Medical marijuana - a veteran's story

92tide

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I have a hard time believing MJ is what made those people get run over by a train. It just doesn't make you do crazy stuff like that. Surely they had underlying mental health issues and were trying to self medicate. Not that makes it any better that you had to experience that.
or mj was only one of many things they were ingesting.
 

NationalTitles18

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May 25, 2003
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He's right even if Georgia still has work to do with their own laws.

Here is a football player that - regardless of his poor choice of colleges ;) - would not be able to play ball and get an education for free without cannabis oil/CBD. How can anyone be against this?

And many others can benefit as well. Congress needs to act.
 
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SavannahDare

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Psychiatrist checking in. I am a proponent of legalization of all drugs, so marijuana is no different. Professionally, I've seen patients' lives returned to them and been able to get them off legal psychotropics once they discovered the right combination of Sativa and Indica (we're in Florida where it's now medically legal). I've also seen patients who decompensated completely in trying to utilize marijuana instead of medications to treat their illnesses. Like all psychotropics, cannabis is not a panacea. Most proponents of it would have you believe it is, but it is not. Like any other medication, it is not for everyone and not everyone will respond to it positively.

I have this conversation with patients every single day. We simply DO NOT YET have enough reliable medical evidence (meaning double-blind studies which have been repeated time and again by different entities to validate that results are reproducible) to show how, when, and why cannabis should be used and for whom. Each person who is considering the use of it needs to bear this in mind. They also have to understand that just because it worked for their buddy, that doesn't mean it will work for them - just like any other medication. I tell patients every day, "You have to make as well-informed a decision as you can, but you won't have the type of overwhelming medical evidence available to you to help you make the decision that we would like for you to. I can only help you to a certain degree. What I cannot do is help you if you are not being honest with me about what you're using/doing, and I cannot do my job if you are introducing a substance that directly works against what I'm prescribing you, so you've GOT to communicate with me so I can reduce certain meds as you are introducing the marijuana." I've had many, many patients use it. Of those, I'd say 75-80% have had clinically significant success in improving their symptoms to enough degree to reduce or eliminate their psychotropics (and I've been more than happy to do so). The rest have been a mixed bag of falling apart to abusing it to worsening their overall functioning to having to be hospitalized. These numbers are anecdotal to my practice (I currently manage a little over 1,000 patients and I'd guess 10% of them use marijuana regularly, but only about 4-5% of them do so legally), but they are similar to how other psychotropics work for patients.

Anyway, we need legalization at a federal level to ever get enough funds for the type of research that is truly needed. We have enough evidence to support further research. It is such a promising chemical and we have millions of cannabinoid receptors throughout our bodies. We are SUPPOSED to be using it in some way, responsibly, safely, and in the proper situations. Of course, that goes for opioids too. Look where that has gotten us... But I digress.
 

Bamaro

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Anyway, we need legalization at a federal level to ever get enough funds for the type of research that is truly needed. We have enough evidence to support further research. It is such a promising chemical and we have millions of cannabinoid receptors throughout our bodies. We are SUPPOSED to be using it in some way, responsibly, safely, and in the proper situations. Of course, that goes for opioids too. Look where that has gotten us... But I digress.
At least removal from schedule 1
 

Tidewater

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100% with you here.

Beyond that, it's insane that people still think it's okay that the government can take put you in jail for eating something that may well grow naturally in your back yard. It's insane. If the government arbitrarily added some vegetable you can grow in your backyard to that list, I wonder how many of these people would just say, "well, okay, if the government says so, it must be right..."
This has been addressed a hundred and fifty years ago.
Henry Ward Beecher said:
the Federal Government is unfit to exercise minor police and local government, and will inevitably blunder when it attempts it.
But he was pro-slavery so, ... Wait a minute, okay, maybe he wasn't pro-slavery but, ...
 
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Chukker Veteran

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The argument against legalizing pot, warning about the danger of having people under the influence interacting with those that are not, reminds me of the old days... when people warned the public about the dangers of birth control and how it would expose society to all that rampant sexuality.
 

UAH

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The argument against legalizing pot, warning about the danger of having people under the influence interacting with those that are not, reminds me of the old days... when people warned the public about the dangers of birth control and how it would expose society to all that rampant sexuality.
I am entirely confident that alcohol and tobacco are and have been far greater in terms of cause of death than marijuana.

