Medical marijuana patients swap prescriptions for cannabis

BY CHAD HUNTER

Reporter

Medical marijuana patient Merle “Cate” Fritz smells one of 20-plus cannabis strains at Evergreen RX dispensary in Tahlequah while assistant manager Kinverlyn Moncada holds the jar Jan. 24. CHAD HUNTER/CHEROKEE PHOENIX Medical marijuana patient Lisa Snell, of Tahlequah, holds a chocolate “edible” infused with cannabis. The edibles have allowed her to stop taking some of her prescription medications. CHAD HUNTER/CHEROKEE PHOENIX More than 2,000 medical marijuana dispensaries are licensed in Oklahoma. Many medical marijuana patients who were either curious or already familiar with cannabis say they’ve shed their reliance on prescription drugs. CHAD HUNTER/CHEROKEE PHOENIX

About the Author

CHAD HUNTER

chad-hunter@cherokee.org  918-453-5269 Chad Hunter has spent more than two decades in the newspaper industry as a reporter and editor in Arkansas, Oklahoma and his home state of Missouri. He began working for the Cherokee Phoenix in late ...

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TAHLEQUAH – Many Oklahoma medical marijuana patients who were either curious or already familiar with cannabis say they’ve since shed their reliance on prescription drugs.Cherokee Nation citizen Lisa Snell, 49, of Tahlequah, said her journey began with a dependence on Xanax and other antidepressants.“The main deal with me was the anxiety,” she said. “With that comes insomnia, tension headaches, migraines. So I thought, if anything, if I could get off the drugs with the side effects, I’m willing to give this a shot. Because the bad side of the Xanax is you don’t care about stuff, and you kind of lose your impulse control.”Snell said that after the 2018 vote that legalized medical marijuana, her interest was piqued based on stories about its benefits to children and cancer patients.“On the flip side, there wasn’t a lot of research into it,” she said. “That was the hesitation I had, that it was still kind of experimental. But as a lot of teenagers and people in college, I smoked here and there occasionally. I really didn’t enjoy being high. I enjoyed how I slept afterwards, but I really didn’t enjoy being high.”Despite her apprehension, Snell obtained a state medical marijuana card, then purchased marijuana from a dispensary with little direction.“I felt kind of weird and awkward about it because I’d never actually bought marijuana before,” she said. “It was just kind of odd. You get home with it and you still don’t know how it’s going to affect you and how much you need. That’s the downside of the marijuana: you don’t have a doctor saying take one of this or so many grams so many times a day. You don’t have that luxury. It’s just trial and error. If someone smoked recreationally, they kind of know. But I didn’t.”She now prefers “edibles,” food products infused with cannabis, before bed.“The smoke doesn’t really do it for me, although you do get an immediate idea of how it makes you feel,” she said. “But when you eat, it takes an hour, hour-and-a-half before it kicks in.”Snell added that marijuana does not alleviate her headaches, but has allowed her to ditch prescriptions.“I don’t think the marijuana does all these miraculous things that people say that it does,” she said. “But just getting off those medications has been just wonderful for me. It’s really brought me back to myself.”Like Snell, medical marijuana patient and CN citizen Jamie Casey, 49, of Broken Arrow, says she no longer relies on Xanax and other prescriptions.Casey said marijuana helps reduce her symptoms related to dystonia, a movement disorder that can cause excessive, involuntary muscle contractions.“I worked for many years as a medical assistant,” she said. “My symptoms were starting to get a little worse. The twitch in my jaw and neck started, and the tremor in my hand got worse. I had to learn how to anchor my hand to do different things.”Costs associated with prescriptions, along with unpleasant side effects, she added, prompted her to look elsewhere. Now she relies solely on medical marijuana products.“I get a lot of benefit from the THC and the CBD,” Casey said.Another patient, Merle “Cate” Fritz, of Tahlequah, was so convinced of marijuana’s benefits, she helped garner signatures for its legalization petition.She uses various methods – edibles, smoking, oil and creams – to help with back pain.“The cannabis really seems to help,” she said. “Before it had passed, I started taking the CBD oil and I mean, it was a huge relief from the inflammation. Once I started using the cannabis, I can really see a huge difference overall.”Fritz also tries to steer clear of prescription medications.“Before, I would take Ibuprofen occasionally, and when I got bad enough I would have to go to the emergency room,” she said. “They would give me steroid shots and muscle relaxers. But I took those as limited as possible.”Despite advocating for the state question’s passage, Fritz waited nearly a year to apply for a medical marijuana card.“I really just wanted to give time for other patients who were in dire need to get theirs,” she said.