cannabisnews.com: Gov't Pot Patient Fights for Legalization





Gov't Pot Patient Fights for Legalization
Posted by CN Staff on August 04, 2003 at 17:36:19 PT
News Story
Source: KRON 4
Bay Area -- Seven years after Californians passed proposition 215, the State and the federal government are still duking it out over the use of marijuana as medicine. So it may surprise you to learn about a medical marijuana user who gets her pot from the federal government. Elvy Mussika says marijuana kept her from going blind by lowering the pressure in her eye caused by glaucoma. "It was miraculous from the beginning," she says. "It has not only retained whatever vision I had, it has literally improved it much to our amazement 'cause we never expected that." 
Like many Californians, Elvy uses pot medicinally. In this state, under proposition 215, very ill patients are allowed to use marijuana for medicinal reasons, but they do so at risk of violating federal law which says pot is illegal for any purpose. However, unlike other Californians, Musikka has permission from the federal government - 30 years ago she enrolled in one of the federal government's early studies into medical marijuana. The Department of Health and Human Services started that program in the 1970's, but in the early '90s it was shut down when a flood of AIDS patients wanted to sign up. Even though the government closed the door to new patients, they allowed Musikka and a handful of those already enrolled to continue receiving pot to treat their illnesses. To this day Musikka still receives government-grown pot provided by Uncle Sam. On the other hand, federal law enforcement continues to crack down on people who also provide medical marijuana to sick people. People like Ed Rosenthal who was convicted recently of violating federal drug laws. "This was not really a trial," Rosenthal says. "It's what's called a kangaroo trial." "It is my belief that marijuana is not a medicine," Richard Meyer of the Drug Enforcement Agency says. It's the DEA's mission to stop all marijuana use. "Marijuana is a schedule one substance. And marijuana may not be our main priority, but it's certainly a responibility that we have. And we have to protect the public from all kinds of dangerous drugs." Many feel marijuana isn't necessary because of a pill. The drug Marinol contains a synthetic form of TCH, one of the chemicals in marijuana. But some say it's not as effective as naturally-grown marijuana, which has a long history of medical use. Dr. Mike Alcalay, who prescribes pot to patients, says, "It's been known for over 5,000 years - going back to China - that it has medicinal properties." Dr. Alcalay prescribes marijuana to hundreds of patients who are sick and dying. And he is a patient himself. "I am a long living survivor of AIDS," he says. Alcalay uses marijuana to increase his appetite, to counter the effects of AIDS wasting and to ease pain and nausea. "Getting one puff is a miracle," he says. "It will relax my stomach and I can take my pills and just go on with my life." As for Musikka, she's regained enough sight to lead a normal life. Instead of smoking she often uses a vaporizer which allows her to inhale the chemicals from marijuana without having to smoke it. She's also become an activist, speaking out on behalf of medical marijuana and lending support to medical marijuana patients and suppliers facing prosecution. She considers herself extremely lucky to be one of the few to have the federal government's permission to smoke pot. "Seeing sick people spend time in jail is very depressing to me, just going through their trials and watching them being treated as common criminals. They haven't committed a crime, they simply respond to God's creation better than they do to the pharmaceutical industry," she says. Seven states other than California have passed laws allowing the use of medical marijuana. Source: KRON 4Published: August 4, 2003Copyright: 2003, KRON 4Website: http://www.kron4.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Ed Rosenthal's Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmGlaucoma Patient Calls for Legalizing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14446.shtmlMarijuana Advocate Testifies on Quantity Usedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8467.shtml
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Comment #20 posted by FoM on August 05, 2003 at 13:24:30 PT
i420
I'm not sure I understand about a pop up. I can't add anything but news article to CNews. I use a double form and space the articles the way I think they look best. I would like to see a detailed poll too but I don't even know how to make one. I don't think pop ups are popular and might upset some people. I know how much I don't like pop ups myself but a good poll would be helpful. 
