Hi all, i see that many people on here are putting there stories across so i thought i should be able to put mine across.

My name is Aaron since 2005 i have suffered from Crohn’s Disease, For people who are unaware of Crohn’s Disease it basically means my intestines are inflamed and my body cannot absorb nutrients properly which causes me to lose weight. That is the very tip of what Crohn’s Disease is and unless you have the illness or look after someone with Crohn’s you will never understand how serious and life changing it really is. For me it meant my final years at school and socializing with my friends was ruined as i could never be away from a bathroom, most people say this is “rubbish” as you could go at a friends house or shops bathroom but think back to the last time you had eaten some bad food and spent a few hours constantly running to the toilet and think about the smell , did you go to a local store or friends house or did you make your way home as fast as possible?
i was given a variety of tablets from anti inflammatory tablets to steroids, the main thing with the tablets is you start with the “weakest” tablets and you continue on them until your body refuses to react with them and then you move onto the stronger forms of tablets. When my flare ups were in remission i was on 7 tablets a day and when i had to take steroids i was on roughly 16 tablets a day. The main problems i had from taking these tablets was nausea , headaches and believe it or not the anti inflammatory tablets called Pentasa caused me to have upset stomach (ironic?)
Up until last year i was in and out of remissions and the answer from my doctors was to start the steroids back up, i noticed how my body felt weaker and bones and joints hurt every time i was on these steroids but it was getting rid of my flare ups so i just got on with it. Last year i had a minor flare up right above my appendix which confused the hospital staff as they couldn’t tell which i had (either a flare up or appendicitis ) this resulted me being attached to a drip over night in case i needed to rush into surgery, during that night i witnessed a horrible experience which i sadly can say will stick with me forever. A man opposite me was rushed in and i watched him throughout the night go from being able to walk around his bed talking to turning to a funny yellow colour not being able to talk and then finally passing, now i wont say which hospital i was in but for 4-5 hours this man was lying there dead, i can still see his facial expression in my head and i have grown up playing violent killing games but this experience really did change my view on life and i knew i never want to be in a hospital again.
As soon as i left the hospital i looked into the tablets i had been taking since being diagnosed and realized how some of these scary long term effects wasn’t written on the paper inside the box. The steroid i was on was known as the “weakest” form i could have called Prednisone turned out to increase chances of cancer in the liver as this is where the chemical change happens in the body, it was also causes osteoporosis which meant constantly having blood tests to watch how they effected your body. I started to realize how all these tablets i was taking were only “covering up” my symptoms and yet can cause so many serious problems that are not related to my current illness. This is when i looked into alternative medicines, i started researching online and came across a few other alternatives for example manunka honey and other herbal and nutritional supplements, i tried the honey and didn’t see any benefits from this.
At the same time as this i received my monthly newsletter from NACC (now known as Crohn’s and colitis UK) and there was an article talking about scientists researching into using cannabis for a medicine , i would like to point out that i had grown up as a jehovah witness and grown up listening to how the media portrayed cannabis and i also did believe it was the devils drug, i wrote to the organization and asked about this and they replied ” due to the current laws in the UK we cannot advocate the use of drugs and i should continue and speak to my specialist” , From that point i started searching the internet for “Crohn’s and Cannabis” and started to read how this one plant could help all my symptoms and stop me needing to take the tablets from the doctors. I sat down with my parents and we had a long talk which did start off with a few arguments mainly being “but its illegal”, I then showed them some information online for example “Rick Simpson’s run from the cure, Shona Banda” and left them to look up things on there own. they also started to see how this drug could help me.
For the last year i have been of my medication from the hospital and i use a vaporizer to take cannabis every morning lunch and night, now i know most people reading this will be saying “what a shame he has no go in life and spends all day at home taking cannabis” I have a full time job working 4 days a week as a machine engineer all over the UK, i work from 4am-2pm and i would say i work just as hard as anyone else, and nowadays people who don’t know me would never say i am someone who is suffering from an illness. Taking cannabis pure with no tobacco means i don’t have to wake up every morning and take tablets which made me have nausea and i have had no pains since last year, i still go to the toilet a lot but have come to terms with public bathrooms and am happy i no longer have any of my old symptoms and i finally feel more “normal”i changed my diet to more healthy eating which also helps with less flare ups.
This is what annoys me, the fact that if i was in a legal medical state i would be seen as a normal citizen but because i am in the UK i am seen as a criminal for breaking the law and as it stands for most people , there is no “little or big” criminal which means i am put in the same category as a thief , murderer or rapist. So as it stand i have two choices, i follow the UK laws and go back onto my tablets and all them daily symptoms or to be selfish and worry about my own health and take cannabis and have none of the daily symptoms i had with the tablets, anyone reading please be honest and think “what would you do?”
I agree that young children shouldn’t have access to cannabis as there brains are still developing but lets face it due to the drug being illegal its as easy for children to get cannabis as it is to stand outside a shop and ask older people to buy them cigarettes or alcohol. We need to legalize cannabis for medicinal patients. This would mean having professional dispensaries which would require a medical card form your doctor and then you would be given the right types of cannabis for your illness, this would also go deeper into the growing aspect of it and you would have more control in the THC levels as it wouldn’t be grown by gangs who are solely out for a profit.
I know this story wont stay on this website for long as i am the minority here on a biased website but i feel my story is just as important as anyone else’s and i hope the UK laws do the right thing and change.

Thanks
Aaron

Related Posts: