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So I used to be a recreational user of weed starting in my early twenties for about 10 years until I started having bad reactions to it about 15 years ago and had to stop. I guess it wasn't entirely recreational, as I suffer from anxiety, depression, social phobia and it really helped with all that too. I did have a friend at Uni when I was about 14 who I used to smoke with when I'd see him but that wasn't very often and I didn't miss it or think about it the rest of the time.

Occasionally I try having a toke to see if anything's changed but it's still awful. Seriously, one toke and I feel like I've had a mega adrenaline shot. I get dizzy, my heart/head feel like they're pounding (although my pulse rate is perfectly normal), I have to go to the toilet, then I'm sitting on the edge of the chair rocking or I have to put on music and dance around to distract myself and burn off some of the energy, then my arms are shaking quite severely. This lasts for hours, so if I have a toke in the early afternoon I might just have calmed down enough that I can go to sleep that night. Normally I suffer from extreme fatigue and chronic pain, so this is almost the opposite of how I am normally and if it was less intense it might be good, as it would be nice to have normal energy levels and not feel like I'm climbing a mountain every time I get up and I don't really notice my pain when I'm in this state.

I'm sure some people will think it's just a panic attack but it doesn't feel like it at all, it feels very much like an adverse physiological response and I'm sure a panic attack wouldn't last so long. I know people say the THC has either increased in modern weed or the CBD has decreased a lot, making the effects of the THC more severe but even so lots of people seem to smoke quite a bit of weed for anxiety, depression, stress relief, so I don't go along with this idea that you can't use it unless you're already a happy, relaxed person and I can't understand how one small toke could have this effect on me. I wish I could just get a doctor to study me and do some tests after I've had a toke but I'm sure that's impossible in the UK.

I have a friend who was crippled with arthritis and in a mobility scooter until she discovered CBD and I've been trying that myself recently but with little success so far. I've been on tramadol and pregabalin for my chronic widespread pain for years. I'm pretty much undiagnosed so far as the pain/muscle weakness is concerned. X-rays and MRIs all come back normal, I've got a vague diagnosis of fibromyalgia but they just prescribed me duloxetine and discharged me and that just made me even worse so I had to stop it. I've got hallux rigidus in both feet and had surgery (chiellectomy) at the start of the year but that hasn't helped with the pain, it's made it worse in fact, so I'll probably need joint replacement if no other way to relieve the pain can be found.

I started off with some 10mg CBD gummy bears and when I ate a few of them whilst I was on the tramadol and pregabalin I got quite baked but I know CBD can't really do that so I can only assume it just amplified the effects of the medications. I stopped taking the pregabalin for a while and didn't get this effect with just the tramadol and the gummy bears.

I've also tried some oils of varying strengths, from the Holland & Barret (2.75mg/10ml I think) up to an unbranded 1000mg/10ml. I noticed some pain relief from rubbing the latter on my skin but not much effect from consuming it. Haven't noticed much effect from the 250mg crumble I bought and diluted into 10ml DIY vape juice either. I was taking 5 drops of the 1000mg oil a couple of times a day but one day I increased it to 10 drops, two or maybe three times. That night I felt quite baked (if you've ever taken amitriptylene, that has a similar effect) before I went to bed and woke up at 4am to pee and felt fine but woke again at 5.20am and had the worst headache ever, it felt like all the water had been sucked out of my brain and my throat was so hot and dry. It may have been a coincidence though, maybe I ate something bad or caught a virus, as I did have an upset stomach for a couple of days.

I think I'm going to order 10g CBD isolate next and make my own oils and vape juice with it, as it's too damn expensive buying the ready-made stuff, so I'll see how I get on with that. I wonder however if anyone knows of any doctors/hospitals in Amsterdam where I could arrange for them to study me and do some tests after I have a toke, as if I have an underlying condition that's causing my adverse reactions that could be the best way to get it diagnosed and they'd also be able to see if I get on better with different strains (i.e. high CBD, low THC) or if any amount of THC sets me off? Also does anyone know of any therapists/doctors in 'dam who use ketamine or psilocybin as part of psychological therapy, as I know these have been trialed successfully in the UK but only in one centre with about 100 patients, so it could be forever/never before I can access such treatments here?

