Marinol Pills

[LewisLegion]

Ok, so I recently started medical marijuana for my pain issues and PTSD. My doctor and several of my friends have been trying to get me on it for a while but I was always hesitant about it for various reasons.

Finally my doctor told me that I was harming my liver and kidneys with the amount of precriptions and otc meds I have to take just to function, and all but ordered me onto the marijuana. So, I gave in and gave it a shot.

The result? It's been about a month, and I am completely out of pain for most of the day, sleeping better than I have in...EVER, and am totally off all my pain meds and muscle relaxers and may be off my high blood pressure meds soon.

My doctor recommended me to a particular dispensary, as they were the only ones to lab test their strains for contaminants (molds, mildews, pesticides). The owner was a botanist and an activist.

On our first meeting we talked about what I needed medically, she gave me some medibles to try, and some marinol pills to sample to help with digestion issues (I have severe IBS due to the fibro). She recommended a strain for my condition called M'Otto which has such a low amount of THC in it the state doesn't even consider it marijuana. I'm not really interested in pot to get high, just to make the pain go away and let me sleep, so that worked fine with me.

I also got a couple of different strains beside the M'Otto, just to get a handle on what kinds work for me and what ones don't.

So, at this point I've vaporized a few different kinds...some of which made me sleepy, some made me a bit giggly, all of which eradicated my pain, but that was all the effect I ever felt from any of them.

Last night I decided to try one of the marinol pills for my stomach, which had been a slight bit dodgy for a day or two. She had instructed me to take it at least two and a half hours before bed, and not to take anything else. She told me that some people still get high on the pills, and that I want to see how it affects me and be sure if I get high, that its the pill causing it and not something else.

So I took a pill at about four o'clock and went about my afternoon- watching tv, having dinner, chatting online, etc.

At about six my two roommates and I settled down to watch Dexter and I wasn't feeling anything still. At about six twenty I started feeling just a little woozy and thought 'it's finally starting to kick in, I guess I WILL feel something on it'...and continued to watch tv.

Then, out of nowhere, Dexter suddenly turned into a Japanese man, spouting gibberish. It lasted for just a second...so fast that I didn't notice it until right after it had happened. At the same time I got a hot rush over my face, my scalp started crawling and there was a non-painful 'pop' in my head.

For a second, I actually thought I might be having a stroke (I have hypertension) before I realized it must be the pot. I alerted my roommates to what was going on, a bit floored because so far pot had never done anything close to what I was feeling.

Everything that was happening was crystal clear...AS it was happening. I'd get occassional bursts of people on TV speaking gibberish or their mouths not matching their words, but in the 'moment' everything was clear. After a few seconds, it started to break up- like waking from a dream, when you first start forgetting the images- and after five minutes I couldn't remember anything beyond vagueties (I'm at home, we're watching Dexter).

So it was like just living in every single moment, every memory of everything even a couple of minutes old almost gone. At one point, my roommates paused the show and left the room for a bathroom break, and while they were gone I couldn't figure out where they'd gone too. I vaguely recalled them being there, and then they weren't...it was like they just disappeared. I didn't 'remember' them going to the bathroom until one of them walked out of the downstairs bathroom.

All in all, it felt exactly like it feels to be anesthetized. For those of you who've had surgery, the moment you first feel the drug hit you and everything kind of goes vague and hot, just before you actually fall unconscious...I was stuck in that moment for two hours before I went to bed. Time was CRAWLING. I kept looking at the clock because it would feel hours had gone by and we'd been watching Dexter for an eternity...but it would have only been two or three minutes at most.

It was incredibly disconcerting and disorienting and I was not fond of the sensation in the slightest. I didn't slurr or do anything embarrassing according to my roommates (they said I looked 'disturbed' and flushed, but mostly just sat there quietly and when I did talk I was lucid) but it is not an experience I want to repeat. I emailed the dispensary to see what the THC levels of the pills are (so I can avoid strains with that amount of THC in them in the future).

[Ginger Tea]

I don't mean to sound snarky, but you said you were advised to take it 2 and a half hours before bed, yet unless you were going to go to bed at 7 after dexter, perhaps you took it too soon and although you would have it kick in at the same time, if you were intending to go to bed at say 10 4 is too damn early, but I don't know your body clock, you might work stupid hours if any (the amount of meds has me inclined to think not at the moment, but I don't know you so I could be totally wrong).

But also, not being a pot smoker (do not like smoking so wasn't keen on doing something I dislike just to get high and when I decided this I only knew of smoking joints not hash brownies etc) is it safe to take this pill and 'sleep it off'?