The fact that we jail a significant percentage of the population including a massively disproportionate percentage of minorities while openly encouraging the use of alcohol and tobacco just doesn't pass the smell test.
 

RollTide_HTTR

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As war vets enter the fray, stigma lessens around cannabis



Found this today and didn't want to start a new thread.

Vietnam War veteran Terry Chambers gets up every morning and promptly commits a state and federal crime in his hometown of Marion, Ind.: He crunches on a cannabis cookie.

It remains illegal to possess marijuana in the United States, yet 60 percent of Americans now live in states that allow either medical or recreational cannabis.

Indiana began allowing the medical use of non-psychoactive cannabis extracts in March, but Mr. Chambers is still committing a criminal misdemeanor with his illicit scratch baking. No matter, he says. A teetotaler who doesn’t smoke, he credits the cookies with breaking a 21-year-long opioid addiction that he says, “took my manhood.”
 

G-VilleTider

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I wrote that. The main reason I felt I had to stay anonymous was because of our business. A couple months ago, 2 of our employees were involved in accidents 1 week apart. Boring details aside, we had to close the business, so time for something new. We don't yet know what that is, but we will give it our all.

Perhaps it is mostly the added stress, but I was beginning to get declining benefits even before this. Could be that the strains I have gotten lately haven't been exactly what I needed or maybe a combination of that and the major life events. All I know is that my family and I can't go back to the way it was. We have considered moving to a state where it is at least medically legal, but financially we are not currently in a position to do so. We have also considered just me going and trying to find something that lets us live a more normal life, but frankly, and this is hard to admit, I am scared to go without my wife. Spouses that stay with their partner after he/she is changed so much are truly amazing people. Many of us that were some of the most independent people you could ever meet are now frustratingly dependent on others.

I am lost and not sure where to go from here.

Thanks for letting me vent a bit.
 

NationalTitles18

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I wrote that. The main reason I felt I had to stay anonymous was because of our business. A couple months ago, 2 of our employees were involved in accidents 1 week apart. Boring details aside, we had to close the business, so time for something new. We don't yet know what that is, but we will give it our all.

Perhaps it is mostly the added stress, but I was beginning to get declining benefits even before this. Could be that the strains I have gotten lately haven't been exactly what I needed or maybe a combination of that and the major life events. All I know is that my family and I can't go back to the way it was. We have considered moving to a state where it is at least medically legal, but financially we are not currently in a position to do so. We have also considered just me going and trying to find something that lets us live a more normal life, but frankly, and this is hard to admit, I am scared to go without my wife. Spouses that stay with their partner after he/she is changed so much are truly amazing people. Many of us that were some of the most independent people you could ever meet are now frustratingly dependent on others.

I am lost and not sure where to go from here.

Thanks for letting me vent a bit.
I can't thank you enough for sharing. I hope you guys find your solution soon. We are pulling for you here.
 

RedWave

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I have a hard time believing MJ is what made those people get run over by a train. It just doesn't make you do crazy stuff like that. Surely they had underlying mental health issues and were trying to self medicate. Not that makes it any better that you had to experience that.
Often, when I read things like this, I chalk it up to people being ignorant of what marijuana is really like. They never tried it, because they were afraid to for whatever reason (I was once in this category) and believed all of the totally negative commentary that they were fed by the education system, the government, the church, and our parents. Go smoke a bowl and tell me how crazy it makes you act. Tell me how addicted you get to it. Tell me all the other hardcore drugs it makes you want to do. Because I have done it. And none of those things happened to me ever. Never went nuts. Never got addicted (can't remember the last time I used it...nearly a year at least), and have never been tempted to try anything else. I say it was like my best drunk ever without the nausea and hangover. I felt good for several hours, then I was straight again.
 

