Candice is a medical marijuana user who discovered – by accident – that cannabis gives her complete relief from the debilitating symptoms of Crohn’s Disease. She made the mistake of thinking that Dr. Gabriel Nahas would give a damn.

The following is an account of her brief phone call with him -- and what she was trying to tell him about the pharmaceuticals that supposedly make medical marijuana unnecessary. By the way, Candice lives in Wisconsin, home of HHS Secretary Shalala, who does everything possible to block medical marijuana.

For more information about her experiences with medical marijuana and Crohn’s Disease see http://home.ican.net/~indica/Testament.htm.

I just had a dreadful telephone conversation with Dr. Nahas. I contacted him regarding the conference that is coming up in March. I was hoping that he might consider allowing me to speak about my dealings with the medical profession.

I have been using marihuana for a little over a year now. For three years prior to that, I was bedridden a majority of the time.

My problems began with a diagnosis of Crohn's Disease in 1993. I followed my doctor’s orders completely. My treatment consisted of massive doses of steroids, not to mention the many other pharmaceutical medications I was required to take to force my body into remission.

However, the disease had a grip on my body that is beyond words. I used a medication called Prednisone for so long that my system became toxic. My muscles atrophied and I was unable to walk. I literally had chairs staggered from one end of my home to the other. This allowed me to get around the house during the day while my husband was at work.

It's scary being in a situation like that. I'm grateful that I never experienced any threatening situations during that time. In 1995 I was hospitalized for my disease. I had a steroid IV with a self-service morphine pump. Suddenly, I experienced a Grand Mal seizure at the very moment my physician was examining me.

My back arched as though I were 12-year-old acrobat. I complained about the pain in my back for six months before the doctor finally yelled at me "So what. I have to treat your back now too."

That was just a polite way of "patient dumping." Most disabled people know that syndrome all to well. Also, I was in an auto accident in October. I had a headache that just wouldn’t quit. I finally decided to drive the four-hour trip to Minneapolis to see a neurologist at the University of Minnesota. I was hoping he could shed some light on the headache.

To make a long story short, one of his final statements to me was "I'm not going to give you any narcotics!!!" I was so ashamed and insulted. I also immediately removed my prescription of pain medication, which happened to be a narcotic from my pocket to show him that I didn’t need pain medication. I just needed the headache to go away. But of course, I traveled all that way just so that I could SCORE!!! (I'm happy to say that the headache is gone, but that's another story)

These are the things I wanted to share with Dr. Nahas. Dr. Nahas explained to me that he feels that the side affects of smoking is extremely dangerous. He also used the "What do we tell the children" cop out. He also stated that physicians ARE willing to prescribe appropriate pain medications and that with the "new drugs of today" are far superior to marihuana. I tried to explain that the delivery device is

a problem, however cannabis can be eaten as well as other methods of ingestion. However, he continually interrupted me. I was never allowed to finish one sentence. I felt he left his professionalism at home this morning. And, his final response to me was to hang up on me without even saying goodbye.