Medical Marijuana Without the High

Find an 'angry stoner'? Maybe not while they're stoned, I wouldn't know.

I do know that many of the "stoners" I've met drink alcohol, smoke, play videogames, engage in casual sex, drink coffee, don't eat well, have had trouble in school, work in low-paying jobs, do other drugs, eat sugary treats.

It's funny how the marijuana legalizers tend to point the finger at other addictions - as if marijuana users didn't do all those other things too, just like the rest of us.

I've seen the lives of people who regularly use drugs, and it's not pretty. It smells yucky, too.

Alex, I'm with you in this.

I would like the drug wars to end. Legalize everything. You want to use something, fine, as long as you're not putting other people's lives at risk when you do.

However, every time the medical marijuana issue arises, there are a bunch of people making wild claims for what pot has done for their chronic illnesses. I have chronic pain, and have had for decades. It sucks beyond belief, and I have had to fight to get the meds I need to get me through the day. I have absolute sympathy for others who suffer. I'm sure that pot has worked very well for certain types of pain.

But, please, have a little respect. I had a marijuana dispensary just a few blocks from my home. I can tell you that, no matter what time of day I passed by, not one of the people entering the building looked ill in any way. Most looked extremely healthy. I rode the bus occasionally, and the people who took the bus to the dispensary were all in party moods; most of them were young and seemed to move prettily easily in and out of the bus.

The place was finally busted after about a year and a half. They had set up with some doctors for referrals and kickbacks.

It's common knowledge that getting a medical marijuana certificate costs $295 for the exam, and the exam lasts about 15 minutes. It's an absolute joke. And it belittles the suffering of people who have found help using marijuana.

@Sincerely Disappointed - Like I mentioned before, I have no problem with both medicinal and recreational marijuana. The problem was that it wasn't the bill of goods I was sold as a voter: they told me it was for serious illness, that it's the compassionate thing to do to help out people who are truly suffering.

If you want to do it for recreation, then do it for recreation. But don't give the rest of us the lame medical excuse. That just taints it for the truly sick people.

Want to legalize pot for recreational use? Then do it. Campaign. Change the laws.

Alex, you feel like a chump because you agreed to something without considering all angles. Ever seen how many liquor stores are in a small town? How much booze does one need to 'medicate' themselves from a bad day of work?

Admit that you are biased, you see ALL the negative you can from this and make a mountain from a molehill. There was quite a struggle with alcohol a long time ago. Still it isn't regulated very much, but MARIJUANA needs complex rules so that you don't feel 'like a chump' and get pissy at people who are doing a rather boring drug. I'd like you to point out an 'angry drunk' and then try to find me an 'angry stoner.'

My take is, I would like the freedom to use marijuana for recreational purposes. Forget the medical workaround. I can buy alcohol, nicotine, caffeine... all sorts of drugs that alter my mental state. Honestly I probably could get medical marijuana if it were available in my state; and I gladly would if it meant I could ease off the Depakote, Lamotrigine, and Paxil that keep me from disintegrating into a bi-polar mess of anxiety every single day.

But that's not even the issue for me. Just legalize it. I challenge anyone to name a reason why marijuana should be illegal while alcohol is legal.

My feeling is, so what if cancer patients DO get high and enjoy the high...I'll never understand why some people are so opposed to enjoying a recreational drug. Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Enjoy it as best you can because your time here is limited.

Alex, you feel like a chump, not a chum.

Jill, if you truly know dozens of people who are substance abusers of any kind, maybe you need to reassess where you're meeting your friends and acquaintances.

Or was that a rhetorical statement? Sounds like the old familiar argument - "my addiction isn't as bad as your addiction."

"(if you’re sick, you’d want ONE variety: the strongest one)."

Alex, if you don't have a clue what you're writing about: Why write at all?

I can get high without an excuse. Not sorry I don't listen to American opression and propaganda. ;)

"Don’t tell me all the varieties of pot that are available from these dispensaries all serve different medical purposes (if you’re sick, you’d want ONE variety: the strongest one)."

Not true Alex, some of it helps more with bodily pain, some of it helps people relax, some helps people get hungry again when they wouldn't be otherwise, some helps relieve nausea. That's why this THC-less marijuana could help some people, but won't help everyone.

"I know of one person that abuses it. That doesn’t make it such a wild accusation now does it? So thank you for proving my point."

I know two people who have medical cards that don't need it. I know at least six people who use it who need it for migraines (serious ones), MS, cancer, glaucoma, arthritis and other conditions. Everyone else I know who smokes gets it off the street. On the other hand, I've met dozens of people who abuse prescription pain killers.

