Medical marijuana, aka cannabis, is a plant which offers a safer alternative than prescription painkillers for chronic pain management. It is a safer alternative simply because death from accidental marijuana overdose is not possible. Now legal in 29 or more states in the U.S. in one form or another (that’s a majority of states), this controversial plant has established a relationship with the human physiology over thousands of years.
“People have used marijuana, also called cannabis, for a variety of health conditions for at least 3,000 years. The history of cannabis use goes back as far as 12,000 years, which places the plant among humanity’s oldest cultivated crops.”
LiveScience.com – Marijuana’s History: How One Plant Spread Through The World
Cannabis as a plant medicine
When utilizing the green cannabis plant as a medicine, whether by smoking, vaporization or through ingestion of edible materials, the benefits reach far beyond the clinical. For instance, the pain from stretching and flexibility exercises turns into pleasure, the connection between your awareness and your bodymind becomes more apparent, and your perception of pain changes. The pain is still there, but now you can hover over it. From this perspective above your pain, your ability to change your life grows considerably.
Medical marijuana may help you find your path towards self-healing. It’s an aspect of the medicine which science and political opposition never discuss. Does it “cure” pain? Not any more than opioids, but the difference is cannabis allows you to unlock the pleasure and creativity sides of yourself. It means you can spend less time focusing on your pain, and spend more time solving the problem of how to eliminate your pain, especially if you are seeking and exploring viable alternatives.
There is now (finally) scientific evidence cannabis is as effective (or more so) for pain than opioids and without any of the adverse side-effects of opioids.
Books on Marijuana as Medicine
Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana
Revised and Updated Paperback – November 14, 2017
by Michael Backes (Author)
Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth about the World’s Most Popular Weed
Paperback – February 23, 2015
by Kevin P Hill, M.D.
Ganja Yoga: A Practical Guide to Conscious Relaxation, Soothing Pain Relief, and Enlightened Self-Discovery
Hardcover – April 18, 2017
by Dee Dussault (Author),
Cannabis and Spirituality: An Explorer’s Guide to an Ancient Plant Spirit Ally
Paperback – December 9, 2016
by Stephen Gray
Medical Cannabis: A Guide for Patients, Practitioners, and Caregivers
Paperback – December 2, 2017
by Michael H Moskowitz MD (Author)
Cannabis and the Self+BodyMind Relationship
With a single micro-dose of cannabis, what was once an agonizing pain becomes tolerable, even pleasurable. You start hearing your body tell you what it needs in the way of motion and flexibility, both of which ultimately lead towards less pain. With cannabis, the idea of stretching for flexibility and range of motion becomes something we are drawn to naturally, as a newfound form of pleasure for the body. Stretches which once felt like they were ripping your muscle cords now become a form of craving as you find yourself having the ability to will your tight muscles to relax into new positions without any ripping sensation whatsoever.
You will not experience this pleasure unless you are specifically seeking an improved relationship with your bodymind on your way towards higher self-awareness. Cannabis can help get you there. It still takes dedication and devotion towards self-improvement to discover how marijuana can help you. (Disclaimer.)
The propaganda war against medical marijuana
The Ultimate Healing Guide is not the place for a history lesson on the politics and religion of weed. Like cocaine, cannabis used to be prescribed by doctors in the U.S. prior to WWII. If you’re interested, the folks over at Collective Evolution have put together a good article which explains the racial reasons why marijuana was outlawed in the United States.
Everybody already knows the medical-pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want us to have direct access to plant medicine, right? The propaganda war against medical marijuana is about big money, not public health. For more information about the role Big Pharma plays in fighting against our right to use plant medicine to help with chronic pain and depression, read a few articles from this Google search.
Recently, a psychiatrist operating out of north Dublin, Ireland, by the name of Dr. Sadlier, said his take on cannabis had always been that it has never been shown to be a useful medicinal product and has never been able to get past regulatory authorities. “[Cannabis] is a compound that I would love to [have] banished from the planet. It does more damage to humans than any drug that is out there,” he said.
Really? The article does not establish the validity of his comments. Such an isolated opinion hardly counts as having any value at all, especially when compared to the scientific studies already done which show that marijuana is one of the most versatile plant medicines available on Earth.
