  医療カナビス |
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I have had Crohn's disease for ten years now. Six years ago, I discovered that weed helps me a lot in suppressing symptoms like nausea, pain, and loss of appetite- I also suffer from complications as a result of former operations, which have caused adhesions and fistulas in my intestines. Because of this, my food doesn't go through very well anymore. I often suffer from con- stipation. I now smoke between eight and ten grams of my own homegrown biological weed a day. This is the only option available for me at the moment. S can't say that it removes the pain completely, but it does help me deal with it in a better way. Sometimes I will be sitting on the toilet while inhaling. If I don't manage a bowel movement with one joint, my partner just walks in and brings me another one! I did try medication on and off, but there isn't really any cure for this disease. My husband and I used to live in England, but we returned to the Nether- lands after the birth of our child. Brian started growing our own plants, out- side on our balcony. That's when I started smoking marihuana again. I had smoked it, once in a while, since the age of fifteen, and discovered that it had a very positive effect on me. I had already undergone surgery once by then. By now I have had three operations. I stopped using the strong medication a few months ago. The medicines made me very nauseous and very strange, psychologically- They don't really help the symptoms of my disease, either. I wasn't able to do the small things that I had been able to do before using these medicines. I said to the doctor:"Sorry, but I'm not going to carry on with this." The negative consequence of not using medicines anymore is that I will probably have to undergo surgery again within a year. There are a few other experimental medicines available, but they all come with the usual side effects. But they don't consider giving me these medicines, because apparently I'm not ill enough! So, I wonder, how ill do I need to be? There is a new medicine that can be taken through a drip. I would have to spend three hours a month in hospital attached to a drip. The following three weeks you're 'on top of the world' but a week later you're three times as ill. And you're bound to the hospital, because you have to keep going back. Apparently, the medicine is made from the white blood cells of mice and this could cause an allergy. They also gave me morphine patches to combat the pain, but they turned me into a zombie. They made me totally absentminded and very nauseous. I admire people who are able to endure large amounts of medicines in their bodies and still manage to function well. I was not able to do that, so I'd rather smoke weed. I don't think that I would be able to take in solids if I didn't smoke it. Everything I eat, even if it's just a cheese sandwich, causes pain. All solids cause trouble going through. Thanks to smoking weed, I manage to get it through my system and have the necessary appetite. (I do have a bizarre appetite though; I crave for the best and most expensive foods.) Smoking weed also helps against nausea. The health insurance company does not cover marihuana. They do compensate part of my dietary costs, but that really isn't sufficient. I have regular overdrafts at my bank now, because I spend more. But I don't really care, as long as there is no bailiff at my door! Social services started giving me an extra costs allowance at the beginning of this year. What I really wanted was compensation for the maintenance costs of my 'garden', which ranges from electricity costs to buying pots and compost and everything that goes with it. Social Services received positive advice om my doctor and I received a letter from Social Services stating that they didn't want to participate in an illegal activity. However, much to my surprise, three weeks later I received another letter from them, stating that they would give me an allowance for extra nutrition! I have increased my smoking throughout the years. When I found out that I couldn't actually afford buying marihuana in coffee shops anymore, I started growing for myself. But growing your own does pose some difficulties. Friends often have to help me with cutting, potting the compost, basically everything that is necessary to maintain a garden of your own, because I'm often not in a position to do so myself-There are many things that I cannot do the way I would like to. But I shouldn't complain, because I almost always have enough to smoke, especially now that I grow my own weed. The police tolerate it. They know that I grow weed and they also know that I am very ill. The police have been to visit me twice. A neighbour had informed on me-At first, I only had six plants inside and a few outside. They told me that there should be fewer plants outside; I had to put them on the balcony at the back, where they wouldn't cause a 'visual inconvenience'! One neighbour says,'you have a wonderfully green balcony that looks great'; the other one calls it a 'visual inconvenience'. Now that my indoor garden has grown, the scent is stronger than usual at certain times of the year. When there is no wind, the smell floats down and reaches the front door so that passers-by sometimes catch a rather strong whiff of it. The neighbours don't appreciate this, so the police came again last year. I had just been given a new prescription for marihuana and so I showed it to them. They asked me to do something about the smell and to put fewer plants outside. I did that and they didn't return for the rest of the year. Some of my son's schoolmates' parents don't want their child to play at our house, because they know that I smoke marihuana. I do not want to make a secret of this. Everyone, om my social worker to my doctor, knows that I smoke it. I don't mow what they say behind my back, but it doesn't interest me either. I am glad to be living in a country like Holland. My son helps me water the plants and take care of them and finds the fact that his mother smokes weed perfectly normal. When I am in pain he says,'Mum, light up a joint, or else you'll end up grumpy too.' I also lived in England for a long time. There they might arrest me and take my child away om me! I smoke on the street, when walking, or at the tram stop. I often have a joint in my hand and that sometimes causes strange reactions. People take a step away from me, that kind of stuff. I've just developed a thicker skin. I don't pay attention to it anymore. |