Look, I don't have a prescription because I don't like the way it makes me feel. That being said, I do use it about once a month when I get terrible anxiety and can't even get myself up to take a shower or go outside. I can't tell you how much it's helped me and I almost never even need it. If I had worse anxiety, worse migraines, if I had HIV or cancer, I sure as all heck would have a card.
When I meet someone with a legitimate medical complaint that medical marijuana would help, I always suggest it. Even the most conservative sick people I know who have finally given it a chance are incredibly happy with how much it helps their symptoms.

*This is the original sentence: "Let me boil down the medical marijuana controversy into a single sentence: instead of helping people with serious medical conditions, medical marijuana is an excuse for people with dubious ailments to get high."

---

That's unclear. What I had meant to write was " ... medical marijuana is an excuse for OTHER people with dubious ailments to get high."

Let me explain further.

There are evidence that marijuana can help alleviate the symptoms and pain of many serious illnesses, including terminal cancer.

I have no problem with the use of medical marijuana to help really sick people. When medical marijuana came up as a voter's proposition in California, with radio ads telling me that my vote is important in compassionately helping very ill people, I believed it. I voted for it.

Personally, I have no issue with recreational use of marijuana either. While I have no desire to smoke pot myself, whatever you do with your own body, as long as it doesn't harm other people, is up to you.

But don't mix the two.

Don't tell me that you suddenly have chronic headache/backache/intra-ocular pressure that can only be treated with pot. Don't tell me that dispensaries need to be open 24/7 because you suddenly develop a need for medicine at 3AM. Don't tell me that dispensaries that have "kush," "ganja," 420" and other monikers for pot in its name cater largely to terminally ill cancer patients. Don't tell me that you need 10 dispensaries within a city block, most of whom aren't audited by the city. Don't tell me all the varieties of pot that are available from these dispensaries all serve different medical purposes (if you're sick, you'd want ONE variety: the strongest one).

Because that makes me feel like a chump. And that makes all the other middle-of-the-road people, who thought they were making a compassionate vote for sick people, but instead are letting other people score easy weed, feel like chumps.

And that's bad for those who really, really need medical marijuana.

Thought this was more NEAT. Here are some common addictions. I am currently fighting 'video game addiction' and no not with marijuana as some may assume due to my posting here.

There are quite a few more distasteful habits/addictions/lifestyles that could actually educate someone instead of force opinions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Addiction

Addiction
Drugs

Alcohol
Nicotine
Caffeineism
Opioids

Food

Sugar

Behavioral

Gambling
Pornography
Sex
Shopping
Tanning
Work

Other addictions

Computer
Internet
Television
Video games

I believe that if you actually read the post, it is mentioned that there ARE legitimate uses for medical marijuana...however, I can't imagine that there are enough legitimate cases of need for medical marijuana to justify having no less than 12 medical marijuana storefronts in a three block radius of my home....in some cases you can see one from the doorway of another.
The legitimate medical patients are NOT the ones keeping those doors open and those lights on...it's the kids who get their "scripts" from the doctor who helpfully has his office right inside the storefront. I wish there was a way to clean up this dichotomy so that the people who REALLY REALLY need it can get it without being dumped in the same boat as the idiots who are abusing the system.

THANK YOU IAN

Caffeine is a serious drug in my opinion. Marijuana has been used for a long time, so has alcohol. But out of the three drugs I've just mentioned only one of them isn't addictive. Possibly for some, it would be out of a mental addiction but not a chemical addiction. Caffeine and alcohol withdrawal is something I have had to help several people fight through. Not to mention I could rant about sugar and the addiction(cravings) it causes for some people. Ever seen someone give up buying a pack of smokes because they would rather have soda?

Never have I met a toker (or someone who makes food with it) have withdrawals symptoms. At most they might complain about not having anymore marijuana but they don't have headaches or feel ill.

Please someone tell me why we allow drugs like caffeine and alcohol to go so unchecked and then fuss about something such as marijuana.

Note: I am not against alcohol, coffee, soda, candy or etc. It's just sad that we have so many substances that are abused and commonplace. To see ALEX be so callous in opinion just disgusts me. This isn't the first time I believe something on Neatorama has been posted in a manner to 'troll' for comments. Politics and religion should be left out, not slipped in to gather more attention.

Hmm.. what was it my mother used to tell me? Oh.. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

I hate to fuel the fire, I'm only conceding into the comment trolololol by posting...

Canabis actually has the only known ingredient to depolarize bipolar patients in the CB2 receptor of the brain, which helps to stabilize GABA levels.

Do you guys abuse coffee in the morning?

