I made up my mind some time ago that if the occasion arose, I'd do a small experiment and see if marijuana would have any effect on my Parkinson's symptoms. A few days ago I got the chance to share a “joint” at our barbecue. It was the first marijuana I'd smoked in over 20 years and I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
Much to the amusement of JC, after deeply inhaling I started coughing and hacking. My eyes were watering, and I coughed some more until finally I stopped long enough to take another drag. The whole coughing and crying thing started all over again and I waved off the offer of another puff.
I didn't know if two puffs were enough to have much effect, but I carefully watched the tremors in my left hand as the high began.
I definitely had inhaled enough to get high, but the tremors remained. I tried stamping my left foot in a steady rhythm, but there was no improvement; still just as spastic as before. About an hour later, disappointed and still coughing, when asked if I'd like to try it again, I answered “No thanks, I'm trying to quit!”
I thought the experiment was over and a failure, until the next morning when I said “Good morning!” to my dependable, 4:am, alarm clock dog, Taz. The loudness and tone of my voice startled us both. My voice lately sounds more like a whisper than anything else, so something had definitely changed for the better. Was it all of the coughing I'd done, the marijuana, or both? Over the next day I gradually resumed talking in my Muhammad Ali voice again, but I think that the results call for another experiment, maybe something with less smoke like... cookies?
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