Student Writer Looking to Talk With Medical Marijuana Users for Senior Thesis

I'm willing to help you out if you PM me

I use MMJ for a legitimate reason.

 

I use weed medically but it isn't legal here yet so idk if you can use me or not but if so pm me with some questions and I will be glad to answer

 

hello Claire i am in the same boat as you are, starting a few months ago i started having sub conscious general anxiety disorder (GAD) i say this because even though sometimes i feel normal on the surface i still feel anxious and have trouble breathing for no reason and that hinders me to go to sleep so i visited a doctor at that time because i really thought it might be a heart attack or something serious and he diagnosed em and told me physically everything is fine , i was shocked and angry and felt ashamed i was like what me?? anxiety? come on.... Anyways i told him to give me something because its really torturing i cant sleep or struggle to breath so he prescribed me a benzodiazepine (clonazepam) and told me to take it before going to sleep. It helped me but i did some research and found out about its side effects and how addictive it can be. Now i have been a life long insomniac but the anxiety was new. I was worried about taking those pills because i didn't wanna get hoked on them and be like a zombie, i live in LA where MJ dispensaries are all over my block but i never considered getting my card because i thought i don't need it and also i believed in the beneficial values of marijuana i never smoked it because i don't like to smoke really since its bad for longs and it would be hard to get good edibles. So i went to the Doc and got my medical MJ card and i showed him my prescription too so that it would be a for a legit reason, i was excited and i tried some edibles and it helped me almost the same as the benzodiazepine, the only negative i could say was that it made my mind go crazy before mellowing me out but i think it was the strain that i took (master kush) hybrid indica dominant. So it shows that MJ truly is helping me to cope with my condition, and the only side effect is the dry mouth and stiffy nose which is better than being physically addicted to some pills.

 

I will answer these for you, but it will take me time.

In the meantime, if you need any help feel free to PM me. I'm not sure what you're going for, but I have a Sociology B.A. with a strong focus on research and statistics. If you need any help with concepts or data analysis, don't hesitate to tap me. I'm always willing to help.

 

Hi Clare, I'm Granny and you have "hit the jack-pot" with me. I have used cannabis for over 44 years and am a legit MMJ user.

-What's your story?
-Why do you use medical marijuana?

When I was 3, I was a brat. We lived in Navy housing- row after row of huge 8 plexes with a common area between them. A kid from the next row was putting up a pup tent- the old fashioned kind with stakes and ropes. I got it through my head that it would be funny to pull up the stakes on one side while he was busy on the other!

The tent wobbled like crazy, so he came around, hammer still in hand to see what was happening. ......... He snapped! He hit me several times about the head with the hammer. I remember trying to get up as he hit me. I was trying to make it to my apartment where my mother was washing the dishes.

My next memory is getting the stitches out. It took 2 nurses and a doctor to do it. My mother was in the corner, hugging herself, as I screamed and fought. I couldn't understand why she let them hurt me!

I was left with dents in my skull, some rather large scars in my scalp and migraines. By the time I was 5, my bedroom had black curtains. I missed a lot of school with "sick headaches". At 19, I tried marijuana. By the time I was 20, I figured out that when I had cannabis, I didn't get migraines! Been using it ever since!

-How does the negative coverage of marijuana, like the commercials of the boy forgetting to pick up his little brother from practice because he was off gettin' high, make you feel about using marijuana medicinally?

That the creators of that commercial need a reality check! They need to click that first link in my sig (you do, too!) and start reading! Their view of cannabis is HIGHLY INACCURATE!


-Do you feel comfortable telling people you smoke medicinal marijuana?

I work in Special Education. If it were known that I use cananbis, I would lose my job, even though I am in California. MMJ Users, unlike oxycontin users (even if addicted to oxys), have NO job protection!


-If so, who do you tell, and who do you not tell?

I don't ask, I don't tell, at work. Which is really a shame, because (as an example) Mrs. P's mother has Crohn's, and I can't tell her that Mom's problems could be fixed with a few puffs.


-Do you believe that medicinal marijuana is abused too often by people who don't really need it?

Sweetie, all cannabis use is medical use- whether the person realizes it or not! Diabetes is at epidemic proportions! Diabetic retinopathy is the #1 cause of adult blindness. CBD from the cannabis plant stops it (see my List for the studies). CBD also stops diabetic neuropathy, a major cause of amputations. CBD also stops diabetic heart damage and may PREVENT type 2 diabetes!

Then there is breast, brain and prostate cancer, bowel disorders, Mad Cow disease, MRSA, PTSD, ADHD, MS, Alzheimer's, depression, and a bunch more that cannabis can fix! Read those studies! Is it sensible to wait until the damage is done, or is it better to "abuse" cannabis and PREVENT the damage? EDUCATE YOURSELF!

