The Minister's Wife Speaks on a Controversial Subject

First, I should clarify that this minister's wife does not advocate smoking pot.

Last night we had the church youth group here, and as we sat around eating and talking, someone asked me what I thought of medical marijuana.

I did not condemn it, which caused a certain son, some distance down the porch, to perk up his ears and grin like I had just given him full unhindered license to go buy a joint and puff away.

Sigh.

THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT.

But here's where I'm coming from.

There's no such thing as a perfectly safe drug.  Or so says Paul's sister, Barb, who is a doctor.  She says you always have to weigh the possible benefits with the possible side effects, and then make your decision.

Also, you have to carefully regulate amounts and monitor the patient.

So we have codeine and morphine that are lifesavers in that they dull pain, but they can make you vary from loopy to completely unconscious.

When Paul's mom was in the hospital with pneumonia, they were constantly monitoring her medication.  I don't remember the names of everything, but they'd give her one chemical until it started affecting her heart, then they'd cut back on that and give another until her kidneys were in danger, then they'd cut back on that and hope her lungs would still be ok.

It was all about benefits and needs vs. the effects of too much medicine.

We move on to reminiscing about pregnancy.  I suppose I had hyperemesis gravidum like Kate Middleton, but I didn't know the name for it.  All I know is that I was either barfing all the time or lying in bed, monstrously nauseated and desperately trying not to throw up, for weeks and months on end.

"Misery" is a very mild word for this experience.

Doctors are cautious at the best of times and hyper-cautious with pregnant women, so there was nothing my doctors could offer me.  I remember dissolving in tears when Dr. MacDonald told me this, with a slight shrug, because I was under the delusion that he could and would give me something magic to make it better.

For all five pregnancies, a slight shrug was the best any of my doctors could do.

Some time after my last baby, I read somewhere that a puff or two of marijuana can calm down the nausea of pregnancy.

I thought, I would do it myself, seriously I would.

Now before you storm across the yard with pitchforks, answer this: did you take Tylenol with Codeine when you had your wisdom teeth out?  I'll bet you did.  And you had some side effects too, and no one would have let you drive because you were so loopy.

But you justified that "high" because the alternative was intense pain.

Marijuana has a bad reputation as a recreational drug and a politically charged subject, but really it's one of a thousand plants that can be used wisely or misused.

I think if it weren't such a volatile subject, the pharmaceutical industry would quietly turn it into forms that could be taken by means other than smoking, such as tea or capsules.  The dosage could be monitored and pregnant ladies could sip just enough tea to quell the terrible heaves and have some blessed relief without getting high or hurting the baby.

And it could be taken by cancer patients and people with other chronic conditions whose quality of life could improve with fewer side effects than the drugs they are now allowed and encouraged to take.

That's what I think, based on what I know.

But again, I am not allowing my teenagers to smoke pot any more than I'd allow them to puff on my asthma inhalers just for a lark.

Later:
I just read an article reporting that a researcher in Israel developed a hybrid cannabis high in "good" chemicals and low in "bad."  Sounds like a great solution all around.

 Professor Mechoulam has been working to grow cannabis that contains high levels of cannabidiol, or CBD, something that has been intentionally bred out of the plant by non-medical marijuana growers looking for a stronger high (or higher level of THC). THC is the most well known cannabinoid, less so for its medicinal benefits, and more for the high that it produces when cannabis is dried, and smoked. Cannabidiol on the other hand is a substance that researchers believe can be used for treating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, liver inflammation,multiple schlerosis, heart disease and diabetes without getting the patients ‘high’. Avidekel is a brand new strain being grown by Tikkun Olam that contains a record setting 15.8% CBD and only minute traces of THC below 1%.  Mechoulam believes that CBD-rich strains such as Avidekel, show promise as potent anti-inflammatory drugs.