Medical Marijuana Has Helped Joe West Ever Since He Lost His Arm
Transcript below:
Hi my name is Joe West. I’ve actually been using marijuana since I was about 11 years old due to self-medicating. But over the years, I moved overseas to Amsterdam and while I was living there, I broke my right shoulder. And at the time when I broke my right shoulder, they had me on liquid Codeine. Which at the time, didn’t really help. It didn’t help me relax with the pain.
I was still dealing with the pain everyday. And I found when I smoked, I was at least able to relax, I was able to sleep even if I was in some kind of pain. It also helped me sleep at night, because I also suffer from not being able to sleep at night because of my pain from my broken shoulder plus my ghost hand, from my accident when I was a little kid.
I feel the pain from that accident, the machine that cut off my arm, and so it’s a vicious cycle. When my shoulder starts hurting, it makes my ghost hand hurt, and it ratchets up the pain until I smoke myself a joint, and it helps me relax and distracts me from the pain and I don’t feel it as much.
I don’t know if it’s a mind thing, but it definitely seems to help me in I’m able to deal with life better, and people on a one to one basis better, than if I am in pain. Then I’m usually angry, and really don’t like people, and don’t like being around them. And this helps me go out, relax, and try to deal with things a little bit better.
