#1 you are correct. Never liked the effect personally. But if it was between a choice of being constantly in pain, not able to eat without throwing most of it up, or constant shaking and disorientation and a puff or two of weed I'd go for option B every time.
#2 I'd consider myself a 'lifestyle' pot head even though I don't use it. I spend a lot of time talking to cultivators, growers, etc. I may be just a tad militant on my views towards full legalization especially as it's been proven to be a good remedy for a number of ailments. 'Oh hey wow.. I can grow this in my back yard for $100 a months instead of laying out $1500 to $2000 a month to big pharma. The math works (just an aside my exes medicine was $5000 for a months supply to keep her Crohns at bay. Sure her twice monthly shot kept the disease from spreading but it did nothing for the symptoms) so ya I'd consider myself a pot head even though I don't use it.
#3 99.9% of the time in my life that I met someone who used it recreationally you couldn't tell the difference aside from the fact that they didn't come to work with a hangover.
I do agree the medical system is jacked up real good. ESPECIALLY pharmaceutical distribution. My dad works in data management for pharma distribution, and yeah, medical costs are obscenely high because the bigwigs are greedy. Shouldn't be that way, but the system is already entrenched.
I do wish there was more scientific studies and such about marijuana derivatives though. I've seen a lot of hype, but not a lot of scientific/medical community evidence.
Now- before everyone shoots me down and gives me their sources: I like to go straight to the hardcore scientific community journals. The Cochrane Foundation is a great place to read real studies conducted by scientists, which can also be peer-reviewed by professionals. I do not take medical advice for anything without a source study that can be replicated and peer-reviewed.
The link for anyone interested:
https://www.cochrane.org/When I search "marijuana" in the Cochrane search bar it pulls up all the studies on cannabis. There's a whopping 9 studies on cannabis, several of which are simply studies on drug intervention and such. Furthermore, all of the studies listed show no conclusive evidence that it does anything for epilepsy, dementia, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it helps some people, but we need more scientific studies on this. I'm absolutely certain there are ways that the cannabis plant is very useful for healing, but we shouldn't rush into it. At least I won't. I won't stop other people from exercising their liberty, but there's a lot of marketing and hype and not a lot of scientific studies.
Which is kinda weird because there's a lot of money in the cannabis industry. You'd think it'd be the hot topic to study.