Le Big Mac & "The Little Things."

Let's all gather 'round and admit that change has been a pretty relevant topic ever since I pushed myself 3,000 miles across the pond. Some changes I knew would happen. Some I didn't expect would happen. Some changes excite me, others frighten me, and so on. Finally, some changes come to me in the dead of night while I struggle to fall asleep. I break out into a cold sweat. These changes are the most interesting of them all. They're ghostly visitations from past experiences, coming back in some vague form, cloaked in the newness of the alternate dimension I'm dwelling in -- which is known to some as Dublin Town.

For example, last night I fully embraced the inherent cliché of being a college student again by popping on Pulp Fiction in the 6x6 cell they call a bedroom (that I won't pretend I'm paying an obscene amount of money for). As I noshed on chocolate and wondered whether Marsellus Wallace threw Tony Rocky Horror out of a four-story window for giving Uma Thurman a foot massage, I felt fresh as a daisy. I just had a warm shower.  I listened to kids in their salad days (you know, the undergrads, green in their judgement) play beer pong in the distance.  My college/salad days were very different. My salad was probably not very green or very appetizing, but it suited me just fine. I was anything but cold-blooded.

Truth be told, I had no desire to watch the film yesterday. I've seen it many times, although the Netflix selection in this country is mercilessly scarce, and I wanted to associate with something familiar. There's nothing like Samuel L. Jackson, a 9mm Star Model B and Ezeikiel 25:17 to soothe you to sleep: "...and I will strike down upon the with great vengeance..."

As mentioned in the previous post, my sleep cycle is still off. My body is still not itself. I'm rather frustrated because I can't find an over-the-counter sleep aid in the whole Republic of Ireland. After days of searching and being too proud to ask a pharmacist, I finally found my answer. I waltzed up to the counter, money in hand and asked, "Why can't I find me some PMs, man?"

...because they are illegal. Well, not entirely. Benadryl is prescription-only, but sources (okay, the pharmacist) say it's a tough prescription toget. Tylenol PM doesn't exist here. Also, when I asked the aforementioned pharmacist to point me in the direction of sleep aids, she was very confused. Why? ...because among the long list of Ireland's strictly regulated prescription-only "drugs" there is  N-acetyl-5-methoxy tryptamine...or, as we normal folks call it, melatonin. To my surprise, I was informed that melatonin will likely be banned from the entire European Union within the next 3-5 years. Isn't that nuts? The harmless vitamin you pick up in Target for five dollars when you're dealing with a bout of insomnia. You know, the supplement? Last time I checked, no one ever overdosed and/or abused melatonin. I mean, is that even possible?

Yet, strangely, when you google "melatonin" in Ireland, the first "related" search result is the mother of all abused drugs: Oxycontin.

I'm getting ahead of myself here. I wasn't in the pharmacy solely for melatonin. I'll tell you the rest of the story now.

To further add to your astonishment: In spite of all this, miraculously, I was able to buy three bottles of CBD without issue in that very same pharmacy, on that very same day. 

I couldn't stop laughing. I guess it's all about perception?

Both melatonin and CBD are completely natural products!

For those of you who may not know, CBD is hemp. It's perfectly safe, but also perfectly new to the emergent/burgeoning/trendy homeopathic treatment scheme in the States. (You can read more about CBD and how it's regulated in New York specifically here).* While CBD/hemp is technically legal in America, you're not going to find it on the shelf at your local CVS. You'd have to do some serious (and maybe literal?) digging. CBD oil remains highly controversial in the United States, despite increased legalization of marijuana as well as the use of cannibidiol as a method of pain relief.  Oh, and did I mention it also fights cancer and alleviates anxiety?

To be clear, as this is all relatively new to me as well: CBD is not to be confused with THC, the psychoactive element found in the cannabis plant. THC gets you high. CBD gets you relief from chronic pain. Granted, certain combinations of THC and CBD can do wonders for not-so-modern medicine, but w'ere obviously not quite there yet. For the sake of streamlining this post, I'll examine CBD exclusively for now. CBD (again, the *non* "druggy" part of the plant) produces neurotransmitters that bind to certain receptors in our bodies. The results are pretty amazing: CBD drastically reduces inflammation, muscle tightness and nerve pain.  The benefits of CBD have been medically proven.*

Cheers to Ireland for being super progressive in this arena and selling little bottles of the stuff like lollipops.  I deal with inflammation and muscle tension due to a car accident I was in as a child, and few things have helped me the way two drops of CBD under my tongue have.

So, to recap: this darling little cannabinoid is everywhere and melatonin is nowhere.

Melatonin is to Ireland as hemp is to the U.S., and vice versa. Which of us has it right? Which of us has it backwards?
Man, Vincent Vega really says it best: It's the little things.

It really got me thinking: why? I have several questions, but at the forefront is a curious if not perturbing binary about these two relatively harmless supplements. Doesn't it seem like Ireland is playing a major game of Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe with the drugs it allows?  Doesn't this all seem just a tad bit arbitrary? 

I know from personal experience with medication back at home that pharmaceutical giants (e.g., Pfizer) cannot distribute a naturally occurring substance without it being part of a compound. I don't think Ireland has that nifty rule in place. ...but after some deep-diving on the internet, I'm now asking myself: is it really a nifty rule after all? Thankfully we don't have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for things like Vitamin C, right? ...but on the other hand, then, how is anybody turning a profit if this stuff is natural?

Whenever I got a runny nose and went to the store for Vitamin C, my ex-boyfriend would laugh and say, "Eat an orange. It'll do you just as good." I always called him stubborn for it. There's something comforting about a bottle...about purchasing a remedy...and I think my subconscious realizes that perhaps the bottled remedy is pumped with other stuff to make me feel better in addition to the vitamin that an orange from the supermarket doesn't have. Am I willingly giving in to a ridiculous racket?

Well, yeah, probably. We all do it. That's no surprise. Still, it makes you wonder: what else is in the bottle, then? What could be so awful that an entire country will prevent its people from buying it willy nilly? Is it about money, or chemicals, or something equally sinister?

Considering Europe's negative take on melatonin, I figured I'd look into it. There are extensive studies proving melatonin is unsafe when used too frequently (more here*). Alas, but couldn't you say that of anything? Eat too many Twizzlers and you'll throw up, no? Been there, done that. It's all about moderation. Melatonin is widely accepted in the U.S. and available in a range of dosages with tons of brands. While speaking to the pharmacist in Dublin, she brought up a larger issue of quality control*. In the United States, since melatonin is in fact over-the-counter and not an expensive prescription drug, various distribution companies can alter the concentration of the substance and add other ingredients for multitudinous reasons, whether it be to promote effectiveness or even make it cheaper for the company selling it.

A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine* published just before melatonin was banned in Canada revealed some pretty shocking results. Not only did two scientists prove the content of melatonin differed from what the bottle purported, but actually found contaminants in 31 melatonin supplements purchased from around the country:

[Their] findings herald what may also be true in OTC melatonin supplements marketed in the United States. Melatonin content varied from an egregious −83% to +478% of labeled melatonin and 70% had melatonin concentration ≤ 10% of what was claimed. Worse yet, the content of melatonin between lots of the same product varied by as much as 465%.

We've moved from the problem of the user relying on what is supposed to be a natural substance to far more dangerous territory: the manufacturer banking on our stupidity in using it at all. Who here's seen Dallas Buyers Club? My mind is racing.

Briefly returning to the continent upon which I'm currently based: if we want to believe the FSAI (Food Safety Authority of Ireland) has its people at heart and has thus banned certain naturally occurring substances in order to better regulate them, why is CBD so popular now, and why are they planning to ban it?

According to a homeopath I spoke with in Dublin 2 this morning, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. Readily available products like CBD prevent people from going to the doctor or seeking "bona fide" medical treatment when they need it most. The idea of banning CBD or making it prescription-only in theory (but perhaps not in practice) would impel the Irish people to go to their doctor.

Alas, and they will pay money for a prescription, and that prescription may very well be for CBD, and by that time, I'm guessing no one will be able to afford it.

To that, I will take a drop of CBD and go to bed.

Sources:

Grigg-Damberger, Madeleine M., and Dessislava Ianakieva. “Poor Quality Control of Over-the-

      Counter Melatonin: What They Say Is Often Not What You Get.” Advances in Pediatrics., U.S.
      National Library of Medicine, 15 Feb. 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5263069/.

Kubala, Jillian. “7 Benefits and Uses of CBD Oil (Plus Side Effects).” Healthline, Healthline Media, 

      26AD, 2018, www.healthline.com/nutrition/cbd-oil-benefits#section1.

Sarda-Joshi, Gauri. “Is Melatonin Safe? What Does Science Say? | Health.” Sleep Junkies, 12 June

      2018, sleepjunkies.com/health/is-melatonin-safe/.