cannabisnews.com: When Finding Relief Means Breaking The Law





When Finding Relief Means Breaking The Law
Posted by CN Staff on March 27, 2003 at 08:06:34 PT
By Timothy B. Wheeler, Sun Staff
Source: Baltimore Sun 
Erin Hildebrandt hasn't had to break the law lately, but she worries that she may be forced to again, for the sake of her health and her family. The 32-year-old Smithsburg woman has Crohn's disease, a chronic and debilitating inflammation of the intestines.It's in remission now. But, not so long ago, her life consisted of shuttling between bedroom, bathroom and doctor's offices, seeking relief from repeated bouts of diarrhea, abdominal pain and nausea.
At times, she said, "I wasn't able to get out of bed."She tried 30 different medications. One made her muscles spasm, another left her heaving for hours. Nothing seemed to work until she heard that some Crohn's sufferers had been helped by smoking marijuana.The illegal drug quelled her agony, she said. It gave her back to her five young children, freeing her to bake cookies and spend time with the youngsters that her illness had denied.It was with people such as Hildebrandt in mind that the Maryland Senate passed a bill yesterday that would reduce the criminal penalties for marijuana possession if the defendant can demonstrate he or she needs it for medical purposes.The House has approved identical legislation, which was opposed by state and federal law enforcement agencies in one of the General Assembly's most passionate debates this year.Hildebrandt welcomed news of the bill's passage but said it doesn't go far enough. Though the legislation would reduce the maximum penalty to a $100 fine, she could be arrested and convicted of a crime for using what she says is the only remedy she has found for the extreme discomforts of her disease."That's something I had to fear in those early morning hours - armed men breaking into my house and taking me away from my kids," she said.Hildebrandt testified in Annapolis in favor of the medical marijuana bill, but because possession is still a criminal offense here, she won't say when she last used it or where she got it."I didn't go down to the 7-Eleven," she quipped.Her only brush with the law, she said, was the speeding ticket she got rushing to her wedding rehearsal dinner.Because of the stigma attached to marijuana use, she said, she was afraid to tell her doctor when she began using it in Michigan, where she grew up and lived until four years ago. "I was afraid I would be denied medical treatment," she said.Hildebrandt said she first tried marijuana for another malady she has had since childhood - migraine headaches. Doctors seemed unable to find a cause or an effective pain reliever, she said. "I went through CAT scans, the whole nine yards," she said, until a friend told her marijuana could help."Some of the worst things in the world are head pain and nausea," she explained, "because they are so debilitating. A broken leg, you can work through the pain, but when you're throwing up all the time ..."She has been able to control her Crohn's partly by watching her diet, Hildebrandt said, but she lately has begun to discuss her marijuana use with her doctors. She said it's just "common sense" to notify them."I look at all the dangerous drugs given to me by doctors that had me in horrible agony," she said, including prescription narcotics. "Here it is, this safe, herbal remedy that works for me without these side effects."Marijuana does not give relief to everyone with intractable nausea, said Del. Dan K. Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat who co-sponsored the bill in the House. But Morhaim, an emergency-room physician, said he has seen "lots of patients" over the years "for whom regular medical care has pretty much run its course - we've tried everything in the toolbox, and nothing is working.""If you can give people some relief, then you need to be able to do that," he said.Mindful of the message she sends her children, who range in age from 1 to 8, Hildebrandt said she has treated marijuana like any other medicine, keeping it locked away with the other prescription drugs."I try to explain to my kids that medicines come in different forms: pills, liquids and herbs. This particular medicine is illegal, and they can put people in jail for having it," she said.But when her 8-year-old son Danny asked her why people get put in jail for using a drug that helps them, Hildebrandt said, "I can't explain that."Note: As medical-marijuana bills advance, a patient describes her suffering.Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)Author: Timothy B. Wheeler, Sun StaffPublished: March 27, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Baltimore SunContact: letters baltsun.comWebsite: http://www.sunspot.net/Related Articles & Web Site:Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Marijuana Debate Becomes Personal http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15803.shtmlMd. Likely To Ease Penalties for Medical Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15801.shtmlMaryland Governor Gets Medical Marijuana Bill http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15800.shtmlMoney Talks in Drug Bill Tusslehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15796.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by freedom fighter on March 27, 2003 at 15:41:37 PT
Yet so simple!!
