45 years, many travels, one stance.

The beginning

My first contact with cannabis was in the early 1980s, more by chance than by plan, like many of my generation. What kept me involved was less the plant itself than the people I met through it: growers, travellers, patients, sceptics, doctors who themselves were not sure what to make of it. For decades, cannabis was a topic that attracted a lot of claims and very little real research. That is exactly what kept me curious.

Travel as a teacher

I have been fortunate to travel widely, through regions where the relationship with cannabis has grown in very different directions. In the Netherlands I saw what a regulated market can look like. In Spain I experienced the cannabis club culture first-hand. In North America I watched an entire industry build up around extracts and concentrates, the 710 topic that gives this site its second name. Each of these stops relativised my view. What is taken for granted in one scene is unknown or contested elsewhere. Above all, these travels taught me one thing: caution with sweeping statements.

From use to extract knowledge

Over the years my interest shifted, away from consumption itself and toward the question of what is actually inside an extract. Full spectrum or isolate, solvent-based or cold-pressed, terpenes or a pure cannabinoid: these questions have stayed with me for a long time, and they are the reason this site gives so much space to its own extracts guide. I consider knowledge about origin and production more important than any brand promise.

Why I am explicitly not a doctor

I have no medical training. I do not diagnose, I do not prescribe, I do not treat anyone, human or animal. What I do have is gathered, personal experience over a very long time, and the willingness to say plainly where that experience ends. Anything beyond experience reports and general information, especially complaints, diagnoses or medication, belongs in the hands of a doctor or a vet. That is not a disclaimer for form’s sake, it is my actual stance: I see my role as a coach and companion at eye level, not as a substitute for medicine.

To me, taking responsibility for yourself means that I offer an honest orientation, while the decision and the conversation with the right professionals stay with you.

Why I care so much about self-responsibility

In 45 years I have seen how differently people, and animals, can react to the exact same thing. What has helped one owner does not have to show the same picture in another animal. That is exactly why I consider blanket dosage recommendations or promises of healing unserious, no matter who makes them. I prefer a different path: inform well, give an honest orientation, and leave the decision where it belongs, with you, and, when an animal is involved, in conversation with a vet.

This page is a translated summary. The full German version, plus the rest of the site, lives at /ueber-micha/.