I don't think that one can appreciate how effective it is for chronic pain, until you've had to use it for that.
Very annoying that the body do this. If you could figure out a drug that prevents this you could make billions!
For example and something everyone can try: My body is addicted to coffee. If I don't take it for a few days I'll become very tired, headaches, etc. It's lasts for about two weeks. While addicted I don't abuse it. I've even switched to tea a few times.
Moreover, my pain is neuropathic, rather than physiological in nature, and so what works for me, may not work for other forms of pain. That said, I had the best effect managing pain with high CBD low THC strains - meaning strains with over 7% CBD and one percent or less THC. For me, the pain relief is so profound and quick acting that I can pinpoint the second it starts to have an effect, and it has the added benefit of leaving me sober enough that I can go about my business.
Unfortunately, while I found CBD strains most effective for pain, I personally have not been able to tolerate them - they cause me memory problems that I have not found any mention of in the literature, not anyone else who experiences them.
So, what do I use, when I need to keep the pain at bay? Usually I reach for a concentrate of a indica-dominant hybrid, or an pure indica. I stay way from Sour Diesels, and the like, as they don't agree with me, but these things tend to be individual in nature.
Sorry not to be much more help: all I can really recommend is low THC/high CBD strains, and smoking/vaping concentrates or hashish rather than eating, at least until you find something that works for you.
However,
What I actually recommend, and has helped for many of people, is the Phoenix tears/ Rick Simpson oil regiment.
You can buy premade oil marketed as such or Rick Simpson provides diy on how to do this yourself.
Essentially it is ingesting small amounts of concentrated cannabis oil daily, like taking a prescription.
It vastly helped my mom's Chrons and I know of a few people help with chronic back pain
Eating cannabis has very different effects to smoking it, due to liver metabolism. I am not sure what it does to CBD, but the psychoactive metabolite of THC does not have the same effects. Eating cannabis is more than just a different delivery method - it's essentially a different drug entirely.
Unfortunately, while I found CBD strains most effective for pain, I personally have not been able to tolerate them - they cause me memory problems that I have not found any mention of in the literature, not anyone else who experiences them.
It's important to note that, unlike opioids, cannabis doesn't make the sensation of pain less strong, it makes it less urgent.
This means that if you won't necessarily feel a direct effect on the pain, but that its subsequent effects aren't as strong - the pain is not as exhausting, distracting, or debilitating.