“Somebody’s got to go convey the message that there’s not just recreational and medicinal. There is a sacramental use of cannabinoids.”. These are the words of David Warren Goodknife, and he’s decided that he is that somebody. I visited him at his home office in San Diego, California to learn more. At the same time, I learned about Remedy Rolls by Healing Sacrament. It’s a new product for those who consume cannabis for spiritual purposes.
David Warren Goodknife
David is an ordained ceremonialist with the Oklevueha Native American Church. He has a wealth of experience with psychoactive plant medicines used by indigenous people. He is also, he says, the first Native American peyote practitioner to embrace cannabis.
It wasn’t an easy decision, however. David had been sober and involved in 12-step programs since 1984, so wasn’t a cannabis user. But then he found out that a constituent, as he refers to members of his church, began making a cannabis tincture to calm seizures in their epileptic child. This inspired David to further explore the medicinal uses of the herb.
“I started taking care of constituents with cancer and saw its miraculous healing properties,” David Warren Goodknife remembers.
David also found success using the extract to treat those troubled by PTSD, and began taking on the responsibility of making the tincture himself. More and more people started asking him for a bottle of his medicine. And so David launched the Healing Sacrament line of tinctures and began offering them in San Diego medical marijuana dispensaries. Several options, with different cannabinoid ratios, are available. David prays and sings over each batch to bless the medicine during creation.
David’s ministry includes many other aspects of Native American culture, including drum making and leading sweat lodge ceremonies. And also mixing a traditional blend of smoking herbs known as kinnikinnick. When David discovered some of his congregation were adding pot to their kinnikinnick cigarettes, he was inspired to create a new product.
Remedy Rolls by Healing Sacrament
Remedy Rolls by Healing Sacrament are pre-rolled joints made with a mixture of cannabis and kinnikinnick. David’s mixture includes bearberry, red willow, yerba santa, sage, and other herbs chosen for flavor or therapeutic value. Four varieties, made with either indica, sativa, hybrid, or high-CBD flower are available.
David started using his tinctures for chronic pain, and then discovered the spiritual properties of cannabis, and began using it for meditation and prayer. He found he was able to achieve a state of consciousness akin to using other plant medicines, particularly with CBD-rich strains.
“I found that it wasn’t far away from the same energetic vibrations that the peyote put you into,” David says.
David believes that industrialized society represses psychotropic plants because they release us from the judgment systems modern media bombards us with daily.
“You pray with that cannabis, you pray with peyote, you pray with that psilocybin or ayahuasca, and it will shift your reality.”
As California heads into a regulated cannabis market in 2018, David is creating partnerships with licensed manufacturers and distributors and making plans for new products, including vape cartridges. Ignoring the trend of super-potent goods aimed at the recreational market, the Healing Sacrament line has moderate or even nominal levels of THC. David is more interested in sharing the herb with people seeking its medicinal, or even spiritual, benefits.
“It will lead you to truth if you use it in a sacramental way.”
