Pubdate: Sat, 14 Sep 2013
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2013 Star Tribune
Contact: http://www.startribunecompany.com/143
Website: http://www.startribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/266
Author: Michael Shimpach
Note: Michael Shimpach is a freelance writer in Owatonna, Minn.

MARIJUANA IS GOOD MEDICINE

At Least It Was for Me, Until It Was Put Out of Reach.

Though Minnesota has proven to be a progressive state, in the area of 
medical marijuana legalization it remains anchored in the past. I 
have been an MS sufferer for 35 years, and have used medical MJ for 
more than 20 - until this December past, when I became 
institutionalized. Its benefits are now forbidden to me.

It offered me relief from pain, inflammation, stress, cramps and 
insomnia, and since I have stopped using it, my pain level has 
increased from 2 to 6, along with the severity of other symptoms that 
make my challenging life much less bearable. I have had no 
withdrawals or ill effects, nor have I been desirous of taking even 
stronger forbidden substances since stopping its use. Of course, I am 
able to use legal chemical painkillers (which have side effects and 
are much less effective) and one Valium in the evening for cramps.

The arguments against MJ's use are based in fear, misinformation, 
intentional ignorance and the lobbying efforts of the prison workers' 
union, Big Pharma and the American Medical Association, which 
together spend millions influencing Congress and legislatures to vote 
against legalization.

There is plenty of evidence that victims of well more than 35 medical 
conditions gain relief from the use of medical cannabis, but we have 
a system in which profits are more important than people. To continue 
this suffering is a shame - a dirty, rotten shame.

The fact that better, stronger hybrid forms are available means that 
users do not need nearly as much to get its benefits, and the 
misunderstood notion that pot users are some sort of hippie space 
cadets is simply ignorant, for in fact before long the psychoactive 
effects, the so-called "high" is mostly gone. The effects are more of 
a numbing of the physical symptoms of diseases like ALS, Parkinson's, 
MS, other nervous disorders, hypertension, insomnia, stress, and the 
loss of appetite suffered by cancer patients. And that's just the tip 
of the iceberg.

There are still folks who fall back on the quasi-Christian attitude 
that if God has willed that you suffer, then you should "offer it up" 
to purify your soul. I would kindly like to inform such folks that 
the problems of incontinence, impotence, sight loss, motor 
dysfunction, and difficulty swallowing, walking, speaking and 
performing basic tasks like brushing your teeth, bathing and 
eliminating waste perhaps ought to satisfy even the most puritanical 
purists. Most of us would self-flagellate and wear sackcloth if we 
could have the relief of medical MJ in exchange.

In Las Vegas, where we lived for a time, its use was legal, and 
dispensaries controlled the sale to people with doctors' 
prescriptions, until the federal government started interfering with 
the state's rights to make its own laws. The sale can be taxed, and 
decriminalizing its use frees those in law enforcement to actually go 
after real criminals, instead of beating the bushes to find pot 
plants to pull out of the ground.

Since there is no money in prescribing medical marijuana for patients 
who suffer symptoms from the above-mentioned diseases, I have little 
hope that most doctors will ever change their mind. We do not have a 
health care system, but a sick-cure gulag that employs drugs with 
such alarming side effects that the use of them seems to any rational 
person ludicrous. MJ's side effects are nil, and even immature users 
cannot overdose. They simply fall asleep.

Compare the effects and cost to society of cannabis to the results of 
alcohol, nicotine, prescription drugs and even over-the-counter 
painkillers, and it's a no-brainer. But, then, that's what the 
purveyors of misinformation thrive on.

Now, most folks already know all this but are afraid to be the first 
to change their minds unless the government gives its blessing.

Last, let me add that, for me, the use of marijuana is like a vitamin 
for the brain, opening me up to the 90 percent of the brain we don't 
use, lifting thought away from the brainstem - the survival, 
reptilian part of our gray matter - and allowing a contemplation 
beyond the mundane. How frightening to stop and think.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom