(Marijuananews note: The prohibitionist party
line is that medical marijuana is a hoax perpetrated by the evil legalizers who have duped
sick people into believing that an untested "crude plant" works better than
FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.
It is understandable that bureaucrats like the Drug Czar and HHS Secretary Shalala would
have to say that. It is their job to maintain marijuana prohibition at
all costs, repeat -- at all costs. It is also understandable that the most
fanatical prohibitionists would have to believe it. It has become an article of faith.
However, it is the job of science to deal with facts. The fact is that there is a very
large number of well-informed, seriously ill and/or disabled people who have had the best
medical care available, and yet they have found that only marijuana alleviates their
suffering.
The four articles below come from Washington State, Oregon, and the UK. The last is from
the London Times. They tell the stories of people who have no political interest in the
controversy around marijuana prohibition. Most of them had never used marijuana before
they had their medical problems. All of them have risked arrest to use a plant.
The UK Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates that there are already over 1,000 MS
patients in that country who are using medical marijuana. Nonetheless, the medical
establishment insists on testing 600 individuals to see if it really works.
If the 1,000 current users had a dependable and affordable source of supply and were
not subject to arrest, then one could say that these tests are just good science. No one
can be opposed to studying the effectiveness of anything. There is certainly much more
that we need to know and understand about cannabis.
However, the medical and scientific establishments continue to play games with the lives
of the patients. They ignore the realities of marijuana prohibition. They ignore the
realities of the experience of large numbers of patients. This is bad science and worse
medicine.
Only the Internet makes it possible for us to know about them. Only the Internet makes
it possible to group four stories from four newspapers that have little in common. This
also adds to their impact by creating the context, which is why I have placed all of
them on one page.
None of these stories will be carried by the major national papers or by the networks
in DEAland. But two are from major papers in the UK. The London Times is the most
prestigious paper in the UK, perhaps in the English language.
The voters of Washington and Oregon have ignored their states medical and political
establishments and the editorial pages of many of their papers.
See
Oregon And
Washington State Medical Marijuana Laws Go Into Effect – 2 Articles
Polls and jury acquittals of medical marijuana patients indicate that the people of the UK
feel the same way.
See
UK Jury
Acquits Man For Growing "Medicinal Cannabis;" More Pressure On Government,
Reports London Times
and
96 Percent
Of Viewers In BBC Poll Favor Legalizing Medical Marijuana; Over 40,000 Respond -- IoS
Meanwhile back at the party line, the problem is not that fools and scoundrels are fools
and scoundrels, such is the nature of politics. Rather the problem is that they are
allowed to get away with it by the medical, scientific and journalistic establishments,
who are betraying their responsibilities.
Again, this is where the Internet will ultimately make all the difference.
Now we are all a part of the process. We know about this, and so we have the
responsibility to speak out, or -- to be more precise -- to email out.
It is better to light a single computer screen than to curse the darkness.)
PATIENTS AIR FRUSTRATIONS WITH POT LAW
From The Everett Herald
http://www.heraldnet.com/
letters@heraldnet.com
January 22, 1999
By LAURENCE M. CRUZ, Associated Press
OLYMPIA - Patients such as Penny Simons, who smokes marijuana to relieve her
debilitating respiratory and heart disease, told lawmakers Thursday of their frustrations
with the new voter-approved medical marijuana initiative.
See
Washington State
Medical Association Betrays Its Patients And Shows Its Collective Incompetence
Simons, 34, of Renton, said she smokes pot for medical reasons even though her doctor
won’t give her the documentation the law requires.
"He’s afraid he’s going to wind up in
prison," she said. " ... I don’t smoke it to get stoned. I smoke it to
function.
"If that makes me a criminal, then I’m a criminal," she said.
Initiative 692, which took effect Dec. 3, authorized the use of marijuana by patients
with certain terminal or debilitating illnesses, including cancer, AIDS and glaucoma. It
does not provide any legal way for them to obtain it, but with a doctor’s note,
patients, or their designated caregiver, can possess up to a 60-day supply.
But the initiative leaves patients to deduce that they must grow it and how much
constitutes a 60-day supply.
There is nowhere they can turn for easy, accurate information.
They are rebuffed when they turn for answers to the state
Department of Health.
A legislative analyst said the Health Department cannot write rules that would offer a
clearer interpretation because the initiative does not explicitly give the department
rulewriting authority.
And state officials are wary of drawing the wrath of the federal
government.
Department spokeswoman Patricia Brown told members of the Senate Health and Long Term
Care Committee that her department has received numerous questions from health care
providers, patients and others seeking clarification. But the department typically tells
them to just read the language in the law, although that language is vague.
Brown said she refers patients to their doctors for discussion of how much pot to take.