92tide

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Often, when I read things like this, I chalk it up to people being ignorant of what marijuana is really like. They never tried it, because they were afraid to for whatever reason (I was once in this category) and believed all of the totally negative commentary that they were fed by the education system, the government, the church, and our parents. Go smoke a bowl and tell me how crazy it makes you act. Tell me how addicted you get to it. Tell me all the other hardcore drugs it makes you want to do. Because I have done it. And none of those things happened to me ever. Never went nuts. Never got addicted (can't remember the last time I used it...nearly a year at least), and have never been tempted to try anything else. I say it was like my best drunk ever without the nausea and hangover. I felt good for several hours, then I was straight again.
reefer madness
 

RollTide_HTTR

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Often, when I read things like this, I chalk it up to people being ignorant of what marijuana is really like. They never tried it, because they were afraid to for whatever reason (I was once in this category) and believed all of the totally negative commentary that they were fed by the education system, the government, the church, and our parents. Go smoke a bowl and tell me how crazy it makes you act. Tell me how addicted you get to it. Tell me all the other hardcore drugs it makes you want to do. Because I have done it. And none of those things happened to me ever. Never went nuts. Never got addicted (can't remember the last time I used it...nearly a year at least), and have never been tempted to try anything else. I say it was like my best drunk ever without the nausea and hangover. I felt good for several hours, then I was straight again.
I will say that while it's not chemically addictive I do know people who have become dependent on it and have had a hard time quitting. But obviously the risk for that is wayyyyy lower than any other drug including alcohol.


And you're right about the whole gateway argument being a bunch of nonsense. Some people do try harder drugs after pot but most would have done so anyway. Pot did not lead to them trying those harder drugs.
 

RedWave

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I have two children who are now in college and approaching legal drinking age. I will say without hesitation that I would much prefer both of them use marijuana as their occasional indulgence instead of alcohol. I like to drink. Don't get me wrong. But I go that route due to testing at my work and the fear of getting caught breaking a silly law. I fail to see why we as a country say that consuming alcohol is ok but consuming this plant is not. I hear people talking about people showing up to work high. Well, there are ways to check for that. We don't allow people to show up to work drunk, and alcohol is legal. Why can't you have the same restrictions on being high? Seems logical to me you can disallow both. Now, I don't like to think in absolutes (I am not a Sith), but for the most part I believe that use of marijuana, for medicinal or recreational purposes, is less harmful and danger to others than alcohol. And I doubt it can be proven otherwise.
 

RollTide_HTTR

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I have two children who are now in college and approaching legal drinking age. I will say without hesitation that I would much prefer both of them use marijuana as their occasional indulgence instead of alcohol. I like to drink. Don't get me wrong. But I go that route due to testing at my work and the fear of getting caught breaking a silly law. I fail to see why we as a country say that consuming alcohol is ok but consuming this plant is not. I hear people talking about people showing up to work high. Well, there are ways to check for that. We don't allow people to show up to work drunk, and alcohol is legal. Why can't you have the same restrictions on being high? Seems logical to me you can disallow both. Now, I don't like to think in absolutes (I am not a Sith), but for the most part I believe that use of marijuana, for medicinal or recreational purposes, is less harmful and danger to others than alcohol. And I doubt it can be proven otherwise.
Agreed completely. The only issue with marijuana is that isn't currently easy to test for. Hard core marijuana users could have it in their urine for months after their last use depending on a variety of factors. That is likely a much bigger issue when it comes to driving than at work though.
 

RedWave

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Agreed completely. The only issue with marijuana is that isn't currently easy to test for. Hard core marijuana users could have it in their urine for months after their last use depending on a variety of factors. That is likely a much bigger issue when it comes to driving than at work though.
Correct, but coming up with effective methods of verifying someone is not currently under the influence should not be all that difficult, don't you agree?
 

RollTide_HTTR

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Correct, but coming up with effective methods of verifying someone is not currently under the influence should not be all that difficult, don't you agree?
For the most part thats probably accurate. TBH its the one thing about pot that I haven't really cared to researched a ton. IIRC someone here or on another thread posted an article about a solution to this but I don't remember it all that well.
 

92tide

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Correct, but coming up with effective methods of verifying someone is not currently under the influence should not be all that difficult, don't you agree?
i'm guessing with all of the legalization going on, there will be new methods of testing developed that can show impairment or not vs. just showing prior use
 

twofbyc

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i'm guessing with all of the legalization going on, there will be new methods of testing developed that can show impairment or not vs. just showing prior use
There is - it’s called a blood test. THC doesn’t remain in the blood for 24 hrs ( I think I read it was more like 6-8...?), and it does create a specific compound that remains in bladder for much longer (which shows up in urine tests).
An acceptable level was decided for alcohol in the bloodstream, certainly the same could be done for THC.


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