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Comment #19 posted by E_Johnson on August 05, 2003 at 10:23:45 PT
All teen medication should be troubling
I think that one problem with marijuana and every other substance legal or otherwise than can be used to medicate teen psychological pain is that a lot of times the cause of this pain is the home or the environment, it's caused by things that people don't want to change because they're habits of the adults who own the power in the situation.I think the marijuana movement ought to become conscious of the fact that some teens are using marijuana as a medication to tolerate a situation that should not be tolerated.I think it's a really bad idea to medicate a teen in any way until it is determined for sure that this teen really truly is in a tolerable home situation and the medication is not just serving the purpose of giving child abusers or severaly dysfunctional parents a more manageable victim.
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Comment #18 posted by afterburner on August 05, 2003 at 10:08:05 PT:
Medical Marijuana Is Major Election Campaign Issue
US WI: PUB LTE: Talk-Show Host Is Not A Viable Candidate 
by Gary Storck, (04 Aug 2003) Reporter Wisconsin
http://www.mapinc.org/newscc/v03/n1174/a02.html?397 "I have met Rep. Frank and worked with his office on the issue of medical marijuana, of which he has been a tireless supporter, introducing his States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act each session. The Republican majority response is to bottle the bill up in committee so it never gets a hearing, despite the fact over 80 percent of Americans oppose caging their sick and dying fellow Americans for using medical marijuana to regain a little dignity in the face of serious illness. In the unlikely circumstance where Morse were to defeat Frank, this bill would have to find new sponsorship, and Morse would certainly vote in block with his GOP colleagues to keep it from ever getting a fair hearing, against the overwhelming wishes of the people of the district or the American people as a whole."ego transcendence follows ego destruction, we must all hang together, or we will all hang separately.
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Comment #17 posted by E_Johnson on August 05, 2003 at 10:02:25 PT
Let's consider the scenario here
"Michelle Van Syckel was one of those teenagers who did everything -- played the clarinet and basketball, loved to travel, was an honor-roll student for five years. But, after moving to a new town, Van Syckel had trouble making friends, became irritable, and eventually stopped eating.Doctors diagnosed her with anorexia and depression, eventually prescribing Paxil, a close relative of Prozac and one of the most popular antidepressants on the market. Rather than improving, though, Van Syckel became suicidal, at one point cutting ''DIE'' into her abdomen with a razor.
"*************************************Moving to a new town isn't known to cause anorexia.Anorexia in teenage girls has been linked to SEXUAL ABUSE. This girl already started out presenting signs that she is in an abusive situation at home.They gave her medication and then she got worse.Maybe the medication made her worse.Or maybe the realization that they were going to give her a pill instead of giving her the justice of seeing her abuser taken to jail made her suicidal.We will never know the truth because journalists who cover these kinds of stories are not allowed to ask questions about the parents. The parents are assumesd to be innocent victims no matter what red flags are flapping in the bachground.Anorexia and depression coupled with self-mutilation in a teeneage girl are a red flag for sexual abuse of some kind. Now Paxil gets to be the perp.I wonder who the real perp was?Self-mutilation
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Comment #16 posted by E_Johnson on August 05, 2003 at 09:53:49 PT
Be careful in your zeal about Paxil
Be very careful about anecdotal incidents because they don't really prove anything especially with psychiatric medication.One tricky problem with medicating a depressed person is that the combination of suicidality and lack of motivation may be balancing each other to keep the person alive.In other words, a person can be so depressed that they want to die, yet so depressed that they can't get the energy to do anything about it.If a medication successfully treats their lack of energy and motivation while they still entertain conscious thoughts of dying -- then that's when a medication can enable a suicide.Psychiatric medication should never be given without supervision.And BTW studies have revealed that girls who cut themselves usually have been victimized by some kind of PARENTAL abuse.So in some of these cases of aggrieved parents suing the evil Big Pharm drug maker -- it could really be the parent who was the most guilty party of all.A lot of the zeal behind the Drug War is based on a denial of parental abuse of children or denial of a mother who picks unsuitable men to be around her children or denial of a violent father who beats his wife in front of his children and makes then nuts so that they need medication.Sometimes parents are the one who make their own kids nuts and then parents complain when their kids need medication and blame that on the pharmaceutical industry or on marijuana.Also, i think we are in a situation in our society where medications being used to treat young people who have problems associated with bad parenting or parental abuse. The best medication for these young people who be to have decent parents, which they probably will never get, because abusive parents have a very hard time getting out of their denial.
