Hi, this is my first post to these forums that I have watched occasionally
I am autistic (Aspergers Syndrome) I am 48 years old and have used Cannabis to modulate the anxiety, intensity and aggression associated with my particular variant of AS for over 30 years. I have never had negative side effects unless I have over indulged and not titrated my dose properly. Over indulgence causes a little bit of nausea and dizziness and sleepiness. The effect passes in about 1/2hr and all is again fine.
I rarely experience any of the psychoactive effects that are usually described when using Cannabis. No hallucinations, no distortion of vision apart from an increase in color perception and little distortion of perception generally, my motor skills are not negatively effected and often because of the reduction in anxiety they are smoother and more controlled when medicated. I do experience an increase in sound perception but not in a negative sense, I do not become over-sensitive even to loud noises but music sounds so much better and more enjoyable. I love listening to thunderstorms.
I have consistently over 32 years dosed at approximately 1 gram per day varying a little bit up or down depending on stress stimuli in my environment and the almost constant pain in my back caused by spinal cord injury that resulted from a bullying attack at 12 years of age in the school playground.
Due to issues in High School I was at 15 given psychological assessment by a leading practise who stated the results showed exceptional cognitive abilities and a career direction of nuclear physicist, research scientist, or computer analyst should be encouraged and the school problems were being caused by boredom. Aspergers was not at that time a known formal diagnosis in Psychology in Australia.
At 16 years of age I first considered suicide to escape the constant bullying in and out of school and the debilitating pain in my back that the doctors told me would probably mean a lifetime long addiction to opiates to manage. The side effects of these medications were horrendous and left me in a constant daze where thinking was difficult at best. Being a straight A maths science student I chose instead to find a solution to my pain and tried every alternative therapy and medical treatment I could find, I also learnt to fight the bullies and have not become a victim again or since!!
At 17 years of age I like many other teens tried cannabis for the first time. Apart from an increase in colour and sound perception the major impact of the cannabis was to give almost instant relief from the constant pain from my back injuries the effect lasted about 4 hours and there were no other side effects. I notified my current at the time GP of the effect and usage of the cannabis and was told no matter how effective I was not allowed to use it as it was illegal and would send me mad, It has not.
I continued my research for relief via authorized medicine and also studied the laws about cannabis and all known information on it's use toxicity and side effects. Unlike most people I read every relevant study published in peer reviewed medical journals in order to be fully informed about the latest knowledge about the only medicine that gives me relief from the extreme, debilitating neuropathic pain associated with my spinal injury and that helps me modulate the natural anxiety and intensity/aggression associated with high functioning autism.
I made a conscious informed decision to gain relief from ongoing moderate and discrete, but never hidden usage of a carefully titrated dosage of cannabis to allow me to function almost without pain and go to firstly the final year of high school then RMIT studying Electronics and then working for a living. Firstly installing telephones and PABX equipment Then as Sound Engineer for touring rock bands maintaining and operating state of the art PA systems. And where my medicinal use of cannabis was not condemned and high quality supply was readily available. I also found that when I was medicated those around me coped far better with my eccentricities and I was far less stressed and anxious than normal I also found it helped to modulate the natural aggression and intensity associated with my variant of Aspergers keeping me calm. Like many ASDs I have a violent and explosive temper and am often described especially by women as a "Scary Guy" I do not cope well with people interrupting my stream of thought especially when I am heavily concentrating on the job at hand, The cannabis increases my tolerance for interruption and also helps me be more extroverted and therefore social.
At 21 years of age I made a personal commitment to Christ and was faced with the moral dilemma of Cannabis usage for pain relief/aggression modulation Vs what the churches told me was the moral thing to do as in their view Drugs were evil. I read the Bible (I have almost total recall on the written word) and began to debate the church leaders and theologians on what the Bible actually said on the issue. I was subsequently pushed out of many churches of many denominations over many years for my views and choices. My faith in God is in tact, my church attendance not so.
I chose to retire from my career as a sound engineer at 30 due to the ongoing pain in my back and retrained myself into IT Infrastructure design and security engineering and worked in that field for 17 years. Until COMPULSORY random drug testing in the workplace ended my career!!!!
I was diagnosed as Aspergers by a government Psychologist in Dec 2006 where my cognitive abilities were again tested. The 31 years of Cannabis usage between the first test at 15 and the second test at 46 showed there was no discernible negative cognitive impact with general intelligence being rated at 94% in the first test and 95% in the second. Interestingly I was medicated when I did the second test which throws serious doubts over the claims it impacts cognitive function when used medicinally at low levels. The Psychologist "spat the dummy" when I informed her after the test results were finalised and her report written of my Cannabis usage and the fact I was medicated during the test. It really upset her that my results showed no negative impact after 31 years Cannabis usage. (So much for objective science)
I have not become tolerant to Cannabis and it's calming/pain reducing effects are as good today as the first time I used it. I use the increase in color perception to titrate the dose as I am aware that at a certain level of increase I need to pause medicating or spin out. I either vaporise or use a Bhong (glass&brass with filtering to remove the tars etc that make it through the water and reduce water vapour levels), to administer the dosage and sometimes cook biscuits or muffins with canna-butter if I am going out in public and cannot take my pipe.
Regardless I have had no need to increase my dosage to keep gaining the benefit of the Cannabis in calming me and managing my pain. I have a number of times over the years tried stopping my Cannabis use to ensure I was not becoming addicted and have experienced no withdrawal symptoms as such just a return of the anxiety/ discomfort associated with social interaction and of course the pain from my back injuries returns with a vengeance. All of those things were there before I even knew what Cannabis was and so cannot be attributed to withdrawal from the Cannabis.
I only occasionally drink alcohol to very moderate levels, consuming only an occasional glass of port after a good meal to aid digestion.
I have not been intoxicated on any substance since my 21st birthday and do not use cannabis to a point of intoxication only that of pain relief and anxiety reduction. I do not enjoy intoxication.
I have long been an highly productive member of society holding senior technical consulting positions to major corporations and contracting to Government Departments in my area of expertise, all while being a medical cannabis user.
I have made a conscious, informed decision to ignore the unjust, disproportionate, discriminatory bigoted law that ignores/denies the empirical scientific evidence on the efficacy of cannabis, in a select group of patients, for whom no other known medicine works. A law that prohibits me from having the one substance that gives me relief and quality of life and prevents me from exploding in peoples faces. I am currently being persecuted under this draconian law but am fighting back against the bullies, but that is a story for another time.
In hindsight I have known a number of (mostly undiagnosed) Aspies over the years who have used Cannabis to modulate their aggression and keep them calm, all have reported similar effects to those I experience, so I believe it is how Cannabis works with the autistic mind. Our brains are wired differently from the Neuro-typicals of this world and therefore Psychoactive substances react very differently with us, quite often the opposite of what is expected.
Cannabis will not cause learning difficulties at all in Autistics and will in fact help them to concentrate and be involved in social activities without melting down. They will not become tolerant to the calming effects of a carefully titrated dosage and revert to their old aggressive selves again.
I am not a criminal, a drug addict, an abuser or any other defamatory name somebody would like to throw at me. I am an injured/disabled civilian in a theatre of internal armed conflict, "The WAR on Drugs" officially declared by the Government on me and the many others like me.
And who amongst you will be the first to look me in the eye and tell me I have no right to control my own medical treatment and what happens to my own body? Or what I can and cannot put in my own mouth? Or that I do not have the right to a medicine to relieve the intolerable, debilitating pain I experience everyday since the bully damaged my spine?
Anyone?
