Cultivation technician Marcus Rountree stakes out medical marijuana plants in 2018 in a growing room of Garden State Dispensary in Woodbridge, New Jersey. HARRY FISHER / THE MORNING CALL It’s not exactly “Reefer Madness,” but marijuana use is definitely an issue today.
Medical marijuana is legal in 38 states (and Washington, D.C.), including Pennsylvania. It’s legal for recreational use in 24 states but not Pennsylvania, where attempts to allow recreational use have so far failed in Harrisburg.
Cannabis sales topped $36 billion in the United States in 2023, according to the data company Statista. Pennsylvania reported $8 billion in sales in its July 2023 medical marijuana program update, with more than 940,000 patients and caregivers registered.
It’s supposedly helpful for a variety of conditions, including cancer pain, chemotherapy side affects, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, although in my opinion not enough clinical trials have been conducted. It’s not helpful for headaches, after-surgery pain or sprains.
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Medical marijuana is not used under the supervision of a physician. In Pennsylvania, all you need is a certification by a doctor and you can buy up to a 30-day supply at a time at a state-licensed dispensary. It can be purchased as pills or gummies, oil, topical creams and ointments, tinctures, or in a form that allows it to be vaporized or nebulized.My own experience with medical marijuana was anything but helpful. I have chronic back and hip pain caused by arthritis. Prescription painkillers, steroid injections and chiropracty did nothing for me.
So I asked my orthopedic doctor for an authorization for medical marijuana. He agreed that I should try it, so I got certified and got my first prescription. The results in relieving pain were mixed, with the negative out weighing the positive.
The first night was fine — my pain was relieved in an hour. The second and third night, the medical marijuana did nothing at all. Then I got a big surprise: I took my dose of pills and laid down to rest, and when I got up my legs were paralyzed. I was scared, thinking it might be permanent. It took […]
Oklahoma’s Own Focus On Kids: Health Experts Alarmed By Rising Teen Marijuana Usage
As the marijuana industry continues to grow in Oklahoma, state