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on August 05, 2003 at 09:13:56 PT
Petard and i420
Thank you for the HTML links. When I make my web pages I use Front Page 2000. I started learning by using the free version called Front Page Express I think it's called. I never liked trying to make graphics because I drawl a blank in the creativity department so I just do web pages. I never learned about Flash that's too complicated for me. As far as working on CNews I never do. Matt Elrod fixes this site when it breaks. I've seen the inside of CNews and it is so complicated I never even wanted to try. I'm afraid I'd do something wrong so I leave it to the experts.
My Personal Web Site: Freedom To Exhale
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Comment #14 posted by Petard on August 05, 2003 at 08:23:12 PT
Another HTML tutorial for FoM
This is the one I learned from and it's also one of the 3 recommended by the W3C and the admins of alt.html on Usenet. I didn't know that at the time I was using it though, just found it to be a really good step by step teaching site. Within 6 months after learning from this site I was invited to become a Mentor of an email Help Group for HTML'ers. I especially like the HTML Testbed to try out the code as you learn.
Intro to HTML
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Comment #13 posted by Treeanna on August 05, 2003 at 06:47:27 PT
Coool link!
Wow! That is very neat! Thanks for sharing. :)
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Comment #12 posted by Sam Adams on August 05, 2003 at 06:45:56 PT
Paxil article from Boston Globe
These nice people had their cute blond daughter killed by doctors.They moved to a new town and she was having trouble adjusting. The docs put her on Paxil, she had a bad reaction to it, so they upped the dose even higher. She killed herself.I'm sure all those doctors are card-carrying AMA members, which of course has been fighting to prevent ANYONE from using herbal cannabis for decades. I'm sure Howard Dean would concur. "Can a popular antidepressant cause teenage suicide?"http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/217/science/Can_a_popular_antidepressant_cause_teenage_suicide_+.shtml
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Comment #11 posted by i420 on August 05, 2003 at 05:38:38 PT
HTML GOODIES
FoM if you are interested in learning more about making/editing websites check out this site below. Take the 7 part tutorial each tutorial takes about 15 minutes and you will be able to write html tooo. I would like to ask you to look into how to make a pop-up for when there is a poll somewhere on the web. I would think a lot of people coming to the site might miss the surveys when posted in the comments. If you need any help just ask!
www.htmlgoodies.com
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on August 04, 2003 at 22:19:27 PT
A Little Speech
Hi Everyone,Most of you know that CannabisNews was created by Ron Bennett. That was back in the summer and fall of 98. He gave me this wonderful site sometime later and it was then transferred to Mapinc. for legal purposes. Since then Ron has added features to CNews like the preview screen. He and Matt have worked together to help CNews too. I have talked to Ron on the phone once or twice a year since 98 and I consider him a friend. If I had a problem I would probably ask Ron to help me understand it. We are the news that is on his web sites. http://www.cannabis.com/ and http://www.marihemp.com/ He recently took out ads in High Times, Cannabis Culture, and Heads Magazine. I appreciate his efforts. We will also get traffic from his ads which is very nice. I know everyone has a special web site that they like best but I have a great deal of respect for Ron because of all he has done and I wish his web sites the very best. I didn't ask permission to post these ads but I'm sure Ron won't mind. I really like them! I hope you all do too.http://www.marihemp.com/Below is the full page ad currently running in High Times and Cannabis Culture.http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/marketplace/media/89/89756.jpgBelow is the full page ad currently running in Heads Magazine (1/4 page version also in High Times)...http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/marketplace/media/89/89757.jpg
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on August 04, 2003 at 21:56:57 PT
Virgil
Thanks for the links. I scanned them but I don't understand them. I have a hard time grasping a lot of detail. I don't know why we haven't had a news article about it all. I'll keep looking.
