The Dope on Marijuana: Medical Alternative or Gateway Drug?

When I was a child, smoking weed was something I saw every day. My mother married a man who used & sold it. I was too young to know him well, but he turned out to be on things other than marijuana.

As a teen, I hung out with people who smoked and sold marijuana, but rarely tried it myself. 

When I got married, the only drug I eventually tolerated my husband using was marijuana, and then only outside the confines of our house. I had almost  zero tolerance for drugs of any kind. I didn’t even like taking prescriptions.

Along this time, I was studying traditional herbs, their uses and preparations. I mellowed considerably in the years following the end of my marriage, to the point where I would hit a fatty or smoke a bowl if it was offered. 

As an herbalist, I know there are opiates and such that are wonderful for pain, and legal to obtain and consume. I spent a decent amount of time researching cannabis as well. I’m no longer intolerant of its use. I even occasionally use it myself. Chronic pain and General Anxiety Disorder combined with claustrophobia and agoraphobia are the main reasons. After one particularly vicious panic attack, my girlfriend packed a bowl and lit it for me. In about 20 minutes, I stopped shaking, stopped crying and I was able to sleep that night. 

Thousands of people suffering from a wide spectrum of illnesses from chronic pain to glaucoma, cancer & AIDS to MS, find that marijuana does for them what prescriptions can’t. 

It makes the pain bearable. It doesn’t make them violent and it doesn’t cost them a whole lot of money. It makes getting through their day that much easier. The pain fades to a manageable level. These people don’t want to change the world. I agree with legalizing marijuana. It should be available for pain management or for severe anxiety disorders, like mine.