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.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.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.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.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.I am still in awe of how effectively it handled my pain.