Weed has crippled me!

I wrote the following in response to another post, but feel it's important enough for its own thread. My experience is clearly not unique, but is the worst I have heard described. I'm sure some devotees will attempt to rubbish what I'm saying - I'm a tobacco smoker and ride a motorbike, so I'm very familiar with wilful denial - but take it from me, this is fact. Weed has crippled me. Here's my story...

I've been smoking weed, on and off (mostly on) for almost thirty years now. It's really the only thing I like - I'm not a big drinker, and the only pills I take these days are heavy bouts of Tramodol and Ibuprofen. I've had back problems since my late twenties - persistent ache in my lower back, difficulty standing for long periods (feels like my lower spine is being compressed) and general fragility. I am a slave to a prolapsing disc, that would put me out for about a week at a time, maybe five or six times a year. The prolapse is accompanied by a violent muscle spasm (like being kicked in the back) which can occur when performing the most innocuous of activity - sneezing, brushing my teeth etc.

Six years ago, things took a more sinister tone. I had a prolapse that was accompanied by the most violent lower back cramps - spasms that last up to a minute at a time, every two minutes or so. They are white hot agony, and form a pattern that, it has been pointed out to me by a couple of startled paramedics over the years, resembles going into labour! Seemingly the only thing that will break the cycle is gas and air, and the only thing that will make the pain bearable is industrial painkillers.

The first time it happened, I was so scared that my doctor sent me for an MRI scan - a very unusual step, as back problems are so common. I was diagnosed as having a prolapsed disc 'pressing on a nerve' - again, not an uncommon diagnosis - but no one could explain the cramps. I initially suspected it was dehydration (which can also cause prolapsed, as the discs become flaccid and deprived of water) and/or muscle damage that had accompanied the original injury.

The cramps have happened four or five times since that first occasion - most recently in June, when I was delivering DVDs to my local primary school and ended up in reception for two hours, screaming the place down waiting for the ambulance to arrive. The recovery period can be anything up to six weeks, and is getting longer with each incidence.

It's only recently that I've started to notice a pattern. In 2015 I gave up smoking weed - through lack of supply, as opposed to choice - for 18 months. During that time, I had only two prolapses, which were very minor and from which I quickly recovered. This year I decided to start growing again, and since then, I've had five major attacks. I'm currently writing from my bed, barely able to move. I'm having to keep very Zen because, if I so much as twitch that muscle in my lower back, I will go into labour. I've just come off the back of a six-week recovery period. I went back to work yesterday, and lasted half an hour before it went again!

So finally I decided to google the problem and, would you believe it, it's everywhere! And whatever anyone else says, I can fully confirm, this is a thing. And I am, quite possibly, the living embodiment of how bad this thing can get. And it's very bad.

I would love to believe the cause is more specific - chemical fertilisers maybe, as others have suggested - but I have been growing in soul and using fully organic supplements for years. Could it be an indica/sativa thing? I would love to believe so, but I've grown both and can't say I can see that as part of the pattern. It's not dehydration - I have a very strict fluid regimen these days - and it's not general physical weakness, as I have a regular exercise routine, as prescribed by my chiropractor.

It's a crime that more research hasn't been conducted, and that people like us are forced to either grow ourselves or purchase from the black market, without any real idea of what we're putting in our bodies, and what long-term effects that might have. Has anyone else found themselves in my situation? Does anyone have enough medical knowledge to answer some crucial questions? Will the spasms only occur at the time of use? Is there a safe breed or method that will stop them? I am a long-term advocate of the wonders of weed, but now, sadly, I think I know what I have to do.

And so the last question: will I ever smoke weed again?

 

Thanks for the advice, but it's cart and horse - I'm not using weed to combat back pain. The weed is causing it

 

The answer to that last question would be determined by the answers to those that preceded it. I haven't given up hope. Cheesemonger - my account above is a process of analysing variables, narrowing the list of factors and reaching a conclusion. Given that, your contribution is not very helpful, sorry to say.

Clearly I don't know precisely what the problem is, and what particular combination of factors is the overall cause - that's the discussion I'd like to have. But it's relationship to my marijuana use is undeniable. I have calendars for everything, and it all ties up. Talk to any chiropractor (and I know a few) and they'll tell you that the base of your spine is intricately linked to your brain. It bears the brunt of a lot of the baggage that we carry psychologically, as human beings. I often recount the incident when, walking along the street, I had a vivid flash of memory of my previous relationship, which was not a happy one, and it was like someone walked up behind me and punched me in the kidneys. It took me over an hour to cover the quarter mile to my car. I could tell you any number of similar stories.

I don't believe for a moment that this a problem that would affect all regular users - like paranoia, it's horses for courses. I'm sure you need to at least be susceptible to back pain for spasms to wipe you out the way they do me. Psychosomatically, I'm sure that people who don't suffer with anxiety and the like would suffer less.

My powerful gut feeling is that the muscle spasms, which many complain of, are the physical manifestation of a mental state and that, in my case, they trigger a pre-existing physical condition - the prolapse. It's either that, or a build up of chemicals in the spine, or both. My medical knowledge is limited, I confess.

 

Here come the deniers! Not helpful!!

 

And based on what evidence?

 

Okay, so that's patronising, and clearly coming from someone who has no experience of the things Im talking about. If you don't have experience, any contribution you make is effectively meaningless.

Did you know that back problems can be caused by the fillings in your teeth? I love the fact that you admit that 'mistakes is growing' could be the cause, whilst at the same time arguing from a position of 'weed has nothing to do with it'. You blame an unhealthy lifestyle, which implies a combination of factors, but you rule out the possibility that 24-7 cannabis use could play any part.

You hurl my lack of knowledge at me as a put-down, when clearly I'm here to expand that knowledge. That makes you rather an unpleasant person. I have posted in a forum maybe half a dozen times in my entire life. Sadly, it's people like you that ensure I won't be trying it again.

 

Ps. Yes, riding a motorbike is dangerous, and an unnecessary risk for a car owner. Any motorbike rider who insists otherwise is an idiot. That's precisely the reason most people ride a motorbike. Did you think skiing was the safest way to get from the top of a mountain to the bottom?

 

PPS. Yes, on my back, barely able to move. Just had my lunch delivered to me. Did I mention it was my back, and not my frickin arms? Numptie.

 

You think I'm slamming weed, and the people who smoke it. Clearly I'm looking for a way to continue doing the thing I love, whilst trying to ascertain why it's causing the prolonged spasms that are ruining my life. You're demonstrating a kneejerk reaction to something you don't like the sound of, have not experienced, and have no answers for. I'm not trying to brainwash anyone. I'm trying to get through to the people who have also experienced muscle spasms as a result of weed use, to see if we can figure out the more specific cause, be it solely due to the habit (and whatever mutable aspect of it is, hopefully, to blame) or a combination of it and other physical, psychological and societal factors. Sorry to condescend in return, but you clearly don't have anything useful to contribute. That makes you the troll, I'm afraid.

 

My last long ride was to London and back in a day. No, crossing the road isn't an unnecessary risk for a car driver - it's an unnecessary risk for someone who doesn't need to cross the road. Just like smoking tobacco is an unnecessary risk for someone who doesn't smoke tobacco. Except that that's an addiction, and therefore a more complicated analogy. Yeah, it is amusing to have a medical condition that compromises your favourite things in life, isn't it? I laugh about it every day. A**hole.

 

Ps. I live in Cornwall.

 

Yeah, I'm think I'm done talking to you. Obtuseness and and hypocrisy dont really make for a coherent or valuable contribution.