You have to hand it to the U.S. Government. Without the money, might, and monotony of this monolith, it would have been impossible to suppress and distort the truth about cannabis – a plant used beneficially by humans for the last 5,000 to 10,000 years.

But that’s in the past, because the truth — like a plant — has the habit of coming to the surface no matter how many times it’s stepped on.

Thanks to the Internet, the greatest information sharing and publishing facility in history, we now have access to a wealth of historical records, medical research, and user experiences about cannabis. The net result of all this information is that everyday people, not just people involved in the medical marijuana community, are starting to learn the truth. So this series of articles is a way for you to counter “official” lies, propaganda and misinformation with the kind of hard-hitting facts that just might change some minds, and perhaps save some lives in the process…maybe yours, or that of someone you care about.

Myth: Medical Marijuana patients aren’t really being treated, they’re just sitting around getting high.

This is another one of those “seems to make sense” lines that has folks nodding agreement to each other while sitting on their bar stools. But it couldn’t be more wrong. Most patients quickly learn the correct dose, that is, the dose that does not get them high.

To a medical marijuana patient, being high is more of a side effect and generally an unwanted nuisance. If you can’t think clearly or walk straight, you’re not going to be able to work or even drive, so “getting high all the time” is nothing you’re even thinking about.



Some patients are in tremendous pain and have to take relatively large amounts of medicine. But they’re not looking to get high either (and often don’t), they just need pain relief. Many of them are eager to find and use the newer strains of medical marijuana that are more effective against pain and less likely to cause a “high”.

Other patients, depending on their illness, often need only tiny or non-psychoactive doses of cannabis to help their condition. One patient I know cleared up his decade-long depression in a matter of weeks by inhaling cannabis vapor three or four times daily. His total intake comes to about 0.05 grams every day, which works out to a gram – about $12 worth of medical marijuana – every three weeks. And this miniscule dose never gets him high.

Another patient can’t even use a vaporizer due to childhood lung scarring. A survivor of PTSD, she takes either Green Dragon (fast-acting cannabis tincture) or Canna Caps (long-acting, standardized dosage capsules) when she feels susceptible to the overwhelming stress that often precedes a serious panic attack. Although this particular dosage would get her high under ordinary circumstances, she literally doesn’t even feel it at these times. And that’s a good thing, because she actually dislikes being high (she calls it “feeling dizzy”).

Some patients can’t take their medicine regularly when they’re working, so they use edibles or Canna Caps, which last longer and are more consistent in their effects. Again, the focus is on delivering the medication to their bodies, not getting high. If getting high was the object, we wouldn’t be seeing all the excitement in medical marijuana circles about CBD-rich strains of cannabis, that can eliminate the high altogether.