also considering your in canada i think its possible to get medical treatment from marijuana in canada and you said "in constant pain, lost my appetite," and I think ( some one correct me if i am wrong) you can actually get to become a marijuana patient with those symptoms but not sure really and that way cannabis would be easier for you to obtain. Um also you said "I'm finding that I'm having to smoke more to maintain a functioning level " lol unfortunately with weed over a while you gain tolerance and it takes more and more of the weed to produce its effect but tolerance does go down if you dont consume any cannabis for ahwile.... like lets say like now latley i just smoked a joint of some really good stuff and a bowl of hash and i barley feal anything which is why I am stopping for 2 weeks to get my tolerance down and most likley after my 4th hit off a joint ill be really high compared to know if i take 4 hits of a joint with no effect at all witch my tolerance being so high. Anyways I hope I helped but I know nothing about strokes and those type of problems so my adivce may be completely worthless. Happy Toking :rastasmoke: :thumbsup: