Marijuana
No, this isn’t a topic I’d normally be devoting a post to on this blog. However, I spent 14 years living in Florida, and still keep up on some of the things going on there. A recent poll from the state indicates that over half of the residents in Florida are in favor of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. For just over two years now I’ve lived in California. I think everyone in the United States is at least passingly familiar with the medical marijuana debate here. We live just south of the Oregon border. Several medical marijuana dispensaries are open in the areas of southern Oregon that Desirée Lee and I frequent.
I keep seeing more and more articles discussing how beneficial marijuana is. I’ve never done drugs. I’ve never so much as smoked a cigarette, and I’m 39-years-old. I have no personal, first-hand knowledge of what marijuana is like to use. However, I’m curious, in light of all of the benefits I keep hearing about. If even half of what I’ve head and read is true, then marijuana is great for pain management. It’s also said by some to help fight cancer. Some even go so far as to claim it will cure cancer. These sources seem to see America’s big pharmaceutical companies as the blackest of villains. Who knows? Maybe they’re right. The train of thought goes something like this:
A person is in pain (or sick, or whatever).
That person goes to the doctor.
The doctor writes out a prescription for medication.
But, often, side effects from that medication will force the need for another medication to counter that problem.
The person leaves the doctor’s office with one – or more – prescriptions to fill at the pharmacy.
Once that’s done, the pharmacy just made money from the sale of the medication, the doctor has made money from that same sale, as has the large pharmaceutical company who manufactures the medication(s) that were just sold.
However, these pro-marijuana sources I keep seeing claim that marijuana has no side effects. It’s 100% natural. Users receive all of the good things, without any of the bad. Any medication is dangerous in too large of doses. How many people die each year from overdosing on prescription medications, or over-the-counter medications? According to these sources, a whole lot more than the number of people who pass on each year from marijuana use. Is that true? I don’t know. I haven’t seen the studies. I have only the information reported by these admittedly pro-marijuana sources to go on.
Why am I talking time to discuss this here?
Simple. I suffer from migraines. I get them almost daily. Anything will set one off – heat, noise, bright light, stress, getting hungry, or tired. I had migraines on an almost daily basis even before Desirée and I had a child. Now, with a toddler in the house, the noise and stress seem to be never-ending. You get where this is going? I feel like I live on Excedrin Migraine. A dose is for 24 hours. When it’s leaving my system, my head starts to hurt. Again. It’s seems as if the medication makes you need more of it due to the pain you feel as it’s wearing off. I also have intermittent sciatic nerve pain due to a spinal tap that went wrong several years ago.
Would marijuana help me to combat these pain problems? I don’t know. I’m curious, though. From what I keep reading in those pro-marijuana news blurbs, it just might. And, it just might be a whole lot safer and healthier than a steady diet of over-the-counter pain pills, too.
The problem? Even if you live in a state that has legalized marijuana, it’s still illegal on a federal level. So, though your state might say yes, you can grow, or buy and smoke marijuana for medical reasons, the FBI, ATF, or some other federal-level agency might well take it away from you, and toss you in prison for a good long time. Why? Because you were using an all-natural pain management method that cuts the big pharmaceutical companies profits out of the picture?
What does everyone else think? Let me hear from you on this. Who knows? This post may be the start of a new book project!
Scott Harper
Novelist/screenwriter Scott Harper’s official blog 