Seattle’s Tim Killian, who was campaign manager for 1-692,
said in an interview that the law was written as specifically "as the federal
govemment’s laws would allow a state law to be written."
The state is unfamiliar with the new law and wary of possible federal lawsuits. He
noted a federal injunction against Oakland, Calf., for crafting a model for the
distribution of medical marijuana in that state.
"I think that the federal goveniment have got their foot on
this, and it’s tough for the Department of Health to even do what they need to
do," Sen. Lorraine Wojahn, D-Tacoma, said during the hearing.
"Unless we can remove that barrier of the federal government, we’re going to
be in big problems, I believe.’
Federal law currently classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning it is
dangerous and has no medical benefit.
Lawmakers took no action but seemed to agree the law needed to be amended to give the
Department of Health more authority to interpret the initiative.
Copyright: 1999 The Daily Herald Co.
APPLICATIONS COMING IN FROM AROUND THE STATE
January 16, 1999
From The Grants Pass Oregon Daily Courier
Front Page
courier@cdsnet.net
By Patricia Snyder of the Daily Courier
The state isn’t issuing medical marijuana registration cards yet, but several
people have applied.
See Oregon Medical
Marijuana Update From a Reader -- Fear Rules The Day
Dr. Grant Higginson, state health officer, recommended submitting applications as soon as
possible, even though the Oregon Health Division has until May 1 to issue the cards.
"As soon as the registration system is up and running we’ll start processing
them," he said.
The state will verify information in the applications, but that doesn’t mean it
will hunt down users and perform exams, he said.
"I don’t think the act gives us the authority to go in and question physician
judgment," Higginson said.
Since doctors determine a patient’s medical condition, those wishing to apply
should visit their physician for documentation.
"They also need the note to say that they may benefit from the medical use of
marijuana," he said. The recommendation must come from an Oregon licensed physician.
Send the medical information and the physician recommendation, along with the doctors
name, address and telephone number, in a packet that includes the name, address and birth
date of the applicant. Someone who wants to designate a primary care-giver should include
that name and address.
All information should be sent to: Dr. Grant Higginson, state health officer, Oregon
Health Division, 800 N.E. Oregon St. Number 925, Portland, OR 97232.
Applicants should keep their own copy of the documentation, Higginson added.
Call the Health Division at (503) 731-4000 for information.
The state does not provide a list of physicians willing to make a recommendation, but
Higginson said some are willing to do so.
See
Oregon Medical
Association Advises Doctors To Wait For Federal Approval
Before Cooperating With Patients Under New State Medical Marijuana Law,
Defeating Purpose of Initiative
"We have gotten those written notifications from a number of physicians from a
number of different parts of the state," he said, although he didn’t have
specific locations.
No figure were available on the number of people who have applied.
Applications are locked away until the registration system is
activated.
Oregonians for Medical Rights, an organization that championed passage of the medical
marijuana law approved by voters last November, has fielded about 350 requests for
information about the law.
It offers a toll-free number, (877) 600-6767.
THESE WOMEN COULD BE THE FIRST TO TAKE CANNABIS LEGALLY - BUT SHOULD THEY BE ALLOWED?
From The London Daily Mail
January 19, 1999
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
letters@dailymail.co.uk
By Ann Kent
These women are pillars of the community, the kind of people who
always turn up at school parents’ evenings. Yet they also habitually break the law -
by smoking cannabis as a painkiller.
Now they could be among the first Britons to be administered the drug legally. As part
of a unique and controversial new study, they will inhale cannabis
to try to establish if it really does have medicinal effects. They already take the
illegal drug to alleviate excruciating pain and muscle spasms, buying it from street
dealers. At least now they will be able to obtain it in a safe, standardised form.
DIANA BEEDLE, 44, from Torquay has been disabled with chronic back pain for 13 years.
She says: "I tripped on the stairs when I was rushing to answer the door and fell all
the way down. It caused severe damage to discs, vertebrae and nerves. I was on my back in
hospital for three months, and was left with severe pain and a leg that went into spasms.
"I stuck to prescription drugs for nearly three years and
also tried TENS machine
(Marijuananews note: A TENS machine uses very low levels of
electrical energy to block pain signals.)
and chiropractic.
But nothing worked as well as cannabis - something I tried,
reluctantly, after a friend suggested it and bought some for me.
I smoked it first thing in the morning. If I didn’t, my muscles would go into
spasms and I would barely be able to move. I also smoke in the evening to help me sleep. I see myself as a totally law-abiding citizen and would hate anyone to
think of me as a criminal. You see MPs interviewed with a scotch in one hand and a
cigarette in the other. They’re taking much more dangerous drugs than I am. There has
never been a death attributed to cannabis alone."
SYBIL LUCAS-BREWER, 43, of Preston was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis ten
years ago, and is registered as disabled. She says: "I
don’t feel comfortable about taking an illegal drug, and using it is the most illegal
thing I have ever done. Unfortunately, with painkillers you get immune to the effects.
