cannabisnews.com: Nine Registered to Smoke Pot Legally! 





Nine Registered to Smoke Pot Legally! 
Posted by FoM on July 16, 1999 at 07:57:14 PT
Source: MSNBC
Anchorage, July 15 - The first batch of medical marijuana ID cards are now in the hands of patients with debilitating conditions, but some patients have no intentions of signing up with the state. 
   SO FAR, NINE PEOPLE ARE signed up with the state’s confidential registry allowing them to smoke the drug legally. Patients who have no plans to register say they’d be giving up their rights, if they did sign up. But medical marijuana patients who are complying with the law are only too happy to have the ID card and the protection that comes with it.   Anchorage resident Juanita Griffith is registered to use medical marijuana. Griffith has fybromyalgia and suffers from pain throughout her body. “I have to have a joint. I have to because if I don’t, I can’t make it through the day without vomiting or the pain,” she said.   Griffith’s husband, Bruce, is also a registered medical marijuana patient. “I have a broken back, a compression fracture in one of my vertebrae, and because of it, I also have muscle spasms,” he said.   The couple says registering with the state and having ID cards gives them the protection they need. “Let’s face it, I’m a mother of three and if I were to get caught, I would either pay a high fine or I could go to jail, which would leave my children without a mother,” Griffith said. “I have a lot to lose.”   Unlike the Griffiths, some patients are reluctant to register, especially when the original intent of the law required that registration be voluntary. Two months ago, a bill sponsored by Sen. Loren Leman amended the measure, making registration mandatory.  “Our message to patients is to try to register, to try to fit into the new system,” said David Finkelstein, Alaskans for Medical Rights, “but we know that many won’t and so we’re doing our best to educate people on the value of the system.”  Some patients like Bill Kozlowski see no value in the new system whatsoever. “By signing up and submitting my name to a list of people that use marijuana medically, what I’m basically doing is giving up my Fifth-Amendment right to self-incrimination and that’s not worth it,” he said.  Kozlowski, a hemophiliac, believes the law is just plain wrong. “You know, the people that are going to use it for medicine are still going to use it for medicine, no matter what the law is.”  But the Griffiths say complying with the law makes their pain a little easier to bare. “If it means that I can smoke it legally and that I won’t be harassed or thrown in jail or persecuted for my medication, then I’m all for it,” she said.   The state is presently processing more applications for the registry. Alaskans for Medical Rights believes as time goes on, the number will probably go up. The group estimates 100 to 200 people in Alaska are qualified to be medical marijuana.patients.http://www.msnbc.com/local/KTUU/34018.asp
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Comment #2 posted by cheryl on August 10, 1999 at 17:38:02 PT:
pain and pot
I too am a long time sufferer from pain. I want to know what states offer this and how do I get on the list? Most docs just think you are a pill junky and we just continue to live in pain. This is rediculous.
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Comment #1 posted by Jeff on August 08, 1999 at 16:50:04 PT:
Please keep me informed further
I suffer from choronic pain constantly and since I have no insurance and Dr.'s are afraid of writing presciptions due to DEA or unbelief in my pain existing call me a pill seeker and the only thing I can find to make life a little bareable is marijuana. It is illegal but helps me keep living until I can get disability. I am not a pill seeker nor a drug addict but have to find someway to ease my pain and the only thing I can get now is marijuana. I feel it should be legalized for person's in pain. Thank you for listening and pleased keep me updated!
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