Existential Ennui

~ Searching for Meaning Amid the Chaos

Existential Ennui

Tag Archives: marijuana

Marijuana is My Friend

18 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by Sherry in marijuana, Medicine, The Contrarian

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

marijuana, medicine, The Contrarian

001e95a94ffc099169ea25b7d0c42ab9 The following comes with all the normal provisos: I am not a doctor. I don’t portray one on television. As in all things that have to do with your health, consult with whomever you esteem as having expertise in the area you are concerned about. This is just information you might want to research yourself and decide whether it’s a good idea for you.

My husband is a Vietnam Vet. He came away from that war with PTSD. He was probably on the cusp of when the military was starting to take “shell shock” or “battle fatigue”  and other various appellations for PTSD seriously. He attended the PTSD clinic in Kansas City back in the seventies for some weeks.

In addition, he suffers from COPD, and a very strange and intermittent lack of balance which makes mobility difficult for him sometimes. The latter is usually attributed to several concussions suffered in youth and in a helicopter crash in Vietnam.

We live in New Mexico, a state that has a “medical marijuana” law. My husband is candidly, no stranger to pot. After all, we are from the 60’s generation and it would be expected that we had dabbled with cannabis and perhaps more over the decades.

In any event, my husband decided to pursue the issue in New Mexico. The process was easy for him. A quick trip to a psychiatrist for an evaluation, and the securing of his rather large PTSD file at the VA was essentially all that was required. My spouse was lucky in that a few years ago, the VA re-evaluated his PTSD pursuant to a renewed request for VA disability status.

His PTSD was diagnosed as active and ongoing, which, as I said, made the process with New Mexico fairly much a no-brainer.

Within a few weeks of his evaluation and submission of application, he received his card. We live in Las Cruces, which has several “drugstores” that cater exclusively to medical marijuana users, so my husband soon was purchasing weed legally for the first time in his life.

We were concerned that whatever relief he might garner from the marijuana vis-a-vis his PTSD might be overwhelmed by a turn for the worse in his COPD status. We expected that he might have to use it in the form of food or as a vape. But he started out in the traditional way: the joint.

After a week, an amazing thing happened. His breathing improved dramatically. Not just dramatically as far as he was concerned, but it was astoundingly obvious to me. I had long grown used to the fact that even walking from the car to the house left his breathing hard. The focus of walking straight seemed to add to his burdened lungs even more difficulty.

Yet, here he was almost NEVER breathing hard no matter what he was doing. Surely he was still taking his inhalers as required, but he was no longer waiting for his next dosage–he often forgot.

So much better did he feel in fact that he has started to ride the recumbent bicycle each morning, taking Diego for a good ride through the neighborhood. He returns in fine fetter and for a while at least, even his mobility improves.

I’ve done some cursory research. What I have learned is that a couple of very long term studies seem to have put to bed the argument that marijuana is even worse than cigarettes for the lungs. In fact, for “light users” there seemed no long term damage to the lungs at all. Even with heavy usage (daily) there seemed to be little change.

Beyond that, there seems to be an increasingly large anecdotal collection of data that suggests that contrary to expectations, use of marijuana seems to help COPD patients. A number of theories are advanced: the normal coughing that might bring up more phlegm and thus open the lungs, the deeper inhaling customary to pot smokers, or just the general relaxation of the body’s systems which allow for greater oxygen intake.

For whatever reason, some COPD patients have reported that they are doing much much better using marijuana. One person has gotten off inhalers completely.

While my husband has not experienced quite that dramatic an improvement, it has been significant. He has been much more active, which explains the bike riding. He sleeps very much better, the best in years. His balance issues come and go, but he feels that that is a worthwhile tradeoff for breathing so much easier.

I wondered whether I should talk about this, but it seems to me that the tide has turned on the issue of marijuana in this country. Colorado and Washington State have led the way, as well as a number of states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes. People on Facebook, for instance, now talk openly, supporting further legalization.

I thought therefore that I had some obligation to speak out as well. If you have a medical condition and live in a state that allows medical marijuana, you might be surprised at the range of diseases or conditions that can be improved. Who would have thought that smoking a joint would help COPD?

As I said, I’m no doctor. I’m sure a boatload of them will still say it’s a bad idea. A boatload of marijuana supports will say otherwise. As far as I can find, most of the supposed dangers of marijuana are way overblown, and it seems certainly to be less of a health risk than alcohol.

I have no interest in talking you into anything. I just offer one story, one anecdote among others that suggest that some really good stuff can come from pot. I can’t speak to what that might mean five years down the road or twenty. It’s just more information for you to use as YOU see fit in determining your own care.

eda93dee27d97831028038e5489fbeb3

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

And Now For More of the Same

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by Sherry in Brain Vacuuming, Budget, Diego, Drugs, GOP, Humor, Life in the Foothills, Mitt Romney, Satire, teabaggers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Diego, fiscal cliff, GOP, Humor, life in the foothills, marijuana, Politics, Romney, teabaggers

2012-08-16_09-00-06_694Diego here. Just a moment of your time. Momsie wants to show you cartoons which may be interesting to humans, I don’t know, but I am so excited I just had to interrupt (which she says I do too much, but gosh I can’t help it) to tell you this!

