Much Maligned Medication, Marijuana


Marijuana? The vast majority of my blog posts are related to my memoir books since the purpose of the blog is to spread information about the trilogy and encourage its being read.

This essay is different.

I’m moved to write this because many people still harbor a “cultural bias” against marijuana that’s difficult to dislodge, information notwithstanding. Most of you who read it will have participated in similar events to those I’ll describe and I think it’s our duty to share this experience with our friends who may still harbor a prejudice against this natural medicine.

When I met Elizabeth, my wife of fifty years (minus five or six: another story) one of our early conversations got around to my enjoyment of The Herb. She’d never tried it but was curious. Since she was averse to actually inhaling from a lit joint we invented our own version of mouth-to-mouth and thus shared a toke. Cannabis just didn’t do much for her so though she’d take an occasional taste, she never became a regular – as I was at the time.

CUT TO:

2011 – INT – PENTHOUSE LIVING-ROOM – DAY

Having had major surgery six weeks or so prior, Elizabeth (hereinafter referred to as EH) had gotten her second chemo treatment the day before. She was one sick puppy. None of the usual methods of relief worked. Suddenly she looked up at me and asked, “Do we have any grass?”

It had been over twenty-five years since I’d finished my last stash and I didn’t think there was any in the apartment but I did a search. One of the little ornamental boxes on a back shelf revealed a Roach. About an inch and a half long, it looked its age but I lit it up, administered the smoke and sat down to watch. EH’s transformation was both remarkable and swift. We agree that within two minutes her nausea disappeared.

A friend in the neighborhood offered a couple of joints which were more than enough to get us through the truncated course of chemo. In fairly short order EH recovered from the “treatment” (which all involved, except the Doc, agreed was killing her) and regained her vitality.

CUT TO:

2016 – INT – PENTHOUSE LIVING-ROOM – DAY

When EH was having her third of fourth, highly-focused, minimally-toxic chemo from Dr. Sollazzo for her (Yep!) third round with cancer she again has some occasional nausea. This time we were prepared but I did have some trouble finding the joint left from 2011. It worked as expected. PS: That cancer is all gone. Vitality again returned.

CUT TO:

2018 – INT – PENTHOUSE LIVING-ROOM – DAY

The event that prompted this essay: Having for a few weeks been experiencing severe back pain from a minor injury, EH was really hurting this morning. She was in so much discomfort that I thought she might lose consciousness. I was actually (silently) contemplating taking her to an ER. I asked if she’d like a hit from the pipe, she said yes. Taking a note from a paragraph above, within two minutes her pain eased and her bright smile returned.

FLASH BACK:

1980 – INT – PENTHOUSE DINING-ROOM – DAY

After twenty-nine years of word-processors (Remember them?) and computers I still can’t believe that I wrote two full-length screenplays on a typewriter. But I digress. (Still have a lingering buzz from the mouth-to-mouth medical delivery. Enables verbosity.)

From the 1960s through about 1985 I was a regular recreational user of pot. Never a “head” who smoked all day, rather an after dinner and football with buddies toker. However when I was writing those scripts and would get stuck on how to express in words something that I could see in my mind’s eye; if taking a shower or a bike ride or playing solitaire with actual cards for a while didn’t break the mental log jam, a single toke would usually do the trick.

The only hitch in this get-along is the aforementioned verbosity. When I’d read my days writings to EH she could tell immediately which scenes had been written under the influence. The next day I’d go back and trim out all the extra words.

CONCLUSION

The much maligned medication, marijuana is – when used properly – a very valuable tool for both medical ease and creative door-opening.

Pass it along.

Since this is my books site Blog, if you’re interested you’ll find the books here.

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