Re:Meadow is the Amazon of weed
by merinowool on Friday April 20, 2018 @05:33PM
(#16888606)
I live in Europe an sadly only viable option to treat chronic pain is to use black market. This is tragic. I wish I had quality of life people can have in legal states. But drugs are immoral heads in the TV say. Sometimes I question what is the point to live in this world.
There are cannabis products that happens to be (gasp!) enjoyable, so it should just be available next to beer and wine in stores as well. Puritanical attitudes about fun aside, look where banning alcohol got us. It's not about having fun though.
When was the last time when, because you like drinking beer so much, that you called your local politician to support beer? Medical marijuana did not come about from a bunch of 20-something college students who merely enjoy getting high. The "recreational" aspect is, honestly, derogatory towards legitimate medical applications
Cannabis has practical medical applications. DEA restrictions have successfully prevented any real research into the compounds that make up cannabis, however the tide is slowly turning. Just yesterday The FDA approved Epidiolex[0], a cannabis-derived treatment for epilepsy. Cannabis treats certain kinds of chronic pain like nothing else known to man, without the same possibility of death when used improperly like morphine, heroin or fentanyl. Just like asprin or acetaminophen (Tylenol) is available over the counter, so, too, should other types of products that treat pain.
The context for this, is in the US, over the counter, is a box of 50 packets of 1g acetaminophen pills, next to a bottle of 200 ibuprofen pills, at 200 mg each, each costing around $20. Last time I was in Europe, that kind of thing was not readily available. Small amounts of various NSAIDs for acute pain were available, but not the chronic, "alternate OTC pain medication to make it through the day" amounts. I am not bragging about how "things are bigger in the US". This is "some people are regularly in this much pain, untreated (!) by our healthcare system" admission.
The heart of the matter is how poor the healthcare treatment is for poor people in the US, and life-improving surgery is often not performed due to lack of money. That missed surgery often results in a lifetime of unimaginable intolerable pain, and patients are simply told to "deal with it".
Cannabis can help them.
It isn't a sham.
Our healthcare system is.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/health/epidiolex-fda-cann...