Oooohhhhmmmm…
Okay. So my post yesterday raised quite a buzz about the legalization of medicinal marijuana, blurring into recreational use as well. I want to state something right from the “getgo”. I have no fight in the desire to legalize recreational use of marijuana. I do not use it, I do not plan to use it. But in all honesty, as long as there is cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, which is proven to kill, I will not accept pot as harmful. As long as cigarettes, alcohol, prescriptions meds, all proven to be addictive, I will not accept the concerns about pot being addictive. I will not accept the term “gateway” drug to describe marijuana use, when cigarettes and alcohol are the actual gateways to altering the mind. And as for intoxicating effects, alcohol is far more dangerous than marijuana. Yet marijuana is the only thing that is illegal. I am done discussing the recreational use.
My views yesterday, were in support of legalizing medicinal use of marijuana for patients suffering from pain and other severe issues from chronic and terminal diagnosis. Again, I want to make the distinction, I did not have this available to me during my times of crippling pain, but had the option been there, instead of taking addicting opiods, yes, I would have opted for legal medicinal marijuana. This treatment option definitely would make a difference to the patient. But let’s be clear, it would hit the pockets of Big Pharm pretty hard, and of course, we don’t want that do we? That was sarcasm.
I also want to make it clear, I do not believe that medicinal marijuana is the only option available to treating people suffering from crippling and fatal diseases. But it does need to be an option. Medicine has no issue prescribing addictive medications that are just brutal when trying to stop taking them with withdrawal side effects often worse than the original symptoms they were prescribed to treat. I have seen people be “zombified” with prescribed psychotropic drugs because the doctor felt nothing else would work.
A couple of comments that were offered to me though offered yet another option that I did not discuss. To be honest, I believe in them as well in some cases.
Meditation is wonderful, if you have an environment that will allow it. I often take myself “away”, and yes, I can find quite a bit of calmness when it comes to dealing with my daily stresses of life. But it would definitely not work for some of the issues that I had to deal with. I am also a believer in Reiki, a new alternative of relaxation concentrating on negative energy in a body. I have to admit, that I was not a believer in this at first, but when I saw it performed on an animal, who for all intents and purposes was about to be euthanized due to its crippled condition, the animal miraculously recovered in less than two days, and actually lived another two years.
I am also a big proponent of immersing my auditory senses with music. I place the headphones on my ears, put the Ipod on “shuffle” and I can disappear for long periods of time. I also believe in “positive imaging.”
But the truth of the matter is this. Not everything works for everyone. But everything works for someone. And that is why I made the argument and stand by my statement that medicinal marijuana needs to be legalized as an option for patients who otherwise will suffer from their ailments. That is the humane thing to do.
Paul's Heart 