I’s taught my human momsie a new trick!

As you know, I takes my momsie on a walk every morning. Well, she has a tendency to wander off and get herself lost in the desert. So, I’s taught her to whistle!

You know how to whistle doncha? Just put your lips together and blow? HAHA, I learned that from a movie my popsie was watching one day.

So when my momsie gets herself all lost, she whistles, and I come a runnin’ to find her and gets her back on track. Pretty nifty huh? So if any of you doggies are readin’, e-mail me at “whistlin’inthedark.doggiechannel and I’ll give ya the spifics so your momsie or popsie won’t get lost too. Okay?

Diego signing off.

Holiday-Fiscal-Cliff Are you gettin’ ‘er done? The shopping that is?

Are you spending a fortune to impress everyone with your largess?

Nobody in Washington seems very interesting in impressing us with their brains.

I guess when you don’t have many of those it’s pretty hard to fake it.

DeMint is leaving the Senate. I’m not sure anyone will notice. Stupid seems a rampant disease in the Capital.

Forget it and go buy me a present. I like largess expressly meant for me.

Boehner-Christmas-OrnamentThis seems to be the sticking point.

Why is beyond me.

Ever notice that the business types are the one’s screaming? It’s the teabaggers who are but the working class. They ain’t ever gonna be rich, so I don’t know why they want to protect those who are.

I guess they believe that the could be.

If it weren’t for all us moochers.

I guess their grandma on social security and medicare ain’t a moocher though. Moocher is a very vague kinda word and is hard to define precisely. Everybody has their own definition that avoids their “earned” benefits and only relates to the freebies your lazy ass sits back and enjoys. Funny word huh?

Romey-in-Oval-OfficeDoncha just wish you coulda been there?

Oh I bet it was priceless.

I bet little Willard just sweat bullets.

I bet it was his first time ever in that room.

I know it will be his last.

I hear Ann cries in her room every day. Before she gets on her jodhpurs and saddles up Rafalca and goes riding around in the air-conditioned ring at the snooty-patootie riding club for the disgustingly wealthy. It almost makes you want to feel sorry for her. . . .almost I said.

High-Over-ColoradoMeanwhile a couple of states in the union were pretty darn happy.

The election results seem to energize them.

Everybody is happy.

Except the rightie-tighties.

They never are happy unless everyone is as miserable as they are. Then they are happy.

And then they repent and look for more things to dislike that feel good, taste good, or look good.  Did they forget that when God created the world he said, “IT WAS GOOD!” ?

It’s all in how you interpret. Ya know what I mean?

teabaggerconundrum

Nothing much changes in the great dizzy land of teabagging.

After all, rationality is not a word then subscribe too. It’s too bourgeois.

The conundrum. What to do, what to do.

You ask them: What exactly has this President done that is so awful?

The answer: “he’s a Democrat, ‘enuf said.”

Is that enough?

Ted Nugent says people on assistance shouldn’t be allowed to vote. I say people without brains shouldn’t be allowed to vote. I doubt we are talking about the same people.

GOPReally got to feel sorry for the GOP.

Just a little.

I mean it must be tough standing there in front of microphones and acting like you are important brokers of the common good.

When you are pretty much laughingstocks. Mere shells of political might.

I mean look at Lindsay Graham. Can you listen to him without laughing?

I mean really, can you?

And McCain? Don’t you want to just offer him a diaper change?

And Mitch? A chin? And Boehner the Orange: you know he goes home and cries his eyes out. Heading up a bunch of clown college rejects.

disabiitiesThis was just plain unconscionable.

Santorum was delighted.

Santorum is one of those who ain’t happy unless everyone else is miserable.

How can you explain this?

You cannot.

No one can.

Except to say that the GOP is still so afraid of the crazies that they will risk public humiliation again and again rather than lance the boil. Disgusting is too good a word for them.

It's nice to get along

It’s nice to get along

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

When Nobody Loves Ya

09 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by Sherry in Corporate America, Drugs, Economy, Election 2012, Humor, Medicine, Mitt Romney, Satire, Voting, What's Up?

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Adam West, elections, electoral college, Humor, marijuana, Mitt Romney, satire, social security, the 1%, what's happening today

One of the funniest things in this election cycle, is the admitted lukewarm embrace by fellow Redumplicans of their main man–the Willard. I mean they shrug and, for maybe the first time in their lives, speak the truth.

Rubio, Latin wonder of Florida said this: “There are a lot of other people out there that some of us wish had run for president — but they didn’t.”

Former NRCC chairman, Tom Davis said this: “He may not be Mr. Personality. You know, he’s the guy who gives the fireside chat and the fire goes out.”

And now, John Boehner has said this: “Listen, we’re just politicians. I wasn’t elected to play God. The American people probably aren’t going to fall in love with Mitt Romney.” And then he said this: “some people” will want to vote for Romney — specifically, Romney’s “friends, relatives and fellow Mormons” — but everyone else who backs Romney will be doing so, not because they think he’ll be a good president, but because they hate President Obama.”

