I live with a serious headache disorder. The cluster headaches I get can be incapacitating. Last year, I experienced daily cluster headaches for three months. And that was the best things had been in a decade. Several years ago, I discovered that daily marijuana use decreased both the frequency and intensity of headache attacks. Since then, I've been generally happier and much more productive.
Minnesota, the state where I reside, has not yet legalized marijuana. The legal penalty for possessing up to forty grams is a $200 fine. Having to pay this fine would be dismaying. But I risk it because cannabis greatly improves my quality of life.
For years, I kept my cannabis consumption a secret. Then, one day, I decided to start looping my doctors in. Most just told me that what I was doing was fine. But one doctor, when I was starting a new medication, gave me very important instructions. "A one hitter is fine," she said. "But don't do any dabs."
The only time I ever tried a dab, it was the wrong move. I got so high that I couldn't tell if it was daytime or night while walking through the forest. Hearing my doctor's advice, I recalled the experience and knew she was right about dabs. More doctors should warn people about dabs.
Marijuana can play a role in managing a wide variety of illnesses. It won't stop a cluster headache that's already started. But it will make it easier to recover from that headache and reduce the number of future headaches. A plant like that is a godsend. The fact that it's illegal anywhere is appalling.
The police in my city have more important things to worry about than cannabis. They'll cite people who use it right in front of them, but their attention is elsewhere. The main difference I have found between here and states where marijuana is fully legal is that those states have retail pot shops whereas Minnesota has black market dealers. Prices may be better in the black market, but service is inconsistent. It's absurd to have to depend on inconsistent service for a medication.
Minnesota does have a medical marijuana program. Cluster headache is not on the list of approved conditions. Dilated blood vessels crush my brain from the inside out but the state decided my condition isn't approved. Even if it was approved, the application process is a bureaucratic quagmire I doubt I could navigate. And how many people really want to be in a centralized registry of marijuana users?
Some cluster headache sufferers find relief in psilocybin or LSD. While these substances have proven ineffective in stopping my own headache attacks, they're immensely helpful to others living with this condition. Prominent voices in the medical community are calling for removing the legal barriers to treating cluster headache with psychedelics. In some places, these substances are being decriminalized. But not in my state. Not yet, anyway.
Although I am otherwise law abiding, my medical marijuana use makes me a criminal. I want to abide by the law, but I also want to be able to function because I'm properly managing my chronic illness. At the end of the day, my physical wellbeing is more important to me than my legal standing. Which is why I smoke my doctor-approved one hitter and wish my state would just legalize it already.
(Feature image from Pixabay)