
Medical marijuana patients report reduction in use of prescription drugs - lnguyen
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-medical-marijuana-illinois-study-painkillers-met-20171008-story.html
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tcj_phx
A friend was oscillating between drunk & sober... She told me that her
neighbor had offered to smoke up with her.

"You're going to, right?"

She protested that she might need to take a drug test. I replied that she was
never going to be able to keep a job like she was (she'd lost 3 jobs over the
course of a year on account of not being able to cope with "stress" without
the assistance of the devil's drink).

She smoked up with her neighbor and got her medical cannabis card a few months
later. She's doing much better now. Art therapy has been a big breakthrough,
but cannabis got her stable enough to get to the studio.

She got a CBD vapor pen for my girlfriend, who had methadone-induced alcohol
dependency. My girlfriend said the CBD really helped control the anxiety which
she'd been using the alcohol to self-treat. This CBD pen got stolen from her
before she was arrested, which might've been fortunate because that would've
been more charges (prosecutors gotta prosecute, to justify their salaries).

I think CBD [1] is the most beneficial portion of "medical marijuana". Never
used it myself,

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabidiol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabidiol)

There are some good prescriptions, but mostly the latest patent medicines are
just palliative drugs that don't actually help much. Drug companies gotta
hustle [2], to pay their investors...

[2] [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hustle](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/hustle)

~~~
agumonkey
Could you give me all you know about CBD vaping ? have you seen/tried home
inhalers ? (things you put on table and stick your nose to, to breath calmly)

I'm trying to source one for my mother who started to smoke cigarettes again.

I have CBD oil but I didn't find it enough for anxiety (although it seemed to
have done wonders on psoriasis patches).

~~~
tcj_phx
I learned here at HN that tobacco is compelling for many people because of the
combination of MAOI chemicals and nicotine.

Niacinamide is very similar to nicotine. I've read reports of niacinamide
supplementation helping people quit smoking.

There's a cheap blue aquarium chemical that has MAOI properties...

~~~
agumonkey
I could research that, I also stumbled upon a research paper about
neonicotinids found in .. honey or something stupid like that.

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Theodores
Outside of America there is not an opioid crisis, therefore marijuana is there
along the way to class A drugs. So class A addicts could get weed just as
easily and possibly easier than their normal substances. In theory they could
'get off the heroin' by smoking weed instead. This never happens even though
the option is there.

Meanwhile, in America, where the doctors got everyone hooked on class A drugs,
the marijuana was bypassed, along with smoking. Regular people went along for
tooth and other operations to end up opioid addicts. They were not hanging out
with the wrong crowd, they went to their doctors for help with pain. Their
route to being hooked has been entirely different, so maybe using marijuana
for the underlying pain management is worth a go. As things currently stand
there is the sorry rehab process or prison/death, hopefully weed really can
offer a better way back to a normal life for them.

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MyNameHere
I would love to see a high-quality, randomized double-blind study on the
effectiveness of CBD oil both with and without other pain medications on non-
marijuana savvy people with lifetime chronic pain diseases such as peripheral
neuropathy.

~~~
rasz
Poland just legalized medical Cannabis thanks to one 'rebel' doctor(Marek
Bachański) going against hospital management to treat drug resistant epilepsy
in children. It started with him getting fired in 2015, then parents of the
children riling up, whole thing going public and sparking conversations,
lawsuit lost by the hospital, reinstation and finally passing a law.

[http://herb.co/2017/07/26/poland-medical-
cannabis/](http://herb.co/2017/07/26/poland-medical-cannabis/)

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cnewey
This is a pretty weak article, and (from what I can make out), a pretty weak
study too. Obviously, there's the usual concern about sample sizes (30 people
does not a scientific study make), but this study is also self-selected (i.e.
survey respondents _chose_ whether to take part or not - obviously a
considerable source of bias), and even more worryingly, it appears that the
"study" in question is simply a survey where participants report changes in
_their own use of prescription drugs_. So not only are there very few
participants in the study - but they're also self-selected, and so are their
answers. This is anecdata at its finest and really shouldn't be in a peer-
reviewed journal. (P.S. the journal article itself isn't linked on the Chicago
Tribune's website at all...).