-And anything else you feel like sharing!

The ignorance about cannabis is appalling! The Omega 3/ endocannabinoid system connection is the future of medicine!

Once the medical facts about cannabis are known, the need for legalization becomes obvious!




Anything else you want to know?




Granny

 

OK, you asked for it!

-Could you talk a bit more about the disconnect between the legality of MMJ and its acceptance in the general public as a legitimate form of medicine?

To me it is a crying shame that more people don't use cannabis (and Omega 3)! Here we have a "safer than aspirin" herbal medicine that works faster than any pill! It won't addict you like opiates. It won't ruin your kidneys or liver. There is no fatal overdose for the average cannabis user (a doctor MIGHT be able to cause a fatal reaction with a high enough injected dose, but so far, everyone has lived! )

Cannabis is able to be taken in a variety of ways that are user friendly -although smoking is the most common and least healthful, there are "brownies", vaporizers, tinctures, capsules, etc that can easily be made at home! And since you can grow your own, it is far cheaper than buying pills!

I watched a lady in her 80s plunk down over $400 for a few bottles of pills at the local drug store. You could tell by how she moved that she hurt. I wondered at the time how many of those pills could be replaced by a few plants among her roses?

I also wonder if that cash on the counter was her rent, or perhaps her food money? Many of our seniors are forced to make that kind of decision! Prices go up, fixed incomes don't! Cannabis, just as a pain reliever, can cut the "pill bill"!


-Do you feel victimized by the government's continued raids of the medical marijuana dispensaries?

I feel Pissed! I can buy herbs at the local health food store that are more dangerous than cannabis! The local markets sell both booze and tobacco products as well as "unfoods" (soda, junk foods) that are far more harmful than cannabis!

Cash strapped local governments will soon realize that keeping the local dispensary open may make the difference between the city going bankrupt, or "just scraping by" during the on-going financial crisis! Towns with dispensaries will fare better than those without!

I am not dependent on the dispensaries- I have a "very well lit" closet. Yet, all it would take is me being inattentive for a week and I could have spider mites and a wiped out crop! Disasters happen, and the dispensaries, over-priced as they are, are a far better alternative to buying on the streets! (And when you are 64 and female, it gets even more dangerous!)

Unlike a back street dealer, the dispensaries WILL turn down cannabis that is not "clean" and well-grown. I have seen the local dispensary owner refuse to buy sub-standard cannabis on more than one occasion! She is a total cannabis snob and she won't sell anything she hasn't tried! lol I am friends with her and worry about her with this crack-down.


-Could you expand on you feelings about the acceptance of pill-form medications, but not MMJ? Could you speculate as to why this is?

We have been brainwashedinto an infantile state by our doctors. As a whole, we are AFRAID to do our own research, much less suggest an alternative treatment to the almighty doctor! Look, my hubby's doctor was giving him statin after statin- all with painful and unacceptable side effects.

Statins Can Damage Your Health

I did the research at PubMed and found that Omega 3, in large doses, will bring down cholesterol- just like the statins, but WITHOUT all the muscle pain! Hubby talked with his doc and is now on 4 grams of (pure) Omega 3 and he feels MUCH better!

And here is the "kicker" ! Guess what the hubby's doctor uses to control HIS cholesterol.....Omega 3! Not the statins he pushes on his patients! Guess he doesn't get a "kick back" from the fish oil makers! But there is always a steady stream of "drug reps" being ushered into the back office!

We have forgotten that WE have hired the doctors. WE are the ones in charge of our health, not the doctor or "Big Pharma"!

Herbal medicines, even when more effective, are considered "primitive" and crude. Pharmaceuticals are "modern" and progressive.... I saw an Aricept commercial not long ago [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LeDE9Zpbnc]Aricept - YouTube[/ame] Alzheimer's may not wait, but Aricept is not going to slow it down that much!

Marijuana May Slow Alzheimer's (news - 2006)
Marijuana May Slow Alzheimer's

THC, the key compound in marijuana, may also be the key to new drugs for Alzheimer's disease. That's because the marijuana compound blocks the formation of brain-clogging Alzheimer's plaques better than current Alzheimer's drugs....The Alzheimer's drugs Aricept and Cognex work by blocking acetylcholinesterase. When tested at double the concentration of THC, Aricept blocked plaque formation only 22% as well as THC, and Cognex blocked plaque formation only 7% as well as THC.


And have you seen even ONE commercial for "Natural, growable, herbal Cannabis whose main active ingredient can block Alzheimer's 78% BETTER than Aricept"?

