>he didn’t just bless the idea, he practically endorsed it as a “still emerging but very likely positive course of treatment” in his words.

I love it! It's really sad and fucked up watching the federal government flail around trying to say otherwise. Meanwhile, they are getting all of their ducks in a row to ensure they can profit off of full on recreational legalization when that time comes. Between this issue and the healthcare issues it's terribly obvious the citizen's health and best interest is not first or maybe even second in order of importance to these people.

I use CBD infrequently for pain.

Chronic high CBD usage will result in withdrawal upon cessation.

The 5HT1A agonism aspect of CBD makes for a particularly bleak and anxiety ridden withdrawal.

Not sure if it's CBD or THC, but coming off pot makes you realise how madly your REM sleep was disturbed (or basically non existent).

Part of smoking pot I enjoy initially is amazingly deep sleep, but that can't be good in the long term.

Actually, you don't get REM when you smoke. That's why you don't dream and it's why it comes back full-swing when you stop. I occasionally smoke and drink (alcohol also disturbs REM quite a bit), but I try and do it early in the day so I can get quality sleep.

I think kratom is helping me. I experience no psychotropic side effects, which is great. At some point, I'll stop kratom for a few months, see how my pain mgmt handles it.

YMMV.

If you don't mind answering (as vaguely as makes sense), what kind of pain? Where is it focused (exclusively the hip/s?), what does it derive from?

Depending on the nature of it, you might look at this:

https://www.amazon.com/Genacol-Hydrolyzed-Supplement-Extra-F...

I'll suggest you do your own research on it of course. I've known a few people, myself included, that have seen extraordinary results from taking it for various pain related to anything to do with joints (very split results on working or not, seems to do amazingly for some, and nothing for others). I didn't expect it to do anything, instead it saves me from taking pain killers every day (took my pain from a persistent 5 out of 10 to a 1 or 2 on most days, such that I never need pain killers; I take two each night).

I had to have hip arthroscopy because I had an impingement, leading to quite a bit of cartilage damage/labral tearing in the joint. They even had to reshape the end of the femur to remove the impingement. It's quite a recovery period of crutches, cane, etc. and the pain from the surgery was _supposed_ to be quite immense. Honestly, my hip hurt so bad for so long that even a day post-op it was less painful than it was when I went in. I only needed the opiates for a couple of days and used CBD once or twice a day for about a week- after that the pain was just a dull soreness.

Luckily, there was very little arthritis in the joint and three years post-op it's felt just fine and I've had no set backs whatsoever. Luckily I've not had to look into any type of long term pain management for anything.