Pain is the scourge of man and ALL other animals.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I’m not writing about a toothache, a bruise or even a small cut. I’m not even writing about acute pain. However, this is a great overlap and acute pain/injury can develop into severe chronic pain.

That is what I’m writing about. Pain of both kinds can be graded on a scale of 1 to 10 with one being more of a nuisance but ten being so severe that it causes unconsciousness or even death by shock.

Aspirin is possibly the most common painkiller for mild (1-5) pain but some will say any alcoholic beverage, coffee, tea or even a tobacco cigarette will work.

There are about eight classes of non-opiate painkiller drugs of which aspirin is the best known. It was discovered almost pre-history in willow bark but it wasn’t till 1899 that Acetylsalicylic acid or Aspirin was discovered and patented. All the rest followed but Aspirin is still number one.

Opium itself has been used for about 6000 years and the various Opiates (Morphine, Codeine, etcetera) are used for the more severe/chronic pain. The most potent Opiates, that is, derived from Opium, are Heroin, Dilaudid and Oxycodone (eg Oxycontin, Percodan).

There are about a dozen in this class. These seem to be the best known and used. There are other Opioid drugs like Methadone, Fentanyl and Demerol which are not related in chemical structure but which have similar pharmacological actions to the Opiates.

The dosage of the Opiates is not a real clue to their effectiveness. For example, doses of codeine up to 60mg or more will not provide the same relief as 5mg of Morphine or 2.5mg of Dilaudid. Heroin is considered by many to be the ultimate strong painkiller. It is used in England. Dilaudid or Oxycontin is considered to be the most useful for severe pain in the U.S.

One of the strangest features of all of the above is that they all have major adverse/side effects. Aspirin causes stomach bleeding. Tylenol causes severe liver and kidney damage. Others are similar.

The Opiates and Opioids are in a class by themselves for bad adverse/side effects. They frequently cause nausea, vomiting, severe constipation and the worst is severe addiction even after brief use.

This brings us to the use of Cannabis. Both Cannabis and Opium were used in medicine about the same time, about 5000 years ago and both were widely used in the Orient and slowly brought to Europe. Cannabis was first brought to European Russia (Scythia) about 1000 years ago.

Opium was possibly brought to Europe by the Arabs via Africa and the Mediterranean countries. The Greek Theophrastus wrote about it in the Third Century, A.D.

Dr. William O’Shaunessy brought Cannabis as medicine from India to England about 1840, from which it spread to the rest of the western world.

For some “Reefer Madness” reason it was declared a dangerous/useless drug by the U.S. Government in 1937 and only two “legal” Cannabis medicines are now available, Marinol and Sativex. They are not very satisfactory.

In the meantime ever since about 1850 Marijuana, first used by smoking a pipe or as a cigarette, has taken over. The U.S. Govt. estimates about 10 million people use it daily as medicine and 70 million have used it for recreational/social reasons.

Marijuana, as is, is widely used for pain both mild/acute and extreme/chronic. About 70% of legal medical marijuana patients use it for all kinds of pain. Their experience indicates it is the SAFEST, MOST EFFECTIVE, THOUGH MILDLY ADDICTIVE PAINKILLER EVER DISCOVERED BY MAN.

WHY ISN’T IT LEGAL???

http://salem-news.com/articles/august112009/pain_cannabis_pl_8-11-09.php

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

I always went back and forth about writing to you regarding my self-medication of Asperger's Syndrome, but the reader posted earlier convinced me.  I, too, am diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome; people tell me I'm intense, committed, hard-nosed, highly principled (on a borderline-pathological level), honest/blunt to a fault, overly formal/polite, etc. 

I was entirely against substance use - from caffeine to alcohol to illegal drugs - until a close friend of mine unexpectedly passed away when I was 21.  I had smoked periodically starting that year (maybe 5-10 times ever), but after he died, my use/abuse really took off. In short, I stopped giving a damn about what I put in my body.

At that time, I also became friends with a group of people that, had I not started smoking cannabis on a regular basis, I would have never been friends with.  I started going to parties (something I had never, ever done before), speaking out about issues that moved me, and just generally interacting with people in a manner I had never been comfortable with.  That is not to say that I'm a shy person; I have never been a shy individual, I've never hesitated to "tell it like it is" or to speak up if I feel wronged.  But something about cannabis made me socially "normal" (a word I don't agree with; I support neurodiversity as a concept).

Cutting through the haze of daily cannabis use (and there is a haze; take it from someone who's been smoking daily for 7+ years now) can be difficult. But for me at least, that haze is a moot point, and sometimes even a bonus.  Ask my girlfriend; about a year ago, I told her I was going to stop using cannabis.  After two weeks she was ready to kill me. She told me that our relationship was in jeopardy if I didn't get back on the cannabis.  It sounds extreme, but she said it in one of those half-kidding/I'm-really-being-serious kind of ways.

When I'm not using cannabis regularly, I become an incredibly manic over-achiever who does not let petty obstacles like peers, social stigmas, or friends get in his way.  When I'm not on cannabis, it is nothing for me to end a years-long friendship because I perceive it as getting in the way of my achievement (and this has happened before; it took a lot of work to bring it back).  Not only that, but my "routines" (AS term) aren't nearly as important to me if I'm regularly smoking. 

Example: my morning routine is to wake up early, put on a pot of coffee, let the dog out, pour my cup of coffee, let the dog back in, stir in my cream, then sit on the couch and read or listen to my iPod until my coffee is done.  If I haven't been smoking regularly, and my girlfriend comes down and lets out the dog BEFORE I put on the pot of coffee, that will completely ruin my day if not my entire week.  I'll be irritable by the time I get to work, and liable to snap at the smallest provocation.

On the other hand, if I had smoked the night before, I will notice that my routine has been jockeyed, but it just won't bother me that much. The same goes for my social connections; when I smoke, I reflect upon, and come to value a social connection, but it's a cognitive process for me... It's not something I do naturally, and it's not something I'm inclined to do if I'm sober (my mind says, "THERES NO TIME, THERES NO TIME")

I guess you could say my overal point is this: All people are different.  All people choose to use substances for reasons that you may not understand, or care to understand.  But one thing is consistent with every single person I have ever met in my entire life: Everyone has vices in which they indulge, whether it's ducking outside of work to smoke a cigarette, ordering an appetizer and dessert with dinner, making your partner wear handcuffs to bed, laying around and playing video games, snorting coke in the bathroom at the bar or club, skipping religious service, blazing up after a hard day's work, or having a nightcap... And everyone has reasons for doing these things.  And until they decide that those reasons are no longer worth doing whatever it is they're doing, societal stigmas, oppressive laws, and shaming will only alienate people.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/the-cannabis-closet-dealing-with-aspergers-ctd.html