Wow I've been missing out

Marijuana has a lot of medicinal properties, but there are a ton of prescription medicines for insomnia. Ambien, for example.

 

i've never had insomnia that bad, but have been prescribed medication sleep aides. for me weed works better than any of them (i've tried 4 in the past 8 years). this is not to say there isn't something out there for you...just my personal experience.

as for legality of medical mj in your state, check out http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4516

 

There are a ton of other prescription medicines besides ambien...does that men ambien shouldn't be used? The whole idea that you can't use marijuana because there are plenty of other options is seriously flawed. Marijuana is a good medicine for people with sleeping problems, there is no reason they shouldn't be allowed to use it. Especially when the law allows it.

 

If I was a doctor, and a patient approached me about medical marijuana to help them sleep, I would recommend a sleeping pill. As safe as marijuana is, it does affect the lungs. No doctor should say to the average patient that smoking plant matter is a better option than a pill. Medical marijuana is still illegal on a federal level, and until it becomes federally legal, I think any ethical doctor would favor FDA-approved solutions, especially for, frankly, a mundane condition like insomnia.

Say what you will about how the pharmaceutical industry tries to maximize their profits, but modern medicine is a blessing. The medical marijuana issue would become a joke if everyone with a toothache asks if they can get a medi-marijuana card. It just reinforces the idea that the only reason people support this is to abuse it.

Marijuana is, in my opinion, a viable option for terminally ill patients. The symptoms and treatments for AIDS, cancer and other diseases result in intense pain and a loss of apetite. Marijuana would help both of those conditions.

 

Weed actually cured my insomnia and I had it extremely bad. Ambien worked but not as well

 

yes but most of those sleeping medicines out there have VERY bad recations like getting addicted

 

For starters you don't have to smoke marijuana, you can vaporize it or eat it, so the whole idea that marijuana shouldnt be used because it's bad for your lungs is seriously flawed.

Some of the side effects of Ambien are: allergic reaction including difficulty breathing, hallucinations, abnormal behavior, severe confusion, headache, nasuea, depression, muscle pain, temprorary amensia, and others. Thats a lot more negative side effects than most people experiance with marijuana. It is the patients right to choose which medicine they want to use, no patient should be forced to be subject to all those side effects i listed above if they can get the same good side effects from marijuana minus most the negative side effects of ambiean.

Not doctor is going to deny their patient the right to use a medicine that helps them, especially if that medicine has less negative side effects on the patient than other medicines.

 

25 years ago, I came down with a form of blood cancer, called "T Cell Lymphoma" or "Non Hodgkins Lymphoma". Three years, in and out of hospitals, chemotherapy treatment after chemotherapy treatment, had me upchucking constantly, after each IV infusion. The doctors tried all the anti-emetic drugs on the market, I think, including a couple new experimental ones...but none stopped the constant vomiting. The instant I tried some of the home grown grass I had at home, however, the vomiting stopped. Privately, several Oncologists told me that marijuana had the BEST anti-emetic properties of any drug!

If anyone knows of friends or relations with cancer, struggling badly with their chemo treatments, the kindest thing you can do for them is to set 'em up with some smokes. (Don't know about the effectiveness of medical THC pills.). I see no reason, either, why sea sickness suffers wouldn't benefit from smoking a doobie. Makes cancer patients feel better, and helps insomniacs sleep...yep, sounds like great reasons to maintain marijuana's criminal status among drugs!

 

That's fine, but here are the negative side effects from cannabis, as enumerated by Erowid.org

• nausea, especially in combination with alcohol, some pharmaceuticals, or other psychoactives
• coughing, asthma, upper respiratory problems
• difficulty with short term memory during effects and during periods of frequent use
• racing heart, agitation, feeling tense
• mild to severe anxiety
• panic attacks in sensitive users or with very high doses (oral use increases risk of getting too much)
• headaches
• dizziness, confusion
• lightheadedness or fainting (in cases of lowered blood pressure)
• paranoid & anxious thoughts more frequent
• possible psychological dependence on cannabis
• clumsiness, loss of coordination at high doses
• can precipitate or exacerbate latent or existing mental disorders

Of course, not everyone experiences these side effects, just like not everyone experiences them from prescription drugs. No patient, as far as I'm aware, has the right to pick and choose which medications they want. They can choose whether or not to accept the meds, but, like the commercials always say, "only your doctor can decide whether _______ is right for you."

 

I'm going to assume you haven't spent much time in a doctors office then.

Doctors are there to tell you what options you have to treat your condition....if a patient says they want ambien cause it works better for them then the doctor will give them ambien, if the patient says they want something else because its working better then the doctor will give them that.

Anyways point is marijuana is a valid medicine for those that it helps with insomnia, thousands of doctors agree with this which is why there are thousands of legal marijuana patients using it for insomnia.

Im not sure why you are so against medical marijuana when you are in a medical marijuana forum. You keep coming up with excuses as to why someone SHOULDNT use marijuana, then when it gets shot down you just come back with another excuse. Whos side are you on anyways ?

 

It's just my opinion that insomnia is a bullshit excuse to get medical marijuana...that's all I was trying to say

And as per the picking and choosing of medications, what I meant was that you can't go into the doctor's office and tell him or her that you want marijuana. You can't force them to prescribe you something if they don't think it will be effective.

 

look medical marijuana is great and all, but I pretty much agree w skydog. Most doctors don't like marijuana. They don't recommend it. Some will. Medical marijuana is a system which is abused, and I see no problem w that really. But insomnia is, well most of the time it can be treated wo/ medication. Just take a little melatonin or valerian root don't use stimulants that kind of thing proper diet. But in cases of severe insomnia I would definitely recommend sleep medications over marijuana. Marijuana is great to get u to sleep, but I think the medications formulated to help promote healthy sleep work better, and they are approved by the FDA for a specific purpose unlike marijuana. I'm not saying don't get medical marijuana for it by all means do, I'm just saying in most cases it isn't the healthiest option. And I agree about cancer and aids patients being treated w marijuana as being one of the plants best medical possibility. Marijuana is not the smartest option in most cases...

however I do think many prescription medications including sleeping pills are probably every bit as addictive as marijuana...

 

I dont have insomnia or anything but if I did as a paitent id much rather taking something thats all natural and organic if it worked just as well as labratory made chemicl infested medications. Again the bottom line is a patient has the right to chose which medicine to use as long as that medicine is really helping them.

As for most doctors not recommending marijuana thats because they arent experts on marijuana, its not something they are taught in school so they are hesistant to recommend something they dont know much about. The doctors that have done research on marijuana are almost allways willing to recommend it cause its a pretty much open and shut case that marijuana is a valid medicine by all fda standards in place today.


I'd consider myself a perfect example of someone who benefits from medical marijuana even though medical marijuana wouldnt typically be the top choice used to treat my condition. I have pretty serious case of ADD and have been on almost every prescription add medication there is but they all had really bad side effects on me. Marijuana helps with my add just as well but it doesnt give me the negative side effects that the prescription meds do. As a paitent its my right to use marijuana since A) its legal and B) its what works best for me. Im sure there are a lot of people with insmonia in the same boat as me, yes there are other medications that work but they give them bad side effects where marijuana doesnt.


Basically it comes down to a case by case situation. Everyone reacts differently to different meds, you cant make a blanket statement and say marijuana shouldnt be used for insmonia because everyones situation is different.

 

My Dad got the exact same diagnosis maybe 4 or 5 years back (should know more exact times...) and went through the same battle you did. His pain nearly crippled me with stress, nevermind what he had to live through. It was one of the worst things I have ever witnessed. I was horrified that something that was supposed to help save his life would do this to him. He was a completely different person after he started smoking again. It was the only thing that could keep him out of bed, vomiting all the time. It let him eat. He had lost almost 50 pounds by the halfway point of his chemo cycle. He gained most of it back by the end.
He's been in remission for 28 months and he thoroughly believes it helped him survive. He had talked once or twice about refusing treatment and letting "nature take it's course"...

I can honestly say without embellishment or exaggeration that cannabis saved my father. He would not be with me today if not.


A little more on topic though...
I have trouble sleeping some nights, and sleeping pills always make me feel like shit the next day. Plus they take a little while to kick in, and I'm not always sure what nights I'll need one until it's 2:30 am and I know I ain't sleeping anytime soon. A couple tokes and I can relax and pass out. I feel fresh the next morning instead of sluggish and hungover.
In the current medical system I can see how it would be considered an abuse...but I believe that it should be considered as a viable treatment in any case where it could help. Ambien fucks me up beyond belief even in reccomended doses, and it's not at all pleasant. I've used it a handful of times and sworn off it entirely. I haven't tried anything else (prescription-wise, OTC stuff is useless) because MJ works beautifully for me.