Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jan 2010
Source: Des Moines Register (IA)
Copyright: 2010 The Des Moines Register.
Contact: http://DesMoinesRegister.com/help/letter.html
Website: http://desmoinesregister.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/123
Author: Aaron W. Jaco
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

HAZY FUTURE

The boyish young man in the khaki slacks and brown  sweater looks
Warren County Attorney Bryan Tingle  straight in the eyes and declares
that his  constitutional rights are being squashed.

He tells Tingle from his seat in the courtroom that  Iowa's legal
system is treading on his freedom of  religion, and on the freedom of
science and medicine to  explore treatment alternatives for the
chronically and  mentally ill.

With eyes gazing intently through his curly black hair,  he tells
Tingle that he's not afraid of going to  prison. And there's a
distinct possibility that, within  a few weeks, he could land himself
there for five  years.

He tells Tingle, who stands over him in a suit and tie,  that if he
were to receive a prison sentence, he'd like  to be held in contempt
of court and serve additional  time.

"I'd have serious contempt for that decision," he says.

This is Jason Karimi, a 21-year-old Milo native whose  allegiance to
the illegal drug marijuana has nearly  landed him in prison on
multiple occasions since 2007,  most recently during the
above-outlined Jan. 5  probation revocation hearing.

But despite the legal troubles, Karimi says marijuana  has saved his
life, dragging him twice out of suicidal  depression. He has argued,
and continues to argue, for  his right to use the drug as medication
to treat mental  illness - a lingering anxiety recently diagnosed as
bipolar disorder.

Karimi's is the story of how an honor student became a
twice-convicted criminal. How a young man decided to  treat his own
mental illness with an illegal drug. How  an aspiring computer
technician became an amateur  advocate for medical marijuana.

"I've had a crazy last couple of years," Karimi said  Jan. 6, leaning
forward in an armchair in a friend's  Altoona apartment. "People don't
believe me, sometimes,  when I try to tell them what's happened."

Karimi was an honor student during his senior year at  Southeast
Warren High School. School records for  2006-07 show he made "A" honor
roll the first semester  and "B" honor roll the second semester.

Also that year he played a trumpet solo, "Rock Around  the Clock,"
during halftime at a Warhawks football  game.

Earlier in his academic career Karimi wrote an article  for the
district newsletter. It promoted the use of  vending machines as a
school fundraising source.

Meanwhile, by his own account, Karimi rarely paid  attention in class.
He knew answers without studying  the subject matter, or he faked his
knowledge.

On a history assignment, he used a Web site to gather  information
about Napoleon Bonaparte - he still  pronounces it "Bonapart-ay" - and
passed the  information off as a report on a 1,000-page book.

Karimi was a small-time trouble maker since elementary  school, but
also one of the smartest kids in class,  said Milo native Victoria
Taggart, 21, a friend and  classmate since kindergarten.

"He would always get in trouble for reading books  instead of paying
attention," Taggart said. "He was  such a nerd, but at the same time
he was hilarious. He  always had smart-ass comments, and he was so
quick with  them."

During their high school years, Taggart knew that  sitting down with
Karimi at a party meant long  conversations about "random things,"
often including  politics.

"I didn't go there with Jason because it was like,  'First of all, I
don't know what you're talking about,  and second of all, you're going
to talk forever.' "

The two friends split paths after high school, except  for a brief
encounter in late 2008. The first time they  talked at length was in
October 2009, when Taggart was  surprised to hear Karimi's story.

During a long phone conversation, Taggart lost Karimi's  train of
thought.

She put him on speakerphone and let him ramble.

"He's changed," Taggart said. "I don't know if he's  just got super
smart, but I can't follow half the  things he talks about now. Maybe
he just forgot my  language.

"He's always had that serious like goal-set mind and  everything, but
he kind of seems like he has lost a bit  of his personality because he
feels so strong about  it," she added. "That's pretty much all he
thinks  about. But, I think it's pretty cool. In a small town
everyone's like a little clone of their parents that  graduated 20
years before they did. He actually doesn't  really care about that,
and feels this strongly about  an issue."

At home, Karimi felt near-constant anxiety. He had  trouble sleeping.
He classified the feelings as  depression, but never saw a doctor about them.

The problems persisted beyond his May 2007 graduation  and, around
that time, he started drinking - heavily.

"I would drink every night because it would put me to  sleep," Karimi
said. "It would drive out the bad  thoughts. It would basically numb
me. So, I always had  liquor or beer or something hidden in my room
and my  parents had no idea. I'd go to work, come home, act  normal or
whatever, people would go to bed and I'd go  to bed and just watch
movies or whatever and drink."

His drinking increased during his freshman year at Iowa  State
University, where he planned to major in  management information systems.

Unhindered by parental oversight, Karimi adopted a  "party boy facade"
that saw him drinking most nights.

A semester on the bottle burned him out. He gained what  he calls
"alcoholic tendencies" and decided to try to  stop drinking.

"I would start shaking if I wasn't drinking," Karimi  said. "I would
feel better after a couple beers or a  couple shots, until I even
started hiding it from my  college friends. So I thought, this isn't
the path I  wanted to go down."

In sobriety, he says, the jittery feelings and  sleeplessness
returned. His appetite was gone. He lied  to his parents about his
grades, which were declining.

He suspected, because of Internet research, that he had  bipolar
disorder. The suspicion would not be confirmed  until he visited a
psychologist two years later.

Karimi smoked marijuana "a few times" in high school,  but didn't
enjoy it.

He didn't like the feeling of the marijuana high and,  more than that,
he loathed the "stoner culture."

When friends asked him to smoke, he turned them down.

"I always thought that smoking cannabis makes you an  idiot," Karimi
said. "All the people I knew who smoked  (in high school) tried to act
like they were in a  Cheech and Chong movie, and I didn't like that. I
still  don't like some of the things about the stoner culture  that
are portrayed."

Get him talking about it, and Karimi rants on about  "douchebag high
school stoners" and "stupid hippies."  He uses the latter as a
derogatory phrase for adults  who carry on too much about recreational
use.

A turn of events in winter 2007 has come to define  Karimi's young
existence:

An acquaintance reintroduced him to marijuana.

"I started smoking it nightly because it put me to  sleep," Karimi
said.

Marijuana felt like a solution to his mental troubles,  not the cause
of any problems; at least, that's the way  he interpreted it. The drug
also helped him  concentrate. It "leveled him out," he said, and his
grades went back up.

"If I smoke weed I can learn like you wouldn't  believe," Karimi said.
"I can type like over 110 words  per minute, I can read quickly. If I
can slow my brain  down to absorb information, which is what marijuana
  does (for me), I can learn at a rate that most people  don't
understand. That sounds like bragging, but that's  just how it is."

That's the experience that motivates Karimi's push to  be allowed to
smoke while on probation.

"If it works for me and helps to level me out in my  situation, then
why can't I discuss this with a  doctor?" Karimi said.

Karimi's second semester was going smoothly until  officers arrested
him for drug possession in April  2008. He had nearly four ounces of
marijuana in his  dorm room.

The court proceedings lasted three months. On July 28,  2008, Karimi
pleaded guilty to a lesser possession  charge. District Associate
Judge James B. Malloy  sentenced him to one year of probation and a
one-year  suspended jail term, which now hangs over his head as  Story
County officials weigh whether to revoke his  parole.

A subsequent theft conviction, in Warren County, could  add four more
years of prison to the mix. That part of  the story comes later.

Students who are convicted of first-offense marijuana  possession in
the United States while receiving federal  financial aid lose that aid
for one year following  their conviction, according to an aid
eligibility  handbook published on the federal Information for
Financial Aid Professionals Web site.

Now a convicted criminal, and without his financial  aid, Karimi blew
off the final two weeks of finals and  moved into an Indianola
apartment in July 2008.

He worked 60 or 80 hours a week between an Indianola  gardening
company and the local Wal-Mart. He tried to  stay off of marijuana.

"I had been working that much to try and go back to  school to make it
up to my parents," he said. "I felt  terrible, like I screwed up. I
felt like a criminal.  And I started smoking marijuana again in the
fall when  my depression got so bad I was having suicidal thoughts
for the first time since I got arrested."

The depression morphed into a plan: He would steal from  his employer
and sell the merchandise to pay his way  back to college.

The plan failed.

Indianola police arrested Karimi in December for  stealing $6,300
worth of electronics equipment from  Wal-Mart.

According to a police report, Officer Justin Keller and  Sergeant Rob
Hawkins caught him with four packs of  beer, half a pack of deli meats
and a half-drank bottle  of Naked brand juice.

They took him back to his apartment, where they found  video game
consoles, televisions, iPod music players  and a global positioning
system.

"Karimi also stated that he had stolen two Nintendo Wii  game systems
and sold them to friends," Keller wrote.  "He advised that he has sold
several stolen items to  other people over the past few months."

Karimi and his attorney scarcely contested the charges.  He pleaded
guilty to one count of third-degree theft,  an aggravated misdemeanor,
and bargained a felony theft  charge down to a second aggravated
misdemeanor. He  received a pair of two-year suspended prison terms,
along with two years' probation in Warren County and  renewed
probation in Story County.

In addition, the court fined him $12,000, of which he  owed about
$2,800 as of Dec. 8, 2009.

