[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?

[manyxcxi]

Growing up playing sports I was never much of a fan of drugs ever, weed particularly because I hate the feeling of smoking.

The years of wear and tear finally took their toll a couple of years ago and I had to have hip surgery to repair a torn labrum and remove an impingement (shave down the bone of the femur in the socket to keep it from tearing things up).

By all accounts this is supposed to be an incredibly painful recovery for the first couple of weeks and they loaded me to the gills with opioids. I hate opioids as they make me itchy as all get out and I’m basically a worthless zombie for the day.

In Seattle, marijuana is legal so I went to the local dispensary for drinkable high CBD oils and chocolate squares on the recommendation of a buddy. It helped with the pain better than the pain killers, plus my high wasn’t the debilitating drool on yourself stupid that the painkillers were giving me. I wasn’t going to be operating a vehicle, but I could still pull out my laptop and write code.

A week later my pain was sufficiently under control I went back to work and the dosage was low enough I could be nearly pain free all day at work and not be high.

The original prognosis was likely 3 weeks due to pain management issues.

I’ve not taken it since, but if I ever have surgery again it’ll be my go to.

[SomeStupidPoint]

Just a quick comment for those taking this as advice:

You probably wanting something in the 40:60 to 20:80 THC:CBD range if you're looking for less intoxicating pain management. In genearl, CBD > THC will lower the intoxication (though not completely remove it!), with the higher ratio lowering it more. However, having some THC will make it much more effective at pain management. (Too much lone CBD veers into being psychoactive-esque, as an anti-psych.)

(The interaction between cannabinoids and you is complex.)

[lnguyen]

The issue is the THC vs CBD content that’s being provided. Most of the medical/medicinal aspects are focused on strains with more CBD while recreational emphasizes THC

[verylittlemeat]

For me marijuana isn't so much about pain relief as pain distraction.

Allow me to get a little metaphorical about my chronic pain. Personally I don't think the major pain relief component of marijuana has much to do with physical reality. When you're a chronic pain sufferer your mind starts to expect pain and you build an entire world of psychological expectation around your pain. What marijuana does is it forces your mind to wander away from what it thinks it should be thinking about.

So in short what I'm saying is marijuana makes you forget you suffer from pain. I think it has something to do with how in clinical studies it's proven that marijuana has an impact on short term memory.

[sgspace]

I can see this. I deal with chronic pain daily and I smoke often. After I light up, I am still aware of the pain if I think about it, but as you mention, my mind wanders and I forget about the pain for moments at a time.

[amigoingtodie]

I think of it as one 'understands' their pain.

[snarfy]

My wife has MS and with it spasticity issues that cause pain. Cannabis relieves it. It really depends what is causing your pain.

[sgspace]

There any many different strains of marijuana each with different potencies of the underlying psychoactive chemicals. Smoking a bag of random whatever you bought in high school is not very comparable to walking into a new USA dispensary and buying a prescription of a strain that has been grown to combat specific symptoms you're trying to treat.

Some strains will make you feel dumb, make your head cloudy, and make you forget everything. Some will keep your mind 100% clear but make your body feel like its floating.

I don't think many people realize how useful marijuana is for pain management. I have a chronic illness and I've been able to get off all prescription drugs in place of medicinal marijuana.

[eternalban]

Psychological side effects of prolonged pot smoking are also something to consider. I think this is supposed to be the Victory Gin/Soma for us.

[1]: http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/22.html

[2]: https://www.huxley.net/soma/meaning.html

(fair disclosure: I have inhaled.)

[vertex-four]

For the record, most marijuana users who use it for pain have chronic pain issues and have often been prescribed very strong painkillers. Marijuana is an alternative to opiates, not paracetamol.

In my own experience as someone who does not suffer chronic pain, it helps me relax, and doesn't increase paranoia. I could definitely understand it being useful in limited doses for people it works for.

[sigi45]

There are two main stranis: Indica and Sativa.

Indica has more cbd and Sativa has more thc.

cbd -> good against pain; thc -> good for high.

[mikestew]

My observation is that what you state is not remotely true. If you want more CBD, get a high CBD strain. The indicas I see here in the Seattle area have a couple of percent, at best, of CBD. That's why most stores have a "high CBD" section for those that just want pain management, because the other stuff will have minimal CBD and will get you higher than a kite.

As for THC, without even looking at the label I can tell you indica has just as much THC because nothing gives me "couch lock" (just sit on the couch and binge Netflix) like a good indica. In comparison to sativa, which will get me high but I can still get off the couch.

[senorjazz]

just to be clear to those who don't know. Don't go smoke indica not expecting to get high. It too can have high levels of thc and is just as good for getting high. The high is a bit different, but you are are still high as hell

[skate22]

Ive had some pretty bad headaches (some lasting multiple days) that over the counter meds (tylonol, advil, caffeine) did not help. In some cases weed completely knocked out the headache.

[Boothroid]

Quite honestly, when the alternative is unbearable suffering, what does it matter if they are? It apparently still represents an improvement in their quality of life.

[tosstossy]

Did I say it matters?

Some of you seem so predisposed to be on the defense in this topic it's difficult to even have a casual discussion without becoming adversarial.

It's worth knowing if some forms of marijuana can effectively treat pain without significant impairment.

[bengale]

My girlfriend uses it when the M.E gets really bad and the pills don't do a lot. It depends on the strain.

[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

[tosstossy]

I never claimed to have researched marijuana's medicinal uses. My experience is all I have and it's purely recreational.

I do not suffer from chronic pain, and never have. Marijuana just has never crossed my mind as something to consume when injured to treat the pain.

People are downvoting my comment as if I said marijuana has no medicinal value, that's obviously not the case. I was only expressing my surprise at these applications of something which, for me, never seemed particularly numbing except in quite incapacitatingly high doses. When I take a pain killer, it's generally undesirable for it to make me completely useless for a day. I'm just curious if that's how it's being used or if my experience is not representative.

I've vaped pure CBD oil a few times as well, the effects were interesting and not at all disabling or paranoia-inducing, but no pain relieving effects were noticable either. I could see how it might be huge for preventing pain resulting from some neuropathic disorders, however.

To be clear: my post was not intended in any away to judge the patients finding physical pain relief in weed. It just surprises me, weed doesn't fill that role in my mind.

[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).

[mikestew]

I am just going to sit here and smirk.

That's the problem, you seem content to feel superior rather than offering useful information. Granted, you actually did both, but if you had simply posted your link without the snarky assumption of the OP's state of mind, perhaps you would have been better received.

[astura]

Glib and uninformed? FFS, he or she was merely sharing their personal experience and asking a question based on it. It was a perfectly reasonable and constructive comment and doesn't deserve down votes and smug responses.