medicalcannabisawareness's blog

G. P. - Some days I would be semi-ambulatory. Most days I was completely bedridden. My eyesight became very blurred and I lost all ability to focus. Unable to walk, read, or be with my family, I became very depressed. . . One evening some old friends came to visit and we smoked several joints. When my friends got up to leave, I stood up to say goodbye. Everybody in the room suddenly stopped talking and stared at me. At first I could not understand what was wrong. Then I realized I was standing, I had spontaneously stood up, unassisted, as if standing up was a perfectly natural. . . .

I quickly discovered that when I did not smoke cannabis my condition worsened, I suffered more frequent spasms, and the spasms were more intense. When I smoked cannabis my condition stabilized, then dramatically improved. After smoking cannabis my spasms were much more controlled and less severe. Cannabis caused me to feel better. I regained control over my limbs and could walk totally unaided. My vision, often blurred and unfocused, [now] improved. . . .

I do not like breaking the law. I do not like being forced to pay terribly inflated prices for an unregulated, uncontrolled product. I do not like having to purchase cannabis from drug dealers and I do not like having to use marijuana without medical supervision. However, I do like to walk, talk, read, and see. Cannabis allows me to do these simple, human things by controlling the symptoms of my MS. If I am forced to choose between maintaining my health with an illegal drug or obeying the law, I would choose to maintain my health.

- Greg Paufler, May 11, 1987, Testimony submitted to the DEA In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling and in Idaho v. Hastings.

B.D.  - I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1988. Prior to that, I was an active person with ballet and swimming. I now have a swimming pool, so I swim each and every day, and smoke cannabis. The government has given me the cannabis to smoke. Each month I pick up a can filled with the cannabis cigarettes rolled by the government.

At one time I weighed 85 lb. and I now weigh 105. Twenty pounds is quite a bit to put on. I could not walk. I did not have the appetite. I use a scooter now for distance. I can get around the house. I have a standard poodle who is kind of like an assistant dog. She is good at it. She helps me.

When I found out that there was a program to get cannabis from the government, I decided that was the answer. I was not a cannabis smoker before that. In fact, I used to consider the people I knew who smoked the cannabis as undesirables. Now, I myself am an undesirable.

But it works. It takes away the backache. With multiple sclerosis, you can get spasms, and your leg will just go straight out and you cannot stop that leg. You may have danced all of your life and put the leg where you wanted it to be, but the MS takes that from you. So I use the swimming pool, and that helps a lot. The kicks are much less when I have smoked a cannabis cigarette. Since 1991, I've smoked 10 cigarettes a day. I do not take any other drugs. Cannabis seems to have been my helper. At one time, I did not think much of the people who smoke it. But when it comes to your health, it makes a big difference.

- B.D. is one of eight patients who are legally allowed to smoke cannabis under a Compassionate IND program.

Nathaniel  - I am a patient suffering from multiple sclerosis, and have found amazing amounts of relief from cannabis. I have been through Rebif, Amantadine, Baclofen, Ultram, Provigil, Soma, and Prednisone. All of these medications either provided little or no relief, and/or had very undesirable side effects for me.

Before learning that I had MS, I had used cannabis maybe 10 times in my whole life. I started using it more regularly, and noticed that I was feeling much better all around when smoking cannabis. I could get around better, I felt better, I was in a better mood, and I ate (something that is often very difficult for me).

Cannabis is now the only medication I am using to treat my condition, and I would be so much less functional without it that I don't know what I would do (or COULD do, for that matter). Being a California resident, I obtained a doctor's recommendation, and am now legal to use medical cannabis in California. 

Missi  - I had done much research into the helpful benefits of the medicinal use of cannabis, but I did have my doubts since I felt that maybe many of the people who claimed its benefits just really wanted to get 'high'. Well, as God as my witness, (something I don't ever say lightly because I am a born-again Christian), I was totally amazed at the results.

Everyone around me had witnessed my daily life. They had finally seen firsthand that I had problems just walking across the room. Well, anyway, I smoked a joint with my relative and I am telling you, I was up and about walking everywhere. She has a 3000sq ft house and I walked around it like I was an Olympic athlete. OK, maybe not that great but that is what I felt like. I was happy, moving all over the place, and most importantly I did not need to take my next dosage of Oxycontin! I had no pain at all or any of the associated problems. Not only was I able to go with out that dosage but the next morning dosage as well and I did not experience any withdrawal symptoms either.

I really could not believe it. I had hoped to receive some help but I honestly did not think it would be THAT helpful THAT fast. I was very happy that I had witnesses to this seemingly miraculous recovery. But the sad thing is that I am not using it now and cannot get it.

Anonymous  - This is just another letter from a fellow MS sufferer vouching for how effective I find cannabis in relieving some of the unpleasant symptoms of mild MS. I was first told of the diagnosis of MS in 1991 (on my 35th birthday) this was just a few weeks following an unbelievably acrimonious divorce, my wife having thrown me out claiming that she was sick of me being tired all the time, and then telling her solicitor that I was a heroin addict, a totally fabricated claim which I, staggering and slurring my speech like a vaudeville drunk, did a very poor job of denying it.

Realising that the vicious cycle of anger and frustration in which I found myself caught, was exacerbating my symptoms I decided to try smoking some cannabis, after a three year period of abstinence, as to quote Ken Kesey, "it makes you feel pretty philosophical about most things".

I was totally unprepared for the way in which the sensation of 'tight bands and writhing rats' in my legs vanished for the first time in months, as did the pain in my face. Though it did not stop the vertigo, it totally removed the nausea and 'sea sickness' which accompanies it. For the first time in months I slept like a baby, without having to get up and empty my bladder every 2 hours. Though I would not go so far as to say that this was the beginning of my recovery, I would certainly say that it marked the end of my decline!

Anonymous  - I was diagnosed as having MS five years ago, when I was 45, and was informed that in my case it would probably just get steadily worse. The forecast proved correct. I had to give up work 2 years ago, and am now confined to a wheelchair. I suffer violent muscle spasms from the waist down, which lock my legs together like magnets, causing increasing pain and discomfort, and I feel as if I have flu permanently.

A year ago a friend showed me an article from the Daily Mail about an MS sufferer who obtained considerable relief from the most distressing symptoms using cannabis. Despite an in built aversion to banned substances, I bowed to family pressure, and have been using it ever since.

I can go on a car journey without fretting about my bladder. I can actually get 3 or 4 hours unbroken sleep sometimes, and more importantly so can my wife. Smoking cannabis is not a problem for me as I roll my own anyway. The main thing is, it works - as a muscle relaxant, a tranquilliser, whatever.

J.P.  - I was diagnosed with secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis in 1986, after waking up on the morning of April 5th with the worst case of the "bed spins" imaginable. I was unable to keep anything down, even water. On April 6th I was admitted to the hospital for a seven-day stay during which the 'spinning' continued for six days straight.

When I was sent home, the dizziness had subsided a little, but I still could not function well at all. My neurologist prescribed the drugs Compazine and Antivert. They had little affect on the nausea and no affect on the appetite, even after the dosage was doubled. After a couple of weeks of feeling sick and not eating, I had lost 15 pounds and no medication was helping. I was truly in fear for my life. It was then that I decided to try smoking Cannabis.

At first I felt worse, but after the effects of the smoke were gone I began to relax and get an appetite. I could finally eat again. Since that time, I have used cannabis to maintain a healthy body weight and a decent standard of living. For years I left my prescription drugs setting on the counter, as Cannabis was more effective.

By November 1993, the disease had progressed to the point that I needed to use a cane and a wheelchair. The damage to the nerves that control the lower part of my body and legs caused my legs to be spastic and ache. Again, I saw a real benefit from using Cannabis, it allowed my muscles to relax.

