I’d like to start a discussion on the benefits of medical marijuana and the pros and cons of legalizing it for medical use. I need to inject a “personal” aspect in the discussion, not only personal to me, but it will be to many of you too.
I’m writing this piece on behalf of a friend of mine and a friend to many of our regular readers here at ToTheCenter.com. His name is David, but most of you know him as seaman93555. David is fighting a losing battle with prostate cancer. He has received chemotherapy treatment, but stopped it once it was no longer doing him any good. He is in a great deal of pain and discomfort. Recently, he has also been diagnosed with a brain tumor which is adding severe headaches and eye pressure to his other sources of pain. He is also experiencing numbness in his right leg, below his knee, and he is easy prey for opportunistic infections.
Back in early January, David wrote and said that that day, his doctor told him that there is little that can be done for his condition, and he had referred him to Hospice. David had been wanting to start up this discussion himself, however he is growing too weak and the words get jumbled for him at times. I’m hoping he may be able to add some comments if we can get a good discussion going. So here goes nothing. This is for you, David.
Even though I am for the legalized use of medical marijuana, I’m not really “up” on where we stand, as a country, on legalizing it. So I’ve done some reading, and here are some interesting things I’ve found.
According to Wikipedia, the medicinal benefits of marijuana seem to be boundless, and many have been known and made use of for 4,000 years. Marijuana has been found to relieve nausea, lack of appetite, vomiting, hemorrhoids, headaches, insomnia, gastrointestinal disorders, nosebleeds, inflammation, muscle spasms, stomach cramps, constipation and pain. It has been found useful in the treatment of alcoholism, addiction to other drugs such as heroin, migraines, spasticity, neurogenic pain, movement disorders, asthma, glaucoma, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, depression, PTSD, ADD, ADHD, OCD, panic disorders, Chrohn’s Disease, bipolar disorder, PMS, and hypertension. Even the seeds have been used to expel tapeworms. It has been found beneficial in treating the side-effects of other medical treatments for cancer, AIDS, IBD, and hepatitis. Its properties include those of an antiseptic, analgesic, diuretic, anti-emetic, anti-epileptic, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, anti-spasmodic, anti-convulsant, immunomodulator, and bronchodilator.
The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has been endorsed by the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Public Health Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Nurses Association, British Medical Association, AIDS Action, American Academy of HIV Medicine, Lymphoma Foundation of America, and Health Canada.
On Election Day, 2008, Michigan became the 13th state in the U.S. to pass a proposition to allow the use of medical marijuana, as prescribed by their doctor, to patients with serious or terminal illnesses. One quarter of the country now allows treatment with medical marijuana, which would seem a good indicator that more will follow. However, the fight to receive this right will be a much longer and harder battle than many realize. Even in states that have already approved the use of medical marijuana, battles continue to rage.
In California, in particular, the Compassionate Use Act was passed in 1996, making California the first state to legalize the use of medical marijuana. In 2004, SB420 was passed which provided even more protections and made California’s medical marijuana use laws the most comprehensive in the country. Basically, doctors and patients are given the right to prescribe and use, respectively, medical marijuana. But due to conflicts between state and federal law regarding the use and distribution of medical marijuana, i.e., both are illegal under federal law, cities and towns across the state can and do have ordinances prohibiting licensure of dispensaries, federal raids of dispensaries still occur, and police have the right, with “probable cause,” to search, seize, and arrest patients, even after verifying that the patient has the proper documentation authorizing the medical use.
David would seem to be a prime candidate who could benefit from medical marijuana. However, he lives in one of these cities/towns in California I mentioned earlier, which is very conservative and afraid that having a dispensary there would open the door for corruption among their teen population. A dispensary that had opened there has since been closed. And I believe an ordinance is in place to disallow another licensure of this kind of facility. Even if David had the opportunity to travel elsewhere in the state to obtain medical marijuana, he has to have it prescribed by a doctor, and his doctor does not want to go against the community and therefore will not prescribe it for him. I’m afraid David is going to be another victim of too little, too late.
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