Pubdate: Tue, 15 Aug 2000
Source: Argus Leader (SD)
Copyright: 2000 Argus Leader
Contact:  P.O. Box 5034, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5034
Fax: (605) 331-2294
Website: http://www.argusleader.com/
Forum: http://www.argusleader.com/info/forum.html
Author: Lee Williams

ARREST FUELS DEBATE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Matthew Ducheneaux wasn't worried when he was arrested last month for
smoking marijuana in Yankton Trail Park.

The quadriplegic, who suffers violent spasms, had a prescription for the
drug, signed by a local doctor.

Or so he thought.

Now the 36-year-old Sioux Falls man faces misdemeanor drug possession
charges, and the physician who signed the prescription is under scrutiny by
the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Ducheneaux said he was upfront with his physician, Dr. Robert Seidel, after
he discovered the benefits of smoking pot in 1994.

"I wanted the scrip for when I travel," he said, "in case I got stopped."

There is an active effort to introduce legislation next year that would
allow South Dakota to join a handful of other states that approved the
medical use of marijuana. But critics argue there are legal alternatives to
pot and that permissive laws just make it difficult to catch real drug
users.

Ducheneaux's been confined to a wheelchair since 1985, after his spine was
severed in a one-car accident.

"I flew 141 feet, rolled several times, and was found laying on the hood,"
he says. Alcohol contributed to the accident, and Ducheneaux said he's been
sober for the past seven years.

The tremors shake his legs so violently, the floor of his trailer home
vibrates, causing the salt and pepper shakers to dance across the kitchen
table.

"They come as regular as breathing," he said.

Ducheneaux was prescribed Valium for the spasms. The drug kicks in an hour
after he takes it. But he can't stand the side effects, namely stupor and
hair loss. He keeps a bag of his lost hair on the headboard of his bed, as a
kind of memorial.

Another quadriplegic who suffers muscle spasms told him to try marijuana,
which Ducheneaux said he had never even experimented with before his
accident.

"If it's good pot, it instantly takes away the tremors, right now," he said.
"It takes away the pain, stimulates my appetite, makes me drink more water,
which helps out my kidneys, and improves my bowel routine."

He told Seidel about the effects of pot on his tremors. The doctor wrote a
note on his prescription pad, dated and signed it. The note reads: "Matthew
is a quadriplegic. He uses marijuana for muscle spasm caused by his
paralysis."

Dr. Seidel did not respond to several requests from the Argus Leader for
comment.

"It would be a breach of his privacy with his patient to comment," said
Kelby Krabbenhoft, the CEO of Sioux Valley Hospital and University of South
Dakota Medical Center.

Krabbenhoft described Seidel as a "doctor's doctor," whom other physicians
turn to when they become ill. He plans no disciplinary action against the
physician.

"From what I understand, even my fifth-grade son would know that this is not
a scrip," said Krabbenhoft, "and is instead a simple and sympathetic note
that would be consistent for Bob Seidel to write."

The DEA sees it differently.

Because the note was written on a prescription form, it carries more legal
weight than if it were written on office stationary, said Julie Antilla, a
DEA investigator in Des Moines.

Antilla is assigned to the agency's Diversion Unit, which tracks physicians,
drug manufacturers, pharmacists or anyone else involved in the movement of
controlled substances.

"Letterhead is just a note. My belief is that if written on scrip, it is
intended to be prescribed to that person, especially if it is signed by a
doctor," she said.

Antilla said her office has a range of sanctions available for its cases,
including criminal charges. Another option is a civil penalty, which usually
means a fine for record-keeping violations. The agency also could repeal the
doctor's DEA license, used to prescribe medication.

Shirley Armestead, a spokeswoman at the DEA's divisional office in St.
Louis, said federal law puts the responsibility for prescribing and
dispensing any controlled substance directly upon the physician.

"It appears that the doctor is trying to give him permission to use
marijuana," she said.

Armestead plans to refer the matter to the state's medical board. Both
investigators stopped short of saying that the DEA is opening a criminal
investigation. "We'll look into it," Antilla said.

Dr. Seidel committed no crime under state law because South Dakota statutes
do not address a physician's liability.

Arrest at JazzFest

Ducheneaux knows he can't take the prescription into a pharmacy and exchange
it for marijuana. He simply wanted something to show police if he ever was
caught with the drugs.

He buys pot in several Sioux Falls bars, from friends or "wherever I can get
it." One quarter-ounce bag can last him up to two weeks.

Ducheneaux left the paper at home the day he was arrested at Yankton Trail
Park during the
JazzFest on July 15.

The hot sun brought on more spasms than usual, so he said he smoked half a
joint.

He and a friend were spotted smoking by the Big Sioux River by a Sioux Falls
police officer on a bike. Ducheneaux denies that his friend smoked with him,
though the friend also was charged.

"I kept telling the officers that I had a scrip, but it didn't matter," he
said.

Arrested on the soccer field, Ducheneaux said police struggled with how to
get him to jail.

"I told them to call Wheelchair Express," he said.

They did.

Other medical options

Ducheneaux had several alternatives if Valium wasn't working, said Dennis M.
Jones, a licensed pharmacist and the executive secretary for South Dakota's
State Board of Pharmacy.

Jones said hair loss is a possible side effect of Valium, though that
happens to only 1 percent of those taking the drug.

And the active ingredient of marijuana -- tetrahydrocannibinol, or THC -- is
available legally in pill form, sold under the trade name Marinol.

"It can be legally obtained with a prescription," Jones said, adding that
Marinol is usually prescribed as an anti-nauseant. Muscle-skeletal
relaxation is considered one of its side effects.

Jones said other possible solutions include Soma, Baclofen, Paraflex or
Flexaril.

"It isn't like marijuana is the only thing. There's a whole book full of
options," said Jones. "My heart goes out to the man; I see so many people
that my heart goes out to. I wish I could help them all."

NORML campaign

The South Dakota Chapter of the National Organization for Reform of
Marijuana Laws, or NORML, is looking for other people in Ducheneaux's
position.

"We're advertising statewide for anyone who needs medicinal cannabis," said
South Dakota NORML president and founder Bob Newland of Hermosa.

Newland said his intent is to assemble a group of people who rely upon
medicinal marijuana, then bring them as a group to testify before the South
Dakota Legislature in support of a medicinal marijuana bill.

"The bill's sponsor (in the Legislature) is not ready to be named yet,"
Newland said. "But it's 98 percent ready, and we will also introduce an
industrial hemp bill as well."

Newland does not subscribe to claims made by the American Medical
Association and the DEA that marijuana has no medical benefits.

"Those claims are ridiculous on their face, given the thousands of stories
of benefits," he said. "But even if they are right, our point of view is
that we should humor sick and dying people who think they get a benefit from
cannabis."

Outgoing House Speaker Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, disagrees.

"I'm not a doctor, but as far as medicinal marijuana is concerned, there is
not any pharmaceutical marijuana at this time," he said. "There have been
studies conducted that show smoking marijuana is harmful. Also, marijuana is
addictive like tobacco, and if marijuana is addictive, then we have to say
we have a model, the tobacco industry. That is an area we don't want to get
involved with."

Legislation allowing medicinal marijuana use in other states is so full of
loopholes, it prevents law enforcement from making arrests for any kind of
pot use, Hunt said.

"If we're talking in terms of medicinal marijuana for medical purposes,
someone is blowing smoke at us," Hunt said.

Action in other states

Voters in Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have
approved ballot measures approving use of medical marijuana.

But it's still against federal laws. States wishing to dispense marijuana
need to develop working agreements with local U.S. Attorneys or DEA offices,
Antilla said.

California voters passed a state's medical marijuana initiative in 1996. And
last month, a federal judge authorized an Oakland, Calif., group to
distribute marijuana for medical purposes.

On June 14, Gov. Benjamin Cayetano of Hawaii signed a bill into law that
removed state criminal penalties for the seriously ill who grow, possess or
smoke marijuana with a physician's approval.

The law lists several qualifying illnesses, including cancer, glaucoma, HIV
and AIDS. But it adds that written requests by physicians for consideration
of other illnesses will be considered.

Ducheneaux believes he would qualify for medicinal marijuana if South Dakota
laws would change.

He promises to fight the misdemeanor charge, but he's surprised he even has
to go to court.

"I was just gonna go down to the courthouse, show them my scrip and ask for
my hooters (marijuana joints) back," he said. "There's a difference between
the drinking that got me into this situation and the way I'm using marijuana
now."
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