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.
It's crushing for a parent to be told that "Little Johnny" isn't getting enough reefer.
Government Mule?
And that's perfectly legal for everyone - what a country!
Sounds like you're already enlightened to me.
One wonders about the potency.
"Bail to the Chief".
"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."
You'd prefer he had died sooner?
Should we enact the same rules for the deadly addictive drug alcohol? If not, why not?
In contrast, smoking 10 joints a day makes him feel sharp as a tack!
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