not as simple as that......im guessing you have never dealt with a chronic illness requiring medication....mine is pretty straight forward as my issue is pure pain due to malformed knee joints....my wife has a more complex chronic problem as she gets migraines so since she is a better example for this im gonna use her....
You'd be guessing wrong then. First, I've inherited GERD from my father. GERD is not simple heartburn as many people think. Everyone gets heartburn. GERD symptoms can be bad enough that they can actually simulate heart attack symptoms. I also sustained a double knee injury in high school that have left me in chronic pain since I was 15. It wasn't really bad at first, not even into my early thirties, but it was constantly there, mostly in my left knee. This has also left me with a luxating patella in each knee (double ACL injury) that I've opted to NOT have repaired just yet. This has also developed, over the years, into CMP. As well, I've suffered from migraines since my mid to late teens, I think they started around 16 or 17. Nausea, light sensitivity, spike above the eye, the whole gamut. I tried medication very early on, but the "whizzy head" side effects were unacceptable to me. I am on medication for GERD, mostly to prevent ulcers, pre-cancerous lesions, and cancer, since my father does have pre-cancerous lesions, my risk is increased. Other than the proton-pump inhibitor I am on, I take nothing for pain unless it's completely unbearable. I work, at home and at, well, work. I don't engage in sports so much, I can't really any longer, but am otherwise "active". The only times I am bed-ridden is when I have a particularly bad migraine, which I "sleep off" for 8-12 hours and then muddle through. My wife, as well, has her issues since she has chronic relapsing/remitting Lyme due to being mis/undiagnosed years ago. She takes nothing but maybe Advil or Tylenol, as well.
But, you're right, it's not "as simple as that". Pain can be managed without the use of drugs, and especially without the use of narcotics or illegal drugs. In fact, chronic use of opiates can actually CAUSE pain, rather than alleviate it. There are a large number of anti-inflammatories out there. Pain is both somatic and psychological in its components with respect to how it's tolerated on an individual to individual basis. Like depression, pain can be a downward, worsening spiral in one person, and overcome in another. Some people "have it in them" to overcome pain, like myself. Other people can LEARN to manage their pain with little to no drug use. Still others can't. And still others will use every excuse in the book to remain on their preferred medication. I've known people of every color in that rainbow. IME, those who advocate breaking the law to treat their pain almost always fall into the last group, those who actually like taking the drugs they're taking.
On the "medical marijuana boards", let's not forget what I said previously. You have on those boards a whole bunch of people who use or are advocates of using the "drug". Information circulates and is repeated, and I'm sure myths endure, as in any other closed community. The problem is no one who wants to use, or continue to use, marijuana (or any other drug), is actively researching why they should NOT be doing so.
And, on sleeping pills... yet another unnecessary palliative that can be, potentially, far more harmful than helpful. And ANY drug, including marijuana, taken to "fall asleep", can cause you to become dependant upon it specifically for that purpose. Sleep involves a whole mess of chemical processes and responses within the body and is not some simple thing. There are many reasons why a person can not fall asleep and, most of the time, these are psychological. Barring organic brain injury or congenital defect or disorder, insomnia is both cognitive and behavioral. Treating cognitive and behavioral "problems" with drugs NEVER works long term. Finding other ways in which to deal with insomnia are usually far more successful, long term. And, before you accuse me of "not knowing what it's like", BTDT. I rarely have bouts of insomnia any longer as long as I listen to my body's cues as to when to sleep. Not everyone is a 9to5er. I'm not.