Medical Marijuana anyone?

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So my son has a classmate who like my son has been on rispirdal a long time and has begun to have liver function problems. His mother just confided in me that for the past 6months he has been a legal card holding medical marijuana user (edibles) It is having a less sedating effect than the rispirdal, but seems to address all of his anxiety, aggression and self injury issues, and has even become social with new people instead of melting down. I am considering heading down this path. I was wondering if anyone is using medical MJ for symptoms or has their child on it......i would appreciate any input pos or neg, how it helps your symptoms or anything. thank you

I have been using cannabis medicinally for decades. It definitely has allowed me to take the edge off of life.

This is coming from someone who grew up in a family with multiple family members who had/have severe substance abuse problems with "soft" drugs and "hard" drugs alike.

I don't know your son's classmate, so I can't comment on the situation. Marijuana does have valid medicinal purposes. However out of all the people I have known who have had medical marijuana cards, I can tell you only one of them had a valid reason for it, and the rest were just people who wanted to get high.

Here is the problem with marijuana. It is a drug which convinces a person that they are not significantly impaired by it, and causes apathy in those who can least afford to be apathetic.

I don't know how to elaborate cohesively so I'm just going to highlight my experiences with people under the influence of pot.

1. People who present themselves as fun, outgoing, and my true friend, and then, the next day, not only aren't my friend but think I have a problem for thinking they were. Pot makes people "lie" in this manner, and those who smoke it have a blatant disregard for the emotions of those they are lying to. They act in a manner which is not themselves, make choices they wouldn't otherwise make, and due to the nature of the effects of the drug, see nothing wrong with this form of deceit. The problem is always on the other person who they will always proclaim is over reacting because they are just not "chill" and biased against pot, and should just let "it" go, because in the mind of the pot smoker "it" is never a big deal, even if it is to someone else.

2. The mentality that pot is nothing and it doesn't impair a person....yet everyone is supposed to know that any promises, business deals, etc, a person makes while under the influence of it, they really didn't mean, so the other person shouldn't get upset when they don't come through, and everyone who "talks them into" something while they are under the influence, is guilty of taking advantage of then in their altered state.

3. Apathy. Pot makes people apathetic. I see this first hand all of the time. A teenager who starts smoking pot is far more likely to withdraw from activities other than those which are associated with the smoking of pot. Their grades usually fall and they usually start spending far more time alone in their room whether they are smoking it in there or not.

So those are a few of my issues with it based on my completely sober experiences with not so sober people.

Pot is a drug that deceives and minimizes. The vast majority of pot smokers are functional drug addicts. They do not consider themselves drug addicts because they think being a drug addict means you cannot stop taking a drug because you have an overwhelming craving for it and it's destroying your life, but they have an incomplete understanding of what drug addiction is.

Equally, a drug addict is someone who cannot stop taking a drug because it shields them from seeing the reasons they should, and it is impacting someone elses life. This is a functional drug addict.

Well as a parent who watches their child bite themselves, slam head into solid things, scratch flesh off his body, and who's only savior (rispirdal) is starting to kill his liver, I feel that If something natural can provide a calming effect, and do better by him and his symptoms, and not kill him, Im on board. I would have to say that the slim chances of him presenting with any adverse reactions to MJ are worth it, because my only other options are self injury or more caustic medications. In addition the protocol for MJ use in autism, is not to get them loaded, but to find a dose of edible that takes the edge off of his symptoms, and not making him high. By no means are we trying to just get him high, in fact we want our son back. I dont know if anyone is familiar with rispirdal but it makes my son a zombie. thats not what we want for him. My mission in life is to make sure my son is healthy, safe, and happy. We are not on some race to find a cure or a fix for him. If he never wants to talk its his choice, we communicate just fine. we arent going to shove ABA in his face 40 hours a week. We want him healthy and happy. Is wellbeing is my number one and rispirdal is only harming him.

Ah yes, we must conform to what your society says is necessary to be non-apathetic about. We must force those who are different into the narrow way of what makes you function in the life you chose in which to function. See, that is what you don't seem to understand about life, let alone marijuana. It doesn't have to be forced through only one way of being. However, now we are going to hear from you about how I won't achieve the American Dream if I persist in choosing a different way.

Some of us were disenfranchised from that 'American Dream' very early on and literally have nothing to lose.

Chronos

I have met many people who are just like you describe, only none as far as I know ever smoked weed.

It is the old, once you have a label problem, then everything seems to fit, but that is just the way the human mind works, it is the same as thinking all people of color are some way.

Now Rispridal does have a nasty track record, and anything less potent would be a better choice.

Marijuana has been used for at least 40,000 years, so it has been time tested.

The first rule of medicine, "Do no harm."

Rispirdal and other drugs do have a long term harm problem, do cause organ damage, and have not been subject to long term tests. Most are marketed till the law suits start coming in, then dropped, and another drug used. Thialomide was tested and approved.

The least dose of the least harmful thing is always the best choice.

I have heard several parents say that Marijuana has worked for thier child.

I'll take some, any day, for free.

Inventor: Perhaps you have a lot of experience with pot from the perspective of a smoker, but I certainly fo not think you have my degree of experience with drugs in general, from the perspective of someone who is sober, so I do not know that you can realize the true impact that even a drug like pot can have on people.

