does marijuana cause back pain?

I have the same thing. I didn't use to but now that I'm older I have a lot of pain due to auto immune disorders and no insurance. So I thought that would be a way for me to get some relief. But It started to intensify the pain not only all over my body but in my joints especially the ones that are already damaged. It becomes so painful that there is an uncontrollable urge or twitch to move to re leave it for a sec. Everyone around me said it was in my head they have never seen anything like it. And I know were the Marijuana I was smoking came from there was nothing laced in it. My husband has the complete opposite reaction and thought I was being funny. Has anyone found out why this happens.

i tough that i was the only one have back pain when i smoke weed and im definitively not the only one.. i stopped for 2 week and got 2 massage and it when a way but i started back smoking and the neck and back pain started as well so i think that stop smoking is probably the best thing to do for me :-( the pain is so bad that i would do every thing to make it go away

the same thing is happening to me right now so i stop smoking i read a lot on the internet and we are not the only ones a lot of people have the same problem

This is really something else. I have been looking all over the internet and even left a post or two which no one replied to. I began smoking in September and smoked about 6 times. Then one day I smoked more than I ever did and realized this warm sensation I was feeling on the left side of my body under my ribs was actually pain. I basically freaked and for three hours was having a panic attack and excruciating pain. THe next day I was in so much pain, my left shoulder blade seemed to not be in proportion to my right shoulder, and my left back bone stuck wayyyyy out. I went to a doctor and conviently left out that I smoked and said I was working out and woke up like that. He said I bruised a muscle and that it was no big deal. I went to physical thearapy for a month and vowed never to smoke again. Well, it got the better of me and I smoked again, the same thing happened, i freaked out, thought I was going to go to the hospital and it was bad. So I waited some more, and smoked a little bit 3 weeks later. Nothing happened. Smoked a little more later not bad. Finally I thought I was cured. So about a month later near my winter break for college I smoked a good amount and went into my friends room to watch a movie. After awhile it felt literally like my left ribs were tearing through my abdomin muscle and upon raising my shirt my whole left side was at some wierd angle and my ribs seemed indented into my body. It literally felt like the muscles under my ribs was poking through each individual rib. I did not freak but it hurt a lot. So over my winter break I began to smoke more and was testing out different things. What I have come to realize is that whenever I let myself go into the high, thats when it starts up. I have found that I need to consciously be thinking to myself, its ok, its ok, but it kind of ruins it for me because I never can enjoy my high because I can never entirely give in to it. My ribs also hurt when I sit to long, but I just walk it off and feel better. Every so often I will lose control if I end up oversmoking, but the pain will go away in half an hour. It is very interesting because at first people made fun of me when I first freaked out, and were like I was imagining it. But when I show them the indent they go wow, ok that is not normal. It really bothers me because I thought it did not happen to anyone else and I really enjoy recreational smoking. It is way better than drinking, and I dont want to stop. Does anyone know what exactly it is that causes it and how to stop it. Some people say you just have to chill...BUT I DO CHILL! In fact its when I chill that it hurts. So I dont know anymore. I know if I go to a doctor he will tell me just stop, but if I do I want to know what it is that is causing this pain?? One interesting note, there was one time I got really stoned, and for 15 minutes everything was fine, I wasnt even thinking of my ribs, and I said to myself wow they are not hurting, but it was upon thinking about it I instantly felt my whole left side of my body go numb and the pain began.

I do not think you should get back pain unless it is laced with amphetamines. You can check the stem and it should be hollow in one area but if is filled with orange than it could be injected with meth. How much are you guys paying for the dank and where are you from?
I had the same problem until i started smoking my homegrown.

In college, I was high every day. I am headed into my late thirties now and because every time I smoke pot, and I know my back is going to hurt like hell, I rarely do it anymore. That, and I have a family.

Anyway, for me, I think this is a herniated disk. L2, to be exact. I know it's counter intuitive to believe that THC causes back pain, but here me out.

My herniated L2 has never healed. There are still times (when I am not stoned) that the herniation causes the extreme lower back pain. I am active in a number of running/biking/skiing activities and I stretch to warm up and cool down. So. my core muscles are pretty well developed. What has happened, I believe, is that my musculature has adapted so that my posture is held in such a ways as to alleviate the pressure on my sciatic nerve - most of the time.

Now, THC is a documented and proven muscle relaxant. When I smoke pot, those muscles relax and allow the pressure to return to the sciatic thereby bringing all the pain.

I am also good friends with an MD who I smoke pot with. Because he does not suffer from these problems, he smokes a lot more than I do. He is also a lot wealthier. But I digress.

He believes their could be some credence to this hypothesis and recommends that I get a new MRI. to verify the condition and alignment of those muscles and tendons. Until then, I would love to hear ot this hypothesis fits into any of your experiences.

I have many back problems, and I've takin many pain killers, OTC and prescription, gone to chiropractors, etc... and the only thing that takes away the pain is smokin weed.

i have the exact same problem. i used to smoke all of the time. and when ever i did i always got this weird pain under my ribs on the left side. and my back and neck would constantly hurt. i used to love doing it then i lost intrest for it when the problems occured. then when i got cought i really lost interest

That is very interesting theory, though wouldn't smoking eventually return you body to a correct posture?



My problem though is not just the pain on my left side under my ribs, but my left ribs seem all out of place. Like they are pointed in all sorts of directions, and it feels like I can move my shoulder at weird angles. Almost like I am moving it in and out of a joint. I can not exactly explain it, but on the right side it is 100% normal while on the left I am able to do all these things. I have a feeling I might have popped a rib out of place, and using this theory, when my muscles relax it puts pressure on this popped rib.

I've been having this type of pain for quite a while now too. I never related it to smoking until i stopped for extended periods of time, then start only to have the pain return. I do think it have something to do with the muscles relaxing and allow my poor posture to strain on the weak areas.

I hate having to admit to myself that the weed is the cause of the pain. I mean I really love to smoke, but if I refrain and get moderate exercise my back feels almost good.

I wish it weren't so, but the high isn't worth the pain to me anymore. :-(

I agree with the posture thing, but I think the problem might lie also in the fact that I did a lot of running when I was in High School, and never had a problem. Then when I came to college I stopped running and for awhile it was fine and then the pain started. I also still think that the way I was lying one night after I smoked I pulled something and I have never let it healed. But neither do I want to admit it is the weed because I enjoy it more than anything else.

I'm having the same terrible back pain. Been smoking for a while without any problems. This started only last week.

I have been looking for a thread like this! I had smoked many a time without anything like this happening, and then it started. First it was little muscle spasms in my legs that would just make it virtually impossible for me to keep my legs still without it hurting because my butt and leg muscles were spazing out. This happened once or twice more getting increasingly worse but not so bad. Then one night, I smoked some new, really good stuff and smoked a good amount and pretty much had muscle spasms over virtually my entire body and if I tried to stop my body from shaking, it felt like my brain was literally on fire! It was so miserable that I haven't smoked since. I was thinking it may have been a minor seizure but I am not sure. I read that during myoclonic seizures you can stay conscious but I'm not sure. It wasn't lace, no one else had anything but a good high.... Anyone know of an explanation?

glad I found this board and confirmed my suspicions/fears that mj had caused or exacerbated my back problems. I have the same symptoms, back pain for a couple years and started medicating for it and for a while it worked, but for the past couple months I have been experiencing overall muscular tension of the back as well as muscle spasms up and down the spine.

doc said it was stress related and that my adrenal glands had been depleted.

so far I have found slow yoga stretches and poses for strengthening the back have worked, as well as just being active as possible without doing to much that would possibly strain the back.

my guess for myself is that stress caused the mj use which overuse of depletes adrenals which then causes the irregular body chemistry manifesting in the inflammation of the muscles on the spine causing spasms, muscle tension, and pain.

I am a nurse and a medical marijuana advocate. Many of my patients use Marijuana for pain control, however a number of people do actually have the opposite response in that their pain is increased and amplified. A great number of people actually have NO pain at all but when they smoke marijuana a number of pain receptors are awakened in the body creating pains in the back, chest, hands, feet etc. Some people report an icy cold sensation in their feet, hands and face. There is a reason and a cause for this.

This is called a paradoxical reaction and can occur without warning. You can be a long time smoker and suddenly have these symptoms. Usually once they start they do not go away. There may be times you can smoke without the pain occurring but more often then not, the pain occurs after getting high. One theory is that when Marijuana hits the Gabba receptors in the brain that control the body's autonomic response to anxiety. It triggers the brain to believe that you are in immediate danger much like the fight or flight response or panic attack. Since there is obviously nothing going on outside your body for you to focus your attention on, your mind begins to scan it's internal environment looking for threats. This causes pain receptors to misunderstand the "normal unnoticed body sensations" and turn them into or exaggerate them into a painful experience.

There is also a second theory based on clinical research of children with ADD and ADHD. As children with hyperactivity are given medications such as ritalin to control their unfocused mind. This drug calms them down, however if you give the same drug to an adult, it works like speed. These opposite reactions have been documented in MANY cases during clinical trials. The theory is that Marijuana users in the beginning can have a happy positive response to smoking but at some point the body begins to reject the drug because it determines that there is no longer a need for it. So in other words, the receptors in the brain that react to THC become burned out and begin rejecting the stimulation it provides and producing a response of pain or anxiety in order to alert the user that this drug is no longer needed by the body.

All in all this does occur, however many people that this happens to, simply stop smoking pot all together and become anti-marijuana activists. Chalking it up to growing up and becoming more responsible. So you don't hear all that much about it.