medical MJ

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I smoke some weed this one time and i think it temporally turned me into a NT it was awesome to bad its not legal is it possible to get medical mj for AS?

Depends on where you live. Here in WA you can get it easily as long as you fork over the cash to pay for the card. It's around $200.00.

i live in washington DC anyone know anything on it?

I just Googled it for you and DC has medical marijuana since 2010. Here in California the law says you can get a reccomendation (prescription) for any condition for which it helps you. So if it helps your AS, then that would work. You do have to show the doctor who gives you the reccomendation medical records from your regular doctor that verify your condition, at least in CA.

It is great to know your options in your area, but do you think that one time is enough to base your conclusion on? I think it would be wise to at least use for a period of time, so you know how you react once the cannabis has built up in your system. There are many strains and potencies of marijuana, which of course have different effects both physically and psychologically. You need to know what is going to help you, or harm you, personally.
I've used cannabis for fifteen years (obviously not medicinally the entire time), but it's taken me about two years to get my dosages and strains just right. It's also taken time to admit to myself that I actually need it for a medicinal purpose. Believe it or not, sometimes I DO NOT want to take my meds, I'm obstinate and argumentative, angry, anxious and scatterbrained. I'll have meltdowns, and definitely unable to eat. I'll be dead set against it, and my husband forces me to smoke a joint. LOL. Of course, as soon as I do medicate, I'm a normal person again.
Cannabis isn't for everyone though, and it can instead aggravate symptoms you were hoping to relieve. I personally believe that cannabis makes me more "autistic", but that's not my main problem. I like being inside myself. What it allows for me, is relaxation, time to think before reacting, I'm able to eat, and sleep, and most importantly control my anger.

Yeah, I've read some about it and its effects, and it seems like it would actually exacerbate most sensory and cognitive problems. The tendency to notice everything around you, for everything to gain significance--that's an autistic trait and it's part of why we're so attached to order, sameness, and predictable sensory information. It's why we have to work so hard to turn a bunch of details into a big picture--everything seems significant to us. Sometimes I actually wonder if an NT who's stoned experiences the same sensory tendencies that are part of my everyday life. I've stared in wonder at shiny mica in pavement or flowing water or shimmering leaves with sunlight filtering through them... that's exactly what people do when they've been smoking pot. And it's why it takes me so long to take a test or analyze something--why I see such a flood of details that I have to sort through them in a very organized manner before I can make use of them.

I think it's likely, though, that autistics who self-medicate with marijuana tend to be those who have a high level of anxiety and social phobia; and we know that marijuana often duplicates a sedative (despite its categorization as a mild hallucinogen). It could be that what's being affected is that inhibition and anxiety, rather than the actual autism. That's the same thing I think must be happening with alcohol and various sorts of psych drugs that work as tranquilizers--people become less anxious and because they perceive anxiety as being closely related to their autism, they find it easier to socialize and conclude that their autistic traits are no longer as strong. I would tend to think that the closely-associated anxiety is actually what's being affected, rather than the autism directly.

This is off topic, but I've often wondered if taking acid mimics the autistic experience(relative experience obviously since their is no one specific autistic experience) for an NT.

I've tried both--marijuana and acid. When I took acid, I used to say it was like taking a plug and plugging into myself. It made sensations much more intense, I became hyper aware of details and all sensory input. My. mind raced and jumped so I would find it excruciatingly difficult to try to communicate--especially to name my internal experience. The only way that I could cope would be to focus on something concrete, like a tree. People were more difficult to interact with. Yet, I also noticed things that I never noticed before--philosophical things like how people had to move on so quickly from one thing to another. They just seemed to have a need to keep on moving, whereas I could get lost in the details of whatever environment I was in. I never hallucinated much--some. But I would have these fantastic revelations about human beings-their nature and their activity. It also ramped up my anxiety, I felt very fearful and small in the universe.

Totally irrelavent, just wanted to share.

An essay from marijuana-uses dot com titled Cannabis and Aspergers. My experience:

I am an 18 year old with Asperger’s syndrome. Throughout High School I had flirted with Cannabis, trying it a couple of times, but I had never really gotten much out of it. I was unable to feel emotionally connected to people, unable to realize that other people had emotions, unable to show my emotions, and completely unable to escape my own head. I was an extremely unlikeable person, who because of the Asperger’s, was just always looking down on and insulting anyone, simply because I could not grasp that other people were capable of having emotions and being insecure. I was unlikeable, and I was too stuck in my head to even understand that. I was miserable in high school because I did not understand why I was unlikeable, I didn’t understand that my actions had consequences; I couldn’t put my behavior into context.

Over the course of the last semester, I began to very frequently use cannabis, as it helped to alleviate the social anxiety I constantly had to live with. Since I’ve begun to use Cannabis, I have been able to think about my behavior and it’s context for the first time. I’ve been able to learn to read body language and social cues on a scale I’ve never been able to before. I’ve been able to converse with people without constantly thinking and analyzing and worrying about everything I say and do. Most of all, I’ve learned to feel empathy. I’ve learned that being emotional isn’t a weakness. I’ve learned that my behavior has consequences on both me and the people around me. I’ve learned to value relationships, family, and humanity. I’ve learned that I don’t need to be so angry and cruel all the time. I’ve learned that I don’t always need to try to make everyone as miserable as me. Every single emotional breakthrough and behavioral realization has been made while on cannabis. Every single one of them. I’ve cried from happiness more in the past month as I’ve gotten to this point than I have at any point in my life.

Thank you Dr. Grinspoon for all the work you have done. Without you, I’m not sure I would be in the same place today. I cry thinking of how I used to be, and how I may still be that way if it wasn’t for Cannabis. Thank you so much for your service to the world. You have truly saved my life, and the lives of every family member who ever had the tough responsibility of caring for me.

Thank you for clearing up the facts about a plant that has given me a life I wouldn’t have had otherwise,

-Anonymous

I honestly think a lot of this hasn't got anything to do with Asperger's, but with comorbid social anxiety disorder. I think the same about a lot of other stuff, like alcohol, oxytocin, sedatives, SSRIs...

Yes, of course, we have only got one brain apiece, and yes, social anxiety disorder is very common among Aspies/Auties; but we really need to make the distinction here. There's a big difference between socializing more effectively because you're no longer frightened and feeling shy, and socializing more effectively because you have somehow gained more native ability.

You might think this isn't really a big deal because if it helps you then it doesn't matter which diagnosis it technically affects. But remember all those people who are NT and have social anxiety disorder, avoidant personality disorder, social phobia, etc. They're probably in just as much distress as an Aspie with social anxiety disorder, and if we don't get it right, then they aren't going to be able to benefit from any discoveries we make about Aspies with social anxiety. That's just not fair, is it? I mean, if there's anything socially anxious Aspies know, it's how much being frightened of socializing will hold you back from doing it properly. We need to make absolutely sure which one--the anxiety or the autism--is being affected. Because if we don't, then we'll shortchange all the non-autistic people out there with social anxiety.

You can stop guessing, Tony Attwood got it wrong, Cannabinoid action treats autistic spectrum conditions directly not secondarily via co-morbid symptom relief.

Cannabis works for autistic people who don't suffer from anxiety, depression etc so it's not necessarily working the way callista suggests.

Stop guessing and demand the science behind it!

UK People please sign the petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1419

Sign it if you DO NOT believe that cannabis should be used to treat autism too. It's not just a petition for autistic people who want to be given cannabis!