This sucks and is totally representative of how backwards things are right now.

I had a stroke a couple years ago while living in Portland Oregon, right before marijuana was legalized there. Lost a bunch of vision, sleep pattern messed up, memory etc. The doctors scripted me marijuana for ptsd, pain etc. Unfortunately i had to leave to state to return to Idaho, where I have family, cause I could not be on my own.

Now, here I am, literally a half hour drive away from a state where it is legal, and I'm breaking the law on a daily basis just to keep my shit together. I also have a script for xanax, for sleep and anxiety. I get 120 .5mg a month. I have to have them to fall asleep, and I need one to wake up with, but beyond that I can manage just fine with green, which my doctor here supports.

I was even on some mild opiate pain medication, (the little 5/325 hyrdocodones) for a long time till I was cut off by my doctor due to the state, (or fed?), laws regarding how long someone can be scripted opiates till they have to be referred to a pain clinic.

So basically it came down to either quit smoking marijuana so I can enroll in pain management and have access to opiate painkillers, or just go without the painkillers. My doctor and I both agreed it would have been fucking stupid to trade the dangerous for the non dangerous.

The green works great on the everyday mild headaches I experience, also helps with anxiety so I am taking less of the benzos, (a truly dangerous drug that can kill you). I am scripted 4 a day but only take two as long as I have green I can get by just fine without taking all that shit. Plus, anyone that has experience with xanax knows how much it flattens a person out. It is absolutely maddening. You cannot feel anything, not sad, not happy, not content, not upset, nothing. Granted, it does help with things the green does not, like sleep, but I don't need or want to be zombified all day.

So now it's almost 3 years since the injury, still with family cause I am not yet ready to be on my own. Family is super religious, little brother is a cop. Me smoking marijuana in the backyard. They are cool with it though, they understand it's medicine and there is a noticeable difference when I have green as opposed to when I do not. Thankfully I have a family I was able to go back to, and thankfully they are understanding and open minded about me doing something illegal to keep my shit together. They know, as does my cop brother, that it does help me and is a much safer alternative.

tl;dr: shit is backwards yo