cannabisnews.com: Suit Seeks Equal Access To Medicinal Pot 





Suit Seeks Equal Access To Medicinal Pot 
Posted by FoM on September 08, 1999 at 08:30:23 PT
Couple join nationwide class-action legal action 
Source: Seattle Post- Intelligencer
SEABECK -- Dick and Linda Elsea say his snoring and apnea have returned, along with a disfiguring facial tic. But even worse is the return of her fibromyalgia, a muscle pain that racks her left side day and night.
It's all back, the Elseas say, because in March they were arrested for growing marijuana and now can't smoke it. When they did, it made them feel better, they insist.The Elseas thought the November passage of Initiative 692 gave them license to grow and smoke marijuana for their health problems. Their mistake. They neglected to find a doctor to recommend the illegal drug, as required by the new law, and now they're facing the consequences.   Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jay Roof imposed fines of $1,387 apiece and 240 hours of community service each. Both are on probation for a year.Although jail sentences were not imposed, the penalties present a serious economic challenge for the Elseas, neither of whom is currently employed. Their only source of income was Dick Elsea's workers compensation check, but that expired this week. But even as the Elseas begin paying their debt to society, the couple have found some solace in far-off Philadelphia.Through the Internet, they joined a class-action lawsuit that seeks to end the federal government's ban on medicinal marijuana. Pot in Washington state is illegal to possess, grow or use unless recommended by a doctor. Nationally, it is one of 86 drugs deemed by the federal government to have "no currently accepted medical use."Despite that, eight people across the United States are being supplied with marijuana under a special program sponsored by the federal government.That program may be the government's undoing, at least according to the Elseas' attorney.Philadelphia lawyer Lawrence Elliott Hirsch is the mastermind behind the class-action suit he filed in U.S. District Court. The suit seeks to extend the principle of equal protection to people who might benefit from the use of medicinal marijuana.In March, Hirsch argued that his clients should get the same access to pot as do the eight people who already receive it from the federal government.District Court Judge Marvin Katz agreed that Hirsch should have the chance to prove his case.Hirsch's equal-protection theory stems from a 1978 government settlement reached with a litigant named Robert Randall, who has glaucoma, a painful eye disease that can lead to blindness.In the mid-1970s, Randall was arrested for possessing marijuana. He was tried and acquitted. He then filed a civil claim, asking that he be allowed to smoke pot as part of a special "compassionate use" program run by the government.He won.Eventually, Randall and 12 others were granted access to the program -- and to rolled marijuana cigarettes produced under government supervision at the University of Mississippi at Oxford. The program now serves just eight people and has been closed to newcomers since 1993."The government years ago validated the use of marijuana as an effective medical treatment and even grows it," Hirsch said in a recent telephone interview. "What about equal access? Shouldn't everyone else who needs it get it, too?"The Elseas and the other plaintiffs in the class-action suit suffer from a list of maladies that range from AIDS to PMS. Pain and nausea are a common thread. They say pot helps them cope."The marijuana helped us feel better," said Dick Elsea, a 60-year-old carpenter."My snoring stopped and I could sleep with my wife again for the first time in 17 years. But the best of it was that Linda's pain went away, and she could actually sit still again."Not any more. Near the end of a long morning interview at the Elseas' home, Linda began to show discomfort, rocking and rubbing the sore muscles of her left arm. "Imagine yourself with a line drawn down the middle," said the 50-year-old. "One side feels like you. The other feels like it belongs to someone else. I get headaches, a stiff neck, some facial numbness, shoulder, arm and hand pain and pain down my whole lower left side. Sometimes it's like I'm on fire."Analgesics and anti-depressants have been prescribed. But pot works better, Linda Elsea said.The Elseas say, however, that his doctors at the American Lake Veterans Affairs hospital and her physician won't even discuss recommending medical marijuana.And that angers Robert Killian, the Seattle doctor who helped to draft I-692.Killian said he is "disappointed" at the reaction of doctors around the state."I hear stories every day like this one, where physicians have known their patients may be using marijuana or want to try it, but refuse to authorize it or sometimes even discuss it, out of an unfounded fear," he said. "It may still be against federal law, but we have a First Amendment right to discuss and to document. Our law was written to protect patients from going to jail."Now in the discovery stage, the Philadelphia lawsuit represents 428 people around the country, including the Elseas and 27 others in Washington state.The suit survived a critical test earlier this year when a government motion to dismiss the claim was rejected by Judge Katz.Katz' ruling coincides with a suspicion here and around the country that pot's medicinal effect isn't imaginary. Consider: Last November, passage of