Unfortunately, Dr. Sadlier is another example of a 1930’s era “Reefer Madness” propaganda automaton who has no concept of the real-world findings which are available to anyone who does a casual search, and which contradict his statement as disgustingly false.
Cannabis is safer because overdose is impossible
Only penicillin and antihistamines scored lower in risk value than cannabis on the scales for “fatal, injury, and property damage” in an impaired-driving road-safety report released by the World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/road_traffic/Drug_use_and_road_safety.pdf
While illicit cannabis over-indulgence has been reported to contribute to a significant portion impaired driving deaths, prescription drug overdoses almost double the number of accidental deaths by all types of vehicular accidents combined. Meanwhile, accidental death from marijuana overdose is non-existent.
By the way, that next-level 50mg synthetic opiate pain-patch is going to cost you another $150 per month. Is that honestly the direction you want to go? Deeper into the abyss? Graduation to a double-dose of synthetic drugs still won’t help ease the cause of your pain and is likely to lead to you into more profound despair and towards a terrible sense of helplessness.
Should it be of any concern that the opium supply in the U.S. comes from Afghanistan, where opium production has been on the rise since the U.S. occupation started in 2001? Fascinating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan
3 ways to consume marijuana
You don’t need to smoke marijuana to reap the benefits of the medicine. You can vaporize the plant without burning it, and thereby avoid the carcinogens and by-products of combustion. You can also ingest edibles which contain the medicine.
The relief and the “high” you experience are different in each case; for instance, the high you get from smoking pot is very different than the high you get from vaporizing. And when you eat cannabis-infused edibles, it produces a completely different effect through digestion.
Smoking is considered the most-aggressive way to take the medicine and probably should be avoided if you can get away with vaporizing or eating edibles to bring the sweet relief you’re looking for.
To learn more about ways to consume cannabis, take a look at these guides on leafly.com and safecannabisuse.com.
3 different varieties of marijuana
There are also different strains of cannabis you need to familiarize yourself with. The three primary strains include “Indica” on one end, “Sativa” on the other end, and “Hybrids” which are somewhere in the middle.
Indica strains generally provide deeper body relaxation and contain less of the THC which makes you high; this is likely the type of weed which tends to make people into couch potatoes, so be careful!
Sativas are considered to provide more of a mind high and can uplift your spirit, allowing you to be more sociable and creative.
Hybrids usually contain about equal parts CBD (body relaxation) and THC (mind high). Since there are very few “pure” strains of either Sativa or Indica out there, it means most plants are actually some form of hybrid.
For more information about the different strains and cannabis products available, read these articles from leafly.com and coloradopotguide.com. Here’s a more in-depth article about the differences between Sativa and Indica from THCOverdose.com.
Cannabis can help you self-heal
It’s time for widespread healing of people everywhere, by the fastest means possible. Plant medicine can definitely help global healing on a large scale.
We should stop looking for cures for wellness from the medical-pharmaceutical industry. The barbaric pharmaceutical poisoning and the ongoing permanent surgical disfiguration of people’s spines will eventually be looked upon with horror, the same way we are horrified today by the ice-pick frontal lobotomies of yesteryear. And there is ever-growing hope that the federal government’s irrational interference which prevents legal access to one of the most vital life-saving plant medicines will soon be a thing of the past as well.
Our bodymind is a single complex system comprised of many sub-systems operating without our awareness. A mind is not separate from a body. What appears separate from our body intelligence is our self-awareness and willpower. That’s where you come into this picture: only YOU are responsible for your health! Using cannabis as a medicine, it’s possible to regain your freedom and independence from narcotics.
If it’s available where you live, medical cannabis has the ability to help you find your self-healing powers.
The Tangible Benefits of Medical Marijuana
Considered a Divine Plant by some, specifically as a plant medicine, “cannabis works miracles on many conditions including cancer, chronic pain, autism, autoimmune diseases, and much more.” John Malanca, Host, Season 2, Ep. 1, The Sacred Plant 7-part informational documentary.
According to the research published on the U.S. National Library of Medicine, studies have shown cannabis is most useful for the primary conditions of general pain, anxiety, back pain, insomnia, migraine headaches, and depression.
