Enzo,
I have posted quite a bit about Medical Marijuana (MM) in the past advocating for MM use with common sense cautions. I wouldn't recommend MM as a first line of treating CF pulmonary issues but CF takes its toll on our mental as well as physical health and there could be a positive trade off.
Vaping cannabis delivers unburned vapors into the lungs beginning at temperatures around 360°F in the vaporizer and hopefully is cooled down considerably by the time it passes one's lips. The cannabis vapor is dry, no steam is involved since cannabanoids boil at temperatures well above that of water (@ 315°-356°F) compared to ~212°F for water.
I've observed two effects related to using a direct draw vaporizer, both related to the dryness. It dries me up and that generally opens my lungs. I have FEV1 tests to confirm this. The dry lung mucus is less likely to become infected from my experience. However, when I do contract pneumonia or such, I need to hussle in order to moisten any dried mucus. Sooner or later all the mucus must be loosened, hydrated and expectorated.
Fortunately nebulizing regularly with hypertonic saline rehydrates the mucus and mucosa. Your regular pulmonary routine will reverse any negative effects of MM vaping. Vaping is the main delivery method to be considering medical effects specific to MM and the lungs. Turpenoids, or essential oils that stimulate copious amounts of mucus like camphor near the nose. Induced coughing from the MM turpenoids has been helpful in loosening and coughing out mucus and phlegm. It helps with my referred lung pain. As far as the effort and expense involved in using MM, the argument for its use for clearing the lungs, current nebulizing formulations do a better job. There's more to MM to consider. In particular there aren't any medicines for referred lung pain. Your sore ribs or spasming back muscles can be intolerable, some relief here may cut down on strong pain medicines.
My interest in MM began when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. There is a lot of supporting evidence that MS is helpful in many CF patients and no correlation between dopamine and cannabanoids but they are helping me, with my neurologist's blessings. Many medicines have multiple uses, aspirin being a good example of a drug that helps prevent strokes/heart attacks and stops a throbbing headache.
A major reason I have supported your efforts to legally obtain and use MM has to do with other important issues of CF. I wouldn't doubt if a fair percentage of your peers and friends take some medicine to improve their mental health. Depression, anxiety, hyperactivity and self absorption are all potential issues that come with CF. You're supercharged metabolism is so because that's a necessity in fighting your CF. There isn't an easy way to escape the fight or flight state CF has a person constantly.
I saw the choice as cycling through all the anti-anxiety, neuroleptic and mood stabilizers or MM to resolve the anxiety, existential angst (fear of dying, fear of afterlife) and the go-go-go mentality in spite
of being physically sick. If pot worked so well, it would be the legal and under prescription, it may not eliminate all the anti-anxiety, antidepressants, SSRIs and what have you. I feel you could get by on a single, low dose medicine that augments your MM. It is very individual and nobody should stop or change a psych med without the doctor participating. Suspending such a drug could result in suicidal thoughts of suicide or worse, acting on a simple chemical imbalance.
When I was 19, my best friend's father killed himself, just like that. No leading hints or behavioral changes, one evening after dinner he went out to his shop and shot himself. There was nothing wrong or intolerable going on. He was diabetic, type I, requiring insulin and a new drug allowed a less regimented life. This new drug had the unanticipated effect of making its users to become suicidal. If he had waited a year before trying it, this drug at least was pulled because of the terribly high numbers of patients who attempted suicide.
You have justifiable reasons to feel anxiety and fear, depression and a host of mental health issues to address in much the same way you address any physical issue. I'm not a fan of non psychiatrists prescribing anti-anxiety, antidepressant, mood stabilizer and antipsychotic drugs. The average PCP can manage your medications after psychiatrist has fine tuned them. If a person needs and benefits from a Zoloft or gabapentine, Zanax or Efexor, the doctor who is an authority on these tricky medicines, a psychiatrist, is the only doctor I would consider an expert, and here you need that expert.
My personal and professional experience with cannabis is this. Taken in moderation, a good Sativa- Indica hybrid is a good substitute for anti-anxiety and it helps chill your mind. Being in a high metabolic state, we literally are living faster than other around us because the brain is running overtime like a toddler after drinking a quart of Coke.
Cannabis is an intoxicant. The world renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead was once commissioned by the Nixon administration to study and report on marijuana use in America and its affects on society and culture. The Republican administration was so certain that Mead's conclusions would agree with theirs, nobody bothered to read any of her work.
Stress can be good, nothing about the stresses CF imposes is good for us and the lines blur when physical and mental stress become overwhelming. Emotional pain might as well be an infected wound. Dr. Mead studied cultures that were totally detached from the larger world. An Eden of innocence, devoid of the constant pressure on our modern world they were still overwhelmed by life's pressures and many sanctioned intoxicants were consumed in a parallel of an American Kegger. Alcoholic beverages are abundant in deepest dark Africa and Meade spoke out in support of marijuana use in America. The ancient and isolated people utilized cannabis in balance with alcohol.
If there is no other reason for using pot than to enjoy getting high, don't forget there's a time and a place. Do things in moderation and consider it the wine or beer you would otherwise enjoy since most CFers can't or shouldn't drink.
Another important question now that you have more experience with it, is it helping?
LL
