cannabis

Medical Cannabis Conversation

/ Amanda / 1 Comment

Over the last few years I’ve had many conversations concerning Medical Cannabis, some of those conversations were with medical professionals. For many, is seems, they can’t think outside the propaganda the FDA sells them.

This is why I can’t take medical marijuana protest people seriously,

The FDA, the CDC, big pharmacies, and many organizations have no monetary incentive to support medical cannabis (not yet), so they don’t. With all the research of medical cannabis around the world and even in the US, politicians still say it’s not enough and they demand more. Yet, they make it hard to obtain research on medical cannabis due to the insane cycle which state cannabis can’t be studied because it’s still listed as schedule 1, the same level as Heroin and LSD.

About a year ago, I a crazy conversation with one of my nurses.

We were talking about all the prescriptions I am on, and I said how dangerous they are. Yet, maybe I could get rid of a few of them if MM was legal in our state.

Me: Medical Marijuana has TONS of medical use. Medical Marijuana has been shown to help with many diseases, MS, Childhood Seizure, chronic pain, Fibromyalgia, everyone on cancer treatments could be saved, and senior citizens feel so much better because they are able to sleep and get real rest, plus so much more.

Nurse: But, it damages the brains in teenagers when used in high doses, so it should be banned.

Me: (SHOCKED LOOK!) — Well, I’m sure as a medical professional you would not give medical marijuana in high doses to someone in the teenage bracket, right? You also don’t give certain medications to pregnant women because of dangers, correct? Plus, and this is proven, chronic pain damages the brain of all ages, babies, teens, adults, and senior citizens (and ME!!), so you want to ban a medication that does more good than bad, because it is bad for the brains of normal teens? Really?

Nurse: Yes.

Me. But, alcohol is highly abused for teenagers, and college kids die every year from alcohol abuse, even when they are old enough to drink it. Plus, alcohol has very few medical purposes and causes more harm than good. Do you want to ban alcohol from everyone to save the children? You’re a nurse, you see the damage alcohol has done to babies and to children, you see the deaths at colleges, you see the deaths of all the people who die in DUIs? Don’t you want to ban something that has no medical use.

Nurse: No. Of course not. Alcohol is regulated but the FDA (It isn’t, but I let that slide) and medical marijuana isn’t regulated by anyone. It will only be used to get high. It’s a gateway drug to more bad behavior and I hope it stays illegal.

ME: (Just shaking my head.) Well, then, you and all the professionals, who believe the same, have been gravely misinformed.

At this point, I asked for another nurse. I actually received wonderful treatment from the second nurse. The second nurse was open to the idea of medical cannabis and explained the various instances in his own family when medical cannabis could help. He explained that his aunt had cancer and he wished he could give it to her and before his father’s death he had Alzheimer’s, and became very upset and agitated towards the end. My nurses explained he would have more than welcomed a medication which would have calmed his father with making him in a zombie everyday.

The difference in the underlying beliefs of the two nurses were like night and day. I believe the difference was personal experience with someone close to them who was truly sick and could be helped with a medication used around the world, but not in certain parts of the US.

This is why people are dying and suffering for no reason in this world! If you are going to argue your point against something that will help millions of people, at least have a good reason for the argument. Alcohol and cigarettes are incredibly harmful, yet they are legal. Cannabis has many benefits for patients, yet this is illegal. There are patients dying and suffering in pain, all over the United States, when one medication could help in so many ways. None of this makes sense to me.

In my opinion, it’s all smoke and mirrors set up to keep patients on only pharmaceutical medications for the rest of their lives, no matter how miserable or short those lives are, they will be owned by pharmaceutical money.

Sick patients are owned and are the slaves of Pharmaceutical companies. Patients make billions of dollars for the big companies, due to committing the one sin in the US which takes away  all rights, the sin of becoming sick. The patients are the slaves and the Doctors are the enforcers.

This relationship will never change until medical cannabis laws are changed in this country.

 

Until next time… be safe, be kind, and always be happy!

4/20 day! A great day to support children and Veterans!

/ Amanda / Leave a comment

 

happy420

 

Ahhhh…. 4/20! The day “secretly” known as the day to relax, kick your feet up, and smoke a doobie, blunt, joint, bowl, or one of the many names associated with smoking marijuana (legal name cannabis). From the early days in 1971 on a San Rafael, CA campus, to present day, 4:20 has become the socially accepted time to light one up and relax from a stressful day.

The country has come a very long way since “Reefer Madness” of 1936 and the “Say no to drugs” campaign of the 1980s. Millions of dollars have been spent on the so called “War on drugs”, creating mandatory life sentences for non-violent offenders, deaths for many innocent people who are caught up in drug wars, families have been broken apart due to parents spending time in jail (even for small amounts of cannabis) and they find it more difficult to find a job or go to school due to financial laws based on drug arrest, and then there’s asset seizure  of personal property, taken without a warrant or a crime being committed. All this time, hate, and waste of human life, yet, in all the years of the “war” marijuana use has yet to kill one person from the direct use of the product.

The insanity of the so called “drug war” and the crimes committed against the people of the US by the government are inexcusable.

I won’t go into the boring details about why and how cannabis became illegal in the first place and how it was less about abuse and more about bureaucracy. How it was less about saving lives and more about making money. How it was less about protecting the health of our nation, and more about arresting minorities to keep them away from the perfect white boys. I won’t go into the boring details of all the injustices since that time.

But I will tell you this, if you are legally smoking, drinking, eating, or ingesting cannabis today, please take the time to lift one in the air for all the people who put their lives and their reputations fighting for your right to do so.

Don’t forget many states do not have legal access to the one medicine which could help so many patients, including children and Veterans. In the middle of your healthy snack run or your third bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, take the time to sign online petitions, donate to a cause, petition in front of city hall, or donate to help send sick children to legal states, so they may be able to enjoy the medical benefit so many take for granted.

Prop your feet up, break out the ole debit card, and help others have the same freedoms you do.

Here is an organization who had been fighting for the right of legal Cannabis since the 1970s. NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)

http://norml.org/

https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=118195

So there you go. As you contemplate how you can help others, I’ve provided the answer, and you don’t even need to leave your couch. You’re welcome.

For all of you in legal states, have fun today! Burn one for the rest of us!

For the rest of the country, don’t forget, tomorrow is still a work day!

 

4-21 - surprise urine test.

 

Until next time…be safe, be kind, and always be happy.

 

 

Medical Marijuana – Weed 3 — Living with dignity and less pain

/ Amanda / Leave a comment

If you have anyone in your family who is sick with any severe condition, please, watch this video.

No matter what your views are on the recreational use of marijuana, the use of medical marijuana can no longer be ignored. People, including children, are being saved daily with the use of medical marijuana. This is happening all over the world and is finally being allowed in the US.

88,000 people die every year from alcohol alone (that doesn’t include the domestic abuse injuries and deaths alcohol causes), 16,007 people died from OPIOD overdoses in 2012 alone, yet, Marijuana, when used alone, killed ZERO people, EVER. Let’s stop lying to ourselves, we were duped into believing that marijuana was worse than alcohol, or even tobacco. 

There have been cases when children have accidently ingested their parents marijuana. What happened? Nothing. They went to the ER and had a bad trip. Was it a scary situation? You bet. They need an IV for dehydration, and some serious amounts of snacks after coming down, but, all in all, they were fine. What happened when children ingested too much alcohol? There have been cases when children have actually died from too much alcohol. This includes college students and teens who have died from alcohol poisoning. Yet, alcohol is everywhere and easily accessible, and marijuana, even medical marijuana is made to look like it comes from the devil himself.

I am not saying marijuana is safe. It is not. It is a drug. Just like all drugs, it should be respected, but, if we are going to allow something as dangerous as alcohol to be made in our father’s bathtubs, or to be kept on the kitchen counter, please don’t be a hypocrite and fight against something like medical marijuana, which could actually save lives.

The FDA and the US GOV is finally studying it, but, Israel has been studying medical marijuana, and using it for their patients, for many, many years.

Medical Marijuana does help with PTSD, Severe Pain, MS, RA, Fibromyalgia, Epilepsy, Depression, Wasting Diseases, Diabetes, Cancer, and Alzheimer’s, and many more issues can be helped with medical marijuana.

For my entire life (44 years) I was against all illegal drugs. There was nothing good about anything that was illegal. In some sense I was right. In all cases, there is no reason to let any drug, alcohol, marijuana, or any other drug, to ruin your life. I still believe that. If you allow anything to stop you from becoming a productive member of society or taking care of your family, then you need to readdress what you are doing, and find a new way. You can’t break the law just because you think it is unfair. If your job does not allow medical marijuana, or even cigarettes, you either need to stop doing those things, or make the decision to move states. You need to be a truly productive member of society and care for yourself and your family first. YOu can either move for medical help or work to change the laws where you live, but, I digress.

When I was younger I was strictly against all illegal substances, and I believed everything I saw on TV. There was no medical value in illegal drugs. Then in 2011, I got hurt in Iraq and about the same time, I also became very sick. The military opened my eyes to how much control medical professionals have over pain meds and your body. You become a slave to pain meds, which means you become a slave to the medical machine and the medical machine are slaves to politicians and the random laws. I am not even referring to something as serious as addiction. I am just referring to the relationship between a patient and a doctor. If a patient does or says anything that displeases the doctor, or if the doctor has a bad day, that patient’s entire medical case can be changed at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t even stop at the doctor. The politicians, the FDA, the ADA, even KOCH brothers have their hands in everything that deals with your medications and what is prescribed or approved at any one time. Once a patients becomes sick, the hard truth is, the prescriptions which are allowed or approved by the FDA are all controlled by money. Plain and simple money.

At any time, a politician can be bought or sold by the Koch brothers, or any other big super pac backer, and very quickly my pain medications can be changed and outlawed and I have zero control in how my medicine is handled at the federal and state level. Worse, if my medical provider decides for a personal reason, not a medical reason, to stop prescribing medications, then I have to find a new doctor, or suffer withdrawals and suffer excruciating pain, which is exactly what happened to me. No warning. No help. No titrating down. One day my medical provider decided he wasn’t going to provide narcotics anymore and that was that. His patients had to suffer or find new doctors, which is never an easy process.

As a chronic pain patient, which true severe pain conditions, my entire life is controlled at the politician and medical provider level. When my own medical provider decided to select his own life over mine, I knew then I had to fight for my own well being. That is when I started researching natural pain medications. I found that medical marijuana had been used for thousands of years for joint related pain diseases, such as RA and gout, or other pain disorders. Even now, the US owns a Patent on Medical Marijuana for their own researchers to do tests on the plants. They even have their own fields where they grow only the best plants to test on (which is shown in the video) . — This leads me to believe they know it will work for the listed medical issues (again shown in the video) . I do not like my life being controlled by politicians and big money. I don’t think a patient should be a slave to big pharmaceutical companies, to politicians, and then to the whims and personal agendas of medical providers. A patient has the right to live in dignity. Now, I am a huge supporter of medical marijuana and I fight everyday to change the laws so every patient, in every state, has the same rights to live in dignity and even die with dignity, and less pain.