“The psychoactive side effects of marijuana also include tapping into our cognitive and perceptual abilities to think differently about our pain,” which can be quite powerful. Changing your thoughts about your pain is a concept familiar to both cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
Cannabis helps make exercise bearable
A little bit of cannabis can provide you with just the right amount of mind-over-pain motivation and inspirational insight which fosters a better experience when combined with almost any other modality you find beneficial for your situation. It not only makes body-movement therapies easier to bear, but the combination is typically more deeply rewarding.
It goes together well with meditation, heat therapy, contrast hydrotherapy, virtual reality, neuro acoustics (binaurals), massage, floatation therapy, yoga, pilates, grounding, earthing, deep tissue therapy, myotherapy, rolfing, acupuncture, acupressure, Egoscue method, eldoa method, all stretching and postural treatments.
Medical marijuana, when used as a medicine for chronic pain, can help you become active, can assist with bringing your conscious attention to the parts of your bodymind which need healing the most, and can quickly facilitate a deep peace of mind during meditation.
A cannabis high doesn’t need to make you high; it can work to bring you from the depths of your pain despair up to a level starting-position more on par with folks who don’t suffer from chronic illness. Just the right dose can make people starting off with a detriment in the mornings feel “more normal.”
A micro-dosing through vaporization can help bring your motivation levels up, increasing the likelihood you will actually do your home flexibility exercises (Yoga? Foundation Training?) and enjoy every minute of it too!
Cannabis can help us find self-esteem
In fact, medical marijuana can help us with that little (or big) self-esteem problem we have, where we don’t even believe in ourselves anymore because of our pain. Marijuana can help you find the courage to believe in yourself again, making life more bearable, even enjoyable. And belief in oneself is absolutely required if we ever expect to be able to heal ourselves. One little dose, and you can set aside your problems for a while and focus on things which bring peace or happiness.
It will enhance your positive personal gains, but only when used as a medicine and not as a recreational drug. Pot can still sabotage your life if abused, just like alcohol or any other drug which people use as coping mechanisms. But can you imagine a world where people could grow medical marijuana plants as part of their chronic pain salvation without having to pay a dime, talk to a doctor, or worry about going to jail for it?
Treat cannabis with respect if you use it as a medicine
If you’re not a smoker, don’t worry; smoking is not necessary to enjoy the benefits of plant medicine. Vaporizing or consuming edibles are both more lung-friendly than smoking. Also, you cannot accidentally die from marijuana overdose (but you might get sick). Overdose from marijuana is impossible.
Still, abuse of plant medicine is as detrimental as anything which is over-indulged. Plant medicine will work for you only if you treat it as a medicine, or otherwise treat it with respect. It means having a regimented dosage schedule, the discipline of self-control, and a precise daily dosage plan without extremes of excess or over-indulgence. You use it with intent to overcome your pain so that you suffer less and spend more time finding methods to heal your pain.
It is your responsibility to learn and know the benefits of vaporizing the plant medicine over burning it. Smoke isn’t good for your lungs, and burning it increases harmful carcinogens. Burning it also provides a completely different kind of a reaction compared to vaporizing too. The point is, you don’t have to become a smoker to enjoy the benefits of THC.
Beware of cannabis hangovers
Whether you smoke it, vaporize it or ingest it, it’s still a type of drug which can accumulate toxins in your body. You may, therefore, experience hang-over effects if you smoke or vape too much weed, especially before bed. With heavy use, you may eventually become lethargic and backpedal on your route to wellness.
Like any drug, your body can build up a tolerance which may cause you to seek higher and higher doses. Be really careful with this because too much can eliminate all the positive benefits and make you feel like crap. People smoking giant doobies recreationally aren’t using it to help with pain, they’re just getting high as a kite.
Learn about the simple differences between the three primary strains of the plant as well. The effects of the plant medicine vary wildly from one side of the spectrum of “motivational awareness,” all the way over to “a relaxing tranquilizer” at the other extreme. This means one experience cannot define a valid opinion of the plant’s effects.
It is recommended that you experience at least five varieties of the plant (including edibles) before forming a conclusion about the effectiveness of cannabis as medicine for your chronic pain, but the chances are good you will experience immediate relief regardless of the strain. The wide range of effects are spectacular, and hybrids of the plant provide a balance between a motivational high and relaxing chill. Often when people have a terrible experience with plant medicine, it’s because they consumed too much.
