NewsU.S. and the World

Actions

Why this mom in Alaska says microdosing marijuana makes her a better parent

Posted at 3:02 PM, Oct 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-22 17:02:50-04

One mom in Alaska is trying to draw more attention to how she deals with pain.

It’s called microdosing and it involves marijuana.

Leah Campbell wrote about it in an essay for Parents magazine, saying that weed makes her a better mom.

She says she eats an edible or candy that contains 1.5 to 2.5 milligrams of THC every two to three hours. That's considered low dosage compared to a typical edible, which normally contains 5 to 10 milligrams of THC.

Campbell says the low dosage allows her to manage her pain, but it doesn't get rid of it completely.

“If I want to completely take away the pain, I have to basically incapacitate myself with medications,” Campbell says. “And that's not an option I'm willing to choose.”

Campbell says she makes sure she doesn't consume enough THC to get her high.

“Most of the time, the doses that I'm taking are so low, that it's just a matter of a general relaxing of my pain,” the mom says. “A general relaxing of my anxiety, kind of the sharp edges of my life, muting it, so that I can focus on my daughter, so that I can work.”

Campbell says she doesn’t consume edibles every day, only when she's experiencing pain from endometriosis, an often painful disorder in which the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus — the endometrium — grows outside the organ.

We reached out to several doctors about whether this is safe or if they even advise microdosing to patients.

No doctor was comfortable enough to talk about the topic.

You should consult with your doctor before you consume any type of drug or medication.