I have dealt with crack addicts, heroin addicts, prescription drug addicts. I have dealt with people dying from overdoses on my living room floor, dope sick on the couch, grown men hallucinating and screaming that there are spiders all over them, people stoned out of their mind at events that were important to me, shooting up in the bathroom when I had to get in there to get ready for school. Lying, stealing, cheating, collect calls from prison, etc.

People think I quilt and collect thimbles. Let me be perfectly honest. When it comes to drugs, I know my sh!t. I have more experience dealing with drugs and their consequences than I ever cared to have.

If you are implying there is no correlation between the type of people I described in my previous post and pot, I disagree, as all of the experiences I have highlighted are specific to those on pot. The actions and mentalities of those on pot are distinct from those you encounter in people on other drugs. You often hear of drug users "if I sit in my room by myself doing this, and it doesn't affect anyone else, then it's no one's business and I should be able to do it." I would agree. Some people sit in their room by themselves, or with their like minded friends, do whatever drug of their choice, and don't venture out to work the next day until they are good and sober, and it doesn't affect anyone else, and so it's no one's business.

None of my run-ins with those on drugs, pot or otherwise, has ever taken place in this propositional situation, and all of them have affected other people. Namely me.

Now with all of my experiences with drugs, I can tell you a thing or two.

I don't think the nature of all I have to say would be considered appropriate to post here by the moderators, as it is a quite graphic overview of various drugs and their affects.

But I'll tell you that among pot smokers, there are far more functional addicts than among any other group of drug users except perhaps prescription pain killer users. And because pot users usually do not keep to their argument and lock themselves away in their room while they are stoned, and because of the minimalistic effects of the drug and the illusion it creates within the mind of the user...that they are not as affected as they are, it actually makes it a quite dangerous drug as far as social and personal impact goes.

All of my views are based directly on my personal experience growing up having to deal with these people....and it might be quite telling if I were to add, between the seasoned heroin addicts and the pot smokers, the heroin addicts were always the least intrusive, except when they were going through withdrawl or in the bathroom in the morning.

The pot smokers were the most difficult to deal with, the most unreliable, the most forgetful, and the most irresponsible, and least considerate of others.

That is all very interesting and I can imagine it difficult to take. I don't know the first thing about Mj effects first hand. Which is why I was interested in the experiences of Med Mj patients. this is not an inquiry I take lightly and I am prepared to examin both ends

from personal experience, i disagree in particular with this point.

I often feel incapacitated by apathy, tho it might be better called 'autistic inertia' because ive read so many people on these boards describing the same thing.

A small dose of weed, and i snap out of it - im full of life and actively looking for productive ways to spend my time, and make the most of a day that might otherwise be all but wasted.

It hasnt always been this way- when i used to smoke id be 'chasing a buzz' and incapacitate myself, it was a recreational form of use that id agree was addictive and psychologically not very healthy (albeit with occasional therapeutic benefits). Now i have a little more discipline i vape, rather than smoke and the amounts im using are minute - the 'medicinal' dose is about the smallest possible amount to produce the desired effect - that could be 5* or even 10* less than someone typically uses.

With any other medicine its considered common sense that you take the smallest effective dose to clear the particular symptom(s) your targetting - unfortunately when it comes to weed peoples prior exposure to the 'drug culture', recreational history, all the rituals etc get in the way & common sense doesnt get a look in. Almost everytime ive ever mentioned the motivational potential of weed to someone, theyll contradict me saying something like "thats weird, if I smoke a joint i get really lazy/apathetic" well... wtf did you expect? a 'joint'? try taking 1-2 puffs then putting the thing out.

as far as children go, i have none. but i would hate to give them amphetamine drugs. IIRC they have some neurotoxicity, and can cause long-term changes in brain chemistry. I have no idea how bigh a risk that is, but someting like anhedonia, if permanent would certainly be a curse. sorry to scare!

Giving cannabis to a child sounds scary as well, but IF you have truly exhausted all natural & alternative options and HAVE to use chemicals i guess its by far the lesser evil. Cannabis strains that contain significant amounts of CBD may be safest? CBD modifies the action of THC, it also has anti-psychotic properties.

when I don't smoke, I can just sit there, like a lump. Space out and just tune out. I go to bed and lie there for hours just listening to the radio and trying to sleep.

I take a toke or two and the laundry gets done and folded back into the drawers, the dishes get washed, dinner gets started, the vacuuming gets done, the baseboards wiped down, the house gets put to rights and I eat my dinner and that brings me back down and I am pleasantly tired ready for bed, and a good nights sleep .

so sue me.

I'm fine with people doing it, but it had better not be in public. If I so much as suspect it going on somewhere out in the open, or where I live, I am immediately in touch with authorities. A family history of schizophrenia encourages me to not take any chances.

A good rule to starting a child on ANY drug is too look into the side effects and THC does have side effects. Not everyone has the same reaction to drugs. I tired smoking when I was a teen and It had psychotropic effects on me, I hallucinated and then would become very paranoid and have anxiety attacks....that would not be something you would want for your child who is already suffering from severe anxiety.

you would find it difficult to live in my State, as medical marijuana is legal here.

I doubt it'd be any worst than the atypical antipsychotic, and in the OP's case, it's much better as it's not damaging his liver. (I actually have to have a liver function test soon for the stuff I'm on.)

It, like any "downer", will affect drive. It's the whole point, but when it's given to people who're running so "high" to begin with, it can bring them "down" to more normal levels.

Drug abusers really annoy me.