I really think there is genuine medical potential to be discovered from
cannabis and exploited for the greater good - but our enthusiasm to access
these potential benefits should not get in the way of _doing good science_.
This sort of badly-executed study just cheapens genuine efforts to do sensible
research into its medical value.

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lnguyen
One of the issues that isn’t obvious is the difficulty in actually doing any
reported MMJ study, let alone one that was done by respected institutions.
While one can argue about the significance of the small sample size, it’s
amazing that there’s an actual reportable group

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KiDD
We better ban this stuff so our drug companies don't go out of business!

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mankash666
Expect for the "medical marijuana" prescription

~~~
lostboys67
Yes if you using medical marijuana you probably substituting that for
something else

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tosstossy
Things like this surprise me. Marijuana has never struck me as something to
take for pain. In my experience it heightens sensations and increases paranoia
while stimulating appetite. I don't see that as especially useful for treating
something like tooth pain. Are these patients just getting super baked to the
point of comatose?

~~~
wavefunction
In my experience it's great for pain and that's backed up by science[0]

You sound pretty glib and uninformed, which is not a useful combination.

[0][http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/can.2017.0012](http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/can.2017.0012)

~~~
mercer
I found his question perfectly reasonable. Furthermore, his experience can be
confirmed by many 'experienced' weed smokers. I'd say it really depends on the
strain, and perhaps also on whether you're using weed or hash.

~~~
wavefunction
I posted a scientific study backing up my claims. You offered anecdata like
OP. I am just going to sit here and smirk.

~~~
mercer
I at no point disagreed with your claim that weed helps with pain.
Furthermore, the person you responded to did _not_ claim that weed is
ineffective for pain, he merely expressed surprise.

Based on my own experience (and that of other weed smokers), I _can_ confirm
that weed heightens sensations, paranoia, and appetite, and it's not so weird
to conclude that this might not be too compatible with a toothache.

And finally, unless I missed it, your study in fact does not appear to claim
that weed helps with toothaches. My own experience is that it doesn't really
help much with toothaches, and the desire to eat everything in my fridge
combined with paranoia is not nice in combination with a toothache.

I suppose perhaps I was a bit unclear in my comment, so my apologies for that.

I'll leave it at that, though, because I find your conduct extremely
unpleasant. It can be hard enough to talk about the pros and cons of weed
without the 'it cures cancer' and 'it will make you addicted after one puff'
crowds. And talking about it is something that I strongly support, because
cannabis is a pretty powerful thing (both good and bad).

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Boothroid
The spokesman in the article hints at what I think is probably the real reason
behind opposition to medical weed: an effective medicine that can be grown at
home cheaply and easily is big pharma's worst nightmare.

~~~
refurb
Could you offer up some examples? Most pain medication is generic and cheap.
And to be honest, irreplaceable for most types of pain.

I just don't see marijuana displacing current drugs to a degree that would
threaten drug companies.

~~~
Boothroid
It's clear that many people do find marijuana helpful for certain conditions,
for example terminal cancer, where the appetite stimulating effect can be
useful in helping forestall cachexia. So there are apparently cases where it
is preferential to current drugs. But also it potentially threatens profits
for drugs that are not currently developed.

The alternative is to believe that big pharma is not threatened by a
medication that is extremely cheap/easy to cultivate, relatively safe, and has
proven as well ad potential widespread application. I think you are being a
little obtuse in asking for examples! Just Google it - there are plenty.

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gt_
Many prescription drugs require drug tests, and will not be prescribed if
marijuana is detected.

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rm_-rf_slash
I've never heard of this. Which prescription drugs require drug tests?

~~~
gt_
I have been drug tested to receive Adderall before. I was told by the doctor
that they were mainly testing for marijuana. I think it depends on the state.

I did not keep taking the stuff so I'm not sure if it would have been
necessary on a regular basis to maintain the prescription.

