If you have chronic pain and its bedmates (fatigue, sleeplessness, anxiety, and depression) you've considered medical marijuana. Cannabis (marijuana) for chronic pain therapy skirts the border between pharmaceutical and alternative, and its legality varies by location. The natural plant's advantages are expanding, especially for 15 complicated illnesses, from fibromyalgia to rheumatoid arthritis.
If you use or are considering using marijuana like White Label CBD Salve, it's crucial to have a safe plan for where to buy it, how and when to consume it, and what adverse effects to expect. Here's how to begin.
How Is Marijuana Medicine?
Due to its addictiveness and abuse potential, marijuana was designated as a Schedule I substance in 1970. Federally unlawful 50 years later. 33 states and DC allow medical usage. California was the first state to legalize medical cannabis under physician supervision with the Compassionate Use Act.
This divergence can be confusing for customers, and the government designation hinders medical marijuana research.
Scientists have developed some solutions. Medical marijuana may help manage symptoms of:
- Anxiety
- Cancer
- IBD
- Pain
- Fibromyalgia
- Glaucoma
- GERD (IBS)
- Lupus
- MS; (MS)
- Neuropathy
- Osteoarthritis
- Opioid-relieved pains
- PTSD
- RA
- Seizures
- Vomiting
- Snoring
Understanding how marijuana works and how to utilize it effectively involves additional research and trial and error. We don't know much, yet medicinal marijuana is helpful for many.
How To Use Medical Marijuana For Pain?
First, Get A Prescription
Legally using medicinal marijuana requires a doctor's recommendation. Due to federal law, doctors may only recommend or order marijuana, not prescribe it. Find state-by-state information on medicinal marijuana conditions.
Choose A Passion
Next, choose a form; each will affect your experience.
Consumption techniques affect how many active chemicals your body absorbs, how quickly you experience the benefits, and how long they last. Cannabis is consumed in three ways:
• Inhalation: vaping or smoking (a "joint").
• Edibles: candies, brownies, and other "snacks"; tinctures and oils that dissolve beneath the tongue.
• Topicals (creams, ointments, salves)
Inhaling
Inhalation Marijuana's active components can pass the blood-brain barrier and may reduce CNS pain responses. This is especially helpful for neuropathic or centralized pain syndromes like fibromyalgia. After 2 minutes of smoking marijuana, users experience the effects, which peak after 30 minutes. When smoked, marijuana's effects last 2 to 4 hours and the body absorbs 25% of the active chemicals.
Vaporizing cannabis absorbs more active ingredients than smoking. First-time users should consider this. Vaporization absorbs 33% of cannabis, therefore vaping may require less than smoking.
Eating
Oral medicinal marijuana has comparable effects to inhalation, but slower and less predictable intake. Available foods vary. When you eat marijuana, it must pass through your digestive tracts like any other meal or drink, so you won't experience the effects for a couple of hours. This is why individuals overeat foods, so be careful. Don't take more if you don't experience the effects. Some studies show that marijuana's direct contact with gut flora may have favorable effects on the digestive system.
1 to 5 milligrams of THC is considered a micro-dose by most dispensaries. Marijuana edibles can have greater, longer-lasting effects than smoking.
Cannabis Is Consumed In Three Ways:
Medical marijuana dispensaries sell treats like:
- Gummies
- Cookies
- Lollies
- Beverages
- Butter
- Brownies
- Granolas
Tinctures/Oils
Tinctures and oils are taken orally, but the body absorbs them more quickly. Tinctures and oils can be taken sublingually to pass the blood-brain barrier. Tinctures may be a suitable alternative for persons who require precision dosing.
Topicalization
Topical use reduces localized pain and inflammation without systemic absorption or highness (like consuming and inhaling marijuana will). Applying lotion to joint pain can relieve it. Cannabis topicals include:
- Lotions
- Creams
- Oils
- Salves
Like any medicine, the amount of marijuana you consume will affect your body. Dosage is difficult to estimate and manage since effects vary by strain, manner of ingestion, body chemistry, and marijuana history (you may find that you need more as time goes on).
Remember:
Vaping absorbs more cannabinoids than smoking.
- Edibles don't work immediately. Begin slowly.
- Retail product dosage listings (particularly edibles) may be inaccurate, and it typically only takes a little amount to feel the effects.
- Tinctures (under-the-tongue liquid consumables) provide the most exact dose.
- Doses and brands vary by strain; your experience may be different.
Safety Science
Just as your body's cannabinoids interact with other natural components, so does marijuana. Environment affects both.
How marijuana affects us depends on our discomfort, weight, and daily routines (what we eat, how much we sleep, and how stressed we are). Sun, soil, and humidity affect marijuana's growth. The same marijuana strand might vary from harvest to harvest, like a wine grape.