Sativex and things related to medical marijuana

Earlier this week I posted the drugs I take daily and one was this little bottle. It’s called Sativex.Sativex is a prescription drug made from cannabis. Wow – what? She takes pot? She sure does! Pot contains two main drugs – THC and CBD (they have long names, but that’s not important). One of them makes you high and the other is more medicinal. Sativex has had these two chemicals balanced so that you don’t get (as) high..

Sativex has been approved for a number of medical situations. For example, in cancer, it has been approved for helping with nausea after chemo. In MS it has been approved for two things – neuropathic pain, which is the pain I get that feels like my limbs are on fire, and spasticity, which is the muscle pain and extreme tightness and spasms in limbs. For me, it works for the neuropathic pain well, but not as well for the spasticity; it just has a slight change there.

I use it for what is called breakthrough pain. When everything else fails and I’m in pain above and beyond what I can cope with, I use Sativex. You squirt it under your tongue and it tastes terrible!!!

Sativex has been approved as a prescription drug in many countries worldwide, except the US, where the federal government has cannabis as a schedule I drug, which has slowed down the regulatory process. However, it’s expensive. I’m lucky, because it’s covered by my extended health benefits.

Medical marijuana is legal in Canada. There have been changes to the law recently that have made a number of things complicated. Those laws have been challenged and hopefully a simple, affordable solution will be found sooner rather than later.