My Experience With Medical Marijuana

In early 2014, I acquired my medical marijuana prescription card. In California marijuana is legal with a prescription, so nothing I’m writing here should affect my employment in any reasonable establishment. Everything I do in regards to marijuana is entirely legal and used responsibly.

Why I Use Medical Marijuana

I swear this article will get lighter shortly, but first I wanted to explain a few things. There are two reasons why I use medical marijuana.

The first reason is that I have chronic neck and upper back pain from a car accident I was involved in back in 2005. I went through 3 months of rehabilitation and physical therapy to repair the muscle tissue and reduce scarring, but I still occasionally get stiffness and have a dull pain fairly constantly. If it gets severe, I have to go into my chiropractor’s office for ultrasound and alignment, but medicating helps substantially for about 12 hours of relief.

The second reason is anxiety. I’ve always had issues with anxiety attacks, even before I knew that was what they were. Anxiety makes me irritable and isolates me from others. It makes me eat less healthy foods and avoid social activities. It also exacerbates my pain and creates new pains on top of them. I’ve had to make several lifestyle changes recently to combat my anxiety, but marijuana has been a miracle to me. I haven’t had a nosebleed or stress headache in the months since I got my prescription.

How I Use Medical Marijuana

My doctor asked me how I planned to take my medicine and I told her that I preferred eating it. She was pleased and told me that was the best, safest way to do it. I don’t like the smell of pot. I hate inhaling smoke. To me it was just a preference, but she assured me that edibles are also probably the safest method long-term.

Edibles allow for a longer-lasting experience. Smoking it means it hits you quickly, but you usually need to take more within an hour or two or it will also wear off fast. Edibles come on slowly, so nothing takes you by surprise (as long as you don’t take too much). They also last WAY longer, usually 4-6 hours for me. And when you drop off, it transitions gently over an hour or two. For me, it also has a nice “after-high” for a couple hours later that still provides pain relief without the other aspects.

When I Use Medical Marijuana

First off, I never medicate within 16 hours before:

• Needing to do anything important (working)
• Needing to be physically coordinated (driving)
• Going anyplace “unsafe” (walking through bad neighborhoods)

It’s essentially the same as any decent pain reliever (no operating heavy machinery…) except for a little while longer. These rules generally keep me from using it any time but the weekend, which is still way better than never having a break from the pain and anxiety.

I sometimes take a half dose (for me this is about 10-15mg) immediately after a rough day at work. Lately, I’ve had a rough day once every two weeks or so, but it varies depending on the projects I work on. This small of a dosage doesn’t affect my focus, but it reduces the anxiety and pain by about 30% and helps me let go of all the things stressing me out for 4-6 hours. It gets me away from my email inbox and allows me to enjoy my leisure time uninterrupted by my nagging thoughts.

On Friday nights, I usually take a normal dose (about 30mg) around 6pm, or later if I’m working late. This is when I actually feel the full effects, including reduced coordination and focus. The entire sequence occurs over about a 10 hour period. I don’t always medicate on Saturdays or Sundays, but if I do it generally matches my Friday dosage.

My Favorite “High” Activities

Thus begins the more light-hearted portion of this article. I was never really heavy into pot before, so it surprised me the kinds of things I really enjoyed doing while under its effects.

1. Walking SooCoo
   Playing fetch with her by the bay during sunset on a warm afternoon is amazing. It’s even better pain-free, relaxed, and with reduced anxiety.
2. Star Trek: The Next Generation
   I under-appreciated this show when I watched it growing up. It has positive messages it gives about an optimistic future for humanity combined with incredibly good writing and excellent acting. The show is obviously amazing sober, but it adds to the euphoria substantially to watch something like this while medicated.
3. Cooking and Watching Cooking Shows
   Lately I’m really into making egg stuff. Different styles of omelettes, scrambles, crepes are among the YouTube cooking tutorials I watch. For some reason the single-pan, simple ingredients, and critical technique aspects of making these things really fascinates me.
4. The Farmer’s Market
   Jack London Square is about 2 blocks from my apartment. Every Sunday there is an open farmer’s market with awesome stuff like fresh organic strawberries, California heirloom tomatoes, pour-over black coffee, meats from local butcher shops, local sprouted almonds, baked goods, homemade dog treats, and awesome prepared food stands. It feels like I’m a kid in a candy store.
5. Cleaning & Hygeine
   There’s something truly relaxing about trimming my beard, doing my laundry, taking out the recycling, and taking long cool showers. I don’t know if it’s my mild OCD making me feel rewarded for having an orderly and clean environment, or if its just the feeling of accomplishment I get from completing tasks.

My biggest food cravings:

Xiaolongbao
Also called Shanghai Soup Dumplings, these delicious pockets of flavor are amazing. They are steamed dumplings with delicious soup broth inside. They usually come with shredded pickled veggies and a light sauce that you’re supposed to put in your spoon before you drop the bao on top. Then you eat it all in one bite for an amazing burst of flavor.

Tropical Skittles
I’m not normally big on candy, but there’s just something about Tropical Skittles that make me crave them sometimes. I think it’s because there’s not a single color/flavor that I’m not happy to eat in those light blue bags.

Carbonated Drinks
My favorite is probably Clementine Orange flavored Izze. They use cane sugar instead of corn syrup, so they don’t give me the gross sticky throat feeling afterwards like Coca-cola does. It’s not exactly a health drink, but it’s lesser than other carbonated evils.

Given, these are all things I like doing anyway. They are just much easier to focus on directly and truly appreciate without my anxious brain constantly reminding me of all the work I have to do on Monday, or all the bills I have to pay this week, or that I still haven’t finished my laundry. And of course, doing anything minus back pain is always fantastic.

I’m Writing Reviews!

While doing research about edibles, I noticed that edibles didn’t really have as much information posted about them online as “smokeables” did. I write reviews for almost everything else I buy, so why not edible marijuana? I never got into Instagram before, but my friends that do wine reviews love it, so I’m giving it a shot.

In addition to the short “photo caption” length reviews I’m posting on Instagram, I’ll also post longer more in-depth ones on here. Check out my first review when it comes out tomorrow!