Thoughts on legalizing marijuana for chronic pain
 

Has anyone tried this, and does it help you? Martina

Yes, i've tried it -- the only thing it did for me was relax me a LITTLE. It did NOT take away any pain. I still hurt like #$%$ !!! It just wasn't worth it to me. Not only that, but my doc said that he would take away ALL my meds too if I continued on the marijuana. Heck no!! It didn't work well enough to get rid of the meds - I still need them so that I can WALK!

I wish it had worked. I HATE taking meds. :mad: Best of luck. Hugs, Lee

Hi, it works for me though i dont take it all the time and it has to be herbal but thats too dear and illegal here in Ireland. A drug derive from dope has being made legal in England called SATIVEX. Check out Nelson town B.C. Canada where a person i know says the cops are easy on people smoking dope in public. regards

wishes
 

it is not legal in my state, and we are far down on the list for possibles. Fla. Is backwards. I was not thinking it would work when I asked here about others who had experience with this. I did try and found out, that as far as the np in my left arm, it works betters that morphine for me. My doctor knows, and is not upset with me. However if the aciencies find out they will drop your coverage, so it may not be worth the risk to most. My doctor didn't bat an eye and he certainly knows my history. I am a baby boomer so it is not like I didn't know about it in the past, but as an adult, it is quite a choice to make knowing how the law feels about it. I am still given my medications, and trust was not hurt with my physician as I told him the truth. Be careful out there to whom ever decides to participate. The laws are not good in these backward states. I would hate to be disabled, missing my 11 medications stuck in jail. That would be the ultimate bummer. Take care all of you. Ginnie:hug:there use to be a law of compassion in some states

Years and years ago, in my young and wilder days, (ha ha, who am I kidding? I was never that wild!)
anyway, I found that marijuana helped a GREAT DEAL with chronic headaches and trigeminal neuralgia pains, as well as reduced pain and inflammation from tooth abscess.

Then I became a parent, and have not indulged since. I've frequently wondered if it might help the pain I am in now (from back injury) but am not willing to risk my family, etc, in breaking the law as it currently is here is Kansas.

I've heard on other boards, etc, that marijuana can be simmered in a fat based product like butter, to be used in recipes and similarly can be melted into a base for a topical application- which is more what would interest me, with less side effects than smoking or ingestion.

I tried it a couple of times, but it did not give me pain relief, and i didnt even really relax me. I wonder if i was doing it wrong.lol

I'm going to try it when I can hold of some green. It's illegal here but to be honest, the rubbish that the Doctor's legally prescribe is far worse than cannabis! Will report back.

I am a regular medical marijuana user. I probably use between 1-2 gms a day, which is not considered particularly heavy use. While it does not completely eliminate pain (nothing but death and anesthesia does that!) it does help with coping with the pain.

There are many ways to take mmj. I mostly take it by inhaling, and I use a water pipe, as that helps calm the harshness a bit. Some patients like to use a vaporizer, which basically heats up the THC and releases it to be inhaled without the smoke generated by igniting/smoking. However, vaporization does not always produce as strong of results as needed. I have used tinctures, which some people swear by, but with less effectiveness for me. I have hard candy made with mmj in the corn syrup and any oil it may contain, and this can be handy when lighting up is out of the question. Ingesting it by eating creates more of a body high, and the effects are a little stronger and longer-lasting . . . but it can take up to 90 minutes to kick in. (I have eaten a good dose of medicated cookies only to forget and get a surprise about an hour or so later!)

If you have tried it and felt it did not "work" for you, it may be that either the medicine you tried was of poor quality (low in THC, or what we call "shake" or the leftover leaves that do not contain as much THC) or you didn't take sufficient quantities to get a good effect. That said, some people do not like the feeling of the "high" you get from marijuana, and it is true, some people simply do not get high from it. I liken it to the effect of a strong, effective pain med or muscle relaxer in that it makes you a little fuzzy, it can lift your mood, and it can give you a high that allows you to function because it distracts you from the pain. This is how it works for me. Some days I require very little. . . others I pretty much have myself medicated all day long. It is helpful as a sleep aid, especially the indica varieties.

Sativa strains tend to be more cerebral, producing a spacier "high" that can give a good measure of relief from pain. It is considered good for "daytime" use, meaning that you can often function fairly productively on it.