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Comment #8 posted by Virgil on August 04, 2003 at 21:32:50 PT
Turmel is generating words
Medpot in the yahoo groups has message 954- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MedPot/message/954 - and 955- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MedPot/message/955 This is some of the transcripts from his 12 hours of footage of the court cases heard by the Ontario Supreme Court last week with commentary.Turmel can be wordy and I mean that in a good way, because where else can you find coverage of the trials much less actual transcripts with commentary from a participant. Parker and the other 2 challenged the MMAR which was the Medical Marijuana Regulations the government submitted on the last day of their one year stay granted in the Parker case on July 31, 2000. Turmel was a participant representing himself and he challenged the CDSA which would be about like someone here challenging the constitutionality of the CSA or maybe the O'Leary challenge in 1969 that killed the Marijuana Tax Act with a Supreme Court ruling.I have not yet read it all, but I wanted to put it up for those that might want to. He skipped the first 6 hours and I do not know how much he has left to do on transcribing. 
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on August 04, 2003 at 21:09:38 PT
EJ That Sounds Like It Would Get Attention!
Very interesting idea! LOL! 
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Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on August 04, 2003 at 20:45:00 PT
I wish...
I wish we could have a chorus of clowns sing him that song at his next press conference.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on August 04, 2003 at 20:42:41 PT
EJ Too Much
Now I'm humming the Oscar Meyer song! LOL!
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Comment #4 posted by E_Johnson on August 04, 2003 at 20:34:36 PT
The Richard Meyer Baloney song
My baloney has a first nameIt's R-I-C-H-ardMy baloney has a last nameIt's M-E-Y-E-RThe public snubs you more each dayYour agency is doomed, they sayBecause every word from the D-E-Ais B-O-L-O-G-N-A
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on August 04, 2003 at 19:48:45 PT
US OR: PUB LTE: Cannabis Safer Than Methadone
It is a pretty low dog, that wishes to cage humans for using the God Awesome safe cannabis.How safe is it? It is safe enough to thank its creator.In comparison, aspirin is deadly stuff, kids.http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1173/a03.html?397CANNABIS SAFER THAN METHADONE In "Death stalks increased methadone use in state" ( July 29 ), the writer states that because of accidental overdose leading to death, methadone can be risky to use for treating chronic pain. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a pain medicine that never caused death from overdose? Actually, we do, and it is called cannabis or marijuana. Thousands of Oregonians participating in the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program know that cannabis is effective for some people in chronic pain. There are now several placebo-controlled trials showing effectiveness of cannabis and cannabis-based products including an under-the-tongue spray that will probably be released in England this year. At the very least, the states that have passed medical cannabis legislation should not be harassed by our federal government simply because voters believe that suffering patients should have the option of either cannabis-based pain medicine or opium-based pain medicine. RICHARD BAYER, M.D. Southwest Portland 
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on August 04, 2003 at 19:30:44 PT
CP is hypocritical.
Richard Meyer is public information officer at the San Francisco's office and KRON 4 is a television station in San Francisco.That must be the most mellow quote that I can remember from Meyer. I think he senses the DEA's position is eroding in view of the 80% and rising of people in disbelief of their position. This is an extremely important article because it illustrates in flashing neon the hypocrisy of the DEA. Now most people here are aware of the seven patients left on the federal program, but this program will be a suprise to many people that read this article.How the DEA is going to address GW Pharmas products and the Dutch and Canadian policy is really going to make Richard Meyer squirm or hide one.One thing about it, politicians that support MMJ have no problem taking to the camera. Walters and his like, absolutely do not want any video of them moving their lips- I mean lying. Must be both actually.This is new information to many and a big deal. That informational blockade cannot stop the truth and the facts. CP was shot at and hit and it is a joy to see it bleed.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 04, 2003 at 17:39:02 PT
Go Elvy
This is what we need to hear!
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