Posted on 12/10/2002 2:35:22 PM PST by MrLeRoy
Bradley Nowell of the band Sublime sang of smoking two joints in the morning and smoking two joints at night. George Mcmahon, a medicinal marijuana user, smokes 300 pre-rolled joints a month and it is perfectly legal. After suffering a lifetime of pain, Mcmahon is now one of only five citizens in the United States to receive federal medical marijuana.
Mcmahon feels he is one of the lucky ones and wants to get the message out that marijuana can be beneficial to patients in need, and sometimes is a better cure than many painkillers prescribed today.
Each month Mcmahon receives 300 machine-rolled marijuana cigarettes, which he can smoke legally in any state of the union. The National Institute of Drug Abuse has been sending him his medicine since March of 1990 and as he smokes 10 joints a day, his pain is subdued as much as possible.
Pain had been a constant part of Mcmahon's life until 1990. He suffers from a long unknown illness, finally diagnosed as Nal Patella Syndrome. NPS causes bones to become deformed, brittle and break easily. The disease affects major organs such as the kidney and liver and disrupts the immune system in mysterious and unexplained ways.
Mcmahon was born with various physical deformities, including missing fingernails, double-jointed fingers, and small kneecaps.
Doctors did not prescribe marijuana for NPS because there are only 200 known cases in U.S. medical history and marijuana cannot be prescribed legally for the disease .
Instead the doctor set him up with the green leafy herb to quell his muscle pain and spasms.
Previously, to correct the pain caused by his physical ailments, doctors had prescribed opiates like morphine, Demerol, Codine and anti-depressants like Valium. These prescriptions caused nothing but constant loss of focus and major constipation. Mcmahon describes he felt dopey and drugged and couldn't function normally. The prescription drugs would damage his stomach, he couldn't eat and they left him in a terrible nauseated state.
It turns out; marijuana was they key to calming the chronic pain.
"The marijuana relieves my pain. The day I received my prescription I was taking 10 a day," Mcmahon said. "When I received my prescription for marijuana, I was in a hospital bed and I had not eaten for 30 days and not slept for I don't know how many weeks. Then the orderly handed me a joint."
Mcmahon said after he finished the dose he was able to both eat and sleep. The doctor had given him five hours to live and that was 12 years ago.
"I have gained strength instead of losing it," Mcmahon said about his life after the marijuana prescription. "I am now able to do interviews and, until recently, I have been traveling the country educating people about my medicine."
From 1997 until 2000, Mcmahon and his wife circled the country in his motor home trying to get his message to the masses. He has visited universities and politicians and encountered many patients who have benefited from marijuana.
"We just won a court case in the seventh district of the United States," Mcmahon said. "The judge ruled that doctors could talk to their patients about prescribing marijuana."
Along his journey across the nation, Mcmahon said he constantly saw the helpful effects of marijuana on not only adults but also children.
Mcmahon said he came across one boy out of a group of 21 who suffered from cystic fibrosis. The boy was the only one who smoked marijuana. The boy lived long enough to get a lung transplant, but not one of the other children with similar diagnoses lived long enough to see the transplant.
Mcmahon doesn't know if marijuana was the reason for the child's survival but he stresses that research is necessary to see if marijuana is a viable medicine.
No, taking an opposing stance to you does not make one a liberal, statist, jckboot, or whatever other name you pull out of your grab bag.
Are you sure you're a Catholic?
No, saying "I don't think you care" and presenting yourself as more "moral" make you a liberal.
Are you sure you're a Catholic?
Quite sure---but your sleazy ad hominem insinuation is noted.
You disputed it. I am glad I did not waste postage and pirate a tape for your benefit.
Now I am going to engage in the deadly and addctive drug caffiene with a good cup of java.
Not all patients can keep the tablet down---and it provides a less controllable doseage than smoked marijuana.
From the Institute of Medicine (Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, 1999): "there are patients with debilitating symptoms for whom smoked marijuana might provide relief. [...] there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting."
Sigh. What I meant was that heroin, by contrast, is much more addictive than alcohol - which addiction and recovery rates vs number of users indicate in the sources I posted. But - again that also inferes that the addictive process is faster as well. This is also partly indicated by the ages at which people come in for addiction treatment of heroin vs alcohol compared by # years used. I wanted to send you copy of a VHS tape currently used (which is thorougly sourced in the tape credits) to mail to you, but I was not allowed to copy it. What I have been doing (with what I have already posted) is going through the sources and finding them on the net.
You can browse through the website if you are actually interested. Done.
Now I am going to enjoy the much less deadly and addictive drug caffiene, with a good hot cup of java.
BTW - How many OD's from the addictive and deadly drug nicotine (and no, not lung cancer from carcinogens)? Should we ban it?
False; your conclusion simply does not follow from your premise.
And according to SAMHSA, less than half of heroin users are addicted, so why should ALL use be banned?
Very few.
Should we ban it?
Of course not. Do you think we should ban it?
I'm glad we agree on that.
But using it recreationally for "fun" is just plain stoopid. IMO :^)
I agree with that too. But should recreational use be illegal?
Grab a needle every morning!
Take a hit at break time, at work!
Take a snort before heading home, just for the road rage!!
This thread is about marijuana---and I have never advocated drug use.
Be a roll model!!
Are you insinuating that I resemble a roll? (Kaiser or weck?)
You know what legalizing has done for abortion, since 1973, don't you?
Well, let's turn on and burn out our minds by the millions, too!!!
Apples and oranges---abortions are much harder to conceal (and take much more skill to provide) than drugs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.