cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Law Makes a Humane Distinction










  Marijuana Law Makes a Humane Distinction

Posted by CN Staff on May 25, 2003 at 16:24:02 PT
By Michael Olesker 
Source: Baltimore Sun  

That day in Sinai Hospital's emergency room, the old man clutched Dr. Dan Morhaim's arm and tried to break through all of the years of drug laws, and misinformation and mystique, and his own cancer. "Doc," he said, "have you ever had motion sickness?" "Yes," said Morhaim, "I have." He remembers the old man was weak and nauseated and ravaged by the combination of cancer and chemotherapy, and he was weighing his words cautiously. "Ever had seasickness?" the old man asked. 
"Yes," said Morhaim. He was listening, but there were other things he had to do, procedural things, and so the old man grabbed Morhaim's arm to get him to listen carefully because he was working himself up to say something that was pretty difficult. "Have you ever had stomach flu, where you're throwing up?" the old man said. "Yes." "You're not a woman," he said, trying to get Morhaim to laugh, "so I know you don't know what morning sickness is like. But, when you were young, do you remember getting stomach cramps?" "I do remember," Morhaim said. "Well," the old man said now, "I feel like that all the time." Morhaim looked down at his patient, sitting there so vulnerable, and thought, "I hate feeling that way even for a little while." Then the old man, still holding on to Morhaim's arm, said, "I get these waves of nausea that are so bad, and a couple of puffs of marijuana takes it away. And I just want you to know that." The conversation stayed with Morhaim. It stayed with him as a medical doctor, and it has stayed with him the past few winters in Annapolis, where he serves as a delegate from Baltimore County. "He was trying to get something important across to me," Morhaim was saying last week, "but he didn't want to just say, 'Hey, Doc, I smoke marijuana.' Even in that state of sickness, with his dehydration and his nausea, he had to be careful how he said it. And that was real motivating for me." It motivated Morhaim to introduce the House bill that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. signed into law last week, lessening penalties for seriously ill patients who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Maryland thus becomes the ninth state to offer some form of legal protection to medical marijuana users. Instead of the current state penalty -- up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine -- the new penalty is a maximum $100 fine for very sick patients arrested with marijuana. The signing is notable, also, for this Republican governor sloughing off heat from White House officials arguing that he could be opening the door to greater drug abuse. "I don't think that's what this is," Morhaim says. "I think it's like a man stopped for doing 50 miles per hour in a 30-mile zone, and he tells the police officer, 'My wife's in labor.' It's a common-sense, humanitarian bill. We're not talking about stopping a guy driving up from Florida with 25 pounds of pot in his car trunk. We're talking about a good citizen who's down to 90 pounds, and he's got a letter from his doctor that he's sick. You don't want to put such people in jail. "And I hope that's the message that gets across to President Bush. There is a rational way to deal with drug laws, and put aside old phobias. The White House is totally wrong on this issue. The real drugs ravaging society are heroin and coke -- but tobacco and alcohol, too. And our society's made a determination that we can deal with tobacco and alcohol, but not marijuana. And that's a mistake." Morhaim's memory goes beyond that old man in the Sinai Hospital emergency room. In more than 20 years of practice, he said, he's worked in emergency rooms in Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. "And I've never seen a marijuana intoxication case in an emergency room," he said. "I've seen the ravages of heroin and cocaine, and tobacco and alcohol. But not marijuana, not in an emergency room. I'm not arguing that marijuana should be legalized. I'm not saying that at all. But I'm saying, lots of medicines come from plants and herbs. This is one. It'll help. It'll help with cancer patients, and AIDS and multiple sclerosis." Some have argued that a marijuana-like prescription -- Marinol -- already exists in liquid gel capsule form, so why not use that instead of marijuana? "Absolutely, try it first," Morhaim says. "But there may be problems: It takes 30 minutes to an hour to work. When you're hit by waves of nausea, and one or two puffs of marijuana can give you immediate relief, it's pretty clear what you want. "This isn't about opening the door to marijuana abuse. This is a rational way to deal with drug laws, and to give sick people some relief." And to recall an old man in the Sinai Hospital emergency room, struggling to tell how he found that relief without putting himself into prison. Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)Author: Michael OleskerPublished: May 25, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Baltimore SunContact: letters baltsun.comWebsite: http://www.sunspot.net/Related Articles & Web Site:Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmMedical Marijuana Bill Signed http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16369.shtmlPropaganda Czar - Baltimore Sunhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16365.shtmlEhrlich Signs Marijuana Bill http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16364.shtml 