I was given a prescription for the drug Bacoflen in 1993 to help control muscle spasms. I experienced little benefit from the drug, it didn't alleviate the pain in my legs. However with cannabis I got relief and, without the spasms, I could get a good night's sleep.

I briefly discussed the benefits I had been getting from the cannabis with my neurologist, Dr. Vilnius S. Ciemins, upon my initial office visit with him in 1986. After learning of Ohio's medical marijuana defense law in December of 1996, I decided to talk him again about my use of the drug and the short-lived law. Dr. Ciemins, agreed that Cannabis is useful in the treatment of my condition.

He provided me with a handwritten recommendation that states: "Told patient that marijuana may relive nausea, realizing that as yet the drug is still illegal."

I feel the reason for the prohibition of cannabis is misinformation and the stigma that surrounds this medicine. So I have become active getting people informed and involved

Today I weigh 155 lbs. and use a wheelchair most of the time. Cannabis has, no doubt, given me a better life than I would have had without it. I didn't ask for this. I would gladly give up using Cannabis and all the other drugs that are prescribed for me if I were miraculously cured.

J.C. -  I have had three major MS attacks. Each time I have deteriorated more. I had tried smoking cannabis over the years, but not on many occasions. Last Christmas, I was given a joint to smoke as a present. I had dragged myself, with help, out for Christmas dinner. After a lot of frustration, fretting and struggling, I was installed in my daughter's home. I smoked the joint after my dinner, and for a few hours, I got the old me back again, as I remember me!

I have been smoking it on and off since, when things get impossible. It helps with spasticity, sleep, pain and bladder dysfunction. It just helps make life bearable for me.

I gave up smoking, as I have Hodgkins, and thought I should do the right thing, then I started again because it helps my MS, so if they legalize cannabis or even better prescribe it in drug form, a lot of people would benefit from it.

How many of us have to convince the world that it helps, and it's not just a drug to get high on! We know what helps our condition, because the people that this is about, are the ones that are suffering. Try walking in my shoes if you can, because sometimes even I can't walk in them! I hope one day soon we will get what we want and not feel like criminals.

As a practicing neurologist, I saw many patients for whom uncontrollable spasticity was a major problem. Unfortunately, there are very few drugs specifically designed to treat spasticity. Moreover, these drugs often cause very serious side effects. . . Dantrium or dantrolene sodium carries a boxed warning in the Physician's Desk Reference because of its very high toxicity. . . The adverse effects associated with Lioresal Baclofen are somewhat less severe, but include possibly lethal consequences, even when the drug is properly prescribed and taken as directed. . . Unfortunately, neither Dantrium nor Lioresal are very effective spasm control drugs. Their marginal medical utility, high toxicity, and potential for serious adverse effects, make these drugs difficult to use in spasticity therapy.

As a result, many physicians routinely prescribe tranquilizers, muscle relaxants, mood elevators, and sedatives to patients experiencing spasticity. While these drugs do not directly reduce spasticity, they may weaken the patient's muscle tone, thus making the spasms less noticeable. Alternatively, they may induce sleep or so tranquilize the patient that normal mental and physical functions are impossible.

After six weeks he returned for another examination. At this time, he reported an increase in his symptoms to the point where he had leg pains, increased clonic activity, and uncontrolled leg spasms every night. More disturbing to him was urinary incontinence, which occurred on two occasions during leg spasms.

On objective examination. . . in layman's terms, this patient's spasticity had increased dramatically in six weeks. This spasticity made his legs extremely rigid, he was finding it increasingly difficult to walk or sleep, and he was losing bladder control. Following our examination, and at the patient's request, he left the clinic then returned one hour later to be examined for a second time.

This second examination was remarkable. The earlier findings of moderate to severe spasticity could not be elicited. Deep tendon reflexes were brisk, but without spread, ankle clonus was absent, and the plantar response was flexor on the left and equivocal on the right.