Shall I go on to diabetes and what small miracles CBD/ cannabidiol, the #2 active ingredient in cannabis, can do for diabetics? Diabetic retinopathy is the #1 cause of adult blindness in the US!

Cannabidiol As a Putative Novel Therapy for Diabetic Retinopathy: A Postulated Mechanism of Action as an Entry Point for Biomarker-Guided Clinical Development. (full - 2009) Cannabidiol As a Putative Novel Therapy for Diabetic Retinopathy: A Postulated Mechanism of Action as an Entry Point for Biomarker-Guided Clinical Development

Cannabinoids inhibit and may prevent neuropathic pain in diabetes. (news - 2010) MediGardens: March 2010: Cannabinoids inhibit and may prevent neuropathic pain in diabetes. (University of Calgary; Alberta, Canada)

Lab Notes: Pot Has Benefits for Diabetic Hearts (news - 2010)
Medical News: Lab Notes: Pot Has Benefits for Diabetic Hearts - in Lab Notes, Lab Notes from MedPage Today


Or how CBD can slow (stop?) the progression of Mad Cow disease? There is no cure for Mad Cow! Something that can even SLOW it is a major advance....but it is ignored!

[FONT=&quot]Nonpsychoactive Cannabidiol Prevents Prion Accumulation and Protects Neurons against Prion Toxicity (full - 2007) [/FONT][FONT=&quot]http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/27/36/9537[/FONT]

Or that in the 1950s, it was known that a simple extract of cannabis rubbed on skin, or surfaces, could kill all strains of Staph aureus -including the antibiotic resistant ones such as MRSA? Cannabis kills MRSA in a way totally different than antibiotics- MRSA has NO resistance to cannabis! WebMD claimed that in 2005 there were over 18,000 deaths attributed to MRSA!

HEMP AS A MEDICAMENT : Methods and results of the bacteriological experiments (full - 1955)
[FONT=&quot]https://www.greenpassion.org/index....d-results-of-the-bacteriological-experiments/[/FONT]

Hon, once all those medical facts get widely known, we will either have legal cannabis, or a revolution! The government gets to choose which it faces!


-Do your friends smoke?

Most do, butI'm not much of a social butterfly. My family, my job, my hobbies and my activism, don't leave much spare time.

-Do you ever feel conflicted about your use of marijuana given the way it is portrayed in the media? (I know I am sometimes ashamed because I am afraid that people will stereotype me or assume I am slow/forgetful).

Most folks get to know me before I tell them that I use cannabis. They never get a chance to think of me as slow/forgetful! lol Most are intimidated by the fact that I read PubMed as a hobby!

All you gotta do is be your bright sparkling self- then folks will go "Oh, SHE smokes?" and maybe they rethink their definition of "stoner"!

-In a perfect world, how would you like to see MMJ treated?

There is no way that there will be free use by minors (although in some cases it is a good idea )- so an 18 age limit would be put in place. I would like to see it treated like its partner in healing, Omega 3; or ginseng or any other herbal medicine. But that ain't going to happen! Because it can make you "feel too good", there will be restrictions on its use.

However, the endocannabinoid system is the future of medicine! It controls just about everything from fighting cancer, to when to give birth, to how how much you eat and how your food digests, pain perception and more! And you can't have the endocannabinoid system being studied, without studying cannabinoids!

There will be a big push to sell Omega 3 to the public, but "somehow" its intimate tie to the endocannbinoid system will be overlooked! Fish and flax oils will be all the rage in 2012/13! (The 3rd Omega 3 source, hemp seed oil, will be overlooked, simply because it is from the marijuana plant! . ) The TV commercials touting Omega 3 will pop up soon- wait and see!

And kids, speaking about Omega 3, I worry about KRILL OIL! Krill are tiny shrimp-like animals. Everything in the ocean eats krill (or something that ate krill)- from newly hatched baby tuna, to giant whales! I like tuna sandwiches, and whales are most cool. So skip the krill oil, okay?

Please get your Omega 3 from fish oil, flax or hemp seed oil!

OK, stepping off the soap box!


Granny

 

-What's your story? Not sure I really have a "story" I have used cannabis for many years well before I was ever introducted to medical or well before it was even something I knew about. It was accepted by one part of the family and hotly condemned to hell by the other side. I've pretty much been a smoker since 14 without not much of a lapse in use beyond a year at a time and that was only once.

