cannabisnews.com: Glaucoma Patient Calls for Legalizing Marijuana





Glaucoma Patient Calls for Legalizing Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on October 13, 2002 at 22:15:16 PT
Metro - Interview: Elvy Musikka
Source: Journal Sentinel 
Q. Did you smoke marijuana before your glaucoma developed? A. No, unfortunately. Had I been a smoker in the '60s I would have never made the decision that turned my life upside down. I'm sure I smoked more cigarettes and consumed more alcohol as I was pondering. I needed to make a life-altering decision.
Q. Do you have to get your prescription renewed? A. I get the cannabis every five to six months. I have to fly back to Florida to pick up the cannabis at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. It's part of the University of Miami. I get it renewed when I pick it up.Q. What is the potency of the marijuana you receive? A. This, I would say, is comparable to high-grade Mexican marijuana. It's made from Mexican seeds grown at the University of Mississippi. They come in a tin with 300 rolled (cigarettes), 238 grams. I consume seven to eight grams a day. I bake with it or make butter for bread. I will smoke 10 joints a day, if I don't have access to an oven.Q. Do you think marijuana should be legalized solely for medical use, or are you in favor of complete legalization? A. Knowing the history of marijuana, I believe to arrest an adult for choosing a "wiser bud" is the epitome of hypocrisy. And to arrest a patient for helping another patient is a blasphemy on the creator's work.Q. What would you say to those who believe that marijuana, in all forms, should be outlawed? A. The killer drugs are all legal. Thousands of people are lost every year to legal drugs and alcohol. We don't have a war on drugs, we have a war on the drugs that compete against the pharmaceutical industry.They have not read any reports that have been requested and financed by the government. It is not a gateway drug, it's not addictive and it is, in fact, very beneficial for people with several illnesses.Seven hundred thousand people are arrested a year. The prison industry and the pharmaceutical industry are supported by the war on drugs. I personally know people who have committed suicide from taking prescription pharmaceuticals. Responsibility and compassion are needed at this time.I see tremendous stupidity to waste all of our resources and continue in this insane war on our own people. There's got to be a better way to deal with this.God made this plant. They would have to put God as the chief conspirator.Sidebar: Takes Five Elvy Musikka, 63, says she's one of only seven people in the nation to receive legally prescribed medicinal marijuana from the federal government. She earned that distinction after being arrested for growing pot at her Hollywood, Fla., home in the late 1980s. She decided to cultivate and use the controlled substance, she said, to alleviate the effects of severe glaucoma. Since winning a 1988 court battle, she has traveled the country calling for marijuana's legalization for medical use. In Wisconsin recently for the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival in Madison, Musikka talked with Journal Sentinel reporter Jesse Garza about her medical marijuana use, what she describes as the insanity of the war on drugs and the need for lawmakers to take a new look at national drug policy. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on October 14, 2002.Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)Published: October 14, 2002Copyright: 2002 Milwaukee Journal SentinelContact: jsedit onwis.comWebsite: http://www.jsonline.com/Related Articles & Web Site:I.M.M.L.Y.http://www.immly.org/Weed Stockhttp://www.weedstock.com/ Pot Festival Draws 400 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14373.shtmlFestival Allows Voice for Marijuana Defendershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14370.shtmlFestival To Highlight Marijuana Legislation http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14348.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by afterburner on April 24, 2003 at 08:18:29 PT:
States Rights? Due Process and Equal Protection? 
Q. What is the potency of the marijuana you receive? A. This, I would say, is comparable to high-grade Mexican marijuana. It's made from Mexican seeds grown at the University of Mississippi. They come in a tin with 300 rolled (cigarettes), 238 grams. I consume seven to eight grams a day. I bake with it or make butter for bread. I will smoke 10 joints a day, if I don't have access to an oven.Even Canada is planning to decriminalize only 35 grams, a little over an ounce. That means that Nevada's failed initiative to provide 3 ounces would be less than 105 grams, which is less than half of what the US Federal Government provides to Elvy Musikka, a medical cannabis patient being treated for glaucoma. If Steve Kubby had been allowed into the federal Compassionate Use program, instead of running for political office and trying to champion California States Rights under the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution, he would be cared for by the US Federal Government instead of being harassed and forced to become a political refugee. Where is the due process for medical cannabis patients?nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. -Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitutionego destruction and ego transcendence, that is the answer.
