PDAP hosts Amendment 3 Panel, Hip Hop Comedy Showcase
On August 31, 4 PM, PDAP will hold the Education & Conversation: CANNABIS IN OUR COMMUNITY Panel
Panelists include Mister McTier, MS, Medical Cannabis Science & Therapeutics; Corey Givens, Poor People’s Campaign; Jabaar Edmond, filmmaker/ CDAT; Melissa Cooper Roland, Nurse & Wellness Practitioner; moderated by Maranda Douglas, entrepreneur & business owner, BA, USF Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance.
At 6:30 PM, the panel will be followed by the LEGAL WEED: Yay or Nah?? Hip Hop & Comedy Showcase!
Hosted by Lee Teharte, the showcase features comedian Barak Amen, with musical performances by Jay Grey aka Legal Alien, Charli Funk, and Kalib Music.
There will be onsite voter registration all day.
This is a FREE community event, for ages 18 +, and registration is required. Admission to FloridaRAMA’s Immersive Art Experience is included. Register here.
Local cannabis expert Mister McTier, MS shares medical insight during Aug 31 Amendment 3 Panel
A St. Petersburg native with a long-time passion for gardening and growing, Mister McTier was a Bright Futures graduate of Northeast High School who enrolled in Florida A&M University as a computer information student and joined the Marching 100 as a trombonist. But the constant traveling and performing with the renowned band took a toll. “I enjoyed the band a little bit too much,” McTier admits. He left the university’s highly demanding computer information program before graduating. “I didn’t have my focus on,” he acknowledged.
McTier ended up in advertising at the St. Pete Times for a stint before returning to get his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at FAMU, with a focus on Juvenile Justice. He started working at Humana in case management, and then their process improvement department, where his skills in data mining were put to good use.
During that time, he also entered the University of Maryland’s Graduate School of Pharmacy program in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics, receiving his Master of Science degree; a logical, if not necessarily foreseen destination, for the son from a family of growers and gardeners.
“My family were outdoors people; I’ve always had dirt under my nails.” McTier initially thought that getting the MS would somehow aid him in his quest to ultimately have a cannabis farm, but he now realizes that the information he gained prepared him for something else.
“This was the first master’s level cannabis science degree offered in the country,” he said of the pioneering program. Graduating from its second class of students, he is among a select few with these credentials. “It’s a pretty small cohort right now, but we are growing.”
The Maryland program was a science-based program, dealing with how cannabis affects human anatomy and systems, giving McTier vast knowledge on how it affects the human body. “My passion for cannabis has grown from more than just wanting to grow it, now that I understand how it is medicinally applicable.”
And in the nick of time. As the legalization of recreational marijuana – McTier refers to the plant by its scientific name, cannabis, or Cannabis Sativa – continues to move forward throughout the country, the need for research increases.
Florida has the Amendment 3 Marijuana Legalization Initiative on the ballot this fall. While Florida currently has a tight grip on who can handle and distribute medical marijuana, McTier’s specialization has made him valuable to those practicing in places like California, where cannabis-based therapies are more available. He currently serves on the board of STAND4SOMETHING Media Group, Ltd., a California health tech company that’s already reached out to make use of his expertise.
The cannabis expert notes that while there are thousands of people being referred to therapies in places like California, they’re often not being completely or correctly educated on what their particular diagnosis means.
“For example,” he noted, “you don’t want to give someone who can’t sleep the same type of cannabis that you give someone who has high blood pressure, or someone who’s epileptic, right? You wouldn’t give them cannabis that has high properties of THC, because THC is psychoactive, crossing the blood-brain barrier — and epilepsy already means [there are mis-firings and interruptions to brain function] to begin with. So, you don’t want to add more chaos to that type of situation.”
McTier’s scientific expertise on the human endocannabinoid system has led him to understand how certain receptors in our bodies are wired to positively respond to certain cannabinoids, which mimic chemicals that our body already makes. While CBD and THC are the most commonly known cannabinoids, there are hundreds of other cannabinoids also found in the cannabis plant. Not all have the same effects on the human body, and McTier said more research is needed to help determine which cannabinoids, in what doses and combinations, can be used to our benefit.
“Cannabis has been part of medicine for as long as human history; Aboriginal folks, folks all around the world always consumed cannabis,” McTier noted, adding that tinctures were another common form of use.
Indeed, there is evidence that cannabis was in use medicinally as far back as 400 AD; it was mentioned in the United States Pharmacopoeia for the first time in 1850, and commonly used as medicine during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Political and racial campaigns led to Federal restriction of cannabis in 1937 with the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act; following the legislation, it was dropped from the United States Pharmacopoeia in 1942.
McTier will be sharing more about his research during the upcoming Amendment 3 Legalization of Marijuana Panel and “Legal Weed, Yay or Nah??” Comedy and Hip Hop showcase on August 31, 4 pm sponsored by Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project at FloridaRAMA. The panel examines some of the economic and health considerations of legalizing cannabis in Florida.
The event is free and open to ages 18+ but registration is required; visit https://www.facebook.com/share/4MZKSghAJ1fZFNoS/ or register directly at https://bit.ly/3AlZck2
