A lot is asked of women within our society and anxiety and stress levels seem to be on the rise. Stay-at-home moms face a grueling and somewhat thankless job. Raising children is hard work, which includes managing multiple schedules, juggling family & personal commitments in addition to possibly holding down a job. Women who work outside of the home are often faced with similar commitments in addition to the stress of meeting workplace expectations. Modern society expects so much of women and the pressures to keep up can seem overwhelming to the point of exhaustion. Due to this, some women turn to substances like alcohol or anti-anxiety pharmaceuticals in order to cope. However, many stressed out women have come to realize, in light of continuing education and further marijuana legalization, that cannabis can be a safer alternative. Using cannabis may actually enhance one’s experience without any of the negative repercussions of alcohol and pharmaceutical use.
Medical marijuana is currently being used legally in 23 states and the District of Columbia and is available in a variety of forms, meaning that people do not need to smoke in order to use cannabis. In fact, women using cannabis do not even need to get high in order to feel the effects and potential benefits of cannabis. Of course, women can still smoke if they choose to, but there are tinctures, mouth sprays, low dose edibles, transdermal patches and more. While many people know that these products are often used to treat serious illnesses, people are beginning to realize that many different types of cannabis products can also be very effective for treating things like sleep issues, depression, anxiety and stress. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a cannabinoid within cannabis that is both an anti inflammatory and an anelgesic. When combined with appropriate amounts of THC, which is the psychotropic element in cannabis, it can produce a calming effect, without producing the high that is so well known for cannabis. For moms struggling with stress and anxiety, it’s likely that there’s a cannabis product that can help resolve the issue.
The Benefits of Cannabis
Women who use marijuana have many reasons: Some suffer from insomnia or chronic body pain, while others battle anxiety or depression. For the former group of women, the use of marijuana products derived from an Indica strain (which has a soothing, relaxing effect) may be helpful. The latter group, on the other hand, may choose to use a Sativa strain, which gives the user more energy and increases functionality, a good alternative for those that want to maintain productivity during the day.
Cannabis vs. Alcohol
For many women, a glass of wine or cocktail is the perfect way to unwind at the end of the day. However, alcohol can quickly become a habit or an addiction. Alcohol may lead to troublesome hangovers and over the long term, possibly even dangerous health issues, such as cancer. Many women who have turned to cannabis find that cannabis has a much lower intoxication level compared to that of alcohol.
Cannabis happens to be safer than alcohol. According to the World Health Organization, 3.3 million deaths in 2012 could be traced back to alcohol. A 2015 report published in Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of Nature, said that alcohol is a whopping 114 times more deadly than cannabis. These facts, combined with the clarifying and pain-reducing effects of cannabis, make it a much better choice for women who strongly need stress, pain, anxiety or insomnia relief. Depending on the type of cannabis and an individual’s reaction to it, cannabis does not force women to sacrifice mental clarity and function in the same way alcohol might.
Cannabis vs. Pharmaceuticals
Anxiety rates have sky rocketed in the US and accordingly the use of pharmaceuticals to treat both anxiety and depression have also grown exponentially. In a 2009 study, it was reported that some 40 million Americans took pharmaceuticals to help alieve symptoms of anxiety. Drugs of choice, such as Xanax, are often highly addictive and include horrendous side effects. A recent New York Times article exposed that ‘fatal drug overdoses reached a new high in 2014, killing nearly 50,000 Americans, more than were killed in auto accidents.’ This includes drugs such as Oxycotin, a prescription pain killer, which is also often abused by people who happen to suffer from intense anxiety.
In contrast, cannabis has not been attributed with any direct deaths due to ingestion. Unfortunately, many medical care professionals ignore the benefits of medical marijuana, choosing to simply prescribe opioids and other drugs that mask symptoms and have terrible side effects. Prescription drugs have led to an enormous rate of addiction, affecting between 26.4 and 36 million patients around the world, according to a presentation to the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control in 2014.’
