Pubdate: Sat, 17 Nov 2012 Source: Desert Sun, The (Palm Springs, CA) Copyright: 2012 The Desert Sun Contact: http://local2.thedesertsun.com/mailer/opinionwrap.php Website: http://www.mydesert.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1112 Author: Ben McCall Note: Ben McCall is a journalist living in Palm Desert. MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS ARE NOT YOUR AVERAGE STONERS I have a marijuana plant growing nicely in my office. I purchased it from the marijuana dispensary across the street from my senior community. I've never bothered with marijuana before. Tried it once in college and decided back then that a cold beer was a better deal. But time and glaucoma have finally taken its toll. I got the idea of trying medical marijuana from a neighbor who gave me the name of an doctor that would issue the proper legalizing paperwork. My neighbor is a sparkling petite woman of 80, full of energy and enthusiasm for life. "I used to take seven prescription drugs every day, but gave them all up for my grass cookie," she chirped enthusiastically when I inquired about her obvious well-being. "I was always tired and listless, even taking drugs to counteract the side-effects of other drugs. Now I feel wonderful." I doubted her doctor would approve, but her vivaciousness confirmed something positive was on her side of life. Despite its 5,000-year tenure as a human opiate and palliative, marijuana's legal status in America remains murky. Pot for medical purposes is legal in California and, after last week's election, 18 other states and the District of Columbia. As of this recent election cycle, two states - Washington and Colorado - have legalized pot for recreational use, the first in the country. But in a seemingly bizarre conflict, marijuana is illegal at the federal level. In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed via the insistence of three wealthy businessmen - Randolph Hearst, Andrew Mellon and the DuPont family, each with vested economic interests in which marijuana and hemp could prove to be an inconvenient competitive intrusion. Damn the palliative benefits to the people. Hearst in particular promoted its "evil" effects constantly in his newspapers. To illustrate the social divide, The Desert Sun recently published a column by Bill Borden titled, "Medical Marijuana just a scam for opportunistic stoners." In his opinion, doctors who write prescriptions for medical marijuana are frauds, and all users are "stoners." ) My wife and I hosted a party recently for fellow animal lovers. With more than a modicum of braggadocio, I paraded my newly acquired grass plant around the 50-plus seniors in attendance. "Guess what this is" I asked each cluster. To my surprise, most accurately declared, marijuana. And subsequently, to even greater surprise, many stories began privately leaking out of the closet on its usage. There was Art, whose wife was seriously into Alzheimer's. He gives her a piece of laced chocolate every evening so she would sleep comfortably instead of roaming around the house semi-conscious in the middle of the night. And Tom, who rubs cream on his 95-year-old mother's neck to alleviate the pain that the steroid injections refused to accomplish. And Carole, who puffs weed on those infrequent occasions of a migraine headache. There are others who puff a pipe or consume a laced muffin, instead of taking the addictive Ambien for a better night's sleep, or to alleviate the pain and stress from arthritis or chemotherapy. These people are not stoners. They are serious seniors with serious medical concerns. Fortunately, like the biblical walls of ancient Jericho, resistance to the sane consumption of this amazing herb is crumbling. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom