Hi,

My mum is in her late 40's and she has had (or been diagnosed with) Fibromyalgia about 12 years ago. She has arthritis in her hands, and had trouble walking long distances until she had a hip replacement last year. She used a mobility scooter to get around for a while, before the operation. She's often in pain, all over, and takes loads of different medicines and sometimes gets steroid injections.

We were just talking on msn, and she said to me

"I am not feeling so good this week off work yesterday & today hopefully feel better for the weekend. my liver's playing up because of the medication and I feel sore and sick".

This obviously makes me sad to hear about my poor mum in pain, but I also feel guilty, because for a while I've known about cannabis' medicinal value for pain and nausea. I'm a coward for not being able to speak to her and offer her an alternative with a very real chance of giving her relief.

There's some background here, when we were teenagers, my little brother was a bit of an arse, he didn't go to school, instead stole money and sat in a friend's house smoking soapbar Someone in my mum's work had suggested she use cannabis to help her, and gave her some soapbar to try (wtf??). Well my mum just put it in an ornamental jar in a cupboard and forgot about it. My brother found it and smoked it and clearly my mum found out. She went mental at my brother about smoking weed, and stealing money, and was clearly disappointed in him.

So yeah, her experience with weed hasn't been the greatest so far. She's a pharmacist, a normal mum, never broke a law. I don't know how to approach this subject with her. I've spoken to my boyfriend and he agrees that if there was ever a time to come clean about being a toker, and offer some help to my mum, then it should be now. I don't like keeping secrets from my parents, obviously, but the fact that my dad's a recovering alcoholic makes me think he won't be too impressed either.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and could advise me on the best way to talk with my mum about this? I'd always put it off before, since I wouldn't be able to get her anything decent to smoke anyway ( dealers are shit) - but now that I'm growing I'd be able to guarantee the product, which would be important to her as a pharmacist I'd wager.

Please help

Im a medicinal smoker and grower, and one day while we where on holiday we got talking about my chronic pain and how I had been using cannabis to treat my condition. They understood however at first where worried about all the side effects that is plastered over the papers.
Neither of my parents had every tried cannabis, but they could see that I was a happier person because I was off the opiates and onto cannabis.

I then got my grow on, and they could see how happy it made me and how it gave me something to care for and an amazing product.

Lets just say that half my crop goes on cakes for them...

I told my grandma i smoked a couple of weeks back, i was kind of scared but once i explained why i use it she understood completely. I dont think she will be toking with me anytime soon but its nice to have support from the head of the family.
She has always been the family battleaxe and a very wise woman

Sorry to hear about your Mum, Nepenthe.

I'd just be honest. You are an adult, and there is no more shame in smoking a joint than in having a glass of wine.
You may find your mum is far more open to the idea of taking Cannabis for medical relief than for fun, and the fact it is clean and edible may help.

I hope it does.

I guess you could field the idea of getting relief using weed and maybe point her to some pertinent videos before you actualy take the plunge of confessing. It may ease her into the general idea and give her some background information. If she really finds the idea abhorrent then you could even decide not to tell her about you own antics. Good luck to you and you mum.

Perhaps you could introduce her to people who medicinally use cannabis? Or maybe let her read a few threads about pain relief from 420's Medicinal forum? It has an unbiased view and covers all age ranges..... she may be able to understand better after reading about experiences from such a range of people.

It is about the potential for modulation of pain processing. Whole extract of cannabis or whole cannabis however it is ingested retains the original cannabinoid and terpene profile which I believe modifies the pyschoactive and medicinal properties compared to using pure THC or analogues such as nabilone. As a pharmacist I'm sure she might appreciate this. On a more basic level though it may help improve her pain and quality of life and no it is not without side effects but honestly most people don't find them much of a problem.

Hi Nepenthe,

My mother (who is a hippy) was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia when she was in her 40s. The doctors told her her bones were deteriorating and there was no cure. So she has been experimenting with different pain management plans and none have been successful. She is alergic to codeine so most medicines she can not try. She started smoking marijuana again about 4 years ago (she is now 53 and was diagnosed at 45) and she said it has been the only thing that works (other than morphine, which she had to be weened off of this month because she kept suffering withdrawal symptons much like that of a heroine addict)

Luckily she hasn't had to have a hip replacement or anything like that, but she too experiences problems with her liver and also the lining of her stomach is being eaten away by all the useless pharmaceuticals the doc keeps prescribing.

