When Marisa was 37 years old, she fell the height of three storeys – she chipped three spinal discs, dislocated and fractured her pelvis, broke her leg in multiple ways, and broke her ankle too. She had metal work done in an attempt to repair the damage but her body rejected it. She’s been left with no flexibility in her ankle as well as chronic pain in her ankle and spine.

After getting surgery to fix her leg, constant nerve pain encapsulated every waking moment. The pain stopped her from travelling, tarnished her relationships and affected her ability to work.

The mental effects of the pain and accidents only worsened her condition, having to battle Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and come to grips with the fact that her life would have to change.

“Living with pain doesn’t only affect you physically; it affects you emotionally and mentally.”

She would wake up in pain and go to sleep in pain. After trying a cocktail of other remedies, she was offered morphine – an opioid prescribed for severe pain when other pain-relief medications are not effective or cannot be used.

Marisa was on morphine for around two years, and during that time, her life was snatched from her. She fell into a deep depression and was prescribed anti-depressants which “only made it worse”.

Meanwhile, as she took the prescribed opioid in an attempt to feel some kind of relief, her dependency only grew: “the more time passed, the more my body needed it.”

Eventually, she decided that she could no longer live like this – constantly clouded by a medication that disabled her from functioning in all other aspects of her life. So, she decided to stop.

After several years of inner work and a lifestyle change, Marisa eventually found Dr Agius.

“The difference between the two is that on morphine you’re just existing and on medical cannabis, you’re living” she said, in front of a room of curious orthopaedic surgeons, most listening intently and a few questioning her account.

Marisa now takes medical cannabis daily and she’s able to do more than ever before. She works 30 hours a week – something she could have never imagined doing before.

She was able to regain her independence and stability while also controlling her PTSD – something she’d been trying relentlessly to alleviate for over a decade.

This is not to say that her pain is completely gone. “It’s always there. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I can’t walk.” But it is being managed in a way that doesn’t impede the rest of her life.

However, Marisa wanted to stress that medical cannabis alone couldn’t have done this, her lifestyle is a lot more mindful and conducive to the immense improvement to her quality of life – she meditates, is very conscious about what she eats, and swims often as a form of therapeutic exercise.

Next up, it was Agius’ turn to speak who delved into the scientific evidence backing the prescription of medical cannabis.

He explained the difference between acute pain and chronic pain – the latter being the one treated by medical cannabis – and even touched upon the anatomy and physiology of the endocannabinoid system; something that, at least previously, wasn’t taught about in the medicine course of the University of Malta.

While medical cannabis has been a registered medicine since 2018, the Maltese medical world has been less open to it – with many doctors still being afraid of stigma-based concerns that group recreational and medical cannabis into one category when the two are very different.

“I understand the concerns of recreational cannabis abuse but that’s not what medical cannabis is. This is a controlled and researched medication that is used to effectively treat chronic pain.”

Agius, who was a family doctor for 15 years and then began to specialise in pain management, looked into the endocannabinoid system after seeing a previous patient of his, get run over by a car, become suicidal, get prescribed medical cannabis in the Netherlands, and change his life – becoming a personal trainer once again.

“When I started to see the way people’s lives were being transformed with medical cannabis, I didn’t want to see more people denied of it.”

Speaking to Lovin Malta, Agius explained that he has another lecture booked for the Malta College of Family Doctors in September. Other medical entities, however, remain uninterested in medical cannabis, refusing his invitation and outlining their position against it.

When asked about the outcome of the initial meeting with the orthopaedic surgeons, Agius said that those who attended seemed interested, asked relevant questions, and some even followed up for more information afterward. He admitted that some older doctors may be more skeptical to prescribe a medication that works on a system that was never taught to them.

But that does not mean there’s no hope, younger doctors are more enthusiastic to learn and open to adapting to this new research being put to use in countries worldwide.

While Malta has taken the first step in enjoying the benefits of medical cannabis, there’s still more that needs to be done to ensure that everyone who needs it gets it, and that’s precisely what Agius, as well as all the other professionals working at the Pain Clinic, aim to do.

Do you use medical cannabis? Reach out to [email protected] to share your story