I do not encourage nor discourage the use of Marijuana for your pain management. In watching my mother-in-law suffer in pain due to cancer, I can NOT tell anybody how to live their life. She was on a morphine pump at home and no amount of it would help her. And she had a very high tolerance to pain. It is a heartbreaking experience to witness and I can not imagine going through it!
Cannabis Sativa, aka: Pot, Herb, Mary Jane, Grass, Weed, Marijuana, Dubby, Reefer, Roach, Dope (and the list goes on). I believe has the most nicknames of any 'drug' we have ever had in our society. That is just a guess. The statistics I have found very greatly in the number of people that used and whom are addicted. For this blog I will say it seems to be about 4% of American Adults have consumed at least once a year and 1 out of 300 Adults are addicts. Again, each place I read something different. In all honesty I have never used it, but was around it in my college days. I never saw the point in doing it, after watching my 'friends' get high and act stupid. That is a degree that I am not talking about here for 'medical use'.Medical use pot seems to be about 3 'puffs' a day. I will leave it up to the consumers in how much you need/want. That is an area I am not going to get involved in. What you do is up to you and I have no business being in your business :) I am just stating what I read for those that are interested in the topic.
Here is a list of my findings for the estimated 76 Million Chronic Pain Americans (again, my stat is not gospel).
What pot can alleviate:
- Relief of chronic pain
- Suppression of nausea
- Increase/restore metabolism
- Relief of muscle spasms
Research has been done in the following areas with great success:
- Glaucoma - pot relieves eye pressure
- Cancer
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Epilepsy
- Chronic Pain
- Anxiety - in the proper dose, pot can elevate your mood and expand the mind
- Depression
- Obsession
- psychologically/spiritually enhancement
Side Effects of Pot (just in case you didn't know):
- Rapid heart rate
- Increased blood pressure and breathing
- Red/Dry eyes
- Slow reaction time
- Increased appetite - aka, munchies
- Short-term memory loss
- Paranoia, anxiety and depression
From the articles I have read with medical research I can see great benefit from the substance, in moderation. However, I was not able to find out too much on how your body adapts to it over time. If your body would build a tolerance to it and if so, would the higher dose still benefit you? At this time that would be my only concern, should I decided to go down that road at a later date.
The decision is yours, just make sure you are responsible as a user and respectful of others who do not share your opinion.
Cheers to Germany and Belgium for their legal use of it and a healthy working society.
Links to some of the page I went to for this blog:
- Cannabis Research Center: http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/
- http://www.everydayhealth.com/pain-management/medical-marijuana-for-chronic-pain.aspx
- http://www.michaelshouse.com/marijuana-addiction/street-names-for-marijuana/
- http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/news/20100830/marijuana-relieves-chronic-pain-research-show
