Medical marijuana has been around for thousands of years, but culturally it’s had a lot of catching up to do in the United States.
Although medical marijuana is now legal in more states than it’s illegal, some people still find it hard to accept the idea of using medical marijuana as a form of treatment.
And for residents of the Peach State, getting legal access to medical marijuana in Georgia is a very new phenomena—though all but just a few states have now legalized a medical marijuana program.
But even with the new legalization of medical marijuana, stigmas and antiquated beliefs are still around, and in this article, we’ll help break down some of the common arguments against medical marijuana, and how to have a compassionate and intelligent conversation about them!
Having a Conversation with Yourself About Medical Marijuana
When sparking up a conversation with someone who possibly holds some stigmatic opinions, you need to first address yourself and why you are a medical marijuana patient to begin with, and whether it is beneficial for you to even have conversations with other people about your medication or not.
You don’t become a medical marijuana patient for anyone but yourself, and sometimes the appropriate way to manage your treatment plan is to keep it to yourself.
Other times, it might be necessary to have some explanation as to why you are using medical marijuana, possibly due to the frequency or location of your usage, to get support from family and friends, or for a number of other reasons.
That means you’ll need to thoroughly understand your condition, your treatment plan, and your reasons behind using medical marijuana to help with your condition.
The Talking Points of Medical Marijuana
Often the confusion surrounding medical marijuana programs circulate around a misunderstanding between recreational marijuana use and medicinal use.
Some people may even believe there is no medical use for marijuana, insisting instead that it is an addictive drug used to escape or ruin the minds of youth.
Unfortunately for some, no amount of facts, data, studies, doctors, scientists, or reality itself, could shake the misguided opinion that cannabis is a harmful drug with no medicinal benefits.
If that’s the case for your audience, it’s important that you don’t enter your conversation expecting to change their mind or have them accept you, your lifestyle, your medication, or your relationship with your doctor. Understanding can take a bit of time, and sometimes only direct need or experience can lead to change.
But if instead, you simply want to communicate that you are on a specific treatment plan to manage symptoms of a condition you are diagnosed with, then that’s a different game plan.
So, let’s dive into a few common facts that are misunderstood about medical marijuana, and how to address them in your conversations.
Facts & Fiction About Medical Marijuana
MMJ Fiction #1: Medical Marijuana programs are just a tricky way for drug users to get high.
Unfortunately, some people actually believe that cancer patients, HIV/AIDS patients, Parkinson’s patients, multiple sclerosis patients, or children with seizures, are looking to get high for fun.
Obviously, this couldn’t be farther from the truth, but you won’t get too far by trying to combat this.
The best way to address this kind of attitude is to give clear examples of chronic and terminally ill patients who use cannabis products that don’t get you high, and patients that do use products that get you high.
There isn’t a parent in the world that would wish for their child to abuse drugs, but there are countless stories of families who have turned to medical marijuana as a wonder drug for children suffering from cancer or seizures.
MMJ Fiction #2: There’s no difference between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana.
This is technically true, but also misleading. There really isn’t a difference between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana if you’re talking about the cannabis plant itself. A plant is a plant, and although different strains are grown to treat specific conditions, the plant is still the plant.
However, the intention of use, the quality of the growing techniques, doctor’s supervision, dosing strategy, and the products themselves can be very different recreationally and medically.
Frequently, medical marijuana patients choose almost every other consumption method except smoking, because smoking is unhealthy, and for chronically or terminally ill people, smoking often isn’t the best way to introduce medicine to your body.
Recreational cannabis is available in many places for people to use how they choose, but medical marijuana is specifically targeted to help people who have a diagnosed illness treat their symptoms.
MMJ Fiction #3: Only kids and drug addicts use marijuana.
Fortunately, this is one of the easiest stigmas to prove wrong.
Unfortunately, it’s often the case that the people who hold these beliefs prefer to believe they are true regardless of whether they know them to be true or not.
Medical marijuana use among seniors and veterans has seen an incredible uptick in the last decade. Of course, seniors have been using cannabis for many years, but until recently it’s mostly been a smaller group of folks, rather than an average.
Today, that isn’t the case anymore. And as with any change to reality, it’s a hard pill to swallow for many elder Americans.
But the truth is, senior citizens have turned to medical marijuana for a variety of reasons that especially afflict this age group, and most of the time they’re not smoking either!
Topicals for arthritis, tinctures for inflammation, THC pills for back pain, Rick Simpson Oil for Parkinson’s disease, there are a ton of products specifically designed for older America that have proven to work tremendously for senior medical marijuana patients.
There’s nothing wrong with talking to your friends and family about medical marijuana, just as there is nothing wrong with keeping it to yourself.
Ultimately, you have the freedom to use your medication as you please, and the acceptance of others is not required to use your medication.
Georgia approves medical marijuana cards for a variety of conditions, none of which are dependent on the approval or conversation with anyone but you and your doctor.
But hopefully you’ll find a few of these tips helpful, in case you do need to have some tougher conversations with friends or family members about your medical marijuana treatment plan.
Get Your Georgia Marijuana Card
As a Georgia marijuana patient, you can legally purchase up to 20 ounces of low THC cannabis oil. For Georgians, this means getting the relief you need naturally and organically, and Georgia Marijuana Card is here to help.
Reserve your medical marijuana appointment today and get $25 off when we start processing applications!
Feel free to give us a call at (866) 781-5606, and we can help answer your questions about getting medical marijuana in Georgia
Komentar