Asthma by Amy

I am a 57-year-old female, and have been a legal secretary and paralegal for most of my adult life.  I have suffered from chronic asthma since I was 12 years old.  Years ago, during one of my frequent hospitalizations, a respiratory therapist told me to try smoking some marijuana.  I thought that he was insane, but when your normal state of being is close to suffocation, you will try anything.  So, I asked a friend, who asked a friend, and got some marijuana, and tried it.  At first, it made me cough and cough, but by the time the coughing had subsided, I had gotten profound relief.  It relaxed my lungs, dilated my airways, and allowed me to fully inflate my lungs, for the first time in years.  That was over 30 years ago.  I have continued to smoke marijuana, whenever I get into trouble with my asthma, and now the only time that I wind up in the hospital is when I can't find it.  I quickly learned how to use it, so that it no longer made me cough, and I was able to stop taking steroids and theophylline, both of which have terrible, not to mention life-threatening side effects.  I have tried all of the newer medications for treating asthma, but to date none have helped me the way that marijuana does, and all of them have undesirable side effects.  When I have marijuana, that is all that I need to take to control my asthma.  When I don't, it's back to steroids, inhalers and theophylline.  I thank God for that therapy. I believe that marijuana has kept me alive, and has allowed me to live a full and productive life.  The only persistent problem is where to safely get it, and fear of getting caught with it.