Not a Therapeutic Cannabis Dropout

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I recently fell on the ice in my driveway. One minute I was upright, the next I was flat on my back looking up at the stars. I pulled a few muscles, but I also ended up severally bruising my spine in my lower back.  

That night I was in some incredible pain and early the next day (minutes after they opened) I went to an urgent care facility to get some help.

The Doc dressed me down for not taking any kind of pain medication. “You’re not proving to anyone how strong you are by being in pain,” he told me.

I wasn’t sure how to tell him that I was in the therapeutic cannabis program for pain already, but that this particular pain was in a league of its own.

I wasn’t sure how to tell him that I write about the therapeutic cannabis program and I sing its praises and that I feel like a traitor if I take anything else for pain.

Instead I kept my mouth shut and listened to what he had to say.

Because he was right. Different kinds of pain need to be treated differently. Acute pain is very different from chronic pain.

Sometimes there are reasons to take prescription drugs for pain —  even if you are already in a therapeutic cannabis program. Cannabis helps, that’s for sure, but it shouldn’t be your (or my) only option.

There is a time and a place for prescription drugs.

I’m still taking my micro-doses of cannabis, but since Saturday, I’ve been taking Aleve twice a day and at night I’m taking a muscle relaxant. I’m feeling better (a lot better) and don’t think I’ll need to take the Aleve and muscle relaxant for much longer but until the pain greatly decreases I will.

Cannabis is not a cure-all. It helps, in fact it helps a lot, but there is a time and a place for over-the-counter and for prescription drugs. You (and I) are not a loser or a dropout of the therapeutic program, if you need to take advantage of them.  

You know what your body needs. Do what’s best for your body so that you can continue to keep going.


42408011 10155824290788339 6918153228123111424 nWendy E. N. Thomas is a New Hampshire State Representative for Hillsborough District 21. She is also in the NH Therapeutic Cannabis program. Wendy agrees with the State-wide Democratic platform of legalizing cannabis in New Hampshire, she would also like to see the Therapeutic Cannabis program expanded to include Anxiety, Lyme Disease, and Insomnia (for starters.) Thomas understands that people need to know about what cannabis can do, how to keep it away from children, and how to use it responsibly (in the same way that the alcohol industry talks about responsible drinking.)
All opinions reflected in this article and any future articles on the Democratic cannabis platform are the opinions of Representative Thomas and do not reflect any company or industry. Thomas works at Prime ATC in Merrimack as a Patient Liaison. The contents of this article are not sanctioned by Prime ATC or any of its affiliates.

About this Author

Wendy E.N. Thomas

Rep. Wendy E.N. Thomas, D-Merrimack, represents NH District 21.