I needed to take more and more pills to ease the pain.
My name is David and I am a 37-year-old husband and father of two boys, aged 12 and 9. My story begins on January 4th, 2007…
I was on my way to work in a company vehicle when we had come to a stop on the highway due to traffic. The vehicle’s operator, who was driving behind us was not paying attention and struck us from behind at about 20 miles per hour. I suffered neck and injuries to my spine. I went to the hospital and was given the pain killer Percocet and was told to book a follow-up appointment with my primary care physician within three days. When I saw my physician, I was prescribed Flexural and Vicodin for pain. I took the medication as directed by my physician. The one pill of Flexural knocked me out for eighteen hours – ONE PILL. Needless to say, I did not take any more Flexural after that. I continued to take the Percocet and Vicodin as needed, although I began to notice that I needed to take more and more pills to ease the pain. Within a short period of time, I needed to take double and then quadruple the pills to take care of the pain, when only one or two pills eased it in the beginning.
When I noticed that this was happening, I wanted to find out why. I used the internet and I looked into opiate drugs and what they do, and what I found out was amazing to me. Due to the powerful opiates in the drugs, the opiate receptors in the brain start to shut down. Once I realized the end result of pill addiction, it scared me because the end result is an early death. When I discovered this, I began to talk to the people around me about my discovery. One particular person that I spoke to was a cousin.
I began to talk to my cousin about what I had found out and I told him that I was scared because I didn’t want to fall victim to it. When he heard me say that to him, he suggested that I start using marijuana to help me with the pain. I began to laugh, “Get the f**k out of here! You want to see me high?!” He said no, and that people use it for pain relief. I had always heard that people used it for pain, but never thought of looking into it for myself. It had never crossed my mind. As we spoke more and more about it, it began to make sense to at least try. The next few days were some of the hardest days I had to deal with throughout this thing – I began to detox my body – no more pills.
After a few days, my cousin came to the house with a cannabis joint. I took three hits off it, and within less than a minute, I was absolutely amazed! I was able to move my back and my neck comfortably. From that day forward, I have used cannabis as my main source of pain relief.
From that moment on, I wanted to know everything there is to know about tobacco, alcohol, street opiates, prescribed opiates, and cannabis, because it is all only and arms length away from our youth.
The first time I experimented with tobacco, I was 8 years old. I grew up in a neighborhood where the kids I grew up with were older than me by a few years. When it was presented to me by my friends, it wasn’t a hard decision for me to smoke because my father smoked. I didn’t think it was a big deal. I smoked cigarettes for approximately 25 years.
However, it was easy for me to quit once I made sense of all the facts in my own head.
This is how I made sense of it…
Tobacco: Once you start smoking tobacco you will be addicted. The greedy pigs that make money on tobacco are the same greedy pigs that make money when you fall victim to cancer. Every day someone leaves his or her house to purchase a pack of cigarettes, half of that packs cost goes to the filthy, greedy rich. We will call them the “tax collectors”. So, as you go and put money into their greedy pockets on a daily basis you, at the same time, are getting yourself sick. In my opinion, the way the United States produces tobacco; it is absolutely grown to cause cancer. So, when you live throughout your life as a smoker and then become sick (if you are lucky, you may last until your retirement years), they will no longer make money on your daily purchase of tobacco. They will now make money on your treatment for cancer and your prescription drugs. Perfect for a system that only values its people while they are able to work. When I looked at tobacco that way, the decision to quit was easy. I did not want to set the same example for my kids as my father set for me. I don’t ever want them to think it is okay! Cannabis played a major part of me being able to rid my life of that demon drug. It’s hard for me to understand how the number one killer on the planet could be legal to purchase to anyone that is 18 years or older!
Alcohol: I was introduced to alcohol at an early age for the same reasons that I was introduced to tobacco. The first time I drank (and got really drunk) was at a friend’s house, and I was 14 or 15. I didn’t become a serious drinker until the day I met my ex-father-in-law. I was asked to have a beer with him. I told him that I didn’t want a beer because I was going to take his daughter out. He said to me that the only way I would be able to take his daughter out was if I had a beer with him. I thought it was pretty crazy. Here was my girlfriend’s dad, giving me that ultimatum! Needless to say, I never ended up taking his daughter out and stayed with him and drank the night away in his back yard. We became good friends. I abused alcohol on an almost daily basis for the next sixteen years. When I looked into the statistics about alcohol, I found out that between 85,000 and 150,000 Americans die each year due to alcohol-related illnesses. The thought about alcohol abuse scared me more than the thought of opiate abuse. I didn’t want to be part of that statistic. I don’t want to be killed due to alcohol, nor do I want to kill anyone due to alcohol. It is a very valuable lesson, in my opinion, for my kids. We, as parents, must lead by example. There are no exceptions.
Had I not taken notice of the signs that my body had given to me when I was first falling victim to opiate addiction, I would have absolutely lost everything, including my wife and my children, and ultimately my life. Cannabis, absolutely 100%, saved my life. When I think about the statistics that I have learned, it only leads me to believe that our system (our Governments) are absolutely evil.
In my opinion, there are three main reasons why Cannabis is kept illegal:
1. Drug testing brings a lot of revenue to this country and drug testing is only good for one substance on the planet. And that is Cannabis. Every other substance, pill form, alcohol is out of our bodies within 3-4 days. So, what do these facts tell our youth? It tells our youth that when they leave school for a long weekend or a vacation, that they can put Percocet, Vicodin, Oxycodone, ecstasy, cocaine, crack, meth., and heroin into their bodies on Friday night, then be drug tested on Tuesday when they go back to school and they will test negative on that drug test. Drug testing teaches our youth to keep the absolute safest substance out of their bodies while they ingest the most harmful. The safest substance, of course, being Cannabis. In over 5,000 years of recorded use, no one life has been lost to Cannabis use alone. When I think of these statistics I ask myself would a God-fearing Government keep this medication from its people. The answer is “no” if they are God fearing, and “yes” if they are run by the devil. My experiences with Cannabis did not only open my eyes to the facts about opiates, tobacco and alcohol, it has also opened my eyes to how governments really care nothing about their people, and I for one will not follow them into hell.
2. Studies show that Cannabis is helpful for over 200 different illnesses, everything from anorexia to arthritis. When you look at the facts from these types of studies, you ask yourself why a government would keep this kind of medication from its people. The answer that I have come up with is simply: If you can grow your own medication in your house, it would take away the pharmaceutical industry from the greedy pigs I spoke of earlier. This is how I can absolutely believe 100 %, with my whole heart, that our leaders care nothing for us. We as a people getting terminally ill once we retire, works out beautifully for them. They take our wages throughout our work life, and when it is time for us to finally retire and relax, we get sick and die. You see, that works out perfect for them. They never have to pay us back on the money they “borrowed” from us.
Due to my experiences with cannabis for the last 4 ½ years, I have learned to use the right dosage to live and function a somewhat normal day to day life. The injuries that I sustained while working in the trenches in September 2008 have left me permanently and fully disabled. I can’t stand up for long periods of time, nor can I sit down for long periods of time. I have to lay down from time to time throughout the day to take the pressure off my spine. It only takes a minimal amount of cannabis to make life more comfortable for me. Like I said in the beginning of my story, I am a father of two young sons. I have a responsibility I was given by God, and that responsibility was to make sure that my children become good, loving human beings. I would not be the person I am today if I did not use cannabis to rid my life of evil. Speaking of evil, for those of you that might say that cannabis was put here by the devil, ask yourselves this, “Why would the devil put a plant so helpful to God’s creation on the planet?” The answer is and always will be: He wouldn’t. In my opinion, because what has happened to my body and my life, cannabis is the miracle substance that we all seek.
3. Statistically, Cannabis is the strongest fiber known to man. We would have stronger rope, stronger clothes, stronger paper, etc. When I look at these facts and I ask myself again, “Would a government who follows God, keep this type of knowledge and resource from its people?” The answer I always come up with is, “No. They wouldn’t, but a devil-run government would”. I, for one, want to make our planet a much safer place for all of our youth. It makes me sick to my stomach every time I think about the suffering that my kids and future grandchildren will suffer due to what has taken place on this planet because of governments. I will not be kept quiet by this government. I used cannabis to save my life. Do you think I would be a good candidate to help anyone else save their lives?
1LUV
Cousin Dave 420
By David N. Pimentel Originally Published in Weed World Magazine Issue 97
Photo Credit – Pixabay