I mean really, they don’t even like the guy, or frankly trust him much I suspect.

¶

I understand these are available for purchase. I kinda like them don’t you?

¶

Our favorite Tom of the month, disgraced Col. Alan West of Florida, advises that those who receive social security are participating in a form of “modern day slavery”. This windbag of crap insults tens of millions of Americans by suggesting that they too are just lazy no-good welfare recipients who would do better to get off their retirements and disabilities and get a job.  What a piece of pooh.

¶

Ya know I know that smoking that weed causes the munchies, but folks this is ridiculous doncha think? I mean, leave that stuff alone:

Authorities now suggest that the dude that was killed because he wouldn’t stop eating the face of a poor guy in Miami, was not whacked on bath salts which had been previously thought. Turns out the only thing they could find in his system was cannabis, which to those of you not in the drug-know is POT.

So, hey, if your friends insist on smoking the dope around ya, I’d advise you wear a locked hockey goalie helmet at all times.

¶

Squatlo has a great little video about Willard that you should not miss. You know the Dos Equis guy? The “most interesting man in the world” ads? Well go and meet the “least interesting man in the world–Mitt.” I mean it is seriously funny.

¶

Now, I am not a rich person. I admit that. I didn’t go to any fancy finishing school or private one for that matter. I did not go to the more prestigious of our universities. But I managed to get pretty darn ejukated, if I do say so for myself. But ya see, I’m told now that I’m not at all book-learned up, and for that reason, and perhaps because I don’t drive the BMW or summer in the Hamptons, I’m missin’ just how awful THAT darkie in the White House is screwin’ up some folkses Merika.

So says, a social elite, interviewed on her way into the big do’ins thrown by the Koch’s for their mouthpiece-Willard:

“I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”

Another high muckity muck chimed in:

“It’s not helping the economy to pit the people who are the engine of the economy against the people who rely on that engine, . . .”

Ya see, the Republicans are really doing us a favor by trying to make it hard for us to vote. We just aren’t smart enough to make a good decision. We should just leave it to them–ya know, the one’s who were driving blind to the cliff. Over we go, and kiss your sweet butt goodbye!

¶

What this country needs is a good old-fashioned discussion about the Electoral College.

Now before you start to snooze, listen.

Really, I mean it.

There is a good article written at 3quarksdaily and you ought to read it. You might surprise yourself.

 

 

 

Related articles
  • Our betters, fretting in the Hamptons (digbysblog.blogspot.com)
  • The Best Quotes from Guests at Romney’s Hamptons Fundraisers (theatlantic.com)
  • The Obscure Charm Of The Plutocracy (tbogg.firedoglake.com)
  • The Best Out-Of-Touch Quotes From Romney’s Swanky Hamptons Donors (businessinsider.com)
  • Speaker Boehner: ‘The American People Probably Aren’t Going To Fall In Love With Mitt Romney’ (mediaite.com)
  • Boehner: Americans ‘Aren’t Going To Fall In Love’ With Romney (washington.cbslocal.com)

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Who We Are

Thinking non-stop since April 15, 1950. We search for meaning amid the chaos.

Giggles

Laugh as Long as You Can

Subscribe

Subscribe in a reader

Donations Joyfully Accepted

Calendar

January 2023
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Nov    

Follow Me!

Follow afeatheradrift on Twitter

Facebook

Sherry Peyton
Sherry Peyton
Create Your Badge

Words of Wisdom

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die. ~~Sen. Edward M. Kennedy~~

Recent Posts

  • We moved to Blogger
  • Moving to Blogger
  • Christianist Doublespeak
  • Next Week I’m Gonna Start Biting People
  • Time to Report for Retirement
  • The Best Little Whorehouse in Boulder? Or How I Loved to Learn Republicanese Gangsta Style
  • The Power of the Post
  • The Exceptionalism of the United States of America
  • Can We Stop With the Illegals Shit?
  • I Laughed, I Cried, I Spat Epithets, I Chewed the Rug
  • *Temporarily Asphyxiated With Stupid
  • Are You Having Trouble Hearing? Or is That Gum in Your Ear?
  • Collecting Dust Bunnies Among the Stars
  • Millennial Falcon Returning From Hyperbole
  • Opening a Box of Spiders

A Second Blog

  • Extraordinary Words
  • What's on the Stove?

History Sources

  • Encyclopedia Romana

The Subjects of My Interest

Drop the I Word

We Support OWS

Archives

The Hobo Jesus

Jesushobo With much thanks to Tim
Site Meter

Integrity

Twitter Updates

  • @realDonaldTrump #YOUREFIRED 2 years ago
  • Tales From the Pandemic acrazyladyblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/09/tal… 2 years ago
  • @MarshaBlackburn Stop the racism trumpish cultist 2 years ago
  • @realDonaldTrump NEVER you asshat. We await your removal via straight jacket and handcuffs. 4 years ago
  • Melanie says women's claim of sexual assault not suff evidence,. Women's voices minimized. She's as sick as tRump.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 years ago

World Visitors

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Existential Ennui
    • Join 2,450 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Existential Ennui
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: