Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana - Revised and Updated - Michael Backes, Andrew Weil - foreword

This post has 5 comments

• 
  spaniel1
  September 5th, 2020
  

  This is a cross post from the ‘Marijuana and Mushrooms page:

  Hi! Hoping you could give me some insight. I am beset with severe osteoarthritis. There are days I can’t think straight for the damn pain. Although I do have a prescription for morphine and have had it for several years now,it doesn’t stop the pain but it puts a dent into the worst of it. Still, on the pain scale that doctors like to use (0= no pain, 10= the worst pain you’ve ever had) mine rates a consistent 20.

  I bought some salve that contains THC that I mix with Voltaren, it helps somewhat but… have you or anyone else reading this used cannabis for serious pain? I don’t want to get stoned, I do want to cut more pain down. Some days I’m just about useless which is why I love this place for the audio books I listen to during the day when doing physio, or at night when I can’t sleep for the pain and muscle cramps. Here in Canada cannabis is legal but I was gobsmacked at how expensive it is! Around $125 for 1/4 oz! But if it tackles pain and soothes the muscle contractures I’ll buy some and make tea from it. Back several decades ago I’d get the twigs, stems, cleaned roots and seeds, dry and chop roughly and get stoned. Now? I just want to put more of a dent in the damn pain. The arthritis is systemic, there’s a LOT of bone damage.

  Sorry this is a bit long but I’m hoping for some guidance if it’s worth me spending that kind of money if it wouldn’t do anything for me, but it would be worth its weight in gold if it helps. Thanks for any and all input.

  Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana - Revised and Updated - Michael Backes, Andrew Weil - foreword
• 
  SuckMeUp
  September 8th, 2020
  

  Lmao I was planning on giving you a legit answer, being I am a healthcare provider. However, with your nonsense comment about 20/10 pain, good luck not finding peace of mind.

  The provider and patient relationship goes both ways. If you can’t give tangible and concrete objective numbers to your own subjective pain. (10/10 is like being mauled alive by a bear or worse, so you’re sense of scale is bs.) Please educate yourself, I’m not against marijuana or mushrooms, but downplaying morphine’s effect is ridiculous. You’re obviously just looking for an increase in your pain relief and high, sorry but grow up and be realistic about pain relief options.

  Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana - Revised and Updated - Michael Backes, Andrew Weil - foreword
• 
  spaniel1
  September 11th, 2020
  

  @suck - I wish you had given me a proper answer. To poke fun at description of pain really is uncalled for. You don’t know me from Adam. You have no idea what I meant by my comment, it’s not bull.

  I don’t believe you are a ‘health care provider’ not with that smart@ass and sarcastic comments. no way are you a ‘health cre provider because IF you were, you would have had a whole lot more compassion for someone who has asked people to comment.

  I have been in chronic and serious pain since 1997. Right now you can afford to be flippant, but I hope one day you will come to understand what I was saying. I hope you do come to understand it’s NOT about getting high. And to tell me to grow up? That’s why I risked being subjected to derision when I asked for someone’s opinions. 23 years of unending, chronic pain is something to go through to understand fully. You need to grow up and understand that morphine is NOT the be all and end all. So thank you for underlining my origional hesitation in posting a request for help…I never should have done that.

  Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana - Revised and Updated - Michael Backes, Andrew Weil - foreword
• 
  suraci984
  August 28th, 2021
  

  spaniel1, this comes nearly a year too late, but I wanted to post this just in case it helps.

  First, I am sorry that someone bothered to respond to you only to ridicule your circumstance. I know how difficult it can be to deal with chronic pain and how this is only compounded by those unwilling to acknowledge your suffering.

  I’m unsure of the situation in Canada, but I can say a few things. First, gram for gram it will always be more cost effective to consume THC/CBD than to smoke it or use it as a salve. Most of the active ingredient is lost when smoking/vaping and effects tend not to last quite as long. Most places that sell weed also sell edibles, but even these come at a very high markup. If you can find “distillates”, I would suggest those, as they are generally very cheap ($20-40) and come in amounts approaching 1 gram of THC or mixtures with varying amounts of CBD. If not, you can always buy weed and prepare it into canna-butter yourself, a time consuming but cost effective method.

  If you buy distillates or edibles, I would highly recommend a 50/50 THC/CBD mixture of full spectrum distillate, as the CBD tends to mellow out some of the high effects of THC and extend the period of pain relief.

  One gram might not sound like very much if you are used to smoking, but it constitutes 100 doses of edibles for the average user and 20 doses for a heavy user. This, unfortunately, gets us to the problem. Over time you -will- develop a tolerance to THC. For this reason you will eventually need more and more to achieve the same effects. If being used for chronic daily pain this amount will ramp up fairly quickly, if you only need it occasionally you should be able to go off for long enough periods to reduce your tolerance. With daily use the mind altering effects of THC can then lead to other problems in life, as you will find yourself chronically unsafe to drive, having difficulty with memor, and possibly with new or compounded emotional issues. For this reason I would only recommend trying THC for a limited period of time or using it for very occasional pain relief and consider experimenting with large amounts of CBD and relatively small amounts of THC (30mgCBD/1mgTHC) to achieve similar effects with less of the downsides.

  At the same time, I -highly- recommend you seek help from a licensed medical professional. Thankfully, in Canada, this is something you should be able to access regardless of income level. You should be insistent on getting the care you need but, despite the pain and trauma you have suffered, you need to be calm and collected during your meetings. Make it very clear to them that you are in a great deal of pain, but try your best not to engage in hyperbole or become angry, as some care providers will then internally categorize you as “drug seeking” and not give you the help you clearly need. If your healthcare provider is not responsive to your needs, seek out another as soon as possible. The goal here is not to find someone who simply tells you what you want to hear or prescribes you a heavy dose of something to shut you up, but someone who will take time to listen to your needs, take the time to craft a plan of action suited to that unique situation, then take time to alter that plan as different treatments are tried and found acceptable or wanting.

  Best of luck to you and I hope you find the relief you are seeking!

  Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana - Revised and Updated - Michael Backes, Andrew Weil - foreword
• 
  da1010
  August 31st, 2022
  

  Very good answer suraci984.

  Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana - Revised and Updated - Michael Backes, Andrew Weil - foreword

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