I-692 created the Medical Marijuana Act, which exempts from criminal penalties use of pot for certain medical conditions, but only with a doctor's approval. This is the law the Elseas thought covered them.On Sept. 24, for the first time, Washington's Medical Quality Assurance Commission will hold a hearing at the Airport Hilton in SeaTac to explore whether Crohn's disease should be added to the list of ailments whose symptoms may be treated by marijuana. The only conditions now on the list are cancer, HIV or AIDS, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy or other seizure or spastic disorders; intractable pain, and glaucoma. In May, the Clinton administration made it easier for state and local governments to pay for research into the medical uses of marijuana.And in August, a Microsoft millionaire from Seattle donated $100,000 to get Initiative 229 on the November 2000 ballot. I-229 would permit marijuana sales in state liquor stores and would license farmers to grow it.For Dick and Linda Elsea, a puff of the stuff they grew in their garage worked just fine. They never imagined what might happen if caught.Acting on a tip, a police SWAT team descended on the couple's small rented home."Dick had taken an elderly uncle to the doctor, and I was alone," Linda Elsea recalled. "I came out of the bathroom and saw a half a dozen police cars and all these cops in bullet-proof vests coming down the driveway. I didn't count them, but there sure were more than I wanted to see."In the minutes that followed, Linda found herself manacled and on her way in a squad car to the Kitsap County Jail in Port Orchard, where even her body cavities were searched."It was the worst thing I've ever been through in my life," she said. "We were growing, yes," Linda Elsea said. "But we weren't selling, or anything. There were no scales in the house. No money. So the cops were very, very disappointed when they came in and didn't find what they were looking for."LawsuitInformation on a class-action lawsuit seeking to increase access to medical marijuana can be found online at:http://www.fairlaw.org/Information on Washington's new marijuana law, Initiative 692, can be found online at:http://www.aclu-wa.org/ P-I reporter Gordy Holt can be reached at 206-448-8156 or gordyholt seattle-pi.comWednesday, September 8, 1999By GORDY HOLT SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Send comments to newmedia seattle-pi.com© 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
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Comment #4 posted by Jeaneous on September 08, 1999 at 21:30:06 PT:
Suit
Rainbow,Actually, the people involved in this suit have used many different ailments that medicinal marijuana relieves. Yes depression is definitely one of them. I'm sorry to say that at this point they are no longer adding to their suit. I was fortunate enough to get in on their "grace" period.The suit should begin next month and I am anxious to see it start. If I had known more about it sooner I would have posted it so all of you could have joined in... actually I think I did leave a post about it.. but at that point they had two days to add people. I hope you all will support it as best as you can for it is a step in forcing our government to explain their position.Having eight that they supply for and denying all of the rest of us is wrong and even the Judge Katz(?) wants an answer as to why no one else is allowed the same access. It will be very interesting..
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Comment #3 posted by rainbow on September 08, 1999 at 18:11:16 PT:
Criteria for class action
what are the criteria for the class action suit. Can depression be considered as a need or is it too much on the line for someone to get seriously?Rainbow
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Comment #2 posted by Jeaneous on September 08, 1999 at 16:10:44 PT:
Class Action Suit
I also am included in this lawsuit. It gives us the chance as a large group of citizens to stand and show the government that they are descriminating. They approved the use of marijuana for some patients and when they found that people with AIDS found relief using it, they decided there would be too many applicants and shut down the program. I feel as though this suit will allow us to speak and stand for our right to use medicinal marijuana. We have so few avenues to approach the government with this issue that by filing this suit they must hear us.If eight people are still being supplied marijuana by the government, then the government must explain why the rest of us our denied the same medical treatment. This is a good thing and I'm proud to have been included into this suit.
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Comment #1 posted by winr on September 08, 1999 at 13:47:08 PT:
couple joins campaign
Very interesting. Your web site does bring up a good pointabout the special program for 8 people with medical conditions that allow them access to the pot, but otherswith even more serious conditions cant have access, and thenthose that do get it perscribed get hammered by society orthe police. Talk about a two-faced government. Its all political, forcontrol. If a politician or other person feels that theissue could get them elected, they will say whatever theopinion says. Maybe, us the dumb ones that keep electing these idiots into office, will realize that its time fora drastic change.
http://www.worldinternetradio.com
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