Have you ever seen this?

https://mmjdoctoronline.com/health-news ... --paranoia

Enjoy
FlyByNite

I do recall reading that some time ago but thanks for the reminder.

I really don't think that paranoia could account for my symptoms but there's no harm trying the black pepper sometime to see if it helps. Of course there is an element of anxiety that occurs as a result of the physical symptoms but I think anyone would feel the same. I sometimes end up taking 2mg diazepam to reduce the symptoms when they haven't stopped after several hours but just because that helps I don't think it proves it's just anxiety, as I'm sure a sedative will help counter excess adrenaline, dizziness and shaking whatever the cause.

The CBD crumble I've been using has added terpenes and I did try taking a toke after I'd been vaping the CBD and still had the same adverse reactions. To be fair, I may not have vaped the CBD close enough to taking a toke, so once I get the CBD isolate (no terpenes unfortunately) I'll try a more controlled experiment.

Sorry to hear abut your struggles mate - it sounds like you're having a rough time.
Obviously I'm not a healthcare professional but I do know a few; in fact a multitude of Mental health nurses and drugs workers.

The effects you're describing are a lot more common than most people in the Cannabis community would have you beleive.
The less mature elements of the community want to beleive that Cannabis is harmless. They don't want to think of Cannabis as unpleasant or dangerous; but the truth is that for some - it is.

I personally know two other people that suffer with the same effects as you when injesting product with a high degree of THC.
They don't have as extreme a reaction when puffing on some hash; which generally contains a higher percentage of both CBD and CBN (which are THC re-uptake agonists meaning that they'll modulate the effects of THC).

BUT I wouldn't personally recommend consuming any kind of imported Moroccan, Indian etc hash as they (regardless what anyone tells you - and this sentence isn't likely to be popular here) are often (in fact LIKELY) FULL of contaminents; some of them pretty nasty, some less so (mainly henna) but there's no way I'd recommend any one use those as a medicinal product. For that reason I very rarely consume those products. Yuck. Honestly I'd rather inhale trace amount of butane in BHO; at least we know the effects on health of that.

However - there's potential that you could mitigate against the negative effects of THC using a combination of Cannabis and a CBD isloate.

I wish there were some meaningful advice I could give you.
The best I can offer is get in touch with Clear UK. They have a decent track record of advising and consulting with medical users that want to travel to NL to get Cannabis related medical advice.

Best of luck. Welcome to the forum.
Fingers crossed that your condition gets better.

Thanks for the advice and the kind words mate.

I'm not a fan of hash either. Never used to think about it but then I heard it can be polluted with rubber and all kinds of nasty stuff which put me right off it!

When I was started smoking regularly in my 20's it was mostly weed/skunk, although I'm sure I did get hash sometimes. When I started have adverse reactions in my 30's I think it was mostly hash I was smoking by then but as my friends were smoking the same stuff without any problem I figured it must be me rather than the hash.

I wasn't on the tramadol and pregabalin back then. I'm not sure what else I might have been on but I was put on Seroxat for a week or so and felt very agitated, so I came off that pretty damn quick and had major anxiety/panic attacks for a while as a result. The worst bit was feeling like I was drowning every time I started to fall asleep, which obviously made me wake up in a panic and for a while I was only able to sleep for about 30mins a night, so I was feeling exhausted and had to take sleeping pills eventually for a little bit. I was signed up to a class action lawsuit against the makers of Seroxat as it apparently had bad side-effects on a lot of people but after a while the solicitors asked me to pay several thousand pounds to continue, which I didn't have so I had to drop out. I heard something about it possibly causing permanent damage to the vasculature but I don't know if that has been proven.

Anyway, I haven't touched hash in ages, I only have a toke of skunk (which is pretty much all I can get hold of) once in a while to see if anything's changed. I'll certainly try combining the cannabis and CBD isolate when I get it. The company I was going to buy the CBD from is being a bit weird, trying to charge me £10+VAT for delivery on a wholesale order, whereas if I make a retail order on their website it's either free or £1.99 inc VAT for delivery. When I questioned this they just said "that's how it is" and even ordering on their website it doesn't apply the discount it says I should get, so I'm going to see if I can find somewhere more professional even if it costs a little bit more.

Thanks for the tip about Clear UK. I'll contact them and see what they can suggest.

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