Mine are triggered by social anxiety, guilt and stress. My two docs acknowledge the benefit of cannabis. It works for me and keep in mind each strain has different qualities and effects.

What I'm taking right now that helps me is Abilify Maintena 200 MG injectable every 30 days, Topamax 200 MG twice daily, and Requip 3 MG once daily. On occasion I take 1 MG of clonazepam.for flareups and when I'm having an episode of blocking tics (it's a rare type of tic that freezes up your vocal chords so that you can't speak; it sometimes can actually be kind of painful).

I've never tried guanfacine or for that matter clonidine. Both of these drugs lower your blood pressure; they are also sedating so taking them near bedtime would probably be a wise thing to do.

The first medication I tried was Orap which is by far the most powerful thing out there to shut Tourette's down. Due to side effect issues I discontinued it. If my tics should ever get real bad, I'll probably add in a small dose of Orap which will likely do the trick.

Regarding cannabis, getting some may or may not be a sound idea. If you live some place where it's legally available, it might be worth a try otherwise though it's probably not worth going to jail over. If you have any kind of psychotic symptoms, then cannabis will likely aggravate those symptoms. Would it work for you? That's difficult to say. While it would be a good thing to reduce the intensity/frequency of your tics you'll be degrading your mental acuity at the same time unless perhaps you can keep your daily intake at a low level. Don't think that just because cannabis is natural that it doesn't have side effects and drug interaction issues.

Cannabis used to be a godsend when I was younger...it helped me focus and concentrate and get things done. It also calmed my tics a bit. Unfortunately, as I've gotten older, my tics have gotten much worse, and it has the complete opposite effect. It makes my tics even worse and I can't concentrate at all. I don't use it any more.... It makes me tic myself into a migraine. Don't know why any of this is happening. Very frustrating. Hoping menopause will straighten things out. Can't come soon enough...but it's still years away. And it may make things even worse!

Maybe a different strain would help? It is legal here for medicinal use, but I have heard they don't approve it for Tourette's here.

Getting the right strain is important as I understand it because different strains of cannabis possess different properties. It should also be noted that there are a number of different compounds in the resin contained within the plant itself meaning that it just isn't the THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient, that's helpful. The people running a good dispensary I'm sure could offer some advice to you that would be of help. Years ago I tried Marinol (synthetic form of THC which is available by prescription only) for two weeks roughly that COMPLETELY ANNIHILATED my most problematic tics at that point in time and pretty much muted all of the other tics I had. I had a head twitching tic that was driving me up the wall at that time that I experienced hundreds of times a day and I had a fairly frequent tic in my face where I wrinkled my nose upwards like the character Samantha on the television show Bewitched plus I was experiencing extreme mental copralia. Only thing is that Marinol is super expensive unless you have insurance that covers the cost of it (this is totally stupid when you consider that an ounce of cannabis costs hundreds of dollars less and is just as effective).