Medical Marijuana?

[Northern LiGhT]

I recently quit drinking and I am about to enter an outpatient treatment program. I've been prescribed medical marijuana for about a year now, for insomnia and a broken rotator cuff (never had surgery on it), and I usually am in constant pain. Vicodin and other meds make me anxious, and some even throw me into a full blown panic attack. Sometimes i'll smoke every night, sometimes four or five nights a week. I only smoke medical cannabis when I experience pain or can't sleep, which is often. My question is, how will my counselors look at this? Just another addiction? Or do some counselors understand that medical cannabis is a safe theraputic way to help certain illnesses. I have been smoking pot since I was 13, yet for some years I only smoked twice. Some years I smoked more. I've never been dependant. Not until my recent accident and my insomnia from chronic drinking I have used it theraputically. Will any program consider this a legitimate prescription? I see it no differently then taking ambien at night for sleeping problems. Yet the stigma around medical cannbis is still negative. What is your take on all of this, and how will it effect my treatment?

[Ngokpa]

Personally, I think marijuana has legitimate theraputic value, but not for those recovering from an addiction. It's extremely easy to switch from one "feel good" drug to another.

I also have trouble with anxiety, but have found better ways to deal with it. I get acupuncture every week, and take some herbs that don't get me off. Meditation, relaxation exercises, exercise, and diet are all great avenues, as long as we don't take on too much at once and stress ourselves out about it. But they don't work like our drug of choice. Getting away from the idea of instant gratification takes some getting used to.

[historyteach]

Hi, Northern Light;
And welcome to SR!

Mark will be here to offer his advice.

In the meantime, none of us are doctors. It is important that you follow your doctor's advice and that you remain 100% truthful to him/her. If that's the case, it makes no difference what anyone else says. Negative stereotypes will always be there.
I wish you well.

Shalom!

[puppywink]

I honestly believe it should be legalized. I smoked pot in my youth as well, when I stopped smoking in my late twenties, I was found to have Glaucoma. I also believe it was being controlled by the pot. Just my opinion........ However on the darker side of the issue, I believe my memory lose is a result of its use. Or just age.......You decide! Puppy

[Northern LiGhT]

Originally Posted by Ngokpa

It's extremely easy to switch from one "feel good" drug to another.

Getting away from the idea of instant gratification takes some getting used to.

I totally agree with you. Except, not meaning to sound argumentative...but I have never really used marijuana as an escape. I only use it to relieve shoulder pain (as a result of a broken rotator cuff which I never had surgery on). Also, I use it maybe twice a week if I have severe insomnia. I know people who smoke weed all day just to get loaded, but that just isn't me. I understand what your trying to say: I would just replace one with the other. Yet I was smoking pot to relieve pain long before I started heavily drinking, so I don't see how I would replace drinking with marijuana suddenly. but I do see your point, and thanks for all your advice.

[chrisgonz]

My experience:

I have a prescription for medicinal cannabis... pot.

I was smoking too much. I started smoking it when I was like 12. I liked pot then because it made me feel better about the situation I was in.

I quit for many years. Started getting sick from Hep C, lost too much weight, got depressed... all that. So I was prescribed pot, after I requested it.

I smoked pot for about a year, put the weight on and felt better. I quit and ended up on celexa. Lost my insurance and started smoking a bit here and there.

Me.. I'm one of those addicts STILL in recovery. I haven't used speed or heroin in over 13 years.. I still have addictive tendancies.
In conclusion.. I over did it on the medicinal cannabis and I had to quit again.. got my insurance back and I'm scheduled to go back on celexa.

[Northern LiGhT]

Oh by the way.....Do you still have Hep C? I'm not familiar with the diesase except I know it destroys the liver. Well, my uncle developed Hep. C during the 70's sharing a needle (heroin I believe), and he drinks about a six pack or more daily. He's never gotten treatment, and it's been over 30 years. I think he's been an alcoholic for that amount of time too. He says he's gotten his liver checked and stuff, but I don't believe hes telling the truth. Is he f*cked up or is he just stupid? He often talks in spanish or russian and usually speaks in a lot of gibberish ("word salad"). I dont understand him 70 % of the time. I think he should have been dead years ago. Is this true? OR is hep c not as bad as i thought?

Oh and I hope people still comment about the med. marijuana. Hopefully without any intense arguing.

[chrisgonz]

There is no cure for Hep C...

There's treatment..
I start my 3-6 rounds of treatment AFTER Thanksgiving. Gobble, gobble.
I was supposed to start in June... obtacles.. not health ones.

I've had maybe 3 drinks in the last 6 years. As a rule, I don't drink.

My cousin had hepc too, he drank and did drugs... he died at 36 years old. He'd be 44 today. We got it around the same time... we were the same age.

When I found out I had it, I quit drinking. The doc says I can have a glass of wine a day, but why bother. My one drink every two years is cool for me.

On a lighter note with hepc.. with treatment and healthy living, a person can get the hepc counts down low enough where they aren't detected.

That's may goal.

[MarkSichelCSW]

I don't know anything about medical marijuana other than what I've read which is some people find it helpful. I do think however that smoking pot could be dangerous for anyone with addiction problems. And most treatment programs if not all would prohibit pot smoking.

[Christian]

Originally Posted by Northern LiGhT

Or do some counselors understand that medical cannabis is a safe theraputic way to help certain illnesses.

proof?

Originally Posted by Northern LiGhT

I see it no differently then taking ambien at night for sleeping problems. Yet the stigma around medical cannbis is still negative. What is your take on all of this, and how will it effect my treatment?

there is a thing called the FDA that requires peer reviewed medical research and board approval to make drugs legal.

[Ten Chips Down]

Heh, that's wild Chris! Celexa's my miracle drug as well!! I find it... for lack of better terminology... more advanced over the Zoloft I was taking and which I feel pooped out on me. It has WAY less side-effects.

O/T: Celexa and Lexapro I understand are in the same family--and Lexapro is the "improvement"
over Celexa, boasting evern fewer side-effects. Hmmmm. So my question is, why is Celexa still prescribed I wonder? Anyone know?

Moving along, hey LiGiHt and welcome to the forums.

As history always takes pains to point out, none of us here are qualified to give out direct medical advice. In fact, over the internet that is impossible to do anyway. Further, to my knowledge, no one has stepped forward and actually said, "Hi I'm an M.D. and here's what I know."

This should not however stop us from disseminating general advice, personal opinions, and accurate knowledge, which is to a large degree what Mr. Sichel does. To my knowledge he does not possess a doctoral in medicine, either.

I certainly agree with Mark on this. Light if you really to want to get well and stay well, in my opinion, it behooves you to stray far from feel-good substances, though only with your doc's knowledge first.

Let's talk about John--TCD--for a moment. Me, I've been 'sober' now for ten good long years yet I have a horrid problem with a class of tranquilizers known as benzodiazepines. Benzos, or professionally, just BZDs for short.

It is not something I can live with, and I've only recently come to that concrete conclusion. Anything
which is prone to tolerance is nothing but trouble for me.

I must stop using and am in fac, presently in the process of tapering down to zero.

It is hell. It's HARD. It reminds me of why I'm smart to never DRINK, I'll tell you that much! (We tend to forget pain pretty easily - and going through this reminds me of those days when learning to live without EtOH in my system was holy hell to do.)

So in my advice--and I'm a doctor; just a well-educated writer specializing in neuropharmacology--given your long history of being a smoker from 13 on, is to give a really good look at this. Ask yourself why you feel the need to even be asking us.

Secondly, yup - any out-patient tx program is *prrobably* going to point their noses up and always harbor a lingering doubt in their minds if they know you smoke cannabis. And remember, "medical cannabis" is just a term. Pot is pot is pot - right?

Hey, there are plenty other solutions to your insomnia & pain issues and it might be a fine idea to ask your doc about alternatives.

Stay far away from the 'good stuff' if you're and alky now going straight, but again - tell your doc first.

-TCD-

[Ten Chips Down]

Correction. Left out a crucial word up there. "So in my advice--and I'm a doctor; just a well-educated writer specializing in neuropharmacology...."

Should be, "I am NOT a doctor."

LOL

[doorknob]

Originally Posted by Ten Chips Down

Heh, that's wild Chris! Celexa's my miracle drug as well!! I find it... for lack of better terminology... more advanced over the Zoloft I was taking and which I feel pooped out on me. It has WAY less side-effects.

O/T: Celexa and Lexapro I understand are in the same family--and Lexapro is the "improvement"
over Celexa, boasting evern fewer side-effects. Hmmmm. So my question is, why is Celexa still prescribed I wonder? Anyone know?

Could be because Celexa is available in generic form. Both Celexa and Lexapro gave me splitting headaches. I couldn't stay on them long enough to see if they helped my OCD. Prozac doesn't give me any side effects, but doesn't do enough to motivate me to keep taking them.

Moving along, hey LiGiHt and welcome to the forums.

As history always takes pains to point out, none of us here are qualified to give out direct medical advice. In fact, over the internet that is impossible to do anyway. Further, to my knowledge, no one has stepped forward and actually said, "Hi I'm an M.D. and here's what I know."

This should not however stop us from disseminating general advice, personal opinions, and accurate knowledge, which is to a large degree what Mr. Sichel does. To my knowledge he does not possess a doctoral in medicine, either.

I certainly agree with Mark on this. Light if you really to want to get well and stay well, in my opinion, it behooves you to stray far from feel-good substances, though only with your doc's knowledge first.

Let's talk about John--TCD--for a moment. Me, I've been 'sober' now for ten good long years yet I have a horrid problem with a class of tranquilizers known as benzodiazepines. Benzos, or professionally, just BZDs for short.

It is not something I can live with, and I've only recently come to that concrete conclusion. Anything
which is prone to tolerance is nothing but trouble for me.

I must stop using and am in fac, presently in the process of tapering down to zero.

It is hell. It's HARD. It reminds me of why I'm smart to never DRINK, I'll tell you that much! (We tend to forget pain pretty easily - and going through this reminds me of those days when learning to live without EtOH in my system was holy hell to do.)

So in my advice--and I'm a doctor; just a well-educated writer specializing in neuropharmacology--given your long history of being a smoker from 13 on, is to give a really good look at this. Ask yourself why you feel the need to even be asking us.

Secondly, yup - any out-patient tx program is *prrobably* going to point their noses up and always harbor a lingering doubt in their minds if they know you smoke cannabis. And remember, "medical cannabis" is just a term. Pot is pot is pot - right?

Hey, there are plenty other solutions to your insomnia & pain issues and it might be a fine idea to ask your doc about alternatives.

Stay far away from the 'good stuff' if you're and alky now going straight, but again - tell your doc first.

-TCD-

I'm not drinking myself sick like I used to, but I'm still leaning on pot to relieve anxiety and frustration. I have been able to cut down, but haven't been able to stay clean any longer than a month or two.

DK

[Ten Chips Down]

Originally Posted by Ten Chips Down

O/T: Celexa and Lexapro I understand are in the same family--and Lexapro is the "improvement"
over Celexa, boasting evern fewer side-effects. Hmmmm. So my question is, why is Celexa still prescribed I wonder? Anyone know?

Originally Posted by doorknob

Could be because Celexa is available in generic form.

Ah, thanks, DK! See, I get my meds through the state. Otherwise I'd be one sad dude. LOL The cost of those things are RIDICULOUS!!!

I'd either be dead, depressed, or drinking. Or depressed and drinking.

If Lex is not yet available in generic, then the 'splains it. Again, thanks for the explain, DK.

=-=-=-=

I cannot leave this topic without noting that before this thread, I had never heard of cannabis being "prescrbed" for any conditions other than:

a) The nausea caused by chemotherapy

b) Low appetite in people afflicted with auto-immune disorders and/or undergoing treatments that suppress the
appetite

The medical Rx of marijuana is pretty controversial in no small part because it's something people smoke. Anything smoked is inherently unhealthy for the lungs. As for marijuana, it contains many times the amount of tar of regular cigarettes (up to five times the amount).

You'd have to be in an unusually liberal geo-political area () to have docs willing to prescribe it to you just to make you sleepy or to control pain.

Just never.... This is a first for me, y'all.

-Ten-

[historyteach]

Ten:
Could you please explain this?

just a well-educated writer specializing in neuropharmacology...."

Are you a writter?
How did you get your "specialization?"
Not trying to nit pic. I do feel strongly about dispensing medical information without proper education, though. People's lives are at stake. And sadly, there are some who are so desparate, they listen to anything anyone writes, regardless of the person's credentials.

Medical pot is also given to those with glacoma. I have mixed feelings about it too, but, I know some of the pharmacologicals given out are far worse than pot. RI recently joined the growing list of states to dispense medical pot.

Shalom!

[Ten Chips Down]

Teach-

Good job on beating me to the glaucoma! I hate you!

Was just getting ready to "inject" (haha) that, as any agent with strong sedative properties such as marijuana along with alcohol, and some opioids (meperidine or Demerol has been popular for this use for some reason) are also used to relieve intraocular pressures.

As to my creds teach, I let my body of work speak for itself. If you watch closely, you'll note I only speak to those things about which I am comfortably knowledgeable; you would never hear me getting into the appropriate timing of say a coronary angiography procedure, for example. And when a subject is simply overwhelming for me, I have dismissed myself from the discussion and called on Mark!

But addiction psychology and the dynamics of psychotropic drugs' actions on brain chemistry (the definition of neuropharmacology) has been a field of interest and deep study for me since the early 80s. I could never claim status as an expert though, because inevitably a self-described "expert" in any field will come up short at some point. My knowledge-base is comprehensive and people find it very helpful. It is by no means complete, though!

This pretty much--publicly--says it all, but I'll shoot you a PM about this. You need reassurances that I will act more responsibly than this, for example, in the future. Essentially I said "yup!" to a preoperative person's question w/out knowledge of her history. . . . and got it wrong upon learning more about her thru PM.

-TCD-

[historyteach]

Ten;

SR is a wonderful place for people to come, share their Experience, Strength, and Hope, (ESH), and get and give support. Indeed, that's our mission.

I appreciate your enthusiasm, as I'm sure others do.

Shalom!