By Hannah Turner, Mashable on March 10, 2023

“With cannabis, I sleep through the night now.”

After I close my laptop for the day, and settle into my sofa with my heating pad, ice pack and a new Netflix show, I load my vape with a serving of cannabis, and feel the cloud of chronic pain lift, just slightly, the nausea subsides and the ability to still sit and rest, becomes easier. I live in Amsterdam, a city predicted by a reputation for recreational drug use and sex work. I buy cannabis from a sweet older couple who run the local coffee shop (the dutch phrase for dispensary) in my neighbourhood. In line to collect cannabis is a man in a postman’s uniform, a woman with a crutch, and some American students. There is no stereotypical drug user here. The Netherlands has decriminalised cannabis, and although it is an ongoing and complicated issue, for now, it is accessible to most, and helping me reduce my reliance on prescription pain medications for chronic, debilitating pain.

– Read the entire article at Mashable.