The Constitution of the United States of America 
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Comment #6 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on October 14, 2002 at 05:44:51 PT
LTE
Sirs,  Thank you for running your interview with Elvy Mussika. How strange, someone who is allowed to use cannabis by the federal government, while the same government sends SWAT teams on hospice raids against people who only have permission of the state of California. How odd it must be to recieve government-approved cannabis while hearing John Walters and Asa Hutchinson endlessly repeat their mantras "marijuana is not medicine" and "no medicine is smoked". Elvy's case shines a bright light on every dark lie the prohibitionists can come up with.-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=I've actually found three of my LTEs appear at http://www.mapinc.org/lte/ in the past few days! Is THAT ever a great feeling!! I'm getting PUBLISHED! And you can too! It's easy enough - the more you write, not only do you have a better chance of one being selected, but you get to practice your skills as a writer, which makes for better letters to boot.
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Comment #5 posted by BigDawg on October 14, 2002 at 05:41:24 PT
How true, how true.
"This is a democracy. We don't need Taliban kind of control from our authorities that results in suffering and loss of personal freedom."This comment hits home.
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on October 14, 2002 at 05:09:25 PT
Elvy Musikka hits the bulls-eye.
"Knowing the history of marijuana, I believe to arrest an adult for choosing a "wiser bud" is the epitome of hypocrisy. And to arrest a patient for helping another patient is a blasphemy on the creator's work."(Caging a human for using cannabis is an act of hate, conducted by evil men.)
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Comment #3 posted by CorvallisEric on October 13, 2002 at 22:50:54 PT
Fixed link for comment 1
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/14/thread14354.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by DdC on October 13, 2002 at 22:46:01 PT
If Smoking Pot Eases The Pain Of Aging, Puff Away!
Regarding "Just say no to marijuana initiative rhetoric" [Oct. 3]: I don't smoke pot. I don't use tobacco. A big bottle of rum to flavor my tea and baking lasts me a year. I don't have bill collectors coming to my door. I've had no moving traffic violations during my 47 years in Southern Nevada. In other words, I'm a responsible citizen. Democracy requires responsibility. Our country promotes democracy throughout the world to provide all people with freedom. And freedom is what I want when it comes to the marijuana initiative in the coming election.I'm old. Though healthy now, I would use marijuana to provide comfort for the aches and pains of aging. I've spoken with several people whose family members suffered severe pain prior to death and wanted sufficient marijuana as a palliative without side effects. State licensing will allow doctors to prescribe it, and state oversight will assure a product without dangerous additives.We're in scaredy-cat mode these days - we're fixated on what might happen. Now is the time to protect our freedoms by exercising them. Decriminalizing the use of marijuana should not depend on what the police and other authorities see in their crystal ball. Parents or individuals should have the responsibility of dealing with alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana in the privacy of their homes.This is a democracy. We don't need Taliban kind of control from our authorities that results in suffering and loss of personal freedom.- -Eugenie Throckmorton, Las VegasNV: If Smoking Pot Eases The Pain Of Aging, PuffNewshawk: Vote Yes on Question 9: http://www.nrle.orgPubdate: Thu, 10 Oct 2002, Source: Las Vegas City Life (NV)Website: http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1653Author: Eugenie Throckmorton Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?162 (Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?163 (Question 9 (NV))
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Comment #1 posted by Gary Storck on October 13, 2002 at 22:32:36 PT
Great article!
It sure was great having Elvy come to Madison for Harvest Fest, and she extended her stay and was able to get this interview in, which appears in Monday's Journal-Sentinel along with 3 PUB LTEs including one from IMMLY Founder and WI medicinal cannabis patient activist Jacki Rickert responding to the great Journal-Sentinel editorial, "When It's OK To Inhale" http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/14/thread14354.shtml.More Harvest Fest pictures:
http://www.drugsense.org/dpfwi/more_pix_HF2002.htm
Harvest Fest Pictures
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