Mike McLean has battled chronic back pain for over a decade. It started when he was a sergeant in the Canadian army and eventually grew so severe it ended his 22-year military career.

“It causes an incredible amount of pain. It’s like a hot knife being slowly driven into my back,” McLean says. “The way the doctors describe it, my back is so screwed up there’s nothing that’s going to fix it again. They kind of gave up.”

“I tried every single treatment you can think of. Physical therapy, acupuncture, even a botox injection. I’ve also had nerve blockers, tons of different medications, including fentanyl patches, OxyContin and Percocet. Doctors throw all sorts of pharmaceuticals at you for physical pain.”

The painkillers helped deaden McLean’s pain, but also came with side effects; including constipation, night sweats and the threat of addiction.

“I was miserable when I was on a fentanyl patch. Just miserable. My temperature would just skyrocket or drop for no reason. And I’d get really bad cold sweats,” McLean told National Pain Report. “The side effects for these opiates are just too severe. The downsides far outweigh the benefits.”

McLean took early retirement – at age 40 – and now lives on a disability pension with his wife and two children in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

“And I found out very quickly that as a civilian it’s pretty difficult to find a doctor that will treat you when you have these kinds of medications. I was literally asked to leave a couple of doctor’s offices. I came in with my paperwork, all my stuff from Veteran’s Affairs that showed all my history and medications. And the doctors said ‘Nope, can’t help you.’”

McLean began to consider medical marijuana – which is legal in Canada — as a way to relieve his back pain. McLean would have faced charges if he was caught using marijuana while in the military, but as a civilian he was free to use it if a doctor could vouch for him.

He started communicating online with Dr. Terry Roycroft at the Medical Cannabis Resource Center in Vancouver. Roycroft helped McLean get a license from Health Canada to possess marijuana.

McLean started baking marijuana brownies, but quickly learned it was easier to make marijuana tea. Two or three cups a day give him all the relief he needs.

“It makes quite a difference. It’s not that it blocks the pain. I just care less about it,” says McLean, who doesn’t like to use the word “high” to describe the experience.

“I have my pain relief. I don’t have any side effects. I don’t have constipation. I don’t have the mood swings. I don’t have the sweats. I don’t have withdrawal issues.”

McLean is now in the habit of making a daily pot of tea, using 6 or 7 grams of marijuana leaves, combined with 4 parts milk and 1 part hot water. The heavy reliance on milk is needed because THC, marijuana’s active ingredient, is not water soluble. But THC will dissolve into milk and other types of fat.

“If my pain is really bad I can just brew the tea longer and make it a bit stronger because more THC binds to the fat cells in the milk,” McLean says.

“I would recommend it to anyone who has any chronic pain, depression or cancer. There are a wide range of illnesses that cannabis can treat. More people need to understand the benefits far exceed the perceived threat of what cannabis is.”