-Why do you use medical marijuana? I will admit, even if I was not able to legally obtain it I would still use Marijuana medical or not. I have Osteophytes which are calcium deposits on my spine, they are commonly known as bone spurs but I do not call them such because they are not like some others i know in which they can barely move because of the spurs. I typically have very bad moments with my facets (spinal arthritis) that flair and then cause the spurs to put me into immense pain. Not a fan of pills and pot has always helped so i figured why not go in with my x-rays and previous hospital visits and current pain prescription and see if i could get taken care of.

I was and now I'm medical.


-How does the negative coverage of marijuana, like the commercials of the boy forgetting to pick up his little brother from practice because he was off gettin' high, make you feel about using marijuana medicinally?

I never had an issue before or aftewards, I hate the fat that the negative association exist but when somebody wants to demonize something they will stop to no end. That is what happens with cannabis and for the most part i just deal with it. I know what is true and what is not true and if anybody ask or approaches me with misinformation i correct them or help them find the correct answer.

-Do you feel comfortable telling people you smoke medicinal marijuana? Sure, in fact I let potential employers know, and while it may hurt me in the long run i feel that I advocate my own rights as a patient and individual and that with my honest i never have to feel like i am "hiding" my cannabis use.

-If so, who do you tell, and who do you not tell? Anybody who wanted to know or approached me, i'm not gonna come out and tell the world but if somebody wanted to know why should i say no, what am i afraid of?

-Do you believe that medicinal marijuana is abused too often by people who don't really need it? This is tricky, who need's and does not need it?

According to recent studies our bodies are actually deficient in cannabinoids, they help with metabolism and many other aspects of our body, much of this is just now coming to light. Where as I use cannabis for one thing, it has led to beneficial impacts elsewhere and weight loss in myself... who is to say anybody is abusing the system, in one way or another i believe cannabis has the potential to positively impact and influence anybodies mind and body.. how can we say people seeking to further either of those in terms of health is abusing anything.

 

-What's your story?
-Why do you use medical marijuana?
I used MJ recreationally between the ages of 17-21 (using 2-4g./week) but left it behind when I became of legal drinking age. I had no withdrawal from quitting.
At about 33 years old I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis/Crohn's disease and prescribed Asacol 400, 12 pills/day.
The Asacol reduced the number of flare ups and made me feel a bit better but not nearly 100%. At a summer BBQ, at a time when my stomach was not feeling very good at all, a friend of a friend offered some MJ (he was unaware of my situation). I took two puffs and within minutes I felt great. My stomach had settled, my appetite came back, and I was able to enjoy myself. I have been using almost daily ever since (about 2g./week). I no longer drink alcohol (from 2-3 beers/day) and I feel better than I have in years.

-How does the negative coverage of marijuana, like the commercials of the boy forgetting to pick up his little brother from practice because he was off gettin' high, make you feel about using marijuana medicinally?
Meh... It doesn't affect me personally, but it does make me wonder how other people see MJ users. Are they buying into the negative stereotypes or are they able to see through the propaganda? I am a smart guy, and it would bother me if people saw me as a "stoner". I use responsibly. (More responsibly than I used alcohol.) I don't smoke and drive. I do not use around kids or other non-users.

-Do you feel comfortable telling people you smoke medicinal marijuana?
-If so, who do you tell, and who do you not tell?
Sometimes. A few friends know. I talk around the subject when with family. If they haven't gotten the hint, they won't be too surprised when they find out. I need to be careful around the kids. My worst nightmare is to have them unwittingly rat me out at school or something. I live in NY where MJ is decriminalized, but far from legal. (Especially when it comes to growing...)
If the subject comes up around strangers or loose acquaintances, I can usually talk about the merits of med MJ without coming out as a user. People know I have a broad knowledge base and few people are surprised when I demonstrate deep knowledge of obscure subjects.

-Do you believe that medicinal marijuana is abused too often by people who don't really need it?
I am of two minds on this. I feel like people should be able to be honest about their drug use. I see no difference between a recreational MJ user or a recreational alcohol user (besides the legal issues of course). Yes, people give the MMJ community a bad name with the abuse. It casts suspicion on people who truly are sick and in pain. The other side of the coin is that the Med MJ community is a safe, cheap place for people to get a drug that is safer than alcohol. People are going to get their weed no matter what. I can't blame them for utilizing dispensaries to mitigate the harms that prohibition causes, such as jail time, and drug deals going bad.

-And anything else you feel like sharing!
I chose to grow my own meds. I can pick the strain that suits my condition. My supply is always reliable. I never get robbed, or busted making a buy. I know the quality. The price is right and I am not putting money in to the criminal marketplace, funding other illegal activities. Growing is one of my favorite hobbies, even with the (low) risk of being caught.
I am politically active on the MMJ front, writing my representatives regularly and occasionally writing to local media.


Good luck with your classes!