Finding balance requires experimentation
Interestingly, about ten times less experimentation is required to find a cannabis plant that works for you than what folks tend to go through to settle upon a stable drug dose for anxiety. Compared to the months of dosage experimentation customarily required to balance synthetic pharmaceutical drugs in your body to numb your pain and emotion, medical marijuana is much easier to work with and provides immediate results. The plant medicine does not compromise your self-awareness in low doses but may work to enhance it. You can, of course, annihilate yourself with high doses of weed, but then that’s no better than numbing yourself with opioid narcotics. The only benefit in such an overdose situation is that weed won’t ever kill you unless you’re driving inebriated.
There’s plenty of readily available direct evidence that plant medicine is as effective, or more effective, than opioids for pain. The evidence shows people with chronic pain who have had access to both plants and synthetic medicines, overwhelmingly prefer plant medicine over opiates, and that a shocking 97% of the 2,897 respondents in one recent study said the safer plant medicine as a treatment for pain allowed them to decrease the need for their opioid prescriptions. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/can.2017.0012
Undoubtedly, the $150 you will spend for that extra 25mg of a leading synthetic painkiller skin-patch could probably purchase enough pain-killing plant medicine for two months of reduced suffering and an improved outlook on life, without the increased risk of death by overdose.
That is if the plant is legal where you live. That’s the real problem, then, isn’t it?
Cannabis for chronic pain management
Chronic pain management with drug use is changing today as we’re all more aware of the ongoing “opioid epidemic.” Despite the news, there are plenty of people who manage their pain quite well with opioids without the risk of misuse.
However, a 2011 Veterans Affairs study found that veterans were twice as likely to die from an opioid overdose compared to the rest of the population. As of this writing, H.R.5520 – VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2018 has 55 congressional co-sponsors, so it’s likely the federal rescheduling of medicinal marijuana will be spearheaded by the Veterans Administration.
- ”Patients who are treated with cannabis or cannabinoids are more likely to experience a significant reduction in pain symptoms,” the researchers say.
- “The strongest trials supported cannabinoids’ ability to relieve chronic pain.” Here’s What Science Says About Medical Marijuana, from Time Magazine
Thankfully, a majority of states plus Washington D.C. have legalized cannabis in one form or another, and it’s only a matter of time before the federal restrictions of this medicinal plant are released.
Cannabis can reduce opioid addiction
Plant medicine is not evil. People with evil intentions are evil. Despite being considered a drug, medicinal weed remains one of the fastest routes to re-establish your self-awareness and control over your pain.
There is no such thing as an opioid which is non-addictive. Marijuana can be addictive to anyone who has an addictive nature, similar to alcohol but not even close to the addictive nature of opiates. The real difference between the addictive nature of opium drugs and cannabis is this: opioids will give you an addiction to opium, while cannabis can heal you from opiate addiction, and work as well or better at controlling your pain.
If you live in a state where medical marijuana is legal, what are you waiting for?
Additional Resources
Medical Marijuana – The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
https://nccih.nih.gov/health/marijuana
Management of Substance Abuse – Cannabis – World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/cannabis/en/
From Harvard Health Publishing: Medical Marijuana
https://www.health.harvard.edu
Understanding Different Cannabis Strains
https://thethirdwave.co/cannabis-strains/
Safe Cannabis Consumption – Methods of Cannabis Consumption
https://www.safecannabisuse.com/dosing/
The Different Ways to Smoke and Consume Cannabis
https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/the-complete-list-of-cannabis-delivery-methods
The Spiritual Effects of Marijuana:
Using Cannabis to Expand Consciousness and Enhance Meditation
https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/cannabis-spiritual-meditation/
The Mind Body Connection:
Could Psychosomatic (MindBody) Disorders Account for 30% of Chronic Symptoms?
http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2013/01/1869/
Our Prescription Drugs Kill Us In Large Numbers
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25355584
This Sacred Plant Prevents, Treats and Even Beats Cancer, Chronic Pain, Anxiety, Autoimmune Conditions, And Hundreds of Diseases.
The Sacred Plant 7-Part Documentary
Why Do We Have Opioid Receptors?
https://herb.co/marijuana/news/cannabinoid-receptors
As a side reference on opium, there is evidence to suggest that the opium poppy was cultivated for its active ingredients as far back as 3000 B.C. It was, however, not until morphine was isolated from opium in 1806 by Sertürner that modern opioid pharmacology was truly born. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590096/
REFERENCES
All references are inline.
