Patient:
Laura Shodire
Age:
22
Conditions:
Social anxiety, insomnia, obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Home:
Claremont
Using medical cannabis since:
I’ve been using it since I was 19, but I got my prescription two years ago. I didn’t start smoking until after high school.
Why did you start using medical marijuana?
Because I don’t like taking anti-psychotic drugs. When I smoke, I don’t feel my obsessive-compulsive disorder affecting me and I can socialize. I originally started smoking when a friend of mine suggested it. I remember feeling lame because I didn’t know how to light the pipe. Once I got high, I didn’t need to take anything for my OCD. That’s when I noticed that it took care of a lot of my other problems, too.
Did you try other methods or treatments before marijuana?
I was put on Ritalin when I was young. I had stress-induced asthma, so I took a lot of medications for the condition. Ever since I started smoking I haven’t blacked out, had an asthma attack or any sort of panic episode. My social skills have improved, too. I had been in therapy for years, but it never helped. Marijuana worked for me, though. There’s basically no treatment for patients who have obsessive-compulsive disorder, except for anti-psychotic drugs—and I don’t want to take them.
What’s the most important issue or problem facing medical marijuana patients in California?
That the government hasn’t realized that it’s a medicine that helps people. The government compares marijuana to heroin or cocaine, while all over the world scientists are finding out that it has so many beneficial effects.
What do you say to people who are skeptical about marijuana as medicine?
They should try it. Look at the success rate. There are a lot of people who have benefitted from using the plant, and it just grows out of the ground . . . Why should we trust a concoction of chemicals when you can smoke out and suffer a lot less side effects?
Our “Profiles in Courage” features are intended to highlight the problems—and solutions—that Southern California’s medical marijuana patients face every day.
