Posted on 10/15/2002 6:41:47 AM PDT by MrLeRoy
ELVY MUSIKKA, 63, says she's one of only seven people in the nation to receive legally prescribed medicinal marijuana from the federal government. She earned that distinction after being arrested for growing pot at her Hollywood, Fla., home in the late 1980s. She decided to cultivate and use the controlled substance, she said, to alleviate the effects of severe glaucoma. Since winning a 1988 court battle, she has traveled the country calling for marijuana's legalization for medical use. In Wisconsin recently for the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival in Madison, Musikka talked with Journal Sentinel reporter Jesse Garza about her medical marijuana use, what she describes as the insanity of the war on drugs and the need for lawmakers to take a new look at national drug policy.
Q. Did you smoke marijuana before your glaucoma developed?
A. No, unfortunately. Had I been a smoker in the '60s I would have never made the decision that turned my life upside down. I'm sure I smoked more cigarettes and consumed more alcohol as I was pondering. I needed to make a life-altering decision.
Q. Do you have to get your prescription renewed?
A. I get the cannabis every five to six months. I have to fly back to Florida to pick up the cannabis at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. It's part of the University of Miami. I get it renewed when I pick it up.
Q. What is the potency of the marijuana you receive?
A. This, I would say, is comparable to high-grade Mexican marijuana. It's made from Mexican seeds grown at the University of Mississippi. They come in a tin with 300 rolled ( cigarettes ), 238 grams. I consume seven to eight grams a day. I bake with it or make butter for bread. I will smoke 10 joints a day, if I don't have access to an oven.
Q. Do you think marijuana should be legalized solely for medical use, or are you in favor of complete legalization?
A. Knowing the history of marijuana, I believe to arrest an adult for choosing a "wiser bud" is the epitome of hypocrisy. And to arrest a patient for helping another patient is a blasphemy on the creator's work.
Q. What would you say to those who believe that marijuana, in all forms, should be outlawed?
A. The killer drugs are all legal. Thousands of people are lost every year to legal drugs and alcohol. We don't have a war on drugs, we have a war on the drugs that compete against the pharmaceutical industry.
They have not read any reports that have been requested and financed by the government. It is not a gateway drug, it's not addictive and it is, in fact, very beneficial for people with several illnesses.
Seven hundred thousand people are arrested a year. The prison industry and the pharmaceutical industry are supported by the war on drugs. I personally know people who have committed suicide from taking prescription pharmaceuticals. Responsibility and compassion are needed at this time.
I see tremendous stupidity to waste all of our resources and continue in this insane war on our own people. There's got to be a better way to deal with this.
God made this plant. They would have to put God as the chief conspirator.
Yep. It's not the War on Drugs, it's the War on Some Drugs.
Because the duration of the induced fall in intraocular pressure (IOP) is short, an individual would have to smoke a marijuana cigarette eight or ten times a day in order to control IOP over 24 hours."
(June, 1999) American Academy of Ophthalmology
"The potential harmful effects of chronic marijuana smoking outweigh its modest benefits in the treatment of glaucoma."
(March, 1999) Institute of Medicine
"There was no scientifically verifiable evidence that the use of marijuana is safe and effective in the treatment of glaucoma. The Academy could not support proposed legislation to transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act in order to permit its use in treating glaucoma."
-- The American Academy of Ophthalmology's Committee on Drugs (1992)
"Other adverse effects from the use of marijuana that have been reported include conjunctival hypermia, impaired immune system response, impaired memory for recent events, difficulty concentrating, impaired motor coordination, tolerance to repeated doses, and short-term withdrawal symptoms after cessation.
Smoking of marijuana also can lead to emphysema-like lung changes, increased risk of cancer, and poor pregnancy outcomes."
(June, 1999) American Academy of Ophthalmology
The American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Yep: "she's one of only seven people in the nation to receive legally prescribed medicinal marijuana from the federal government."
Isn't that also the result of living in Los Angeles?
Whether one "outweighs" the other cannot, by the very nature of the question, be decided on a one-size-fits-all basis. The IOM blatantly overstepped the bounds of their competence.
Is anybody claiming that living in Los Angeles is a cure for glaucoma?
Doesn't look like she's suffering.
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