Originally posted by Poly
Have you been medically diagnosed with all these problems or are they conclusions that you have come to on your own?
Medically diagnosed.
And how is it that you know for sure that marijuana is not addictive? I ask this because we had some friends a few years back who smoked it. When we found out, we confronted them they were quick to tell us how non-addictive it was and how other things are much worse. She said they used it for stress issues. After a while, she confided in me that it really was getting out of control. She stopped for a while (or so she says) but said that he would always say that he was going to buy just one more "bag" and that's it. But that was never it. She called several times crying, wanting help because his use of it and refusal to stop was ruining their family. When we told her what she should do, we'd end up not hearing from her for a long time. If we called to check on them, she was quick to say that everything was ok. She didn't really want to talk but seemed to want to get off the phone as quickly as possilbe. And then lo and behold she'd call again out of the blue complaining about it. I told her that it bothered me that she did this. Come to find out, she hadn't exactly quit either and I'm sure it was her guilt that kept her from keeping in contact. If it's not addictive then why would her husband promise to stop yet doesn't and why would she deliberately go back to the very thing that she said is destroying her family?
How can you know that it IS addictive? studies tend to lean toward the fact that it is not addictive. You can't base you belief on a couple of people you knew. Most people that have a "problem" with marijuana do not actually have a problem with the marijuana itself, it's more like a kind of dependency/ inability to cope type issue and if it weren't marijuana, it would be something else they had an addiction to.
Why is he opposed to the many drugs that are offered for this disease? Surely if he suffers this much, the doctor can give him something for symptom relief. I'm also curious as to why his symptoms seem to be so bad at the end of the day? Symptoms of this can flare up at different times. I wonder because with you saying so that you can have "your time" together and that he hates doing it alone, I sense that there's more than going on than just smoking it for "medicinal purposes".
Well, firstly, he is allergic to many of them, secondly if you have had any experience with these type drugs the side and long term effects are horrible and management of pain through medication that is chemical is noramlly addictive in a big way, and long term use of such can have many many ill effects both physically and psychologically that far outweigh any ill effects that can come from smoking marijuana. AND all of my husband Dr's are well aware of the fact that he uses marijuana and even agree. Studies have been done that show that just like chemotherapy patients benefit from marijuana so do MS patients. And his symptoms are worse at the end of the day because that's just how a full day of working effects him, no two MS patients are alike in symptoms or reaaction to management of.
And i never said that our sole reason for using it was medicinal, just like some people have a few drinks after dinner to wind down, that is our choice of how to "wind-down" at the end of the day. And since he can't drink, this is what we do.
Do you plan on telling them when they're older? And if so, what if when they get older and aren't feeling well, they opt for drugs and feel they can justify it because this is what they witnessed from their parents as children?