I am involved in getting this MJ on our ballot this coming fall. There are ways of using MJ without smoke at all! There is something called a vaporizer. If this law passes, and allows this state to be for Medical MJ., I will try it in this way. I don't want the harmful part, the smoke. In fact, if they removed the THC, that would be fine with me too. From all that I am reading on the subject, it does provide a measure of relief from pain. Good to talk about this subject, as the laws will begin to change for most of the USA in time. ginnie

Right now I am wishing I lived in Colorado. Beatle this sounds so promising. I hope it keeps working. Just to have two days of no pain and a clear head would be amazing. Thanks for bringing this to the forum.
As I said before PA will probably be the last state to make it legal. Our governor wants to part of it.

...or it could be the next.

13 States with Pending Legislation to Legalize Medical Marijuana (as of Apr. 10, 2014)

Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana In Pennsylvania Has Bipartisan Support For First Time Ever

medical marijuana pennsylvania

Doc

It's so awesome that you've provided this info, beatle! I tried cannabis several years ago and found it made me groggy, dizzy and didn't help my pain -- at the time, though, it was hard to get good information about high-CDB strains. Much easier to find a high-CDB strain now.

HOWEVER, after looking around, I've found that anyone in the US can get CDB derived from hemp. As you've said, CDB is not psychoactive. It also happens to be present in abundance in hemp. Although we can't grow hemp in the US, anyone here can buy hemp products, including hemp oil.

Here are some links I've found that will be of interest to those interested in CDB. My own path right now is to find a hemp-based product rather than spending the $200+ it takes for a medical marijuana card in my state.

http://www.projectcbd.org/

http://www.leafly.com/news/medical/h...-access-no-pro

It has been about week since my last post and CBD is working very well. I have found the right dose and I am on a regular schedule. It has completely removed my pain-related symptoms: tingling, stabbing, stinging, electric shocks, all of which were constant and antagonized (more like terrorized) me, they are all suppressed now, comfortably and consistently.

Also, just before I started the CBD I got a new compounding cream that might be helpful to some. It contains small amounts of Clonidine and tetracaine that really helped for the topical stinging. Topical Clonidine gel is now in Phase III clinical trials and positive results have been documented. It could still be more than a year before a product hits the market but compounding pharmacies already make creams with it so for anyone suffering, it might be an option to discuss with your care provider.

I still have PN but for the first time in two years, I feel that I have the pain under control with CBD and without the intolerable side effects of the numerous prescriptions I've tried. The bigger issue now is the numbness and I remain hopeful that with (not too much) time, the nerves will regenerate.

I will keep posting but wanted to report that I am very happy with the results so far.

If and when the CBD become affordable and available (our state is medically legal only, and CBD is not really approved)....I might try it for pain. But so far my topical products do well for me at this point. I am not progressing, and that is good enough for me.

But it is great that you are enjoying your new treatments.
Our RSD forum members --some of them use clonidine in their transdermal creams as well.
I think it would be prudent to keep track of your blood pressure daily just in case.

Some interventions for PN and pain, seem to create tolerance. So once your initial honeymoon is over, I hope you continue as you are now, and are mostly painfree.

Thank you MrsD. I am all too familiar with the drug honeymoon which I went through with Klonopin. Time will tell with CBD, I would expect it will become legal though. It effectively treats pain and there are no psychoactive effects or side effects at all as far as I am aware. Then again, it is cheap to produce so there could be political suppression from the pharmaceutical industry and the government via lobbying. We all know how that works.

Through my own suffering with PN and learning how difficult it is to treat, my course of action has been to try everything possible within reason until I find what works for me. I think one of the biggest challenges for myself and many others with PN pain is that it frequently changes, waxes and wanes, comes and goes, whatever you want to call it, the symptoms are inconsistent and can really sneak up on us.

For now, I am enjoying this time off from Lyrica, however long it may last. Talk about psychoactive effects! I was on another planet with that drug, it caused blurry vision and made my eyeballs hurt, they literally ached! ...and yet, that was the best I could do.

That is great to hear that it is helping. I hate having to take opioids to control PN, they don't really help the pain and have ruined my memory. I find it so frustrating that doctors are happy to hand out painkillers but don't consider cannabis a legitimate pain management option (at least where I am).

Copied from Health News Headlines forum

Patients who use medical marijuana for pain and other chronic symptoms can take an unwanted hit: Insurers don't cover the treatment, which costs as much as $1,000 a month.

Read the full article...

(From Yahoo)

Doc

Thanks for posting the links Nilram. When MMJ became legal here, CBD products quickly failed to keep up with the demand as most were going to epileptic children in dire need coming in from other states (Dr. Sanjay Gupta covered this on the CNN documentary 'Weed') so it was only a matter of time until they became available to others.

If you decide to try a hemp based product, look for pure CBD so you can avoid the high that you would get from THC. And avoid smoking it. Smoke of any kind is horrible for the lungs. It is also important to remember that if you try anything that does contains THC, you would likely fail a drug test if that is of any concern to you. That's my advice. I'm not a doctor, just a PN sufferer, very sensitive to medications and desperate for relief.

Here is a YouTube video explaining CBD. Not a huge production budget but some good information direct from a MMJ doctor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31SrjjgPbhU