Given Choice, Patients Will Choose Cannabis Over Prescribed Opioids
I get kidney stones pretty often (6 times in the last 8 years). I vomit from the pain, convulse on the floor, lose all sense of self as I just struggle to survive the sensation. It is intense. Usually I have to go to the emergency room for IV opioids. Then they give you some to take home after you pass the peak of the pain.<p>Last time it happened to me, I went home at around 6pm after going into the hospital that morning. At 3am, the pain was again intolerable. I had already taken the maximum dosage of the opioids. I knew taking more was dangerous, and was keenly afraid of getting addicted. But the pain was too much, so I went to get the bottle of pills.<p>As I stood up to go get the pills, it occurred to me that people say weed is good for pain and that I should try it before taking more opioids. I had weed (in cali, have a "medical" card) so I took some out and smoked.<p>I cannot describe to you how much more effective it was than the opioids. The pain wasn't gone, but it was just an interesting sensation now. Genuinely didn't bother me. I did yoga. I read. I enjoyed the night. And I was flabbergasted that no one I touched in the medical establishment had ever recommended it.<p>It feels like a genuinely corrupt world where something so clearly damaging to people and society is recommended before something relatively harmless and widely available.<p>I am still in awe of how effectively it handled my pain.