“Unfortunately Doc, the synthetic version (Marinol) has none of the nausea-combating properties that the actual smoke has. Having endured 40 days of radiation and 5 months of brutal chemo two years ago, I was given scripts for every anti-nausea med they had and none had any effect at all. At the insistence of a friend, I tried a few puffs of weed and within moments I felt a rush of relief throughout my gut. I was able to drink water and even eat a little.”
I have no doubt that your personal experience as related here is true. In the sense that you experienced “relief.” However, it could have simply been a “pacebo effect” where the drug worked based upon the power of suggestion. Or, it was the “being stoned” effect that, that you otherwise disliked, caused the relief. It is so hard to know.
Personally, as long as the drug (marijuana in this case) is properly prescribed and used strictly by the person it is prescribed for, I have no problem with medical use....even if it a pacebo effect. I just don’t want this to be a back door way of legalizing more intoxicating drugs. We have enough problems with alcohol as it is.
Glad you are doing better. Uncontrolled nausea is really a terrrible thing to deal with on top of cancer.
I can guarantee to you that the relief I felt was not a placebo effect, nor was it just the stoned feeling that gave the relief. The relief to my stomach and intestines came as a wave of relief, nearly instantly after taking a puff, and even before the stoned feeling came over me.
This gastrointestinal relief was a direct result from something in the smoke that is not in the synthetic drug. I continued using it during and after my treatment, and it allowed me to keep fluids down and eat a little. I am the last person in the world who would ever use drugs, and I don’t even like taking the things that are prescribed for me. But this is one drug that I would not be without since my GI tract will never be the same (my cancer was a colorectal type, and the radiation did permanent damage.)
I still keep some of the weed on hand for the times when the diarrhea is so severe that it causes me to vomit (this often happens in the middle of the night.) I smoke a puff or two so that I can swallow the Imodium and keep it down. That doesn’t happen very often, but when it does happen I am thankful to have a remedy — one that works instantly and reliably.
Please open your mind and maybe do some research of your own of people who use this drug as a necessity. Just stroll through any cancer center, ask around, and you will change your mind about it being a placebo effect.
And if you or anyone you know ever finds themselves facing cancer treatment, get your hands on some weed and a pipe. Don’t hesitate. It will make all the difference in surviving. The cancer can take you slowly, but the effects of the treatment can kill you in a matter of days if you can’t keep fluids down.
FRegards,