He moved back home to Milo, briefly, after the arrest.  His mother,
Susan Karimi, had bailed him out of jail  during the court
proceedings. But he soon argued with  his mother and his father,
Saeed, over his continued  marijuana usage.

Susan and Saeed Karimi declined to comment for this  story, but did
send the Record-Herald more than 25  pages of news stories and medical
studies that linked  marijuana usage with psychotic episodes,
increased  instances of schizophrenia and exacerbation of  depression
and anxiety.

"I said from day one that the laws were wrong and that  cannabis was
good for me and that it helped me at Iowa  State because my grades
went up when I started using,"  Karimi said. "They just saw it as
illegal, so out of  concern for me they kicked me out hoping that I
would  see the light. Instead, now I'm doing this."

"This," as Karimi mentioned, is his effort to forge  himself into a
steadfast advocate for the medical use  of marijuana in Iowa.

The advocacy began in April 2009, when Karimi scoped  out the
screening of a documentary called "Waiting to  Inhale," which studies
the movement to legalize medical  marijuana.

During the screening at Drake University, Karimi met a  woman who uses
marijuana to treat her fibromyalgia and  a young man who uses the drug
to treat chronic pain  from a car accident.

"Seeing these people, how they moved, and seeing them  literally beg
to be allowed to have marijuana just  broke my heart," Karimi said. "I
decided to get up and  say what happened to me with my legal
situation. I  said, 'My name is Jason Karimi, and marijuana has
ruined my life.' "

Iowa medical marijuana advocate Jimmy Morrison, a grant  recipient of
the Marijuana Policy Project, met Karimi  at the meeting.

The two became friends, and Morrison said in a Jan. 14  telephone
interview that he supports Karimi's right to  make his own medical
decisions, although he has never  advised Karimi on whether or not to
continue to use  marijuana.

"I really believe it's an issue of individual choice or  freedom,"
Morrison said. "I don't advocate one way or  another, and I've never
pressured Jason ... It's more  of a conversation that needs to be had
between his  doctor and him about whether that's the best choice for
him, and right now he can't do that."

The speech at Drake University was Karimi's first  public advocacy
effort, but it wouldn't be his last.

He drove to Mason City and Council Bluffs, where he  spoke at the
Sept. 2 and Sept. 4 hearings of the Iowa  Board of Pharmacy.

They were two of four public hearings held last year by  pharmacy
board members, who are set to rule on Feb. 17  whether the drug should
be moved from schedule 1 - the  highest level of control for drugs -
to schedule 2,  which allows some medical use.

Karimi gave two speeches on Sept. 2, each lasting about  10
minutes.

Immediately following his first speech a board  spokesperson, Terry
Witkowski, told attendees:

"A transcript of all comments that are received at  today's hearing
will be reviewed by all seven members  of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy.
Those members regret  that none of them could be here today to hear
you in  person."

Karimi was frustrated by the announcement. Now, four  months later, he
just hopes the board heard him and  everyone else before they made
their decision.

"Aspirin kills 5,000 people a year," Karimi said.  "Marijuana kills
nobody. The only way I can think of  marijuana killing you is if
someone drops a bale of  marijuana on your head. And who stands under
a bale of  marijuana? That's just a bad idea."

Mental health was the third most popular subject of  conversation at
the pharmacy board hearings. Several  people testified that marijuana
had helped relieve  their symptoms of ADHD, depression and bipolar
disorder, according to Morrison.

After routine marijuana use, Karimi failed his first  drug test in
June. He cut down on his intake.  Depression persisted.

In July, he checked himself into Mercy Medical Center  for a 24 hour
suicide watch. He says he argued with the  doctor over his life
choices and called his parents to  pick him up.

Shortly after the hospital visit, and for the first  time in his life,
Karimi visited a psychologist - Dr.  R. James Thorpe of the Center for
Interpersonal  Effectiveness in Ankeny.

According to Karimi, Thorpe formally diagnosed him with  bipolar
disorder during that appointment.

Thorpe did not return calls to confirm the diagnosis;  however, Karimi
showed the Record-Herald a signed  letter on the doctor's office
letterhead that said  Karimi's symptoms were consistent with bipolar
disorder.

Marijuana's medical impact on bipolar disorder and  other mental
illnesses is far from certain.

Patients are not advised to use illegal drugs as  medication for
mental illness, and especially not as a  means of self-medication,
said Margaret Stout, director  of Iowa's branch of the National
Alliance for the  Mentally Ill.

"I would question the benefits that he believes that he  receives by
taking marijuana for his illness," said  Stout, who has led the state
organization for 22 years.  "Science has not proven marijuana to be a
positive  thing in the treatment of bipolar illness."

Stout isn't a strictly anti-drug person. She would  likely advocate
for marijuana usage if she had seen any  studies that show benefits
for patients, she said.

The fact is, she hasn't seen any such studies.

"I have seen the results of people who have severe  damage from the
use of some of those chemicals," Stout  said of users of marijuana,
cocaine, methamphetamine  and other illegal drugs. "The types of
marijuana that  are out there today are far more dangerous than they
would have been many years ago because they are laced  with other products."

A 2002 new story given to the Record-Herald by Susan  Karimi,
published in the article database Medscape  Medical News, cited a
1969-70 study of 50,087 males in  Sweden, aged 18 to 20 years, which
showed that "use of  cannabis increased the risk of schizophrenia by
30  percent."

A 2005 study published in the Journal of  Psychopharmacology was less
committal.

"There are some reports that people use cannabis for  help in
alleviating mania and others report its use for  relieving
depression," the authors found. "However,  these reports are anecdotal
and no systematic research  has ever been done to see if these effects
apply to the  population in general. Additionally, there are reports
that indicate that cannabis can have a detrimental and  potentially
causative role in the development of  psychosis and paradoxically, can
induce mania."

At any rate, according to Karimi, marijuana worked for  him - except
for the legal troubles.

After his theft conviction, he refused to attend  substance abuse
treatment at the Mid-Eastern Council on  Chemical Abuse and Broadlawns
Medical Center in Des  Moines.

He failed drug tests in June and October. He admitted  to "making a
bong that was going to used for smoking  marijuana," according to a
parole violation report by  probation officers Scott Thraen and Jeff
Schultz.

"If you want to see a rehabilitated man, I'm that  person," Karimi
said. "The only thing I've done while  on probation that's illegal is
use marijuana. And buy  marijuana, and transport marijuana from the
place I  purchased it to the place I used it ... it makes me  feel
good, and it makes me feel normal, and it helps  me."

During those months, Karimi lived in "about 10  different
places."

In court files, he registered addresses in Indianola,  Ames, Norwalk,
Carlisle and Altoona, where he'd lived  for about two months as of
Jan. 6.

Also during those months, spent in large part pouring  over research
on the Internet, Karimi converted to the  Rastafari movement, which
promotes ritual use of  marijuana as a spiritual sacrament and is
considered a  loosely knit religion, according to BBC News.

One evening in December 2009, Karimi requested that his  probation be
revoked and that he be sent to prison.

He hesitated to share many details about the  experiences that led to
this decision, which he said he  later tried unsuccessfully to reverse.

The short version of the story, he said, was that  several people
threatened his life. He owed at least  one of those people money.
Another believed Karimi was  an undercover police officer.

Meanwhile, Karimi was again suicidal. He was an  on-again, off-again
marijuana user trying,  simultaneously, to medicate himself and to
appease the  courts.

"I was at wit's end," Karimi said.

Hence, Karimi came face-to-face with Tingle at the Jan.  5 probation
revocation hearing, at which time Karimi  had decided to serve as his
own legal representation.

Karimi presented Tingle with a five page, single-spaced  typewritten
report that gave his legal argument and  some, but not all, of his
story detailed here.

"Your concerns would be better served by addressing the  Legislature,"
Tingle told Karimi, and reminded him that  Iowa had no exemptions for
medical marijuana use.

Karimi relented and signed up for a public defender.  His probation
hearing in Warren County was postponed to  Feb. 7; his Jan. 7 hearing
in Story County was  postponed to Jan. 21.

At those hearings, if his defender allows it, Karimi  plans to request
that marijuana be included in the list  of possible prescriptions
available to any doctor that  the court would assign him to see for
his illness.

He'd like that opportunity made available to others in  Iowa,
too.

"I know a lot of people who are in wheelchairs, who are  using canes,
who have multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia,  chronic pain, and this
just isn't right," Karimi said.  "Why should I keep my mouth shut and
do what the courts  say?"

The Iowa Pharmacy Board will rule on medical marijuana  next month,
but Karimi may not be a free man at that  time.

Morrison, the medical marijuana advocate, says there is  little hope
that Karimi will stay out of prison.

Iowa doesn't have a medical necessity defense for  marijuana users.
Even if the Legislature adopted such a  law this year - Sen. Joe
Bolckom proposed one in the  form of Senate File 293 - it would likely
apply only to  people with chronic pain, and it would not have
retroactive effects for people with prior convictions.

"He's a good kid who's made mistakes," Morrison said.  "He's young and
he has a future. He's not somebody  who's going to let this destroy
him. Just like Nelson  Mandela had 27 years of his life taken away in
prison,  Jason's facing having five of his taken away." 
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