But when her 8-year-old son Danny asked her why people get put in jail for using a drug that helps them, Hildebrandt said, "I can't explain that."Try to explain that to this 8 year old boy or any child for that matter. Do you really think they do not understand? ff
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on March 27, 2003 at 11:43:52 PT
freddybigbee
You're right and here is the article you're talking about.http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread15783.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by freddybigbee on March 27, 2003 at 11:39:50 PT:
Prohibition
Medical cannabis laws in their varying forms are perhaps better than nothing, but I can tell you from personal experience that physicians with the 'nads to recommend or suggest or whatever are few and far between.One of the best PR lines I've read lately was in a CNews post the other day. It said that the 18th amendment to the US Constitution prohibited alcohol, and asked, "Can anyone name the Constitutional amendment that prohibited cannabis?"This is the sort of point that can get mainstream folks to wake up to the fact that something is seriously wrong when the Constitution is used as toilet paper by the US congress.
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Comment #4 posted by Virgil on March 27, 2003 at 10:22:49 PT
Correct link for comment2
The pravda article mentioned in comment 2 will go to pravda but the hyphen screws up the link to the article titled "Will American Administration Declare War on Russia?"- http://english.pravda.ru/war/2003/03/24/44928.htmlBeing the official delegate of the Extremist Party to cannabisnews, I want to heap a quote onto my pile of words. It comes from Barry Goldwater- "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue."I have had my say. I will now advance to the rear and avoid commenting execept on weekends, when only the choir is present.
 
Lehder, its nice to know your still about. 
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on March 27, 2003 at 10:06:25 PT
Just a Comment
I really hope the Governor looks at the issue of Medical Marijuana and doesn't listen to people that will try to make him look the other way. Look at the sick people who shouldn't ever be considered a criminal. What a terrible thing to die believing you are a criminal. We must change these law. The world is in a big mess and we don't need people in jail over a plant. With SARS jails just like schools will be dangerous places. We need common sense now more then ever.
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on March 27, 2003 at 09:47:57 PT
Making the stonewall stink
I first would say that the comments at DEAwatch are becoming some of my favorite reading and without reciting current postings the following will not be as vivid to you as it is to me.There was an article about Russia recoiling from the attacks of Warshington that gave Pravda a chance to recite an ancient wisdom that might well apply to the offensive offensive behavior taken by Asscroft and WaltersCo- http://english.pravda.ru/war/2003/03/24/44928.html-if you sow wind you will rip a storm I usually think the bereaved of the injustice are part of a growing storm. While most people might live a life of blissfull ignorance, the victims, if they were not killed at Rainbow Farms or elsewhere, and their families cannot have bliss or ignorance. 2000 people a day is a lot of people to be pissing off and I would use the 2002 FBI Uniform Crime Report numbers if the secrecy of the government did not extend to those numbers also.I found an new website with a remarkable picture reading links from buzzflash.com- http://www.peterwerbe.com/ I honestly regard prohibition as extended to MMJ patients as murder. I do not say it lightly but I do have to say that I am as informed as a common man can be on the subject and it is undoubtly and uniquivocilly, murder. And Richard Cowan says mass murder. The picture of all the red hands makes a shocking and haunting image. If it were not being used to represent deaths at the aggression of the US, it would be a great thing for the MMJ movement to adopt. Could you imagine people walking around before an election with red hands. This was one of the most powerful pictures I have ever seen.The above website had the following paragraph addressing our media problem as well as stating "Operation Iraq Liberation= OIL."   
2. Shut off your television. FOXhole News, CNN (Conservative News Network) and even NPR (Nationalistic Puppet Radio) are the source of disinformation broadcasting the official state propaganda, and programmed to make you feel isolated and powerless. Stay in touch with the news through the Internet on the sites listed above and direct connection with friends, family, and neighbors.
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on March 27, 2003 at 08:16:34 PT:
Simple
Ms. Hildebrandt's comments say it all. She puts a human face and voice on arguments that effectively counter all the propaganda against clinical cannabis.
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