cannabisnews.com: Pot Farm: Group Serves ill and Offers Support!





Pot Farm: Group Serves ill and Offers Support!
Posted by FoM on June 13, 1999 at 08:44:32 PT
Our model could work throughout the state!
Source: WAMM
Throughout the nation's contentious debate over marijuana policy, a collective of patients at a tiny farm in northern Santa Cruz County have been quietly growing pounds of the drug for use by the sick and dying.
Working cooperatively with law enforcement authorities, patients share chores of planting, weeding, watering and harvesting -- helping the plants thrive, even as they themselves wither and die.The federal findings released Wednesday simply confirm what these patients say they have believed for years: Marijuana has therapeutic benefit.''I'm so glad that the government has finally heard us,'' said Valerie Corral, 47, a lifelong gardener who with her husband, Michael, 49, founded and helps run the non-profit group, called Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM).''Our model could work throughout the state,'' she said. ''It could work throughout the nation.''The coastal garden, wheelchair accessible, produces enough marijuana to provide about 200 local patients with free weekly allotments of up to one-eighth of an ounce of pot, worth $50 to $85 on the street. Grown organically, it contains no pesticides or fungicides.Most members have terminal diseases, such as cancer or AIDS. A few have glaucoma or painful muscle spasms due to paralysis or degenerative disease. A doctor's recommendation is required for membership. These are hardly hippies. They range in age from mid-20s to 70s. Some are grandmas or grandpas. They include a former secretary, a deacon, a caterer, a nurse, a computer analyst and a gas-station attendant.For some, marijuana helps lessen pain and control spasms. For others, it restores enfeebled appetites.''I'm nauseous every single morning. One or two hits in the morning and I can keep breakfast down,'' said Gary McMillin, 44, of Corralitos, sickened by anti-viral AIDS medicines.But it is about more than marijuana. Patients contend the companionship, hard work and soft ocean air have equal value.''Many people are ill and lonely,'' McMillin said. ''This gives a lot of support and camaraderie by finding other people who are shut in and poor.''The collective was conceived by Corral after she discovered that marijuana helped suppress epileptic seizures stemming from a head injury suffered in a 1973 car crash.Before trying marijuana, she took a handful of prescription medications daily. ''I was living under water, 24 hours a day,'' she recalls.She found that a single puff of marijuana, smoked quickly when she sensed an oncoming seizure, offered immediate therapy yet left her clear-headed for the rest of the day.Now in improved health, she has made medicinal marijuana a crusade. She confers routinely with law enforcement and health officials.''I know them real well,'' said Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Deputy Kim Pinneli-Allyn. ''They've gone to great lengths to conduct themselves in a professional way. Of all the groups we've dealt with, theirs is the most viable, the most genuine.''With its stated purpose of providing pot to indigent patients and educational research, the group has been granted non-profit status by the state. It is supported by member donations.Tucked away in a green accordion pleat of this foggy coastal clime, the farm's soil is warming quickly as spring approaches. Selected seeds are ready for planting. By May, protected in a greenhouse, sturdy seedlings are culled to separate male from female. One or two lucky males will survive to create future generations.They then are transplanted into the garden in neat rows. Labels indicate variety: Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and a sativa/indica hybrid. The farm keeps genetic records going back over a decade.As plants mature, the garden is guarded day and night by patients in a nearby trailer.The entire process is labor-intensive. Farm-based experiments show that the plants flower most abundantly -- boosting yield -- when stems are pulled to the ground and tied down, forcing new shoots to reach for the sky. Flowers are pollinated by hand, using paintbrushes.By October, the plants will hang heavy with buds and huge sticky-ripe leaves. The crop is harvested using handsaws, then hung, dried and manicured of stalks and stems. It is then weighed, sealed in airtight bags and stored in a safe and secret location, far from the farm.Patients meet weekly at an undisclosed Santa Cruz location to receive their allotments.Only the buds are smoked; leaves are mixed into muffins, brownies or a milk-based concoction. Stems are composted or set ablaze.Corral says she hopes the aftermath from the new report will increase awareness of the broader potential of the drug.''It opens doors, spiritually, so people can quit running away from death, and instead stop, turn around and embrace it,'' she said. ''They are no longer so fearful, so clutching.''
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Comment #3 posted by Georgia on April 25, 2001 at 07:41:10 PT:
How marijuana helps my husband
My husband suffers from severe depression. Mj helps him out of it. Without it, he sinks deeply into anger (all pent up), suspicion, and paranoia.Without it, he is another person. With it, he is himself.But there is no help in NV.
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Comment #2 posted by MinM427 on January 06, 2001 at 07:53:54 PT:
Marijuana
I think that mary jane(Marijuana) should be free to smoke. She does wonderful miracles for me and my friends. Thats all.
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Comment #1 posted by oldlday#420 on June 13, 1999 at 11:49:30 PT
A good model for the rest of the state and for...
The rest of the country. I enjoyed this article, one of the few positive articles I have seen coming from the state who endorsed and supported Prop. 215!! Thks for the udpate...From one positive thinker to another...Shalom,ol420
Support NORML
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