Ask my friend about his medical cannabis recommendation.
An friend recently sent a small group of us this story about his experience obtaining medical marijuana, partly in response to my own experience. Looks like not a lot has changed in the last two years. I post this here with his permission:
The past week or so i've had constant pain in my side from what I thought was a gastrointestinal issue (actually turned out to be a pulled muscle). I've tried various over the counter pain killers, but they haven't done squat. So I figured, hey, I live in California: why not get a recommendation for medical marijuana and spend an evening pain-free the "natural" way?
I've used THC recreationally in the past, but very infrequently, and not for years. For the most part, it was always pleasant enough, and I'd been intrigued by the prospect of being able to use it, safely and legally, on occasion. The pain in my side seemed like a good enough reason to give it a go.
Much as tongodeon found out, getting a recommendation from a pot doc is practically easier than going to see your primary physician. I called a place called Greenways that's over in SOMA. Had an appointment an hour later. The doctor talked to me for all of about three minutes. I asked about smoke-free alternative ways to consume cannabis, since I'm not big on smoking anything; the doctor sort of mumbled something about teas and tinctures helping, but didn't provide any specifics about dosing, etc
Twenty minutes after walking into the doctor's office, I was at the Green Door dispensary, also in SOMA. The place is set up a bit like a pharmacy with a doorman. He checks the papers, you walk in and check out prices for "medicine" on a big board above a bank teller-like window. I picked out some tea, a couple of lozenges, and some oil. I figured those would be the weakest forms. I really wasn't interested in getting super high - just taking the edge off the pain.
I popped one of the lozenges later in the day. About an hour later, I started having visual hallucinations. Two hours later, I was having horrific visceral hallucinations akin to a bad trip on LSD I had when I was a stupid teenager experimenting with drugs. I had told my fiancee what was going on with me before I got too far gone, and she kept me drinking water and eating bread and generally reminding me that things were okay. After about an hour of being gone, the hallucinations started to wear off. I promptly puked my guts out, then spent the rest of the evening feeling like i had a terrible hangover: head aching, skin buzzing, shaking occasionally. I was starving, predictably, and ate a ton.
Today, I feel like shit warmed over: draggy, spacey, still buzzing a bit. The worst part? It didn't even help the pain in my side. I saw my (actual) doctor this morning, and found out that there's not much I can do about the pain except wait it out and put heat on it.
So, a few things after this experience:
1. Getting a recommendation for medical weed is really easy. You can do it on your lunch break.
2. Be really careful with what you end up buying. I was a fucking idiot for assuming that a lozenge wouldn't be potent. There wasn't any information on the "medicine" itself about its THC contents or suggested use or dosage. I should have asked the guys as the dispensary (for what that would have been worth) how potent they were.
3. If you're not used to THC, don't take something on an empty stomach. It had been about four hours since I had eaten a substantial meal when I took the lozenge, which probably didn't help.
4. If you do have a bad experience, drink lots of water, eat some bread or crackers, and wait it out. It only took an hour for it to wear off, in my case, which is certainly easier than the experience I had with acid when I was a dumb kid.
Needless to say, I threw the other lozenge out. I'm hanging on to the tea, which does actually have some potency/dosage information on it, but no indication as to whether the intended effect is pain relief or a hellacious trip. I also have no idea what to do with the oil. I thought it was something I could dilute in water and use as a pain killer, but after a little bit of research, it seems like people mostly mix it with regular weed to increase its potency.
Essentially, the whole experience left me with much the same reaction that tongodeon had: medical marijuana as its set up in California is, for the most part, about people who don't need medicine getting really fucking high. I'm glad that the people who genuinely need access to cannabis can get it, but I really wish the process had been more controlled and that I had more information from both the pot doc and dispensary. It's my fault for assuming the strength of what I purchased, ultimately, but more information would have been helpful.
Blech.
This pretty much mirrors my impression: California's "medical" cannabis system seems designed to allow recreational users to buy recreational products from recreational dealers. If I visited my real doctor and he prescribed a new medicine he'd make damn sure that I understood exactly how much to take and how to take it. My pharmacist would give me a standardized medicine with a specific quantity of a known active ingredient that I could dispense in metered doses. Both parties wouldn't let me leave the pharmacy without knowing the dosing, side effects, and adverse interactions. Legitimately needy patients may occasionally obtain legitimate medicine for a legitimate medical need, but that doesn't change what's obviously going on any more than occasional "scientific" tests change the real designs and purposes of Japanese whaling. Blech indeed.
