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So it is fucking ridiculous to me that any therapist would be turning anyone away right now just because they are using weed-we are in a FUCKING PANDEMIC. Depression and anxiety is at an all time high, there are studies out there showing different information and Chemda can clearly carry on a conversation/participate in a meaningful therapy session while on weed. It seems grossly irresponsible to me.
I’m a license clinical social worker so I can provide therapy-I don’t do it full time because my ADD causes me to fall asleep if I sit still for too long. I literally have to color during long meetings to keep myself awake. Obviously this is not conducive to quality therapy and would be unacceptable for me to fall asleep. I do home care management and provide coaching sessions and sometimes impromptu couples therapy when a fight breaks out or crisis intervention when someone expresses suicidal ideations. I mainly work with older veterans. I’ve worked with people who switched from heroin to weed-I never even considered dropping them from my caseload because of it.
When weed has come up-I tell them the official stance of the VA is that it does not have any medica benefits since it is a federal agency it can’t promote something that is illegal at the federal level. I tell them that the studies out there have been on government controlled and grown weed-not the stuff that they buy off the streets. I live in Indiana where it isn’t legal, but almost all of the surrounding states have legalized it for at least medicinal use. With my older veterans who suffer from arthritis and other painful ailments-I’m not going to harp on them about it. I do tell them that we do not know how it interacts with certain medications, especially heart and blood pressure medications. I stress that they need to be careful when they acquire it-make sure no one is adding stuff to it, and to be careful because they are unfortunately more vulnerable due to their age.
TLDR-I think it is dumb for any therapist to refuse to provide therapy to people who are using marijuana during a fucking pandemic and the Trump administration.
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