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Comment #8 posted by ekim on May 26, 2003 at 13:03:26 PT
good one Afterburner
Dr. Dan Morhaim's memory goes beyond that old man in the Sinai Hospital emergency room. In more than 20 years of practice, he said, he's worked in emergency rooms in Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles and San FranciscoHe was not alone. How many hundreds if not thousands of other Professionals have seen the exact same thing. How can this be? why would they not speak up. Did they not take a oath to do no harm. By remaining silent all these professionals do harm by siding with a lie. What does not telling the truth do to ones mental health. 
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on May 26, 2003 at 06:53:22 PT
Lehder
God = Jesus = the Ecologician who created and gave Us the plant as described in Gen. who is The Only Old Man. To deny cannabis to Your brother is to deny cannabis to Christ, is to deny cannabis to God: CHRIST GOD OUR FATHER.Who are the fools that would deny the Tree of Life, to God?
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Comment #6 posted by Lehder on May 26, 2003 at 06:22:35 PT
Let me dry my eyes
Because my heart is touched by the magnanimity of drug war and compassionate conservatism.He's not a threat to the atomization of society or property forfeiture; indeed, it appears he has no property. He acquiesces the justice and need of our prison system. He's weak and has no desire to fight. He's too intimidated to be a trouble. He agrees that he's talking about an important law and a grave social problem, that he could be incarcerated. He's respectful to the doctor. He is wasted to 90 pounds, afflicted with the most dreaded of diseases. He has accepted the prescribed treatment. All his functions and will to live are decimated by chemo. He's too weak to move and can barely speak. He's nauseated. He brought a letter from an authority to testify that he is sick. We can be certain that his death is imminent. He's come to the emergency room, not to waste resources or take bed space in the ward. His case will not be seen; he seeks no notoriety, has no complaint. No one hears his name, and he is known only to us as "old man." He doesn't overtly admit to marijuana use, but still....All of us are wary of this fellow. Will the drug war be weakened? Are profits or ideology at risk? Some of the jury consider that there's been outside pressure, a threat of publicity. How can this incident be quashed? Where is the greater threat? Perhaps this is a case where compassionate conservatism could be applied. But is he sick enough? Is he truly ill?Judgement: $100. You are free to go, old man.
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Comment #5 posted by observer on May 25, 2003 at 23:34:15 PT
Nalepka ...
Antidrug activist says she was barred from bill-signing ceremony
''Maryland antidrug activist Joyce Nalepka said she was barred from the public ceremony in which Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. signed a medical-marijuana bill into law.''
http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/article/washingtontimes4738.htm
http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20030525-100936-3217r.htm
Ze latest, ja!   http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pot
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on May 25, 2003 at 20:57:25 PT
The beginning and the end. 
5:25:3Allow Me to summarize the cannabis / Tree of Life, issue from the beginning to the end of the Bible, ala the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." THE 1ST PAGE.Gen. 1:11-12, Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them"; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. Gen. 1:29-30, (verse 31 is actually on the 2nd page in Mine, but pertains) Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.  THE LAST PAGE.Rev. 22:14-15, Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. 
Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. Rev. 22:19, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 25, 2003 at 19:41:46 PT
ekim
Thank you! I hope you are having a nice holiday weekend. I've heard a lot about that movie but haven't seen it. We spent the day working outside and getting my flowers planted and mowing. I can't get over how I get tired so easy. This article was very good I thought. We need compassion in the USA more then ever. 
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Comment #2 posted by afterburner on May 25, 2003 at 19:28:57 PT:
The Lies Are Unravelling
"And I've never seen a marijuana intoxication case in an emergency room," [Morhaim] said. "I've seen the ravages of heroin and cocaine, and tobacco and alcohol. But not marijuana, not in an emergency room."So much for John P. Walters' propaganda about marijuana in the emergency room. This doctor has been there in some of America's largest cities and he knows the truth from first-hand experience. Who would a jury believe?ego transcendence follows ego destruction, patient by patient, until there is no problem. 
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Comment #1 posted by ekim on May 25, 2003 at 18:39:18 PT
Happy M.D/ FoM heres to you you twq
"And I hope that's the message that gets across to President Bush. There is a rational way to deal with drug laws, and put aside old phobias. The White House is totally wrong on this issue. The real drugs ravaging society are heroin and coke -- but tobacco and alcohol, too. And our society's made a determination that we can deal with tobacco and alcohol, but not marijuana. And that's a mistake." " Morhaim says. "Morhaim the name hunts me. Last nite I saw the latest Matrix. In it a similar name appears for one with the same human qualities as this good Doctor. The name Morphis was given to one whos vision of the future was to presurve the humanbeing over the machine. Odd that the machine came in the cover of a agent. We are human, as such have a overwhelming need to feel Love. It is as old as time. I can not obey a agent which askes me to completely wipe out a species of plant which in doing so will bring harm to my species.
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