cannabisnews.com: Smoking Pot Eases Pain, Says Woman with MS





Smoking Pot Eases Pain, Says Woman with MS
Posted by CN Staff on July 12, 2003 at 08:31:35 PT
By Colin McKim 
Source: Packet & Times 
Marijuana is an amazing treatment for the stabbing pain and spastic tremors caused by muscular sclerosis, says a 43-year-old woman who is walking across Canada to raise money and awareness. “It provides me with the ability to cope so well. I can weather anything that can happen,” said Lori Wikdahl, who arrived in Orillia on Friday after trudging almost 1,900 kilometres.
Back home in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, Wikdahl grows her own marijuana, which she brews up to make a soothing tea. Although the federal government is finally permitting the medicinal use of marijuana in closely regulated doses, Wikdahl has not applied for a licence. In so doing she would be opening the door to surprise government inspections, she told The Packet & Times. “I don’t want to give the government permission to show up at my door any time they choose. I should have the right to have my own life.” An inflammatory disease that attacks the central nervous system, muscular sclerosis or MS can suddenly cause Wikdahl’s hands to clench painfully like bird talons. “It’s like a steel trap. But if I have a couple of tokes (of marijuana) the pain levels off and my hands unclaw.” Agonizing nerve pain, like a knife in the back or a hot poker through the head, drifts away when Wikdahl smokes grass or drinks a cup of marijuana tea she prepares by the jug. Before she tried marijuana to alleviate MS symptoms a few years ago, Wikdahl was spending between $700 and $800 a week on prescription drugs. “I was taking Lithium (mood stabilizer) Zoloft (anti-depressant) and painkillers like morphine, Demerol and codeine.” But unlike pot, which provides long-term relief, the pharmaceutical remedies tend to become less effective over time, said Wikdahl, a former family resource worker. Many doctors, including Wikdahl’s family doctor, are uncomfortable prescribing marijuana because of its street-drug stigma. Sadly there seems to be as much misinformation about marijuana as there is about MS, said Wikdahl. Just as MS sufferers who lose their balance and fall in public are dismissed as drunks, so marijuana users are seen as socially unacceptable, said Wikdahl. “I’m not a hippy freako.” Wikdahl doesn’t smoke just to get high. “When the pain levels off and I don’t need any more, I put the joint out and it sits in the ashtray.” On her seven-month cross-Canada trek, Wikdahl has decided to go without grass. “I didn’t want to get arrested. But I’m paying the price.” To dull the pain that wracks her body, she is back to taking conventional drugs like codeine. “I take the equivalent of 60 Tylenol 3s a day.” Note: B.C. woman on cross-country trek to raise cash for research into multiple sclerosis.Source: Packet & Times (CN ON)Author: Colin McKim Published: Saturday, July 12, 2003Copyright: 2003 Osprey Media Group Inc.Contact: ddawson orilliapacket.comWebsite: http://www.orilliapacket.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Canadians for Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccess.ca/Patients Seek Relief On Price of Medical Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16813.shtmlCanada To Supply Marijuana To Seriously Ill http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16809.shtmlCanada To Offer Marijuana To Medical Patientshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16807.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by Max Flowers on July 14, 2003 at 18:40:30 PT
"equivalent of"
Maybe by saying "the equivalent of" she means that this was the dose of codeine (straight codeine) she was taking. In other words, maybe she just used the tylenol pill as a common reference so people would understand how much codeine she was taking...?
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Comment #3 posted by freedom fighter on July 12, 2003 at 16:19:31 PT
Someone ought to let her
know that..paceff
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 12, 2003 at 10:51:49 PT
A Comment About Tylenol
Back years ago I got very sick. I was taking Tylenol 4s and Fioricet for headaches. My weight dropped down to 89 pounds and was put in the hospital. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with me and after so many tests I had a major seizure. They were going to do exploratory surgery on me but because of the seizure they said I was too unstable. A few days later after I was sent home to rest up before anymore tests were done the Doctor called me and said I had Hepatitis but they didn't know which one. They never really did figure out what kind but they said Hep B ultimately. I think it was the legal drugs not Hepatitis. I don't take any drugs anymore. That was bad enough to show me not to use drugs unless really necessary.
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on July 12, 2003 at 09:18:59 PT:
Suicide via the Government
“I take the equivalent of 60 Tylenol 3s a day.”This is potentially fatal. Acetaminophen is a known hepatotoxin (kills the liver), especially when mixed with any alcohol. Several thousand Americans die a year as a result.Any bureaucrat that feels it is more moral to die of liver failure than use cannabis is deserving of abundant scorn.
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