Faces at rally reveal tragic truth of medical marijuana patients

Sacramento Bee ^ | 22 September 2002 | Diana Griego Erwin

[JediGirl]

Tess Williams of Elk Grove wept when she saw her sister holding a sign in the crowd of protesters standing outside Santa Cruz's City Hall last week.

"It just is so unlike her," Williams said. Her sister, a soccer mom, PTA secretary "and always the more quiet and elegant of us two," isn't the sign-waving type.

[JediGirl]

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[Bad~Rodeo]

but its use remains illegal under federal law, sparking ugly rifts between officials in California and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

Screw 'em

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..all she wants now is to live the last of her life with dignity and to spend it with friends and family, especially her kids," Williams said. "If that means using marijuana to manage the pain, so be it"...

Where's the 'dignity', in spending your final days in a dope haze?

[Wolfie]

Good morning, JG. Or I guess its afternoon in the UK, eh? Let's go with afternoon then, since I'd feel postively decadent sparking up in the AM. ;^)

Well, the DEA blinked in Santa Cruz, and there's a march on the State Capitol tomorrow. Should be interesing.

Meanwhile, a Federal Court overturns the medical marijuana ballot in D.C. (can't have those voters getting involved, doncha know), and Major League Baseball leaves out marijuana (as well as all other illegal drugs) from its drug testing policy.

[evad]

To this day I cannot understand the argument against the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

It can be controlled like any other controlled substance and prescribed like any other drug.

If anyone can recommend to me a source that provides a cogent, logical position, I would appreciate it.

[11B3]

I doubt that the Feds will ever be willing to change their methods which guarantee their revenue stream from the Drug War. Decriminalization would also drop the prices - which would hurt the DEA's bottom line in their sales as well. (Much less take away all of that protection and kick-back money that is 'off the books'.)

The entire DoJ is full of Clinton hold-overs that should be purged immediately.

[RJCogburn]

Where's the 'dignity', in spending your final days in a dope haze?

Well, mate, if there is significant pain and the patient isn't smoking dope, then he/she may be on 'legal' opiates which may create their own haze.

Fact is, though, that many people with pain, using either opiates or dope, are not in a haze at all.

[RJCogburn]

How uncompassionate are people

Some other Freeper has used the term CINO....Christian in Name Only.

[chance33_98]

I would have more sympathy towars california on this if they actually cared about people's rights in the first place. They ban smoking everywhere then fight to allow pot smoking (which is fine as far as I am concerned). If the voters said they wanted to allow people to smoke in bars, at work, etc I would bet all the money I had that the Cali government would find a way around it based on health needs. The government there seems to spit in the face of the voter but when the feds do it to them they run and cry.

Let em smoke pot Man Fired for Pot Use Plans Court Test of Medical Marijuana Law, let em smoke whatever they want, let them pick up the trash Flies hinder cleanup efforts-trying to remove trash w/out pestering endangered inhabitants (flies) - let them control their own property Goodbye to San Francisco - We are paying for the privilege of living in a city that hates us. - let there be freedom in California.

The feds are wrong here, but the cali government is just as guilty against it's own people. Maybe some of the voters who supported the pot intiative will wake up to that fact next election day there. Sadly though, I doubt it.

[Illbay]

D*mn, I wish I could find that photo posted here several months ago from one of these rallies! It had two overaged hippies holding up a sign that said "keep your hands off our medicine!"

They had scraggly beards down to mid-chest, moth-eaten clothing--you could almost see the flies buzzing around them.

I thought "Uh-huh, the 'face' of the medicinal marijuana movement."

They need their "medicine" just like ol' grandpa needed his "medicine" from the backwoods still.

[07055]

To this day I cannot understand the argument against the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Please define "medical purposes."

The dopers' definition of the term includes every health condition known to man, including ingrown toenails.

[Illbay]

If anyone can recommend to me a source that provides a cogent, logical position, I would appreciate it.

By your logic, they ought to restore Phen-fen to the market as well.

[Illbay]

Fact, though, is that most of the people needing this "medicine" are just old dopers who want to legitimize their life-long addiction.

[chance33_98]

Needle Park In Zurich Pot I could handle, but this....

[Pearls Before Swine]

Where's the 'dignity', in spending your final days in a dope haze?

I suppose you'd find more dignity in screaming and grovelling in constant, intense, unbearable pain?

[tomball]

We are still a federation of states. Our states still have sovereign rights, or laws that the government cannot get involved with lest it overstep its constitutional bounds.

If California voters can enact gun restrictive laws that may not agree with our federal right to bear arms, it is my guess our government will not send in the Delta Force to make sure each resident of California has a gun. Therefore, the voters of California should have no problems legalizing marijuana.

And, if California voters want to, they can legalize it for any purpose they chose - whether it be for the sick, or for the purposes of breaking up a black market to allow for the state to profit legally from it via taxes as it does now with tobacco, alcohol, and any other perscription or over-the-counter drug that causes far worse side effects than marijuana.

[chance33_98]

I suppose you'd find more dignity in screaming and grovelling in constant, intense, unbearable pain?

That was me when Hillary won.

[capt. norm]

"Where's the 'dignity', in spending your final days in a dope haze?" "

It's the dignity of being able to hug your child without being distracted by screaming pain that won't go away!

How hard is that to understand?

It's easy to preach from the mountain top when it isn't you.

I you were writhing in pain, which would you rather have, some relief from the pain, or your vaunted "I'm not in a dope haze" dignity?

[Dutch Boy]

If used as a medical drug it should be forced to follow the same drug approval guidelines that all other drugs must. This also must include side affects, cross drug interations and what every else takes place. It also must be produced under the same quality control regulations as all other meds. If it passes all the tests and is granted approval so be it.

My guess would be that to pass any test it would need to be in a non-smokeable form. If this made the drug affective at pain relief but didn't get you high you would see support for it drop to near zero.