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Does medical marijuana work for chronic pain?
Chronic Pain | Last Active: Jun 25 7:17am | Replies (656)Comment receiving replies
I have been with the Minnesota medical cannabis program since its inception. When the drug czars decided to restrict oxycodone, cannabis was a life-saver. Because of chronic kidney disease most of the normally prescribed and over-the-counter pain meds are verboten. In fact the kidney disease was in part caused by NSAIDs back before they knew about the impact of chronic use, much as they did for basketball player Dikembe Motumbo. I also have athletic asthma so I take my cannabis in pill and liquid form. The liquid was suggested because it enters your system faster. I use it for breakthrough pain at night. The one downside I have experienced is that the dose levels on the pills seem to vary. That is why I would not use anything bought through the mail or Internet because you do not know what you are getting. My one fear of legalization. is that it will put a lot of product out there that varies greatly in quality. I know it will soon be legal in Minnesota, which maybe will reduce the monopolistic pricing of the current vendor, but for medical use I would take cannabis only under a doctor's supervision as they can adjust dosage, etc.
Replies to "I have been with the Minnesota medical cannabis program since its inception. When the drug czars..."
Every state has differing regulations concerning MMJ. In most states they DOH requires the substances produced by growers to be certified and that they do not contain substances that could harm MMJ patients. I’m glad this happened and provides assurance as to what you are buying. At least with MMJ you pretty much know the strength unless you take steps to jack up the potency.
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Good afternoon @oldguide. Welcome to Connect. Thanks for your description of medical cannabis in Minnesota. I concur with much of what you relayed about your experience with medical cannabis. Shortly after I started using this for my SFN (small fiber neuropathy) I met the owner of one of the dispensaries. He was close to my age and knew a lot about the products and how they were processed. He helped me make appropriate selections and opened some doors I wouldn't have addressed.
He also taught me how to adjust dosages for different times and situations. I now use only tinctures and topicals and have been with the same companies for years. I hope to see more posts from you that will be helpful to those who have not been introduced to medical cannabis. My pain and other symptoms are kept under control now.
May you have happiness and the causes of happiness.
Chris