She's always been intelligent. She used to catch on immediately to the most subtle nuance. And then, as the cloud of narcotics around her head got thicker and heavier, she found it harder and harder to concentrate. She couldn't easily focus her attention on anything.
The tradeoff between being less intelligent and not being in pain was difficult for her. It was a different kind of pain, but there it is.
New Mexico issues licenses to its known users, and the process for getting a license, while not particularly complicated, is rigid, structured, and annoying as hell.
We gathered all the documents that they wanted: the completed five-page application, a copy of her driver's license, her medical records, and certification from two different practitioners (her primary care guy, and her Pain Management guy).
(Weirdly, we also got a call from the Department of Health asking permission to contact a third doctor - she had an x-ray in her records, and they wanted to contact the radiologist who read it: possibly as evidence that she had cysts where he said she did - we've never really been certain.)
We had different problems getting the two medical authorizations. The first one, and easily the strangest one, was from our primary care guy. We've been seeing this short, elderly guy, and he wanted us to make an appointment with him. He'd apparently reviewed her records, and he sat down with her, looked her in the eyes, and asked her if she was aware of the possibility of the drug causing severe schizophrenia?
Yes, that's right. A medical doctor, concerned about Reefer Madness. (That was actually the incident that caused us to reevaluate our primary care provider.)
After a long and angry phone call with the Department of Health, I got them to finally explain what the problem was: the doctor's Physician's Assistant (PA) had filled out the paperwork for him - that, after all, is what PA's do. But she wasn't a Board Certified Pain Medicine specialist - the doctor was.
The next day, I overnighted updated paperwork from the doctor to them, and my wife now has a bright, shiny green card from the New Mexico Department of Health. It has a fascinating statement on the back: "card holders are legally permitted to use and possess up to six (6)ounces (170 grams) of usable marijuana." As opposed to all that unusable marijuana that people are caught with every day?
So there's the trick: the government has a program, but they don't have a lot of inclination to help you themselves. You have to push them into doing their job, and you have to keep resubmitting anything they have a problem with - all it takes is one comma out of place, and everything comes to a halt.
She has a vaporizer (smoking irritates her throat, so we avoid that), and the store has some fairly high-quality pot, with names like "Wow" and "Shiska-berry", along with information on which of the various cannabinoids each brand contains.
And while she spends most days mildly buzzed, she no longer feels like her head is wrapped in cotton. She can concentrate on things for an extended period; she can read books again, and not have to go back over the same page three or four times.
There are conflicting theories regarding the use of marijuana; I just know this. It helps my wife, and that's what matters to me.
I've read quite a bit about the early days of the Marijuana ban and it's a sad story that needs to end soon.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, glad your state is at least that progressive. As to some of those conflicting "theories" some of it reads like a textbook of bad science.
Shishkaberry. Of course, I had to look up this one:
ReplyDelete“Body: This strain causes an airy feeling of lightness in the arms and legs, especially if consumed without food. Generally a light, but pleasant feeling of bodily sedation. Not specifically for body ailments.
Mind: Shishkaberry is excellent for stress and anxiety relief. It is a very euphoric strain strain that tends to make the user relaxed and melts away the worries of the day. And beyond this, Shishkaberry seems to have a very positive effect on depression, as well.
Overall: This is an excellent strain for those with issues such as anxiety or depression. It feels like a 50/50 hybrid; it provides the calming and relaxation that users tend to associate with indicas, but does not produce the tiring and “couch-lock” effect. Great for daytime use and perhaps one of the most euphoric strains of cannabis locally available.”
The thought occurs to me that Shishka-berry will eventually lead to Shishka-tourism, and other states will be forced to join Colorado and take the “high road" or else lose their tourism business.
Octo - thanks for the link to the blog. She's taking similar notes to see what effect each one has on her, personally.
ReplyDeleteCap't - Yeah, I suppose it's possible that there's some bad research in there.
1. Bill Frist - Isn't he the politician who diagnosed a brain-dead patient as still alive based on watching a brief video? I wonder if he'd ever ignore science in favor of his political agenda?
2. Pot may not be effective against glaucoma. Let's ignore all the other uses.
3. I wonder if the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under Bush II would write an editorial in favor of legalizing drugs?
4. "Pot has more tar than tobacco" - well, yeah. And tobacco has been bred to produce lower tar for decades.
And so on. But that's just quibbling, isn't it?
Thanks for this post, N.C. All I can add to it is that marijuana helped me with the pain I suffered from extensive burns on my shoulder and back due to radiation treatments over a period of 6 weeks. A close family friend suggested I try it, since nothing else could ease my intense discomfort.
ReplyDeleteIt worked. It gave me blessed relief. Even if I consumed way too many doritos!
Good luck with continued pain management. I personally am not convinced that vaporizing is completely safe. There is still intense heat that is not safe to inhale over the long term.
ReplyDeleteBrownies really do work. Just put 3.5 grams of skunk, indica or senseless into one package of brownie mix in an eight-by-eight inch aluminum or glass pan. Cut into sixteen squares. I always tell my friends that one brownie is roughly equivalent to 250 mics of lysergic. I usually only eat something between one quarter or one half brownie. That's enough to power me to mow two lawns and prune the roses. That may actually be much more than your wife actually needs. And it's dirt cheap.
One of my childhood friends was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer when he was only eighteen. He was a local favorite son, a world-class champion surfer. When he was sick from about 1977 to 1980, people just gave him weed. He ended up smoking almost an ounce of Thai weed every week to manage the pain and nausea from the chemo and radiation.
