Pubdate: Fri, 25 Mar 2016
Source: Daily Inter Lake, The (MT)
Copyright: 2016 The Daily Inter Lake
Contact:  http://www.dailyinterlake.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2501
Author: Patrick Murphy

WHAT'S WORSE? MEDICAL MARIJUANA OR OXYCODONE?

I have recently been authorized to take medical marijuana. I have a 
neurological condition that has caused me agony for 40 years. This is 
a hereditary disease, which my mother had and my daughter currently has.

Previous to medical marijuana, I had been prescribed OxyContin and 
oxycodone as needed for breakthrough pain. I was on these two 
medications for about 10 years. One major problem with OxyContin is 
that a tolerance can develop to the drug, requiring an ever increasing dosage.

Unfortunately, due to regular use of this narcotic drug I have 
developed central sleep apnea, requiring the use of a "V-Pap" machine 
(a machine that acts in a similar fashion to a ventilator since it 
monitors my breathing patterns when I sleep and when I stop 
breathing, it operates to increase the air I receive). This condition 
was effected by the OxyContin and caused by the part of my brain that 
determines the carbon dioxide level in my blood.

Incidentally, medical marijuana, despite my skepticism, completely 
removes the agony of my condition by 100 percent and does so 100 
percent of the time; and supposedly does not develop a tolerance 
level requiring increased dosage.

One consequence I have noticed with the change in the law with 
medical marijuana is that, while I NEVER got a high from medical 
marijuana, I do get a high with all the OxyContin I have returned to 
.. so maybe this new medical marijuana law has "sort" of a silver lining.

- -Patrick Murphy, Columbia Falls
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom