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Opioids Medical Marijuana vs Opiates for chronic pain management

K

KrazyEyesKilla!

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
90
So two nights ago I was over a neighbors house that lives in the same unit as me and he had a friend over who was in a very bad car accident a while ago. She has a few big problems. A messed up knee, shortened vertabrae, and two tumors near her brain. She said she takes 5-8 10/325 mg percocets a day on top of one to two 70mg morphine pills .So she happened to mention her doctor told her she could get prescribed medical marijuana. I said now wouldn't that be the safer alternative to managing your pain as I whipped out a nice rolled cigar and lit it up. She wanted to try and see how it compared to taking all these opiates daily but she had had a 4-5 beers and I told her I MIGHT let her try it when she wasn't drinking and hadn't taken too much opiates. I believe that marijuana might possibily be able to help her pain as well as not kill her body like the opiates are doing to her. Now how does the rest of BL feel about this? I'm trying to gather up as many pro's and con's as I can as well as some referenced information to try and get her to seek a new way to live life.
 
I'll try to keep this concise....

Opioids used therapeutically are one of the safest medications you can use. If she's abusing them (which drinking on top of them certainly would be) this is a different story. If she's going to consume other substances marijuana certainly would be safer.

This is basically moot anyway because marijuana simply doesn't produce the analgesia that opioids do. It's great for certain types of pain and very useful for opioid-sparing effects (allowed users to take less opioids) but that's it. You can't substitute pot for surgical anesthesia/analgesia, for severe broken bones, etc.

Potent marijuana (high THC, low CBD) can actually exacerbate certain types of pain for many (I have chronic nerve pain and I had to have friends try it first to make sure the ratio of THC:CBD wasn't too high before I had any).

I was a HUGE advocate for medical marijuana for a long time (I still required opioids throughout most of this). Now I still see a lot of potential in therapeutic use of cannabinoids but you don't smoke medicine. You take vicodin or morphine for pain, you don't smoke opium.
 
Opiates, muscle relaxers, benzos, marijuana, and a few drinks work nicely to kill the pain and pretty much most of reality. However, it can be very dangerous of you have no tolerance to comboing any of these drugs or the meds by themselves..

Good call on not getting her high while she might have been drunk. Smoke, then drink. Drinking a lot first tends to lead to some throwing up which is quite a buzz kill. ;)
 
^ good call. Also, if she's not wildly tolerant to the opioids and drinks on it plus smokes pot, the added CNS depression may be just enough to be dangerous.

Pot is rarely dangerous alone or even in combinations compared to other drugs, but you don't want to combine a bunch of substances like that without knowing your specific tolerance to each and adjusting for the combination.
 
a-me-fentanyl: Surgical anaesthetic
marijuana: attenuates moderate pain.

What do you think is more effective?

That said, I find marijuana helps me more with neuropathic pain than a tolerable opiate does. (In terms of vomiting and itching and being fucking out of my head side effects)
marijuana is also great to help with the pro-emetic side effect of opiates, and seems to have an analgesia sparring effect. So maybe a combination of both can lower the amount of either required to find comfort.
 
Marijuana has a very powerful role in killing pain, but it will NEVER replace opiates because there are many time marijuana cannot control the pain effectively enough to work on its own. Opiates are much better IMO because they actually kill pain unlike marijuana which seems to change my perception or type of pain to make it less comfortable but still noticeablenough for me that's in not effective enough.
 
Well I think it would be nice for her to not have to take so much percocet and morphine. I was once highly addicted to oxycontin so I know the dark side. They are about to put her on fentanyl patches because she has been on the perc/morphine so long and has taken so much.
 
My fiance has had MS for almost 5 years and got diagnosed with fibromyalgia about 2 months. These are two diagnoses that are often mentioned by advocates for medical marijuana. She smoked regularly up until the last month or two. She has to go to a new pain management doctor and thus needs clean urine at least for the time being. We are not lucky enough to live in a MM state.

She takes 4 10/325 percocets, 60 mg Cymbalta (neuropathy), 3 2mg alprazolam (spasms/pain/anxiety) every day. She has been complaining about pain like she hasn't in several years. Her pain is largely due to nerve issues. She finds the best pain management is opiates with marijuana, not one or the other.

Edit:
Both because both help with pain that the other does not.
 
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I think its good she'll be taken off the pecs because the apap over time would do more damage then the opioids.If she eats her pills like she is suppose to,I would say it would probably have less of a health risk of smoked maijuana,as this obviously would cause damage to the lungs.

Cannabis edibles and opioids are excellent together for pain relief.
 
It should help decrease nausea. If you smoke medical marijuana while taking opiates it should make them go a lot further.

Depending on your type of pain marijuana can be used to replace opiates. But lets say you had surgery on your back, there's no way it's going to cure that kind of pain. It depends on the strain and the type of pain you have. So yeah basically in my opinion if you have minor pains and dont want to take opiates then it's a great alternative.

If you have really bad pain it's a great thing to add to your opiate regimen. It makes the opiates work alot better, increases sedation, helps relax your body, ect.
 
I'm from England, do you know if severe pain patients can be prescribed controlled drugs (percocet, ms contin, dilaudid) and med MJ at the same time or do you have to choose between the two in states that allow it?
Opiates are far better for severe pain though and if Duragesic is being considered she's likely too far gone to get suitable pain relief from the weed alone.
 
I never understood why people would use pot for pain. Isn't the whole point with marajuana that it heightens the senses? Music sounds better, food tastes better, sex feels better...shouldn't pain also hurt more?

Also, opiates are not, as the OP said, 'killing her body'. Opiates are non-toxic and some of the safest drugs around. If they're not being abused, anyway. The paracetamol would be doing more harm than the oxy.
 
I feel that smoking weed reduces the amount of narcotics I require. I am legal and scripted by the same Dr. who is my surgeon and pain specialist. He really believes in it.

I only smoke after work, so my morning doses are a bit higher than my evening doses (of opiods) I just get really heavy indicas, preferably high in moth THC and CBD as I had panic disorder previously, but have since gotten past it. Anyways, good luck managing your pain.
 
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