There’s a taxi driver I know and I used to see him everyday. And then I didn’t see him for a while until one day I seen him sitting and he looked like he lost half his body weight I mean he looked like skin and bones. I asked him what happened and he told me he got into a bad car accident and he couldn’t walk without a walker anymore. He told me he was on a bunch of pain pills and was still in constant pain. The opiates have did a real number on him and he was a bit of a space cadet. It broke my heart to see someone go through that so I offered to make him some THC tincture and see how it works for him, and he accepted. Within a very short period he was able to stand up and walk without help and without a walker, he started smiling and his eyes brightened up he was not a zombie full of opiates anymore, he still skinny but he put on a bunch of weight so he doesn’t look like a skeleton anymore, he says pain is not a problem he cannot handle anymore. I’ve been making and giving him the tincture for free for I think around 10 months now and he has not taken any opiates this whole time and it changed his life. And so I’m not trying to dispute the study you are showing I’m just sharing what I’ve seen with my own eyes.
I think most of us could give similar examples to what you’ve described. But I think this study was showing that pre-existing users of cannabis prior to a surgery experienced a slightly elevated level of pain after the surgery and required a higher dose of opioid treatment. Rather than contesting that cannabinoids often provide a much less side effect laden treatment than opioids for those in pain.
Of course, pain is subjective which makes planning a study like this tricky and really throws a wrench into any conclusions one makes. But it’s still something interesting to consider, particularly for those specifically working with cannabinoids to provide pain relief. Do cannabinoids alter our tolerance for pain and if yes, how?
Cannabis can change your opioid tolerance. I used to be a surgical assistant for an oral surgeon; the sedatives used were propofol, ketamine with fentanyl, and anytime we would get a stoner in the chair they would not stay sedated as long or as deeply as a normal person. We only ever prescribed opioids for extreme cases and surgeries though so cant say for after but in the chair, big difference
Experienced this when I went in for surgery, they gave me a dose and where baffled it didn’t drop me like a sac of potato’s. I feel like thc manipulated my pain threshold levels and increased rate of which pain analgesia started taking effect. They had me on some insane hi dose opiates for my back at time also
My wife is in healthcare, and she says that regular cannabis users are more resistant to anesthesia/require high pain management. She said it’s similar for heavy drinkers and other substance users. It probably does have a physiological origin. There is probably also a behavioral component where a regular substance user is more incline to seek relief from other substances, etc.
Not sure how I feel about this, I was born with clubbed feet, had a kidney removed at 8 years old, and have had multiple orthopedic surgeries as an adult and can say the pain felt different across the board, but actually way worse when not using cannabis, and cannabis absolutely kept me from having to take opiates as they will quite literally make me worse upon ingesting, my body rejects any and all opiates because they are poison. Cannabis, however, has consistently kept my pain tolerance manageable and absolutely negated my need to take any other drug to manage my pain. Speaking purely from personal experience but it’s quite literally made me tolerate pain at a higher level for the better part of half of my life. I refuse pain management at every turn because I have my own. Self care and cannabinoids.
Yeah, it’s only a problem when non-patentable medications come with side effects.
Otherwise it’s just an inconvenience and you have to put a black box on saying “may cause instant death”
I can backup what the article is saying. Right away after a major injury or directly after surgery, cannabis will absolutely make the pain worse, for me at least. It does heighten the senses, which has always been my bro science as to why it happens. My examples, broken collar bone that required replacing with a metal plate, third degree burned hand, broken heal that split the bone in two halves, 8 broken ribs all at once with a punctured lung, herniated discs with 5 bulges in my lower back. Those injuries always felt worse with cannabis. After a few days, that did seem to go away. The collar bone hurt worse for probably a month. And with the ribs, I switched all use to edibles for obvious reasons, but they hurt worse for about a month also. Edibles with the bad back and during the recovery also, I dared not cough. But it took a ton to even feel the slightest bit of relief with my back. I had to be seriously loaded for it to help at all. I used no pain pills for any of the injuries listed. I hate them and refuse to use them. So cannabis and ibuprofen was it. For normal back soreness, or joint pain (I got plenty of arthritis) cannabis does help me. But for big stuff, I have to be honest and say that it does make it worse in the early stages of the injury at least.
Just my .02
Is it making it worse, or just making pain meds less effective.
They are not the same thing.
Cannabis always gave me a happier mindset while healing from injuries. Duration of healing seemed shorter while consuming her daily.
Fwiw.
I don’t take pain meds, so it just makes it worse. It’s enough that I notice and choose to not have any for a week at a time until that feeling goes away.
fair enough
Had an oral surgeon say he straps down all his patients if he knows they are cannabis users. Had a few wake up on him swinging. Definitely had a strong opinion of regular users.