I m sorry Ken, but I think that is not entirely correct. Most users don’t use it for any illness whatsoever. They use it at the weekends or even every day for “fun”.

It is true that cannabis has medicinal uses and these should be explored and made available to the public, but that is where it ends. Legalising pot will only mean more youngsters ruining their brains.

Edward, there are probably more people who use cannabis for medical reasons then you imagine.

In places like Canada there are 38,000 registered medical cannabis users, and getting that
government permit in that country is not an easy task, as you are made to jump through many hurdles.

I had no time for booze or pot when I was younger, as I was too busy with school, then with work and raising a family.
Even to this day I could not care less for beer or anything alcoholic. I first tried cannabis in my late fifties and thought it was OK but nothing to get too excited about.

It has been only recently that I tried it again in an effort to see if it would help with relieving my arthritis pain and it has been very effective for this purpose in my case.

Ken, you are in the minority.

Out of the 147 million people in the world who smoke cannabis, I m pretty sure that only a handful do it for medicinal purposes.

I went to university in the UK, and I spent the first 22 years of my life in Malta. Trust me, out of all the people who smoked cannabis, none of them did it for medicinal purposes.

I can’t use NSAIDs because I have been saddled with peptic ulcers since 2009.

Tell you what Doc, you stick to your anti-cannabis bias and scaring the bejeezus out of people, who do not know any better, with your Reefer Madness movie script and I will stick to my half a gram of ground dried cannabis flower bud each morning that has done wonders for my arthritis.

Capisce ?

Oh, and you should up date your research on the herb you love to hate, it has anti- inflammatory properties like I said it does and as proven by science.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080720222549.htm

You will next tell me that the NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal, Anti-Inflammatory group of drugs) don’t work in your special case just as you expect me to believe that in your particular case cannabis acts as an “anti-inflammatory”.

THAT is the hallucinatory character of cannabis in operation.

HP, why do you get upset if wealthy people tell you that they worked hard?

Maybe it is the truth in their case.

You mentioned money and fulfillment, and I said to you that money is not fulfillment to me and neither is half a gram of ingested cannabis each morning so I can be relatively pain free. Being pain free is a hope that transcends having money or not having money, in other words it has nothing to do with money at all .

You responded to my statement and my reply statement only reflects my life conditions and my life experiences, yours could be very different than mine or “your mileage may vary” as the popular saying is these days.

Everything can affect mental ability including constant pain. Cannabis works to alleviate my pain caused by arthritis, it may not agree with you or work for you, but it works for me, so am I suppose to lie about that?

Would you be making a fuss if I was taking doctor prescribed morphine instead?

I will not repeat my self, but I just did write about the negative effects that prescribed pain management medication has caused me.

I have seen three specialists in two states and they have no solution to my medical condition other than to mask the pain with far worse medicine than cannabis.

I had to find that out through trial and error unfortunately.

People take cannabis for more than just kicks you know.

Yes, I tried most of them Doc and I ended up in the hospital emergency after taking one of your pharmaceuticals so beloved by your profession.

I never claimed that cannabis is a stronger pain reliever than opiates and yes my doctor prescribed oxycodone, as Tylenol 4 would not work to relive my joint pain and cox-2 inhibitors were totally useless at my stage of arthritis .

Go read your pharmacopeia books and you might learn that opiates are very addictive and you might learn that one does not hallucinate with half a gram of ingested cannabis per day, but I certainly hallucinated under the influence of doctor prescribed oxycodone !
I would not take that oxycodone poison if it was the last painkiller on earth.

Cannabis also has the added benefit of being an anti-inflammatory for my joints and it is non-toxic, unlike the poppy derived junk prescribed by a doctor.

What is it with you and your anti-cannabis crusade?
Cannabis has been used for centuries to treat many ailments.
If you don’t like cannabis then don’t take it.
If cannabis works for me and others to alleviate their medical condition, then so be it.
Cannabis works for me and helps my medical condition and I can do a day’s work, where as before that was impossible, that is all I care about.

Your senseless and out-dated prejudices should be kept to yourself and please stop interfering in what others find suitable to treat their ailments, you are not a know-it-all grand wizard of all medicines suitable for all human bodies.

@ ken il malti.

There are many non-addictive, more effective pain relievers for arthritis that you could use but which are not addictive. The unique attractive property of cannabis is that it hallucinates and it makes one “see” things as they are not really. It make you believe that cannabis is a stronger pain killer than opiates even if (and I very much doubt it) you found a doctor who treats a chronic condition like “arthritis” with “opiates” that are still more addictive than marijuana.

By your “same reasoning” gun possession should not be controlled because you cannot stop murderers from hurting others by shooting them.

I am not fawning over the Pope but you are deprecating his stance which is in absolute agreement with the foremost world health and police authorities

The opinion against the abuse of potent mind-distorting drugs of addiction for recreation is not mine as a doctor, or the Pope’s, in isolation. It is shared by the mentioned competent World Health Organisation, Interpol etc.

I never quote religious arguments about drugs to the irreligious. I quoted responsible lay opinion that you denounce after H.H. the Pope repeated the same warning.

I have been regularly pointing out the lies on which the drug lobby depends for its propaganda. If you hadn’t seen it it is not my fault I won’t be repeating myself to those who have eyes but do not want to see.

Your assertion that a doctor should be vilified because he includes the Pope (among other world authorities) on a health issue is most revealing and most disgusting. IT devalues your comment completely.