Simply put Chronic Pain sucks!
I know this from my own experiences with pain. It is hard for anyone who doesn't suffer from chronic pain to understand how disabling pain can be. I remember a time when tying my shoes, and doing the dishes, was so easy I took it for granted, or when I could hold my children without lying on the floor in pain for hours afterwards.

After more than a year of living with pain so severe that at times I have no choice but to go to the hospital. Each day waking to what feels like a cold steel knife being stabbed in my back, at 6:00am. When I walk, I feel a shooting pain going down my leg, and if I sit my left leg goes numb. Every minute of every day I want to cry, but who would listen?

Nobody cares that your injured, nobody cares that you can no longer perform the same tasks you once did. Society has a limited place for you now, and the bottom line is you are a burden.

Many people believe that taking drugs for pain problems is not a good idea. They worry about treating the symptom and not the cause. However, it is known that for many types of chronic pain, no one fully knows the cause, or even if they do find a cause (such as arthritis), a cure for it may not yet exist. Some believe that many factors work together to produce chronic pain, rather than a single disease or medical problem. Sometimes we can treat the cause of the pain, though this often reduces rather than cures the pain. Marijuana treats pain problems very well. You should also follow all the other suggestions made to you by your care provider. Just as no single factor causes your pain, no single treatment can cure it.

Not all drugs work well for chronic pain. The "ideal" drug would get rid of pain, not cause side effects, would not cost much, and would not become addictive. While cost is not always cheap, marijuana doesn't become addictive in most people, and is very effective on pain.

Opioid medications were once withheld from suffering patients because of fear of addiction, exaggerated concern about side effects, or, in some cases, doubt about the morality of treatment. Less than 50 years ago, some medical textbooks discussed the need for patients to experience pain and suffering at the end of life so that they would relate to the agony of Christ and prepare for redemption. Although few physicians still hold these views, many continue to imply that pain should be accepted without complaint, telling their patients, that after all pain is not going to kill you.

There is growing evidence, however, that too much pain can cause damage and even death. When pain is controlled, medications for the underlying disease or disorder tend to work better.

One of the main problems in assessing patients with chronic pain is that the physical examination and laboratory tests often do not provide the information necessary to gauge severity and assess outcomes. Pain is generally assessed indirectly, which is why it is so important to listen to--and believe--patients when they say that they are in pain.

The ultimate goal in treating chronic pain is for patients to reclaim control of their lives, and, to do that, they must be relieved of suffering as well as pain. Issues such as sadness over lost opportunities, guilt for being a burden to others, and feelings of inadequacy or abandonment contribute to the suffering of many patients with chronic pain and deserve attention. Ensuring that the patient obtains good psychological care is just as important as providing analgesic medications.

Again yet another use, marijuana can be used effectively to help treat the suffering and depressive effects of chronic pain.

Most doctors however are quick to dismiss marijuana as a medication, and site for you "that there are many other medications that doctors know more about". However nothing is more farther than the truth. Through out time man has used marijuana safely and effectively since biblical times.

The ancient recipe for Jesus Christ's anointing oil, recorded in the Old Testament book of Exodus (30: 22-23) included over nine pounds of flowering cannabis tops, Hebrew "kaneh-bosm" B, extracted into a hind (about 6.5 litres) of olive oil, along with a variety of other herbs and spices. The ancient chosen ones were literally drenched in this potent cannabis holy oil. Kaneh-bos sounds remarkably similar to the modern cannabis. Although often mistranslated as "calamus", the word has been translated as "fragrant-cane" in most modern bibles, and specifically designates the fragrant flowering tops of cannabis.

The very word marijuana elicits a variety of responses. For Baby Boomers, it recalls the 60's -- mellow meditations interlaced with protests against the Vietnam War. For others -- people with AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, and chronic pain -- it's being touted as a wonder drug for relief of pain and suffering.

Is it a wonder drug? Let's look at other options as opposed to the benefits claimed by proponents of medical marijuana:

Standard medications have side effects that marijuana doesn't. With many pain medications, a steady level must be maintained in the bloodstream. There is no "time off" from side effects like constipation, nausea, sleepiness, sleeplessness, "brain-fog," emotional impacts, liver damage -- the list goes on and on. Drug interactions must be monitored. Liver screens are necessary to prevent toxicity.

For patients in pain, from cancer or other diseases or injuries, standard pain medication has many side effects: constipation, nausea, "brain-fog" dulling of the mind, addiction, and the need for more medication over time. There is also often a limitation in the amount of medication, which results in unnecessary pain between doses. Marijuana has no known level of toxicity and can be taken when and as needed.

When the Journal of the American Medical Association ran its 1995 commentary in calling on physicians to support the medical use of marijuana, many people wondered what took so long. For over 3,500 years, strains of the herb cannabis sativa, or marijuana, have been among the most widely used of medicinal plants. This includes civilizations in China, India, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and even in America from 1850 to 1937, marijuana was used to treat over 100 separate diseases or conditions.

Herbal cannabis and its derivatives are eaten, smoked or used as topical salves and herbal packs, depending on the condition being treated. Furthermore, marijuana seeds are nutritious and work as a laxative. A hardy, easy to grow herb, cannabis hemp is affordable health care.

Marijuana has many safe & natural therapeutic uses. Hemp medicines offer better health and could add both to the longevity and quality of life. Modern medical uses of true hemp include it in therapeutic treatments for cancer, glaucoma (blindness), AIDS, pain, asthma, epilepsy, MS, nausea, cramps, muscle spasms, insomnia, neuralgia, earache, herpes, arthritis, rheumatism, migraine, stress, depression and anorexia. It is an antibiotic, a pain reliever and an expectorant, used in topical ointments and taken internally. Symptoms of asthma, migraine, glaucoma, and others can be contained, bringing effective relief to people who suffer from these life-long conditions. Many other uses are likely. A variety of preparations are possible, from collecting the female cannabis flower's resins into smokeable hashish, or edible gel capsules and wafers; and from isomerizing hash oils to synthesizing THC.

Pain control through cannabis is often achieved not by consuming the flowers, but the leaves. This is because the cannabinols (CBDs) seem to play a major analgesic role. The leaves are also used to treat migraine headaches, which afflict some 11,023,000 people nationally.

Stress is the number one killer, in that it is a major contributor to heart disease. The relaxation healing power of marijuana reduces mental agitation and lends a sense of humor. Marijuana is well known for its ability to reduce stress and promote relaxation, and has long been regarded as an aphrodisiac and for enhancing sensory experiences such as enjoyment of music and art.

If you live in a state where it is legal to use marijuana for medical purposes, you may think the path is clear to your obtaining it and finding relief. Wrong!

Finding it is going to be a lot harder than getting penicillin or Tylenol. Your doctor can recommend it -- maybe -- though in California, with Prop. 215 in place, doctors and patients are fighting a battle with federal authorities, which argue that a doctor can discuss medical marijuana, but not recommend it. And the government purposely refuses to explain the difference between discussion and recommendation. Faced with this ambiguity, the only option for many doctors is silence. Is this in conflict with the First Amendment as many claim?

Where can you turn? The street? Or maybe the Internet? Physicians definitely do not sanction either method.

I have had no other choice for the past year but to seek marijuana on the street, though medical use of marijuana has been legal in the state of Washington since 1998, it is still very difficult to find a doctor willing to help you become legal.