Degenerative Disc Disease

Have not read this entire thread, seemed like I may have set myself up for a bit of a bashing....

My doc has a good understanding of what I am going thru. He has me sign a "pain contract" in order to give me Oxycontin/Oxyxodone. Pretty sure this is law here in Washington state. Part of it is I agree to not seek meds anywhere else. And I am subject to a random "pee in a cup" test...which I get done yearly. I recently had a problem with the mail order pharmacy I was using and ended up needing and "Emergency Script" to get me by. This resulted in "pee in the cup test" even though I just had one 2 months prior. After I was heard "venting" about this my doc explained it to me, the DEA as well as the State of WA closely monitor narcotic prescriptions, anything out of the ordinary, as far as prescriptions go, will trigger a test.
Not saying Mary Jane does not work but....is Medical MJ really any different than pot? I feel it is just a term that aging stoners use so they don't feel they are doing something that would have them looked at as somewhat of a criminal. The previous statement is just my own feelings, nothing more. IF you ever walked into a "medical Pot Shop" here in Spokane you may understand why... Before ALL the Medical MJ shops were shut down here in Spokane it was a pretty bizarre system. At least as far as I saw it. My doc would not write the recommendation for pot. So you had to take a copy of your records to a doctor in a clinic downtown. Was called Green Wellness or something like that. They would read over your records and if they found anything chronic they would fill out the forms for you. After getting the card you would then either grow your own, which is what I did or go buy it in a store. If buying it in a store you just walked in, showed them your card and picked out what you wanted. There was no "bred for your type of pain" crap. Will never grow it again. The way the laws were written I was allowed x amount of plants per card. "Borrowed" a friends card as well. I grew 21 big beautiful Blue Dream plants. Damn electric bill for that period was over 2k. By the time you add in all the "organic fertilizers" etc the bill was up past 5k. All out of my pocket. The relief it bought me was not any where near worth it. Not to mention I had to grow in the winter, inside. Thanks to the intense heat from the sodium grow lamps, which were borrowed...if I had purchased them it would have been closer to 7k out of pocket, the garden room temperature was way to high if I tried to run them during the day. The plants need to be watered while the lights are on, twice daily on average, to avoid mold which meant I basically slept when I could for 3+ months. No thanks, far to much like work for me. And to go buy "Medical Marijuana" at a shop was WAY out of my price range. So thanks but no thanks...I will stick to what my doc can give me...and is not only "legal" on the state level but on the federal level as well.
I will say that I learned alot....and some day, when/if our house ever gets built and I get in the position to have an indoor garden again I will do it again....only this time it will be lettuce, peppers etc.

On a final note, I now have asthma. So smoking is out of the question....Sure, we could bake brownies or what have you. But I have that damned addictive gene in me...which means I would probably just scarf the whole tray at once...which is pretty much what happens when Ernie bakes anything. She bakes a cake, it will be gone buy the end of the second day, if that long. She uses the caned frosting from a store, any left over is gone as soon as I see it. I did talk to a "friend" about having him cook me up some oil or whatever it is that is done with cases of butane....but after he blew up his shop one night he got out of it.