Perhaps when telling your mother about the benefits of our sacred plant, it will help for her to know that you have heard of people in her condition that are using marijuana to relieve their pain and it works. My mum has been battling for 8 years now, pots the only thing i see her happy on...

Now if she is worried about being debilitated and not being able to work probably, tell her it is something you have to manage but if you are responsible, which she is, it should only bring her comfort. My mother runs her own cleaning business and it hasn't gone bust yet so she must still be of sound mind...

..., oh yeah.. when she was on morph, it did nothing, just made her think she was okay.. she would go to work and work her butt off and come home and just pass out on the bed.. and when the morph was too strong she would have bad trips.. so she tells me.

anyway, enough of a rant

goodluck
tt.

As everybody said, good luck.
Unfortunately, regarding my family, I was like your brother. I have been a real ass....now that my mother has got osteoporosis and gets loads of pills I really would like to advise her but I am afraid even of talking to her about it since the bad habits I used to have until 22......
Isn't that stupid for a 35 year old man??

So you are lucky enough to be the reliable of the family. That's already a step forward.....
As a way to try and advice her I think, since your mum is a pharmacist, that she is rational. Given that there are books and documentaris about the benefits of cannabis. In other words let her discover her self. Generally speaking when an iron pot is not forced in to something it really works better....

There are also some divulgative books with sound proof experimantation about the benefits of cannabis on ostheoporosis and pain management.
So, it is just to start and find a way. Not to talk about the antidepressant effects. For me, the most important when you have cronic pains!!!

given that, these book also give you advise on the unwanted effects wich are present in all the drugs (intending as medicines) you can take. Think only about the amount of people that dye each year for aspirin related ulcera in the US or the problems of the brits with all that codeyne in the pain killers they ingest. Paracetamol wich sets a necrosis of the liver and you reallt should use a detoxing agent for a couple of weeks after using it only for two or three days.

So Cannabis can be used as a medicine. Defintely. A medicine that is far way less dangerous of most of the free of prescription medicines of the modern world.

If your mum does not belive the books, there is research on pubmed. But it is hard to really find a way there and needs real study.
And, as someone stated, you can ingest it.....but be very cautious since the effects take longer to arrive and generally, in my very small experience, are stronger.

So good luck and let us know!!!

(sorry for all the mistakes in my writing but I am an italian on the run )

Thank you to everyone for your advice or support, I really appreciate it. For some people this might be an easy conversation to have, and I guess it might be easier for me when I acutally start having it - I could just be picturing the worst case scenario in my head.


I KNOW this, and I know it's true. I just hope I can explain this to her properly.

It is probably a good idea to show her some internet info or threads about people who have been helped by cannabis, in her situation.


Both of those are questionable... I'm more reliable than my brother, yeah, but I dropped out of uni TWICE when I was a teenager, I've done my share of stupid things.
My mum works in science so you think she'd be more rational than she is. Unfortunately shes incredibly supersitious. She believes in astrology, tarot, God, and thinks things like Stem Cell research are immoral.... I'm just afraid that if other people's prejudices have been pushed onto her in these matters, it might be the same for weed

I think it's time to get researching some information to show her. Maybe if I can show her enough there will be no way to deny it.

..maybe, or because she believes in tarot etc, perhaps she is more open minded than she seems..

wow, I can imagine the intensity of what it must feel like to not be able to express yourself clearly to her. I'm sure you'll find a way though, and when you do I hope it ends well

couldnt you bring it up as a joke first to see how she reacts, thats what i always do with my parents to see how they react then if its not so bad then i will talk to them properly like a few days later... always works with me

Hope it helps mate

~az~

Hey mate sorry too hear about you mum

My mum whos in her 60s now has siattica (cant spell that) its basically a spine crumbling of the bone,plus she has arthritus in her leg and hips,and she too cant walk far like your mum,,,sometimes shes in chronic pain where the medicine just doesnt help to get rid of the pain so she has trouble sleeping.

Luckily thou ive been arrested a few times when i was younger for cannabis and after i had my family home searched for drugs,so my mum let me smoke bud in my room to keep out of trouble.

I told her one day about how cannabis will help her out when shes in pain and help her sleep but she said no,,so i didnt mention it again..then one day she just asked me too roll her a joint cos she couldnt sleep and felt ill,so i rolled her a little L shape but made the mistake of putting as much as i would in it,she smoked it and was giggling and off her nut,,i thought oh no what have i done but about an hour later it wore off and she had a good nights sleep...so it definately helped her.

nowadays she has the odd puff one one of my reefers,or i roll her a little 1skin and put a 1/4 of what i would put in and that helps her.

my advice to you would be too mention it too her,,show her the medical side of it,plenty of good medicanna vids on you tube like Michelle Rainey and alike too prove your not talking bs.then let her think about it.

all the best mate

So sorry to hear about your parent's Fibro. The one thing you must try and do is be honest about the usefulness of cannabis. It isn't a cure-all, and its a sad thing when folks get over-hopeful about it, only to be let down. Because for some of us cannabis is of little analgesic use. We do benefit from having our mood lifted, and it also potentiates the analgesics we do use, meaning we can use much less of them, which is nice. So be truthful with her, and tell it just may be the most wonderful thing she has ever tried for her analgesic needs, or it may just help her cope psychologically with her pain levels..

Well, that makes it easy...pay a tarot reader to tell her that it actually is the year of the weed!! or....you can set up a fake spiritual session and, with your hid light (and a strong voice) fake God giving advices

And for videos, there is the national geographic documentary about cannabis....of course watch it first to evaluate it.

Btw...in the end have you got your degree?? I dropped out and started to work... too bad. Now at 35 I regret it and since my company went busted with the crisis i was thinking to try and start to tudy again...
But we got to live with our mistakes, don't we??

dont even try to explain anything DONT GO THERE! if your mother is a pharmacist she has a vast knoledge of perscription drugs and will have access to all of them she will know exsactly how to manage her pain and if she is a pharmacist then she will certainly already know about the pain relieving qualities in cannabis through ms( multipul serocis ) sufferers and the drug sativex her friend obviously gave your mam the soap bar to try for pain relief but your mother is a pharmacist and knows that cannabis is illegal and that there hasnt been enough long term sientific studies on the drug and its effects on our health so she chose not to use it, lets face it we already no that it causes paranoia and insomnia theres millions of mothers accross the globe that will say when there sons and daughters started smoking weed that there attitudes and behaviour changed they get argumentive and angry and these are all short term problems that cannabis use can cause! ime a grower,breeder,smoker myself so please dont think ime anti weed i love it just telling you how your mother will see it! heres a pic of my biddies sister out side in a poly tunnel pic took 2 weeks ago
0

do not bother trying i would bet every penny i have that your mother has heard of the pain relieving qualities of cannabis she will have heard of the paranoia and anger it causes too also she has serious pain killing drugs available and knows exact measurment and dosages lif she is a pharmacist fact is that your mother kn ows more about drugs than you do and that includes all illegal drugs not just weed heres that pic of my last biddies sister

Still no piccie Shayman Yorkie.

Peace,
GG

its probably not very helpful to be too prescriptive (if you'll excuse the pun)

hey bud... sorry to hear about your mum. oddly enough i'm in the same position. my mum has FM but just won't touch cannabis... despite the fact that even her consultant said it would probably help. i don't really understand it, she never used to be bothered about cannabis. i think these kind of unreasonable prejudices toward things are something that you catch in later life... one day you wake up in the morning and the music's to loud, the language the children are using is obscene and incomprehensible, all abilities to operate anything remotely technical vanish and anybody who uses drugs must be trying to break into your house, steal your telly and probably kill you or at very least be inherently evil.
i'm sure there must be a name for this syndrome. i'm hoping that it's not genetic.
sorry... drifted off on one there... serious point though. Sativex is an oral spray containing cannabinoids which is currently under pharmacutical trial in various places. Although it's not 'overtly' available it is possible for some medical professionals to prescribe it 'at their own risk' as it were. It's the first drug of it's kind to contain natural rather than synthetic cannabinoids (there's a similar synthetic one that you can get if your going through chemotherapy and that sort of thing). I'm in the process of trying to sort this out for my mum with a view to her maybe getting comfortable with the idea of cannabis as a relief from the symptoms of FM. Maybe if i can sort that then some ganja chocs for christmas might be on the cards.

Best of luck to you and your mum.
regards
ben

Thank you everyone who replied, sorry I took so long to reply. My mum lives in Scotland so I don't see her often, but I saw her last weekend. We talked about her fibromyalgia, I'm trying to get as much information about her situation as possible, about the type of pain and how she deals with it. I kept trying to think of ways to bring up cannabis in conversation, but couldn't find the right moment. She's using alternative therapies at the moment, she goes to a special masseuse who works on the pain in her neck, and she finds it really helps her, but it's expensive for sessions. She's always complaining about the NHS drugs she uses, and says that the only ones that have any real affect, make her really sleepy, so she can't take them during the week when she works, which is why she takes them at the weekend and spends a lot of it just sleeping.

I've started collecting information from the internet, medical trials, testimonials, e.t.c. so that I can show that to her too. It will be useful to let her read everything for herself rather than me saying "Oh I read this on the internet", which she's more likely to dismiss.


Hi Ocimonogre,

I didn't get my degree - I dropped out the second time because of no money, and had to go to work to pay off the uni fees that I'd built up. Then I got pregnant... . But I'm on the right track again, I've been doing Open University courses since February, and I'm working towards a Geosciences degree. I've finally found something I properly enjoy studying, which makes it a lot easier to do. I feel less like I'm doing it for other people and their expectations of me, and more that I'm doing it for myself. I'll get there eventually

Hi Shaman. My mum does have knowledge of prescription drugs, and manages her pain the best she can with what's available, but it is possible that she isn't aware of sativex. She works in a hospital laboratory in quality control, she doesn't deal with patients or give/sell drugs directly to people in a commercial pharmacy. The soap-bar incident happened about 10 years ago, the information available, and research done on medicinal cannabis, is much more now than it was then.

I thought "Cannabis causes paranoia and insomnia" was propaganda? Correct me if I'm wrong (please!) but I thought cannabis only exascerbated already pre-existing mental conditions, and didn't actually CAUSE them in people who didn't already have the underlying condition?

The mothers that say their sons and daughters who started smoking weed, changed their attitudes and behaviour, getting angry and argumentative, are forgetting something really important. These sons and daughters were Teenagers. Teenagers do all that stuff without the use of drugs! As teenagers, we start to see through the hypocrisy of our parents and realise they don't know everything, that they're not the pinnacle of morality, they're just normal, fallible people. So we get a bit angry and emotional (not helped by our hormones jumping through hoops as we mature) at them, but parents like to put the blame on anything but themselves. Drugs, alcohol, your group of friends, underperformance at school - anything, except themselves.

I hope you're wrong and my mum doesn't think like this, but deep down I'm afraid she does, which is why I can't talk to her!

You're right about the paranoia etc, Nepenthe, IMH.
About sleepiness ad pharmaceuticals. Sorry your mum cannot user her meds during the week, I fully understand that, being on hefty analgesia myself. But I would say to her that by using them daily, the sleepy side effects will reduce and eventually all but vanish. That's been my experience, anyhow. Sure I still "Zizz" every so often, but only when nowt is going on, and I can easy deal with it. At the beginning I was nodding off everywhere, even mid-dinner. But not now, thankfully.
I do hope you can help your Mum, and she is lucky to have you caring like you do. My sympathies to her, chronic pain is a very horrid thing.

Thanks for your kind words. I'll mention what you've suggested to her, maybe it will help It makes sense, that tolerance would build up due to daily use. Sorry to hear that you're suffering from something with similar symptoms, although it sounds like you're managing your pain quite well.