When the wear and tear of decades of training for sports caught up to me 10 years ago I had to go on disability. Currently, I have had 10 related surgeries, had a rod put in my femur, a plate and artificial joints in my foot, 5 bulging lumbar discs, stenosis of the cervical spine and spondylosis of the sacrum. Along with osteoarthritis through every major joint even simple things like pulling my pants on became difficult.
When I was sent to a pain clinic for treatment I was put on t-3’s – t-4’s but it gradually worked up to Percocet, Demerol, morphine, Dilaudid, Oxycontin and even methadone. My habit had gotten so bad I would chew 80mg oxycontin just to get some relief but my tolerance had gotten dangerously high. I then knew I needed help.
2 years ago I finally found a doctor who would register me for medical marijuana and it helped me to kick my pain killer addiction finally while giving me the relief needed without any deadly side effects.
Today I am a group leader teaching workshops through Hamilton Health Sciences for Chronic pain management workshops to help others who struggle with chronic pain.
Also for the last 6 years, I have been assisting pain specialist Dr. Jeff Ennis with his program Hypnotherapy for chronic pain management 10-week course.
Seeing my own amazing healing from cannabis I decided to take an online course on everything related to cannabis. The more I learn the more I realize how valuable it is for such a widespread of illnesses.
Originally I ordered through a large medical cannabis company but once dispensaries became available I would buy through them. In the months following legalization, the police have slowly been shutting dispensaries down in Hamilton making it stressful trying to keep a consistent supply of medicine on hand.
The whole idea of legalization was to cut into the black market but what do they think is going to happen if they force you to buy overpriced government cannabis after shutting down the dispensaries that make it affordable? For people in pain, they need to have easy, consistent availability to their medicine just the same as having a local pharmacy is there for other medical issues. Allowing just a few dispensaries in the city will make it difficult for chronic pain sufferers with limited mobility to get what they need to give them some quality of life.