Indica strains produce more of a body effect, are relaxing and have good pain relieving properties. Indicas are good for night-time use, as they can induce sleep. A good strong indica can glue me to the couch . . . not always a desirable effect, unless that is the only way I can be comfortable and have my pain relieved.

In states with legalized medical marijuana your physician is supposed to counsel you in the benefits and any precautions about its use. This should always include caution about getting behind the wheel while using, and of course, operating heavy or dangerous equipment as well. I got my "recommendation" or "authorization" from my gastoenterologist for Crohn's disease, as mmj is very good for relieving spasms and it can help if you have nausea or loss of appetite. It is true, you can tend to want to munch while using, which so far is the only negative side effect I have found if you do not have the metabolism to keep from gaining weight.

Leesa, it is sad, but true, that many doctors are unwilling to consider the medical benefit that marijuana can have. I find it sad that there are doctors more concerned with their own ego than providing relief for their patients.

Martina, it is possible you either did not take enough mmj, or that you were supplied a poor strain. You might want to give it another go. If you are inhaling it, do not expect one or two puffs to get you relief . . . that only happens in the movies. A piece of "bud" about the size of a blueberry is a good place to begin.

72daywmn, cooking with "cannabutter" is a good way to ingest mmj if you do not want to have smoking materials hanging around. However, it is very "fragrant' if you get my drift, and making medicated butter is a smelly and messy process. My first experience, however, produced the best result: I used a lunch bag full of "shake" to 1lb of real butter, and got a huge batch of gingerbread cookies out of it. I made them small so I could titrate my dose . . . and I soon determined 3 cookies would be sufficient . . . but only after finding out that 5 cookies was more than needed (or wanted!) If you have kids you want to prevent from accessing your meds, you will need to prepare the butter and the baked goods when they are not home for some time (like when they are overnight at a friends or the grandparent's house), and then you will need to seal the finished product well so it can not be detected. And most of all, you then must treat your "edibles" as medicine, and not find yourself munching them because you ran out of Oreos or Chips Ahoy . . . or you will end up like I did -- an hour later unable to move! Pain free, yes . . . incapacitated? Almost!

By the way, I cut my gingerbread cookies in the shape of shamrocks, iced them green, and packaged them in gift bags complete with ribbon, and carried them on the plane for a trip back home. What I did not do is leave them anywhere that kids could find them . . .

Using medical marijuana is not cheap. I probably use about $150-225 worth each month, at up to a gram a day. But I could not use any of the meds my neuro recommended because of the unacceptable side effects.

One thing I might add, chronic pain is not easily controlled. Therefore as patients we each have to find what works better for us, even though nothing works perfectly. I have been on low doses of norco/vicodin (≤ 1000mgs/day) for years, and supplement that with mmj, meditation and yoga breathing, and other means of shifting the focus away from the pain.

I highly recommend that anyone serious about learning to cope with pain that will never get better learn one or more alternative techniques to cope with their pain. Mindfulness meditation is being used for pain and PTSD for our war disabled, and is an excellent way to learn to focus on the moment without judgment or evaluation of the quality of that moment. It is not a simple thing to learn, and I am still struggling with it, but learning the breathing alone is a big help. Most of us hold our breath when stressed or hurt . . . depriving our bodies of oxygen. This is counterproductive to pain management. Learning to move your focus from intense pain to deep breathing can be a very beneficial first step.

In addition to my pain meds, I use breathing, some yoga stretching and meditation, music, incense, and in the last year, a singing bowl, the sound of which helps me to center my attention on my being and away from my pain.

Singing bowl audio: http://www.bodhisattva-store.com/lis...61%20final.mp3 It is played by striking the edge or running the mallet around the rim to produce the constant ringing. I own a bowl tuned to "D" . . . which also happens to be the second chakra, or the sacral chakra, where the most damage to my body has been experienced through illness and surgery. And. . . it "spoke' to me the first time it was played. More on chakra sounds used for healing: http://www.soundessence.net/chakras.php

Don't get me wrong, though. I still have moments when I am in tears . . . or in spastic agony. But when I do remember to breathe, to refocus, I am amazed how much better I do getting through it . . .