But it might be worth NOT taking that one just in case, I left town for a month and came back to find the guy upstairs had been sectioned, although he liked having a joint, he was part of the demographic that gets paranoid and I think it triggered an underlying undiagnosed issue.
I saw him once after that he was still a resident at the local mental health unit and was an open patient or whatever you would call it, never saw him again after that, but I was informed recently by the land lord and father of his ex, that a year or two later he killed himself, that was 5 or so years now.

[Andara Bledin]

First: I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice:

Marinol is the brand name for dronabinol and is supposed to be prescribed to fight nausea and vomiting and/or increase appetite, generally for those with AIDS or similar.

Mood and thinking issues are a common (about 1/3, one report stated) reaction to the medication and it's actually stated that you should have proper adult supervision when you first start taking it. If you weren't informed of this, I'd start to wonder about whoever gave you the medication.

The dronabinol not only takes longer to reach effectiveness but is missing other compounds found in actual marijuana, some of which have been demonstrated to reduce the psychoactive effects of THC. Again, if you weren't informed of this, you might want to ask your provider why not.

As for the actual level of THC, that's unlikely to be a factor as much as the lack of anti-psychoactive compounds that aren't in the medication but are found in the actual plant.

Also, reactions such as this are the strongest when you first start taking the medication and taper off as your body becomes accustomed to it. This doesn't seem to be the sort of medication you just "try out once or twice" but "try out for a month or two" to check effectiveness.

[LewisLegion]

Ginger: You don't sound snarky, and yes, you're exactly right. I get up at 4:30 on mornings I work, so I'm usually in bed by 8:30-9. Even so, yes my taking it at 4 was a bit early.

She did say 'two and a half hours before bed' but because she wanted me to be sure that anything I felt was a result of the pill and nothing else, and to see how it affected me, my understanding (likely incorrect) was that the 2 1/2 time frame was so that I would have time to feel any effects and therefore to know exactly the medicine effects me, before I was asleep and unable to notice them. I didn't consider it to mean, 'take this two and a half hours before bed because believe me, you wanna be asleep or close to it when this shit kicks in'.

Andara: Yes, the mood and effects on thinking were mentioned, and she did the usual advisory spiel (do not drive on this, ever, make sure you're with people you trust, etc.). However, it's one thing for someone to tell you 'this may give you scattered thoughts' and quite another thing when Dexter suddenly turns Japanese and you're slapped with the memory span of Dory from Finding Nemo. She also said that this particular kind, most people didn't feel anything on other than pain relief and soothing of digestive spasms, so if I felt anything I was expecting it to be mild...certainly no stronger than the other pot I have tried.

I was also with my two roommates the entire time (until I finally went up and went to bed). They were both aware what was going on and I trust them both with my life.

Looking back I think it was simply the fact that it came on so fast and was so unexpected that made it worse than it really was. If I do try the pill again after talking to my provider, it's definitely going to be a weekend where I don't have to go anywhere the next day, and I'm definitely going to hit the sheets at the recommended time, and not take it too early again.

[Andara Bledin]

It's odd that she said what she said. Because 1/3 of people who take it have some sort of episode at first. Plus, it will almost definitely have greater psychotropic effects than straight marijuana because it lacks the suppressors that are naturally also found in the whole plant.

The unexpectedness of it is definitely disconcerting. It'd be like if someone randomly spiked your drink with LSD. But 1 hour is the usual rate of effect for this medication. That, combined with the psychotropic effects, are part of why it's prescribed mostly for people who need major help with their appetite, and why it's typically a long-term, keep taking this every day for months, sort of prescription. For those that do keep taking it, the psychotropic effects wane. But, as with other psychotropes, if you stop taking it for a long enough period, your body will stop being resistant, and you will go through it all again.

[LewisLegion]

Well, I definitely don't need it for my appetite. She gave it to me solely to help with my IBS, and honestly, that's not enough of a horrible issue for me to even want to muscle through the psychotropic effect so... pills!

Though I guess if 1/3 of people have a reaction, that still leaves most people who don't...so she wasn't technically incorrect, she just didn't warn me adequately, or else I just didn't hear her and grok just how frakkin' loopy it could make someone.

[Andara Bledin]

I make a point and suggest that everybody else check online at the various sites not associated with the drug makers to see what the common consensus is on the drugs effectiveness and interactions before I take anything I haven't had before.

Most of what I've looked up has been generally innocuous or had typical effects that I would consider an improvement from the problem they were supposed to resolve. But I have run into one or two that did things outside of what I was willing to have done just for whatever benefit they were supposed to convey.