Posted on 04/30/2007 2:17:03 PM PDT by microgood
She is 71 years old, a great-grandmother - hardly the type of person you would expect to see in Bronx Criminal Court to answer charges of buying two dime bags of pot.
Yet at the appointed time today, Barbara Jackson will make her way to the courthouse, a colorectal cancer survivor ready to plead her case.
"I smoke it to live," the feisty granny told the Daily News. "I don't think I should have been arrested."
Jackson said she started smoking the green, leafy drug eight years ago - a year after being diagnosed with cancer - to restore her appetite after chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
"After cancer treatments, I was very sick," she said. "I couldn't eat and could not stand the smell of food."
Even though her cancer is in remission, she lost her appetite, Jackson said.
On March 13, she set out to find some more of the illegal drug shehas grown dependent on. She found some close to her house on E.179th St. and began walking down Walton Ave.
Plainclothes cops suddenly descended on her and found the two bags of marijuana on her.
"I am looking for a dismissal in the interest of justice," said Ron Kuby, one of two lawyers representing Jackson. "I would hope the Bronx district attorney's office has more important cases than prosecuting a great-granny for medicinal marijuana."
After her arrest, Jackson was handcuffed and brought to jail. She was taken to the 46th Precinct stationhouse, photographed, fingerprinted and issued a desk appearance ticket that she must answer today.
Her other lawyer, David Pressman, said it's heartbreaking to see a senior citizen who was "just trying to survive" handcuffed and held in police custody for five hours.
Steven Reed, a spokesman for the Bronx district attorney's office, said his office is not aware of the case because it hasn't come into the the DA's office.
Jackson hopes to get a chance to tell her story.
She weighed 99 pounds when she entered Lincoln Hospital in 1998. After surgery and treatments she lost even more weight. Jackson said her doctor prescribed an appetite enhancer, but it made her sick.
"The medicine gave me a terrible headache," said Jackson, who was raising three great-grandchildren at the time. "I was very weak and sick after treatments. I had diarrhea and was vomiting all the time.
"The smell of food made me sick and I was nauseous," she said. "The marijuana calmed me down and gave me back my appetite. My taste buds are gone, but the marijuana helps me get the food down."
Jackson said she puffed marijuana twice a day in the privacy of her home. Jackson, who now weighs 124 pounds, credits the marijuana with saving her life.
"The marijuana has kept me alive; I wouldn't be here if I didn't smoke," Jackson said. "I know it's illegal, but I did what I had to do to make myself comfortable and restore my quality of life."
How many years did you serve?
Sick and tired of this side of the conservative movement, namely keeping pot out of the hands of cancer survivors. The patients clearly think smoking pot does a better job of restoring appetite than THC extract or anything else. Even if it does only for psychosomatic reasons, WHO CARES? Let them do it!
The whole thing of keeping pot from the range of medicines docs can prescribe makes as much sense as banning morphine and all other opiates because heroine is made from the same plant. In other words, utter idiocy!
Let docs prescribe pot, and let these people smoke a little weed. IT’S NOT GOING TO HURT ANYONE. Sheesh.
/HARDCORE conservative, except on this issue
Ever had cancer? Ever known anyone who has? Frankly, if all they want to do is get high to escape from the incredible pain, why is that any of your or the government's business? And no, I don't touch the stuff.
Anyone who is 99 pounds and that old. Let her have it.
Some of the prescribed medications are far worse and have more complications!
It is natural even though illegal.
Well then, why don't we just announce that anyone who suffers from cancer is exempt from the law? Heroine? Sure! LSD? No problem! Crack, meth, PCP? Here ya go!
There are other, legal options. Most cancer sufferers are able to come up with other ways of addressing their pain, etc..
The "medical marijuana" camp is a smoke screen--pun intended--for ordinary, healthy people who want to get high.
Please explain if you think morphine and other opiates should be banned because of their relationship to heroine. After all, there are other pain medicines, although some patients might (through their screams of agony) anectdotally claim they aren't as effective. And if not, why not? Seems awfully similar to me!
“Jackson, who was raising three great-grandchildren at the time.”
Sorry, this just makes me wonder....I mean, a 71yo GREAT-gramma who has to RAISE these kids 3-gen’s removed.
I’m starting to get a picture of the environment this is in...and it looks conducive to pot-smokers, incidentally.
Hyperbole. Pot isn’t even close in effect to heroine, LSD, crack, meth, PCP, et al. Frankly, it’s about on par with alcohol, except for pot smokers getting into a brawl, they are more likely to raid the Krispy Kremes.
Excessive long term use can result in brain damage, schizophrenia (sp?), and a couple other things. But so can excessive use of many legal substances.
Nope. I think the laws are fine the way they are, and should be enforced.
It is similar but it's also beside the point. It's just incrementalism: Get marijuana legalized via the "medical use" argument, show how smokers aren't dying in droves, get it legalized generally, get other drugs legalized, etc...
The whole plan is pretty obvious and gets used all the time.
People just wanna get high. That's the bottom line.
And cocaine was in alot of things, too, including Coca-Cola.
Incidentally, looking into getting extracts from marijuana into controlled form (which plain weed is not) is not the same as just “smoking it”.
I feel for the woman and such people, but OTOH, if they have to smoke it, it affects others. If she has 3 young children around her, they’re going to be addicted. Better it be in that “brownie” form.
Well, now. Guess you set me straight, huh.
Don’t you think maybe the pharmaceuticals should be able to research it and perhaps come up with a commercial controlled version of it?
I’m not really for legalizing it, but really, shouldn’t researchers be able to channel any good it does into a controlled substance? Seems right now even they are barred from researching it.
Yup, well said. It's just a longer version of prohibition -- about as effective, about as useless, and driven by the same mentality with the same types of results (ready availability, crime, corruption, gangs, turf battles, etc.) In fact, the biggest oponent of any move to legalize pot isn't the drug warriors and holier-than-thou crowd, it's organized crime.
All we hear is hysteria from Drug Warriors and lies from the government.
To me, it's not hysteria. The line has to be drawn somewhere, if it's to be drawn at all.
As it stands, marijuana is over the line. Yes, there are far worse drugs. No, marijuana smokers aren't raving monsters bent on killing children. We got it.
But a representative republic has voted and indicated that they don't want some kinds of drugs available. That's the way our nation operates. It works pretty well.
If you believe all drugs should be legal and widely available, say so. Don't pretend to be doing it for "poor, suffering cancer patients." For the most part, that's a load of crap.
If you think the line should be somewhere else than where it is, debate it openly and work to get the law changed. That's fine. But don't insult my intelligence by hiding behind cancer victims as a group. Most of them aren't looking for pot to help them out.
You smeared someone else's Grandmother; but that's OK in your book. eh? ??Thanks for letting me know.
They've tried a synthetic version, Marinol. AFAIK, it has received mixed reviews.
You are exactly right ... it's the same for the opium poppy too. It's all a ruse.
What's that !!! My 65 year old best friend and former mayor of a small delta town and hard core conservative finds that the only thing that helps his intestinal cancer pain is Marinol and Pot. He must be lying to get high .... string him up
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