A well known psychologist once published a study in which participants, told to watch a group of people carefully for a particular feature, failed to notice someone in a gorilla suit.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone noticed that in places where weed is legal and controlled, those problems we insist will occur do not occur? Sorry, Pornography does not increase sex crime, prostitution does not lead to abuse of women and not only is our entire bazillion dollar prohibition escapade based on deliberate lies, but we're all so prone to group think, to seeing what we're told to see and getting angry at what we're told to get angry about we don't notice our own abusive behavior.
Sure, we can find enough one in a million cases of weed having messed up someone's life - just like ice cream, cigarettes and driving too fast, but how many compare these anecdotes to the millions and millions of lives ruined by our drug laws?
I personally knew a brilliant student destroyed by the abuse of cannabis. Always thought the problem rested within him rather than the cannabis.
ReplyDeleteThat and what the Captain said.
The age of the user seems to have some bearing on the risks involved. Pot has a notoriously deleterious effect on the developing brain, and the effects are not reversible.
DeleteOnce the brain is fully developed, pot seems to have an opposite effect: It actually protects the brain from damage or from the effects of aging.
Personally, I would not recommend anyone using pot under the age of 24. Beyond that age, go right ahead as far as I am concerned.
How many people are ruined by alcohol, cigarettes, cars, guns, gambling and dropping out of school? Yep you don't let your 8 year old have a car, but if we want to keep weed away from kids, we do as we do with all those things: keep them out in the open where we can watch and make sure it doesn't happen. It's cheaper to grow than crab grass and dandelions and you can tax the hell out of it and it will still be cheaper than beer.
DeleteAs with alcohol, so many tens of millions of people have used this stuff for so many decades with no harmful results that sooner or later the great wall of fallacy, deception and irrelevant statistics will collapse. the question isn't whether there is or isn't a medical benefit. It isn't whether some people smoke too much or whether you shouldn't operate heavy equipment, it's whether it should be a first class felony to take a toke or two and watch the three stooges now and then as so many policemen, doctors, corporate CEO's and Republican politicians do with no repercussions other than the legal ones. Isn't it funny how they always mumble about god, go to rehab and walk away free when the less affluent, the minorities wind up doing hard time and having everything they own confiscated and their kids thrown into foster care? Think maybe it isn't another tool of repression?
Think it wasn't renamed Marijuana in the 30's because the ban was proposed as part of a way to get rid of Mexicans by making them scary drug dealers out to seduce our kids?
The hollow ringing in our ears is the sound of all these false prognostications. Countries that have decriminalized it have seen less use among the young, less hard drug usage, less crime. Portugal has legalized everything, hard drugs and all and yes, usage is on the decline and the money has been diverted to rehab with apparently very good results. When I was last there in the 90's drugs were everywhere - shantytowns full of users. Now they're disappearing.
We spend billions and billions, we ruin innocent lives, the young and the old, we've violated everyone's rights, we strengthen the claims that we've become a police state, an enforcement tyranny creating laws for the sake of enforcing them and we have created a huge and growing crime wave. And most of all, we've fostered such disrespect for law and order it bleeds over into everything else. For what it's worth, I have friends in law enforcement who strongly agree.
Not enough data? My ass! and the public knows no reputable study has ever found it dangerous enough to hand out life sentences for having a few plants in your basement. Remember Nixon's blue ribbon panel who said there's no evidence whatever for calling it dangerous -- remember how he fired them and declared an unprecedented war on weed? Remember how Congress used a forged report to declare that it cause permanent and irreversible brain damage? Used a forged report that's been denied by the AMA for over 70 years and yet they still won't back down? Face it, we're dealing with crooks and liars and tyrants and the public good is not the motivation. Power is the motivation
Nameless, first I am so happy to hear oyur wife is getting pain relief while being able to function as a human being again. I worked many years as a nurse, some of those on a hospice unit in a nursing home. The ignorance that was so prevalent even among my fellow nurses astounded me. I came in one morning to a report on one of our near dead patients and was told by the nurse she did not give him and opiates because she was afraid he would get addicted and wouldn't it depress his respiratory system so he would die? "He's already dying! Your job is to make him comfortable!!!" Then I went to see the patient, needle in hand and shot him up. He grabbed my hand and said thank you. I cried. He died that afternoon, peacefully and hopefully pain free.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is the matter with not only people but professionals? They live in the dark ages when it comes to pain management.
I am very heartened to see New Mexico and Colorado pick up the banner for marijuana use and hope this will cascade through other states leading to full legalization which I have been a long time supporter of.
Nameless, first I am so happy to hear oyur wife is getting pain relief while being able to function as a human being again. I worked many years as a nurse, some of those on a hospice unit in a nursing home. The ignorance that was so prevalent even among my fellow nurses astounded me. I came in one morning to a report on one of our near dead patients and was told by the nurse she did not give him and opiates because she was afraid he would get addicted and wouldn't it depress his respiratory system so he would die? "He's already dying! Your job is to make him comfortable!!!" Then I went to see the patient, needle in hand and shot him up. He grabbed my hand and said thank you. I cried. He died that afternoon, peacefully and hopefully pain free.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is the matter with not only people but professionals? They live in the dark ages when it comes to pain management.
I am very heartened to see New Mexico and Colorado pick up the banner for marijuana use and hope this will cascade through other states leading to full legalization which I have been a long time supporter of.