"When my arthritis flares up, the pain is soul-destroying -
life-sapping. If you take too many painkillers, you just sit in a chair and dribble. You
want to go to sleep and not wake up.
See
"50 percent of
patients who died in hospitals suffered moderate to severe pain."
But We Are Told That There Is No Need For Medical Marijuana -- 2 Articles
and links
"I try to relieve my pain by meditating, and use cannabis as a last resort.
It was something a friend told me about.
"If I am chosen for the trials there is a chance I will
get a placebo, which will do nothing for my pain. But it is worth the risk. I want the
authorities to realise how effective cannabis is, because even when I get hold of it, I
can’t really afford it on my disability benefit.
(Marijuananews note: Giving a person in severe pain a placebo is immoral.)
"It is expensive because it is illegal.
Cannabis would be cheap to
manufacture if legalised. If it could be made available as an
aerosol medicine, that would be ideal.
(Marijuananews note: It can be vaporized, but this method of delivery which is
well-known in Amsterdam, thanks in large part to a disabled American called Eagle Bill, is
ignored by the medical establishment. Later they will claim to have discovered it.)
It would hit the bloodstream instantly and give maximum pain relief.
"An awful lot of people take cannabis, but you don’t hear about them.
When I was in hospital a while ago, an old lady on the ward,
who also had arthritis, took me into the grounds and rolled me a joint. She was in her
70’s and she was perfectly matter-of-fact about it."
See
UK Grandmother
Gets 18 Months Probation For Drinking Cannabis Tea For Arthritis Pain
CLARE HODGES, 41, a house-wife and mother from Leeds, has multiple sclerosis. Seven
years ago she set up the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics (ACT) to campaign to have
cannabis made available on prescription. She says: "I am a nice, middle-class mother
of two, and I belong to our local Crimebusters Group. Until recently, the supporters of
Act have been lone voices. Now we have support in the House of Lords. I had Ms for nine years before I tried cannabis. I found it stops muscle
spasms and helps against nausea. It also relieves bladder problems, so I don’t have
to constantly get up in the night to go to the loo.
"I hope something is sorted out because thousands of people with medical problems
use cannabis in a potentially dangerous way. You don’t know the quality or the
strength of what you are taking, and forced to break the law.
"I don’t feel as if I am a threat to society. Nor are we a crowd of
dope-smokers - most people don’t take enough to get high. We take cannabis because we
need to."
VOLUNTEERS for research should contact Disability Now, 6 Market Road, London, N7 9PW
Copyright: 1999 Associated Newspapers Ltd
From The London Times
See
London Times
Reports Sympathetically About Medical Marijuana User – Leaves Government Sounding
Cruel
http://www.the-times.co.uk/
letters@the-times.co.uk
January 23, 1999
By Joanna Bale
"ONE JOINT CHANGED MY LIFE"
WHEN a friend showed Clare Hodges how to roll her first joint, it
transformed her life. The former television producer had suffered from multiple sclerosis
for nine years and was experiencing bladder spasms that made sleeping at night almost
impossible.
Mrs Hodges, who has now been using cannabis for seven years, said: "I had been
prescribed all sorts of drugs which did not work, when someone suggested I try cannabis.
"I had never used it before and it took me a while to
find someone who could get hold of it.
Eventually I discovered that one of my
old work colleagues used it recreationally. She agreed to come round to my house and we
smoked a joint.
"The effects were immediate. My whole body seemed to melt
and all the discomfort, spasms and nausea disappeared."
Shortly afterwards Mrs Hodges and two other MS patients founded the Alliance for
Cannabis Therapeutics, to campaign for more research into the medical uses of cannabis.
The group’s first major breakthrough came in 1997 when the British Medical
Association voted overwhelmingly at its annual meeting for cannabis products to be
available on prescription.
See
British Medical
Association Calls For Decriminalizing Medical Marijuana, But Wallows in Reefer Madness
and
British Medical
Association and Government Graciously Allow Sick and Dying Synthetic Cannabis In
2 Years, Maybe
Later that year ACT took a delegation of politicians and doctors, including Dr Guy, to see
Paul Boateng, the junior Home Office Minister.
See
Director Of UK
Alliance For Cannabis Therapeutics Before The House Of Lords Committee
Four months later Dr Guy was granted his licence.
See
UK Guidelines For
Tests On Medical Marijuana To Be Set Today;
Muddled Reporting On Muddled "Experts" -- 2 Articles
and
A Few UK MS
Patients To Be Allowed To Inhale Whole Cannabis Without Being Arrested – Next Year!
That’s Why They Are Called "Patients;" We Expect Them To Wait! -- 2
Articles
Copyright: 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd
Supported