Orange County Medical Marijuana and Migraines

Our Orange County marijuana lawyers know that the benefits of medical marijuana have been widely touted for cancer patients and those struggling with chronic pain.

Medical marijuana is by far a better alternative than the dangerous cocktail of highly-addictive prescription opiates and other drugs that are often prescribed for these ailments.

But one illness we don’t often talk about is migraines, and how medical marijuana can ease the symptoms of these often debilitating headaches. A recent opinion piece, written by Dr. Joseph Michelson and published by The Orange County Register, talked a great deal about how medical marijuana is helping patients get back to living normal lives.

Michelson addresses the issue from a very personal standpoint: His wife suffers migraines. He says that to call such episodes “headaches” is a monumental understatement. A lot of migraine patients, he said, have described the feeling as akin to being “shot in the head with a hot bullet.” It’s also often accompanied by vomiting, nausea, and sometimes even seizures. Additionally, the conditions brings on an intense sensitivity to light, forcing the patient to stay secluded in a dark room for hours on end until the episode passes.

Being a medical doctor, Michelson gets down to the nitty gritty of it, which is basically that the root cause of migraines is a spasm of brain blood vessels. While there are other prescribed medications that can help, medical marijuana works to not only relieve the headache, but also calm the patient, who is often in the throes of agony.

As our Orange County marijuana lawyers know, marijuana is available in pill form, called Marinol. However, many patients report that it doesn’t work as well as when marijuana is consumed in an edible form, like a cookie, soft drink or brownie. Michelson advises against smoking it, as smoking can be a migraine trigger.

Michelson shakes his head at the fact that the greater medical community has not embraced medical marijuana as a useful and legitimate drug. He goes on to say that it’s been used for hundreds of years to ease the pain and symptoms associated with everything from childbirth to arthritis.

He balks at the notion that federal approval of marijuana for medicinal purposes will facilitate the illegal drug trade. He notes that when California’s state laws are followed, as they most often are, a marijuana grower is licensed the same way patients are. He said that because there is a healthy supply of medical marijuana from Orange County dispensaries, and dispensaries throughout California, there would be no need to go to an underground dealer.

He says that the federal government first gave the drug a bad wrap back in the 1930s, by classifying it alongside such drugs as codeine and morphine. But the truth of the matter is, marijuana is not addictive. What’s more, a large number of the pain medicine that is considered legitimate – i.e., Vicodine, Soma, etc. – is very addictive, and often leads to prescription drug abuse.