When I first started smoking pot it was just sort of a "when in rome" type thing. I was far more attracted to mushrooms and LSD than cannabis, but I was willing the give the mean green a try. The first couple times I smoked pot I found it interesting, but extremely uncomfortable and overwhelming. I started smoking socially in college, but soon found that if I smoked every few days I would quickly develop a tolerance and the highs started to level out and become less intense. I also started to notice that on the days that I smoked I had more regular eating and sleeping patterns. The food at the cafateria on my campus had given me food poisoning a number of times, and it was getting hard to get any food at all down. I am not a very heavy guy to begin with, and I lost another 10lbs my first semester, so being able to eat was important to me. I also have a history of insomnia (both late night and early waking) that cannabis has helped me manage. Additionally, I have lived with back and neck pain for a number of years. I never chose to go on medication for it, but treated it with chirotherapy. Unfortunately, chiropractors are expensive, inconvenient, and long term. I found better results by stretching and moderate cannabis use, and for less money, than the chiropractor.
I have never discussed my cannabis use with a doctor because I have never lived in a state with a legitimate medical cannabis program. If I wanted to live in California I'm sure I could get a card if I wanted one, but I don't think that I should need a license to smoke. I consider cannabis to be equivilant to over-the-counter medication. The very nature of cannabis, being an easily cultivated medicinal plant, makes it threatening to the pharmacutical and medical industries. If you have a problem, and not only do you not need to go to a doctor, but you don't need to go to a pharmacist to fix it, why not? Why pay hundreds and thousands of dollars for narcotic pills when you can smoke pot much more cheaply and safely?
The term "self-medicating" can sound a bit scary, but as Americans we self medicate all the time. We take in hundreds of pounds of sugar and caffine, and still have room for the thousands of OTC meducations containing psudo-effedrine, DXM, and other drugs. You don't even think about taking some anti-histamine or pain killers, do you? Is cannabis even half as dangerous as drinking alcohol? I'd say, at any given time, probably over 90% of the American population is high on something. If you can't admit that you are self medicating in some way, whether it is with cannabis or not, you are probably living in a fantacy.
It can be easy, when self medicating, to smoke too much. I like to buy in bulk and weigh out daily portions in the morning. I tend to smoke around 1.75g per day. Happy toking!
