I am not here to throw stones or point fingers, but I think some readers need to consider prayerful introspection when the topic turns to medicinal marijuana, and research the facts with an open mind.
I am a Christian. I grew up in church as well as the church’s elementary and high school. I learned my ABCs along with my Bible verses, accepting Christ as my Savior during my senior year of high school. I was taught that drinking and dancing were bad, rock n’ roll was the Devil’s music, and marijuana was his weed. That was that. End of discussion.
During my adolescence, I vividly remember something that stuck with me to this day. I was watching TV one afternoon with my mom, and one of the local Miami stations aired a piece about that vile evil weed marijuana and how it was helping glaucoma patients. I questioned my mom and she said it was true; marijuana does help people with glaucoma.
Needless to say, I was greatly confused by this seeming contradiction. I pondered how cannabis was called the Devil’s weed when it was helping people keep their vision. An item cannot be good and evil at the same time; it has to be one or the other, or totally neutral. That news clip is something I’ve never forgotten; a chink in the armor had appeared.
Another piece fell off in 1990, my first year in Bible College. A guest speaker was visiting during chapel and I still haven’t forgotten what he said, for he stunned many. American Christians had some major flaws in their thinking…drinking alcohol wasn’t a sin! He went on to tell how great leaders in the faith drank alcohol. One leader went as far as telling a nun he loved her because she made the best beer in Germany! However, he reminded us that the sin is being drunk, not drinking the alcohol.
Later I learned that young American missionaries assigned to Europe are sent to specific places so as not to observe mature European Christians drinking wine or beer. The culture shock was too much, and many returned to the U.S. and/or became extremely self-righteous when they witnessed other Christians drinking.
In the early 90s, I was in the beginning stages of my Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia; episodes were sporadic. I thought the pain I experienced was simple headaches. The pain continued to strike, increasing in intensity before exploding in April 2007 to full Type 2 TN.
I have been prescribed three successive pain pills, all of which did hardly anything to relieve the agonizing pain. I began taking the first one in July of 2007; I don’t remember the name but I remember the side effects. I walked around in a daze. I felt something run from the back of my eye towards the back of my skull, which would be the trigeminal nerve for those of you reading in Port St. Lucie. I couldn’t stop yawning at times. I wore long-sleeved shirts to protect against sunburn. This was in the brutal July heat in Florida and I’m a redhead. A few days later, I couldn’t go to the bathroom and I was off pill number one.
Five years later, the doctor who officially diagnosed me with TN put me on Carbamazepine. No matter the dosage, I would still be in pain. I broke out in a rash several weeks later and I was off Carbamazepine.
I couldn’t immediately stop taking it, however, I had to decrease the dosage as I started a regiment of increasing doses of my new drug, Gabapentin. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until I finally took a full dose. The next two nights I dreamt of nothing but murders, stabbings, and being followed. But it would get worse. As with Carbamazepine, I couldn’t stop immediately. I had hellish side effects while weaning myself off Gabapentin, including an excruciating ache in my left cheek. I cried out to God. If I were going to be in this much pain for the rest of my life, I begged Him to go ahead and take me now.
Weeks later, I was reading several online articles, and ran across one about a father giving his little child, who was suffering from over 200 seizures a day, cannabis oil. The seizures reduced to two to three a day. I read how it was helping military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan cope with PTSD. I also read that some of our Founding Fathers were hemp farmers. Apparent benefits aside, I still wasn’t ready to “take the plunge” when I was asked if I wanted to try medical marijuana for my TN pain.
Two months later, after more weeks of painful headaches and sleepless nights, I was asked again about medical marijuana. I accepted at the speed of light. I was given four cookies, one brownie and one chocolate donut. I ate half a cookie a day for eight days and it was wonderful. My eyes became heavy, and any trigeminal flare-up was killed immediately. I slept peacefully for the first time in months, and awoke pain free.
The donut just let me sleep; it was a dud.
The brownie was two doses, so I halved it again, totaling four doses. The effect of this, too, was to make my eyes heavy and enable me to sleep restfully. A mutinous flare-up was quickly dispatched and I slept without pain. I did awaken to pain, but I’ve concluded that was due to an extremely rare Florida cold front stalled over the central part of the state.
I was sold.
Despite the propaganda one hears about how cannabis is addictive, and a gateway drug, I can confidently say that these claims are groundless. Cannabis is no more a drug that alcohol (and many of us have experienced the tragic effects of drinking and driving). Once I stopped ingesting cannabis I had no urge to want more, or to take a harder drug. Nor did I have the urge to “freak out” and go wild.
Christians can be willfully ignorant – and I have run across a lot of them lately. I have shared the facts of my experiences and I have been met with many opinions. The negative ones always seem to regurgitate the latest propaganda or talking points, but hardly ever give any facts, a scare tactic that would make the 1930s proud.
I was called a hippie, a pothead, a stoner…with no consideration for the plain facts. Apparently, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Pain pills don’t kill – and, if they do, it’s because we didn’t read the directions properly. Cannabis has no medicinal value. People have stooped so low as to produce a social media ad stating that the cookies I ate are the new date rape drug. I have been insulted more than a politician at a political rally.
One woman called cannabis a vile evil weed. If that’s so, then why did God call it good in Genesis 1:12? And Genesis 1:29?
A young man asked me a snarky question, “Does your pastor smoke weed, too?” I informed him that I don’t smoke weed, I ingest it. He reiterated that cannabis has no medicinal value and that, if I researched it, I would find the truth. He sarcastically added that I hadn’t died from taking pain pills. Correct, I haven’t died but let’s ponder some statistics I recently came across during my own research:
• 106,000 Americans die every year from their pain pills. That is the equivalent of four 747s crashing every week. How long would it take for the FAA to ground those jets?
• The US makes up 5% of the world’s population, yet we take 50% of the world’s prescription pain pills.
• Add the OxyContin family into the mix and the US consumes 90% of the world’s pain pills. Unbelievable!
• States that have legalized medicinal marijuana have reported that accidental pain pill overdoses have dropped 25% year over year.
Sadly, there is no compassion for patients suffering from chronic pain. As someone who lives with agonizing pain on a daily basis, I ask my fellow Christians, where is your compassion? Where is the compassion Christ always showed to those suffering in pain? I would hope that we would all rejoice to find an antidote that alleviates the excruciating pain that accompanies many chronic illnesses. Instead, there are those who would add to the patient’s already difficult time by vilifying – and wanting to take away – the one natural remedy that works, all because minds are closed and “facts” are misconstrued.
“And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.” Gen. 1:12
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