People will think im crazy but the best bud I ever smoked was in British Columbia, Canada. Some guy was selling some home grown shit. One of the cleanest highs I ever had. I bought a branch from him , it looked like he was carrying shrubbery with him for like 40$ CAD
As far as taking it to kill the pain, I disagree, its something personal but, I feel its very easy to pick up an addiction that way. I wont even take aspirin cause I feel like I build my threshhold for pain if I just deal with it.
Ive read in a couple of places, I think it might have been posts here, that it is catabolic. But then again Arnold smoked and he was a monster, so how catabolic can it be...