Blueydog, buddy. This is not directed at you. It is directed at the idea of people using marijuana for medicine. There are exceptions, as most dope smokers claim to be, but in general, the following.
A 30-year-old who began smoking weed when they were a teenager did not begin smoking to get rid of a backache. They did not start smoking for the placebic or actual medicinal value of it. It was to get fucked up.
A 30-year-old who torks his knee, researches the myriads of choices of pain relief and settles on weed is trying weed for medicine. But...
Accurate dosing with flower is impossible. Have I ever used the "I" word? Not sure. Every bud is different. There may be an average over the whole plant, but to say, "Imma gonna use me 1.4 grams of bud for .X-grams of THC, .Y-grams of CBG, and .Z-grams of CBD." just ain't hap-nin. You use until you get the affects you want, yeah? What medicine is dosed as, 'Take until you feel better, but don't take too much or you'll freak out.'? You have the one-hit-wonders and you have the tried-and-true border weed.
And smoking a medicine? Huh? I'll eat my hat when someone convinces me the benefits of the canna-'s in weed outweigh the physical damage from smoke or vapor. We used to think tobacco and alcohol were medicines, too. How's that turning out? If we call something that has great potential for damage a medicine, we use that as a shield. I had a girlfriend who tried to convince me weed was bad because it was making my lungs black. But her doing meth was okay because it kept her from getting fat.
Me? I smoke dope because I like myself and the world better when I'm high. It's just a better place for me to be.
Before I get hammered by a bunch of people telling me I don't know what I'm talking about: first paragraph above, fourth sentence.