition. But I
any of its products.
knew from investigations in 1998
“These cannabis plants are not
that everyone would be able to
meant to be subject to the same
absorb a highly digestible form of
controls put on illegal unregulated
protein from a vegetable source
Cannabis or Marijuana through
called Edestin. This is - you guessed
legislating them under their own
it - Industrial hemp / Cannabis: An
regulations.
ancient yet new superfood.”
“I started to travel the world
Chris goes on, “Then in 2015 I
attending expos, seminars, &
found out my sister, a nurse by
workshops, listening to doctors,
profession, was diagnosed with
Chris
Woodney
patients, vets, bio chemists, field
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
medics and leading researchers on
and only given two weeks to live,
the topic, ending up in China and learning from
without a stem cell transplant. I found myself
the old and experienced herbalists there.
in Auckland hospital visiting my sister was
fighting for her life, stuck in isolation, and also “Once I understood how vital this plant in its
visiting my best mate in the Gastro-Ward. He
natural state has been for human survival,
wasn’t gaining weight and couldn’t eat.
prior to the lies and prohibition in 1937, like
many people I developed a passion for it and
“When I brought up using cannabinoids to
a determination to educate on the correct
supplement their deficient cannabinoid
use of cannabis, and make sure that all New
systems,
Zealanders can have access to this vital and
functional food, which can improve the health
the doctors and hospital staff they would of every kiwi, including the sick and afflicted.
shoot me down with:
“Using raw plant iHemp/cannabis as a
'Oh no! They can’t be smoking cannabis!'” nutritional food source really flips the
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