Cannabis brings sweet pain relief

A Rockingham man says chronic pain confined him to his bed for most of his 20s until he tried medical cannabis.

Stuart, who asked the Telegraph to withhold his surname, said switching from pharmaceutical medication to medical cannabis instantly improved his quality of life.

The 30-year-old has fibromyalgia, a chronic condition which affects his muscles, tendons and ligaments, but there is no cure.

Stuart said he tried a host of prescriptions such as morphine patches and sedatives, but found them to be highly addictive and dangerous, having been in hospital on two occasions. Fearful for his life, in pain and battling depression, Stuart was told to try cannabis oil, better known as tincture, by other fibromyalgia patients.

Since the change, Stuart has led a relatively normal life but said he was conflicted.

“I occasionally feel like a criminal and up until recently was hiding my treatment out of fear of judgment and being caught,” he said.

Rockingham MLA Mark McGowan has pledged to legalise medical cannabis for the terminally ill, people in pain and those with chronic conditions if elected Premier.

Stuart said he had two drops of his unpleasant-tasting tincture every morning and on extremely painful days smoked two puffs of marijuana, but preferred it to taking a packet of paracetamol each day.

He said he would love to see the medicinal qualities of the plant converted into tablet form.

WA Hemp Party president Darren Guthrie said tinctures were hard to make.

Using glycerine or alcohol as a base, hot tinctures required 12 hours of cooking on a stove, constantly stirring, while cold forms of the drug took two months to make.

Mr Guthrie said hot forms were high in tetrahydrocannabiol, which helped with pain and nausea, whereas cold forms helped with muscle and joint problems.

He said users could not fatally overdose on cannabis.

Pain Australia chief executive Lesley Brydon said the organisation would not advocate using medical marijuana to treat fibromyalgia, but would be interested in clinical trials.