Acetaminophen Anger

Hi guys, so I have a rant I would like to share with you all because I think a lot of you will understand where my anger on this issue comes from.

Just some background info for you. So, my boyfriend wasn't fortunate enough to be able to go to the dentist as a child. His parents could not afford it and as an adult, he couldn't afford it. Being an avid smoker since the age of 14, his teeth have suffered quite a bit. This is an issue he is quite sensitive about because it makes him self conscious, so much in fact, he wont let me even look in his mouth. I don't bring it up at all because he is so self conscious about it, but of course it doesn't matter to me. It has zero effect on how much I love him and it never has or will.

However, this has left him very vulnerable to tooth aches. This has happened quite a few times since we've been together. Normally, they clear up after a few days, but currently he has one that is particularly terrible. It's been pretty persistent for 3 days and now his face is swollen. It's been so bad it's been upsetting his sleep. I'm really starting to get worried. Im not only worried for the obvious reasons, but I'm also worried because he has been having to take Acetaminophen based products the last couple days just to get some relief.

Now, this normally wouldn't be an issue. It seems innocent enough to some but personally, I find Acetaminophen to be poison. I don't think it should go into your body unless absolutely necessary. I used to not have an issue with acetaminophen based products until 2 years ago when I realized how dangerous they were. 2 years ago before my boyfriend and I were living together, he has one of these tooth aches. A friend of his gave him 4 Tylenol PMs out of a bottle he had at home to give him some relief. Unfortunately, not having the bottle to check the dosing info, my boyfriend took 4 in 6 hours. For those that don't know, with a PM product you are only supposed to take 1 in 12 hours. Needless to say because he was unaware of this, he overdosed and got acetaminophen poisoning. It was terrible he was throwing up orange foam all day and he turned grey! He has liver damage from it now. He was just lucky his body flushed it out on its own because if it hadnt and he didn't know to go to the hospital to get his stomach pumped, his liver could have failed and he could have died.

So with all that being said, this brings me to the main point of this rant. It makes me so mad that people can give others enough acetaminophen tablets, without the dosing info attached, to poison themselves, but I can't legally medicate with cannabis in my state for relief even though its medically safer. It angers me that some bottles of acetaminophen products make it so you have to basically peel off the whole label to find the correct dosing information (see bottles of Tylenol for example). It infuriates me that I can't go to a dispensary to get the medicine we need in my state, but I can go to a grocery store or Walgreens at almost any hour of the day and buy a potential bottle of poison like its nothing when cannabis is so much safer. However, what makes me most angry is the fact I have to watch the person I love most put this poison in his body and be in excruciating pain because some shady dealer won't answer our phone calls to get our medicine. People we have to go through are so secretive and the whole thing just feels shady because of legality issues here in Wisconsin that lately its been like jumping through hoops to get it. I don't want that anymore. It honestly hurts me to watch him in pain. No one wants to watch the person they love in pain, which is what fueled this rant.

Until a bottle of poison isn't easier to get than safer cannabis I feel this argument is valid. This isn't a reality right now for me though, so I guess I will have to rely on buying ibuprofen in order to soothe his pain and not feel like he's poisoning himself.

Sometimes things are so ass backwards you know?

Much love,
-white owl