Fibromyalgia diaries: How my cannabis journey began

Cannabis News World

May 28

Fibromyalgia diaries: How my cannabis journey began
Cannabis Health News

In the first instalment of a new series documenting her journey with medical cannabis, fibromyalgia patient Julia Davenport shares how she finally drew a line under decades of opioid use. After spending almost my entire adult life reliant on painkillers, I decided in my late 60s that there must be a better way. I've had osteoarthritis since being a teenager and suffer from joint problems, with several joints replaced as a consequence. I also live with the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia. Anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers have been part of my life since I was 19. Over the years, however, the prescriptions have got stronger to enable me to cope with the pain. For more than 20 years, I took a daily dose of cocodamol, a combination of codeine and paracetamol. But when a joint was on its way out and needed replacing, I would take tramadol, which is basically one notch down from morphine. I've tried oral morphine too, when two slipped discs in my neck left me with excruciating pain. I eventually reached the point where I was having to take more and more painkillers to have the same effect. I'd been taking these tablets since I was at school, which can't be good for anyone, and I wanted to somehow stop. At the time, I'd heard a bit about medical cannabis on the news and my husband encouraged me to look into it, although I wasn't at all keen on the idea at first. I may have grown up in the hippie era of the 1960s, but had never tried an illicit drug – which was how I viewed cannabis. I thought about its bad reputation and its association with all manner of illegal things you can buy on the street. I had real anxiety about swapping one…