The past week or so i've had constant pain in my side from what I thought was a gastrointestinal issue (actually turned out to be a pulled muscle). I've tried various over the counter pain killers, but they haven't done squat. So I figured, hey, I live in California: why not get a recommendation for medical marijuana and spend an evening pain-free the "natural" way?
I've used THC recreationally in the past, but very infrequently, and not for years. For the most part, it was always pleasant enough, and I'd been intrigued by the prospect of being able to use it, safely and legally, on occasion. The pain in my side seemed like a good enough reason to give it a go.
Much as tongodeon found out, getting a recommendation from a pot doc is practically easier than going to see your primary physician. I called a place called Greenways that's over in SOMA. Had an appointment an hour later. The doctor talked to me for all of about three minutes. I asked about smoke-free alternative ways to consume cannabis, since I'm not big on smoking anything; the doctor sort of mumbled something about teas and tinctures helping, but didn't provide any specifics about dosing, etc
Twenty minutes after walking into the doctor's office, I was at the Green Door dispensary, also in SOMA. The place is set up a bit like a pharmacy with a doorman. He checks the papers, you walk in and check out prices for "medicine" on a big board above a bank teller-like window. I picked out some tea, a couple of lozenges, and some oil. I figured those would be the weakest forms. I really wasn't interested in getting super high - just taking the edge off the pain.
I popped one of the lozenges later in the day. About an hour later, I started having visual hallucinations. Two hours later, I was having horrific visceral hallucinations akin to a bad trip on LSD I had when I was a stupid teenager experimenting with drugs. I had told my fiancee what was going on with me before I got too far gone, and she kept me drinking water and eating bread and generally reminding me that things were okay. After about an hour of being gone, the hallucinations started to wear off. I promptly puked my guts out, then spent the rest of the evening feeling like i had a terrible hangover: head aching, skin buzzing, shaking occasionally. I was starving, predictably, and ate a ton.
Today, I feel like shit warmed over: draggy, spacey, still buzzing a bit. The worst part? It didn't even help the pain in my side. I saw my (actual) doctor this morning, and found out that there's not much I can do about the pain except wait it out and put heat on it.
So, a few things after this experience:
1. Getting a recommendation for medical weed is really easy. You can do it on your lunch break.
2. Be really careful with what you end up buying. I was a fucking idiot for assuming that a lozenge wouldn't be potent. There wasn't any information on the "medicine" itself about its THC contents or suggested use or dosage. I should have asked the guys as the dispensary (for what that would have been worth) how potent they were.
3. If you're not used to THC, don't take something on an empty stomach. It had been about four hours since I had eaten a substantial meal when I took the lozenge, which probably didn't help.
4. If you do have a bad experience, drink lots of water, eat some bread or crackers, and wait it out. It only took an hour for it to wear off, in my case, which is certainly easier than the experience I had with acid when I was a dumb kid.
Needless to say, I threw the other lozenge out. I'm hanging on to the tea, which does actually have some potency/dosage information on it, but no indication as to whether the intended effect is pain relief or a hellacious trip. I also have no idea what to do with the oil. I thought it was something I could dilute in water and use as a pain killer, but after a little bit of research, it seems like people mostly mix it with regular weed to increase its potency.
Essentially, the whole experience left me with much the same reaction that tongodeon had: medical marijuana as its set up in California is, for the most part, about people who don't need medicine getting really fucking high. I'm glad that the people who genuinely need access to cannabis can get it, but I really wish the process had been more controlled and that I had more information from both the pot doc and dispensary. It's my fault for assuming the strength of what I purchased, ultimately, but more information would have been helpful.
Blech.
This pretty much mirrors my impression: California's "medical" cannabis system seems designed to allow recreational users to buy recreational products from recreational dealers. If I visited my real doctor and he prescribed a new medicine he'd make damn sure that I understood exactly how much to take and how to take it. My pharmacist would give me a standardized medicine with a specific quantity of a known active ingredient that I could dispense in metered doses. Both parties wouldn't let me leave the pharmacy without knowing the dosing, side effects, and adverse interactions. Legitimately needy patients may occasionally obtain legitimate medicine for a legitimate medical need, but that doesn't change what's obviously going on any more than occasional "scientific" tests change the real designs and purposes of Japanese whaling. Blech indeed.