Didn't see it said but I'm not reading through every single post. I feel your pain Dave, as does Stocker. We both have very bad knees, likely genetic, and as he has said, have both considered the possibilities of having to use mmj. The possibility bothers us both as we have a quite similar stance on the subject.
Luckily, my knees got better after I lost weight and always feel better when I'm lighter. We're small people so we have small frames to begin with, but when I dropped around 20 pounds it made a huge difference. My knees and hips are still bad but I can manage, and can even go hiking if I work through it and can end the season doing 20+ mile difficult trails. Glucosomine/chondroitin/msm has also helped me quite a bit, though it did take several months to begin to feel a difference.
My thoughts are; Why not use it minimally until you can get down to a weight that puts much less stress on your joints? You could begin by using enough to feel good and attempting a workout or walk, then as you see a difference, start weining yourself off it slowly. And make sure you cut sodas/energy drinks/anything high carb or sugar out of your diet. If you live a stagnant lifestyle, eating and drinking poorly is just so bad for you.
