Recently, I had a follow up visit with a patient who had gotten a medical marijuana (MMJ) card about a year before. In many aspects of her life, she was doing great with the addition of MMJ in her life – she had less pain from her chronic illness, less neurological symptoms as a result of inflammation, and was sleeping better. However, she had noticed that her tolerance had gone up, increasing her minimum dosage, and that she felt like she was in a “slight permanent daze” from consuming marijuana daily for months at a time.
“I’m starting to consider if I need to reduce my THC intake,” she said. “Is that crazy? It’s obviously so helpful for me, but I can’t use it at the level I currently am.”
It’s not crazy. I’m no stranger to the medical/somatic, psychological/spiritual and recreational use of marijuana, but it’s also evident that there is such a thing as using too much. With legalization of recreational now in Maryland, I thought I’d outline some of the reasons to consider reducing cannabis usage, and ways acupuncture can help as a harm reduction strategy.
Acupuncture Can Help with Deeper Sleep
Long-term cannabis can disrupt REM sleep, which is essential for dreaming and tissue growth. If you’re using THC to wind down and get to sleep, consider a few acupuncture sessions or a Chinese herbal medicine prescription and see if that helps you sleep through the night.
Acupuncture Could Address Underlying Psychological Hang-Ups
A patient of mine was smoking a joint daily before work to deal with her anxiety about her commute. A veteran was using edibles to lessen the intensity of his PTSD flash backs. For both these people, acupuncture (along with therapy and lots of other psychological tools) helped them have less intense mental health symptoms, so they felt less dependent on cannabis to address their anxiety and panic. Another example came from a patient who, when she stopped smoking her nightly bowl-or-three, realized that she also was relying on alcohol heavily, and started a SMART recovery program as well as continuing weekly acupuncture.
Acupuncture Could Give Your Lungs a Break
Especially if you use flower or vaping (we still don’t know what is in it….), you are doing damage to your lungs when you inhale. In addition to non-combustable options like oils and tinctures, a session of cupping, gua sha, lymphatic massage, or lung-focused acupuncture could help bring in a breath of fresh air.
Acupuncture Can Address Physical Pain
Acupuncture is recognized to be effective in treatment of low back pain, neck pain, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, and pain from cancer – many of the same reasons why people seek medical marijuana. If your pain level goes down, you may be able to use less THC products (and other pharmaceuticals) for pain management.
Acupuncture Promotes a Sense of Ease and Embodied Calm
Before I got acupuncture, I thought that the 30 minutes after smoking THC was the most relaxed and non-anxious I would ever feel in my life. Nowadays, there is nothing that makes me happier than entering the room where one of my patients is sleeping or zoning out, and hearing the calm in their voice, seeing the tension drained from their face, and their body totally relaxed…without a single external chemical imbibed.
