cannabisnews.com: Medicinal Pot, It's a Good Thing 





Medicinal Pot, It's a Good Thing 
Posted by CN Staff on September 25, 2004 at 07:11:08 PT
By Doug Moe 
Source: Capital Times
A friend took me aside the other day and asked if I could get him some marijuana. "I'm out," he said. "And it's the only way I can keep any food down."Since he was asking me, I can only assume he truly was desperate. I haven't had any pot in at least 25 years, though I can speak to its beneficial effects on appetite. In college another friend and I set what may still be an isthmus record of having three different food delivery vehicles arrive simultaneously at our Carroll Street apartment.
The friend who approached me recently wasn't laughing. He's been sick, seriously ill, and a side effect of the illness and its treatments is a loss of appetite. It's a bad cycle. He needs his strength to get better but he can't keep down the food that would make him stronger. The marijuana would help him eat.I promised to try to help, though I didn't really have anyone to call. I also realized, to my chagrin, that I was a little nervous about having any conversation in which I was trying to procure an illegal drug.  That would make a nice headline for my kids to read, wouldn't it?My next thought, and I realize it is not original, was this: How have we come to this lunacy?As a population we can legally drink alcohol until we puke on our shoes, and our livers look like one of Bo Ryan's practice balls. Or pop prescription mood pills until our eyes permanently glaze over.But I'm scared to make a phone call for a mild little drug that could help a sick friend.That's not going to change, either. Not as long as most lawmakers wake up every morning with one overriding thought: What can I do today to help get myself re-elected?Can you imagine the negative campaign ads that would be unleashed on a politician who tried to talk rationally about why legalizing marijuana might make sense?But to help my friend's suffering, it doesn't have to be legal, in the way that a bottle of gin is legal. It just needs to be legal for medicinal reasons.By coincidence, as I was thinking these deep thoughts - which happens rarely in this space, and I assure readers we will return to fun and frivolity without undue delay -- I received a note saying that Jacki Rickert is scheduled to be in Madison next week for a benefit at the Cardinal Bar.Not only that, Rickert is in the process of moving to Madison, in part to be closer to the State Capitol, where she has lobbied in the past.Rickert is the Wisconsin woman who could serve as a worldwide symbol of the cruelty and stupidity of the government's stance on medical marijuana.Rickert, who is in her early 50s, suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and reflexive sympathetic dystrophy, bone and muscle diseases that keep her in constant pain and often unable to eat. She is in a wheelchair and weighs less than 100 pounds.Marijuana helped both to ease the pain and to give her some appetite. In 1990, Rickert was approved entry into a federal program that dispensed medical marijuana.Once in the program, patients received 300 pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes along with instructions on how to smoke them and orders not to accept marijuana from any other source.There was one other requirement: Rickert, who was living in Mondovi in Buffalo County, had to provide her physician a safe weighing at least 700 pounds for storing the marijuana until it was transferred to Rickert. While Jacki's family was arranging for the safe, the administration of George Bush the elder terminated the medical marijuana program. Patients already in the program were grandfathered in -- Jacki Rickert, not yet officially enrolled, was out.Rickert struggled, suffered and found marijuana where she could. Then a little over four years ago the Mondovi police raided Rickert's home and spent 10 hours inside. They confiscated some pipes and baggies of marijuana. The Buffalo County district attorney eventually decided not to file charges, but Rickert was traumatized.She was in Madison Thursday, visiting a friend, and I had a chance to speak with her briefly on the telephone. "I'm pretty stable at about 85 pounds," Rickert said, though she was hospitalized for much of the month of May. She's looking forward to the benefit, which is set for 5-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, at the Cardinal and is sponsored by several pro-medical marijuana groups.There's talk of another medical marijuana bill making it to the Wisconsin Legislature in the coming year, and an appellate court decision in California (headed to the U.S. Supreme Court) ruled that marijuana grown in the state, with no money changing hands and a doctor's note, does not fall under the controlled substances law -- effectively legalizing medical marijuana under those circumstances.On Thursday I recalled talking four years earlier to the police chief in Mondovi. This was before a charging decision had been made in Rickert's case. He really wasn't a bad guy. He told me: "I've got a job to do. Until the law changes, it's illegal."It's time to change the law.Source: Capital Times, The (WI)Author: Doug MoePublished: September 25, 2004 Copyright: 2004 The Capital TimesContact: tctvoice madison.comWebsite: http://www.captimes.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Is My Medicine Legal Yet? http://www.immly.org/Angel Raich v. Ashcroft Newshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/raich.htmOshkosh Legislator To Lead Push http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19293.shtmlMedical Marijuana Advocates Praise Bill http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18409.shtmlPolitical Fears May Stymie Pot Legislation http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18079.shtml 
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on September 30, 2004 at 09:48:26 PT
Related Published Letter To The Editor
KERRY OFFERS HOPE FOR MEDICAL POT OKSource: The Capital TimesPublished: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Author: Jacki RickertDear Editor: I'm very grateful to Doug Moe for again sticking up for people like his friend and myself who need medical cannabis to stay alive, "Medicinal pot, it's a good thing" (Sept. 25).I do need, however, to correct an error that unfortunately keeps getting repeated whenever the story about my approval for federal medical marijuana is discussed in the press, that I "had to provide (my) physician a safe weighing at least 700 pounds for storing the marijuana until it was transferred to (me)."The truth is the required double-locking safe had already been built into cement at my physician's office when the building was constructed in 1956 and had passed all approvals.While George Bush the elder made sure patients like me would not get federal supplies of medical marijuana and George Bush the younger flip-flopped on his 1999 campaign promise to let states set their own policies on it, there is hope in John Kerry. I attended his recent rally at the Alliant Energy Center and while my wheelchair prevented me from meeting him, a friend did and he asked Kerry when patients like me would receive legal access to medical marijuana. Kerry replied, "When I'm president."It seems more than the laws need changing.And if you really want to hear from patients themselves how important medical cannabis is to their health and well-being and how urgent changing the law is, please come down to the Cardinal Bar Friday from 5 to 8 p.m.Jacki Rickert founder & executive director Is My Medicine Legal YET? http://www.immly.org/
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Comment #4 posted by Truth on September 25, 2004 at 21:11:47 PT
Yes
Very good, Afterburner
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on September 25, 2004 at 08:25:49 PT
God's Higher Law
' Genesis 1:11-13 :: New International Version (NIV)' Genesis 1
' 11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day. ' 1 Timothy 4:3-5 :: New International Version (NIV)' 1 Timothy 4' 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. ' --Bible Gateway http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?passage=1TIM+4:3-5&language=english&version=NIV&showfn=on&showxref=onThe federal government has no right deciding who is sick. Unfortunately many state and municipal governments continue the same mis-guided prohibitionist policies after being bombarded by decades of disingenuous misinformation concerning cannabis and its medical effects. Medicine is for health care providers, not law enforcement officers. Freedom of medicine!
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Comment #2 posted by Truth on September 25, 2004 at 08:16:46 PT
Then there's florida.
How does one spell karma in florida?h u r r i c a n eMaybe they should name one of the next few "Carma"or how about naming one of those spinners "Chad"I actually think that they are chasing enough repubs back north that it will tip the balance and "they" won't have such an easy bid on "their" attempt to steal the state again.
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Comment #1 posted by Truth on September 25, 2004 at 08:12:19 PT
medical pot
Medical pot is such a good thing it is causing a phenominum around here. In fact, it's new, it needs a name.I call it the Greenrush.So many folks are moving to this and the surrounding counties to grow pot that there is a property ownership rush, prices are soaring, doubling in two years.
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