I know of one person that abuses it. That doesn't make it such a wild accusation now does it? So thank you for proving my point.

killer: in areas where it is being properly managed, very, very few people are abusing it. If they just want to get high it's easier to get it off the street. Do your homework before making stupid accusations.

As someone who had a parent using medical marijuana during her final months with a disease very similar to ALS, and to great effect - a) people who think it's for dubious ailments can go stuff themselves, and b), yeah, the high is part of the medical benefit when you are talking about terminally ill patient or those in extreme pain, so this THC-free version is going to have a more limited application. It doesn't replace the need, but certainly it would help in some cases.

"While people may be using it in earnest you have to be stupid to think nobody is abusing it."

Killer you might want a toke or 2 for the legitimate purpuse of getting that burr out of your ass.

I don't care if people choose to use this, that's their business and if it makes them feel better then great. Don't tell me that it "cures" or "treats" cancer, etc. It doesn't. It makes you temporarily feel better by making you high. While people may be using it in earnest you have to be stupid to think nobody is abusing it.

You know, at first I made a smarmy comment, but I do have to throw in my 2 cents.

As someone living with inflammatory bowel disease, I sometimes am a bit overzealous when people criticize the ONLY medication out of dozens I've found that helps me keep my appetite / maintain my weight.

The temperance nerds will always be temperance nerds.

I'm not sorry that my medicine happens to be wrongfully considered a drug of abuse by the conservative right-wing fundamentalists. I'm not sorry that it makes me feel great, either.

I f-ing deserve it after spending 20 years in misery (AND as a lab rat for pharmaceutical companies and doctor's who'd rather throw pills at you than really try to identify the problem) before discovering something that works.

You can grow your nerd-version pot all you want, I wont change brands.

As someone who is HIV positive and needs marijuana to:
1)Give me hunger (something I never am from the disease)
2)Stop the constant nausea from my medication

I take aim at the author describing marijuana as something purely recreational, and having the author make gross generalizations describing me and my kind as dubious potheads. I want an apology from the author and from Neatorama. What the author said was slanted, misinformed and hurtful.

The author of this is truly an unthinking man's jackass.

Trying to engineer marijuana with no THC, so they're trying to make hemp? And isn't experiencing the high at least some part of the benefit of marijuana? The high isn't incapacitating or come with a list of side effects, especially in comparison to many prescription drugs, and probably makes the treatment actually enjoyable.

by removing THC (the high factor) you now have a viable medical use for marijuana.

all the pro-pot people keep claiming all the uses for pot like paper, rope, plastics, etc. but is anybody doing that? not that I have seen. it's just another excuse to be addicted, to worship an idol.

the dubious ailments would be all the different reasons for its use, which include normal everyday aches and pains that "patients" use as an excuse.

I've got friends that have dealt with minor pain for years just fine, and now have a card because they are in "pain". I am almost 50 and have diabetes, I could qualify, but why would I want to spend my time being stupid. I would rather know about the pain and adjust my actions to avoid further injury

“Dubious” huh?
That just about makes my blood boil! I've had 3 brain surgeries to completely remove a tumor...I am in horrible pain the entire time I'm awake. Yet, my tumor is gone, and tho it's been 14 years now, no doc/pain clinic has been able to figure out what's wron, much less fix it.
I'm sure that my illness would be “dubious” tho. No proof of symptoms, right?
Yep - I really enjoy having to load up on narcotics every day. I love that I don't leave my house other than for Dr. appointments - and don't forget how fun it is not having any “real-life” friends because the Internet is about the only way I connect to people for about the past 6-7 years now.
Ok -
I tried pot as a teenager and didn't really care for it. But I care even less for all the narcotics I have to take!
I'd love to be able to try a natural/holistic method of pain killer! And no matter what - pot PILLS are a heck of a lot better for you than all the pharmaceutical crap!
Gotta love it when people like this make the judgments when they're not experiencing the situation! It's like being asked to umpire a baseball game when you've never even been to one before.

Ok, .
Apologies, obviously this is a sensitive subject for me...

... and the plan makes the large assumption that THC isn't the causative agent responsible for helping MS, Parkinsons, cancer, etc. patients in the first place.

It feels like figuring out how to keep smoke from getting in to the lungs would be a more useful thing to study.

"Let me boil down the medical marijuana controversy into a single sentence: instead of helping people with serious medical conditions, medical marijuana is the only excuse for people to enjoy a safer alternative to alcohol."

FTFY

"Let me boil down the medical marijuana controversy into a single sentence: instead of helping people with serious medical conditions, medical marijuana is an excuse for people with dubious ailments to get high."

In the linked article it states "however the drug is currently used medically to treat roughly 9,000 people suffering from illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease."

I am curious as to which of those 'ailments' is dubious to the author?