Let patients light up to ease pain, improve quality of life

April 19, 2013|By John Morgan | Guest columnist

Twenty years ago, my dad suffered from esophageal cancer and emphysema. The nausea from his treatment was severe and the list of medications prescribed for it ineffective.

And so, out of desperation, one day he tried marijuana. And it provided him blessed relief.

From that day on, family members were forced to break the law and risk arrest to ease the suffering of a dying loved one. Not only did marijuana increase his quality of life, it probably extended his life.

There is one thing I can guarantee you: Those people opposing medical marijuana would have done the same thing for a relative in the condition of my father.

We used to laugh about "munchies.'' But to someone dying from wasting syndrome, munchies takes on a whole new meaning.

Those who claim there always are legal alternatives to medical marijuana are not dealing from personal experience. Neither are they looking at the research.

Almost 20 years ago, in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, two researchers from the Harvard Medical School wrote the following: "Evidence of the therapeutic value and limited toxicity of marijuana in the treatment of various symptoms and syndromes is rapidly accumulating. Patients with glaucoma, migraine, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia, quadriplegia, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy for cancer have risked severe penalties to acquire cannabis, because they find it more useful than legally available medicines."

Little has changed because of opposition from the pharmaceutical industry threatened by a cheap, plentiful alternative to its expensive concoctions; by law enforcement agencies vested in a silly diversion from the real war on drugs; and by politicians and organizations that believe "Reefer Madness" was a PBS documentary.

Opponents are worried about marijuana while every day we dispense deadly narcotics out of pill mills, creating what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls an epidemic of addiction and abuse, killing far more people than heroin, crystal meth and cocaine combined.

No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose.

Opponents of legalizing medical marijuana claim it would send a mixed message to kids. I submit to you we already are sending one humdinger of a mixed message: Medical marijuana foes say it would be abused if made legally available. First of all, that is not the fault of people who legitimately need it. And second, if we applied that same criterion to all medications, about the only things left on the drugstore shelves would be ibuprofen and ice packs.

How about we just demand the government regulators and the professional medical boards do their jobs? We have doctors peddling more dope than drug cartels and walking away with wrist slaps.

We are told that marijuana is not a medicine. But isn't it interesting that when a pharmaceutical company synthesizes the active ingredient into a pill, calls it Marinol, and charges hundreds of dollars for it — then it magically becomes one?

The hypocrisy is stunning. You can get medical marijuana all right, if you pay the Big Pharma gatekeeper.

There are well-intentioned people who have spent years trying to get Florida legislators to see reason on this issue. I'm not talking about groups like NORML that have lobbied for years to legalize marijuana, but real people experiencing real suffering. They were turned down once again last month in Tallahassee.

One lawmaker said anyone who requires medical marijuana can move to a state that allows it. Just pack up the wheelchair. Wave goodbye to the family. And off you go.

That kind of ignorance and callousness is why we must appeal this case to the public in a 2014 referendum.

John Morgan is an Orlando lawyer and chairman of United for Care, a statewide group seeking the legalization of marijuana for medical uses.

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