Transit shenanigans. Now waiting on taxi, first driver cancelled. It shouldn't be this difficult to go downtown.

In a taxi! Hopefully I will make my visa appointment.

Am I the only one who remembers that within the last year we published an article about the massive decrease in deaths from opioid overdose in states with legal medical marijuana??? We're going to look like asses.

I don't think those statements are in opposition? If it keeps people off opiods, but still doesn't actually do much for any underlying conditions?

I'd have to pull up the article to be positive, but I believe it discussed the fact that using marijuana kept people off of opioids (or allowed them to reduce the dose) because the marijuana helped with pain control.

Well, shit. I'm so stubborn that now I'm going to pull up the article.

Is pain control a therapeutic effect? I'm seriously asking.

Okay, I pulled up the article, and apparently marijuana affects the opioid receptors in the brain. Not to the same degree as actual opioids, but enough that it does have an effect on pain.

I'm also wondering if the claim that pot doesn't have proven therapeutic effects is due to the lack of controlled studies. I don't know if that's true, though.

Maybe the pot just distracts you from the pain? That's sort of what I feel like alcohol does for cramps.

I have been told that's what opiates do, at least some of the time. You still hurt but you don't mind so much.

What are people doing this weekend?

I have to spend some quality time at Costco and TJs, but apart from that I am committed to couch time, in the hopes of finally getting rid of the ick.

I don't mind and then I fall asleep.

Re: this morning's be-catting. Pumpkin often leaps on my towel covered shoulders as I'm drying off after a shower. I just turned my head at the wrong time and got a face full of catbelly.

I really wish I'd gotten here 15 minutes early, because this is a clusterfuck.