Treat cannabis with the utmost respect and what to do when you don’t.
I’ve battled with sleep for many years and when approached by a bookclub friend to try cannabis drops — ‘four on the tongue before bed’ and I’d be out like a light, she affirmed, it was a no — brainer!
I stuck with the prescribed dosage of three–four drops but never really noticed an improvement. What I didn’t do, however, was shake the contents after each dose.
Following a highly frustrating work day, I reached for the bottle in my bathroom cabinet, not noticing the large clump of congealed stuff sitting at the bottom of the container, which I couldn’t dislodge and thinking the bottle was empty, promptly upended it straight into my mouth. I knew that I had probably swallowed more than three or four drops but felt it couldn’t cause too much damage.
Imagine my horror when half an hour later, I started to feel strange — VERY STRANGE — for a lady whose propensity to move has declined considerably with age, I found myself even less mobile and simply rolled off the bed, landing on the floor with a thump.
A sudden loss of feeling in my limbs and a wildly beating heart had me crawling on my stomach — to where my husband lay in deep slumber. I feebly attempted knocking my head against his foot which had the effect of catapulting him off the bed and onto the floor next to me.
He called an ambulance on seeing me crawling around, realising I was in deep trouble, but not before running next door and waking up the neighbours who just happened to have two young doctors lodging with them. Within minutes, we had said female doctors in their shorty pyjamas plus our neighbour, sprawled across the bed, trying to revive me — my husband later mentioned that he thought he’d died and gone to heaven! The medics arrived and carried out the necessary procedures before whipping me off to the nearest medical facility.
Lying in A&E sometime later, I was mortified on hearing a doctor affirm ‘just another cannabis overdose’ to his colleagues. Following a four-day stint with drips and tubes, catheter and whatnot — I was discharged, vowing to never, ever return..ever.
A word of warning about cannabis products, always read the labels, shake the contents and never exceed the dose, never.
If you should accidentally overdose, (I’m talking minuscule here) and if you are within sniffing range of the septuagenarian sect, don’t have your partner rush over to the neighbours – It may cause a coronary episode – p’haps just crawl around a bit longer and wait for the STRANGE feeling to pass. Because, pass it will, and after all, you don’t want to miss out witnessing the mirth on the faces of the grandkids when they’re apprised of Gran and Gramps shenanigans – and call the damn medics!
