News (Media Awareness Project) - US WI: Medical Marijuana: 'This Time, This Bill!' |
| Title: | US WI: Medical Marijuana: 'This Time, This Bill!' |
| Published On: | 2009-12-01 |
| Source: | Scene, The (Appleton, WI) |
| Fetched On: | 2009-12-02 12:17:45 |
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: 'THIS TIME, THIS BILL!'
Advocates Say Time Is Right For Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act
An unusual world record was set last month by 56-year-old Florida
stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld when he smoked his 115,000th joint of
marijuana grown and supplied by the federal government.
He set the record on Nov. 20, which was the 27th anniversary of his
first shipment of medical marijuana from the feds.
Rosenfeld is among a handful of federal medical marijuana users who
receive prescription marijuana monthly under what is known as the
Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, which came into
existence in 1978 when glaucoma patient Robert Randall sued the
government to allow him to use the only drug that relieved his
glaucoma - marijuana.
Suffering from a congenital bone disease, Rosenfeld took all manner of
prescription drugs to ease his pain, including the highly addictive
legal opiate Dilaudid. The drugs came with side effects that prevented
Rosenfeld from leading a normal life. Then he discovered that smoking
marijuana eased the pain without the side effects.
Rosenfeld's doctor petitioned to have him admitted to the federal
medical marijuana program, and on Nov. 20, 1982, his first tin of
legal joints arrived.
Every month Rosenfeld receives nine ounces of federal pot grown at the
University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. The harvested marijuana is
sent to North Carolina, where it is rolled into joints. Rosenfeld's
monthly allotment comes to 360 joints.
He smokes about a dozen joints a day, including in the designated
smoking area of the office where he works in Fort Lauderdale. His
employers are on record saying he is an excellent stockbroker and they
don't mind the marijuana smoke wafting outside the building.
Rosenfeld's been off Dilaudid for almost two decades and has led an
active life since. He plays softball and teaches sailing to the
disabled. He also believes the marijuana use has inhibited the painful
growth of benign tumors that grow on his bones as a result of his condition.
The Compassionate Investigational New Drug program - the very name of
which implies the feds had planned to study the efficacy of medical
marijuana - was rescinded by the George H.W. Bush administration in
1992, but those already admitted to the program were grandfathered in
and continue to receive their pharmaceutical marijuana.
Today there are four remaining federal medical marijuana recipients.
The other three are multiple sclerosis patient Barbara Douglass,
George McMahon with Nail Patella Syndrome and glaucoma patient Elvy
Musikka.
All four patients were tested in a 2001 study funded by a national
medical marijuana advocacy group called Patients Out of Time
(medicalcannabis.com). It's known as the Missoula Study. All
physiological systems were examined by neutral investigators,
something that had never occurred to the federal administrators of the
medical marijuana program.
The tests concluded Rosenfeld was in excellent health for a man with
multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses.
The Food and Drug Administration, which administers the federal
medical marijuana program, continues to support the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Schedule I labeling of marijuana as a dangerous drug
that has no accepted medical use. Federal law prohibits physicians
from prescribing Schedule I drugs.
Yet the FDA provides medical marijuana to four patients, which begs
the question, does marijuana deserve to be a Schedule I drug alongside
heroin, or do deep pocket pharmaceutical companies who have everything
to lose if marijuana is accepted for its medicinal properties really
control the strings?
"I cannot fathom the reluctance of my federal government to allow the
use of medical cannabis for the sick and dying of the U.S.," Rosenfeld
said in a press release sent out to announce his world record. "My
experience of use, the calming of my negative symptoms, that has
allowed me to be a useful, contributing member of society must be
extended to all the ill based on the judgment of medical professionals
and not guided or restrained by the dictates of law enforcement who
have no empathy for the ill nor the education to appropriately enter
into doctor-patient relationships and treatment options."
Rosenfeld appeared before the Michigan legislature to testify on
behalf of medical marijuana when lawmakers were deciding whether to
send a medical marijuana initiative to the voters. The initiative
passed in Nov. 2008, making Michigan the first Midwestern state and
13th state in the nation to allow medical marijuana.
Medical marijuana bills have been introduced regularly in Wisconsin
since 2001, but each time have been strangled in committee.
When introduced in the fall of 2007, it was given the name Jacki
Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, in honor of a wheelchair-bound Mondovi
woman who has been a leading medical marijuana activist and is founder
of the advocacy group Is My Medicine Legal YET? (immly.org).
Last month Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and Sen. Jon Erpenbach
(D-Waunakee) reintroduced the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act
(Assembly Bill 554/Senate Bill 368).
Supporters say recent events bode well for the Act this time around,
including the Obama Administration telling the DEA to stop hassling
medical marijuana patients and suppliers in the 13 states where
marijuana has been approved by voters as medicine, and the American
Medical Association announcing in November a resolution urging "that
marijuana's status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be
reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical
research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines."
The timing couldn't be better, said Gary Storck, communications
director of Is My Medicine Legal YET?
"Not only has the Obama Administration's new policy of tolerance to
state medical marijuana programs greatly improved the landscape
politically, so has (Gov. Jim) Doyle's official pronouncements (in
support of medical marijuana)," Storck said. "His opinion is no
surprise as he told me that if elected, he would sign the bill if it
reached his desk in March 2002, and he repeated that pledge to me and
others over the years. By saying he would sign it publicly, he has
helped win it more support in the legislature."
And speaking of the legislature, Storck said with the new Democratic
majority in the Assembly, "the abstract became a possibility."
The Act has already drawn support from a number of state groups,
including the Wisconsin Nurses Association, AIDS Resource Center of
WI, Epilepsy Foundation of Southern WI, Hospice Organizations and
Palliative Experts (HOPE), and the Wisconsin chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union.
"It's the largest number so far," Storck said, adding that they also
expect to hear from veterans groups.
"The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act includes post traumatic
stress disorder as a qualifying condition," he said. "I expect that
we'll hear from a number of veterans, including Iraq/Afghani war vets
with serious PTSD remedied with medical cannabis. The bill would also
help vets on conventional opiate pain meds. Currently, in the 13
medical cannabis states, the VA will not cut off opiates to patients
with a doctor's note. This happens frequently in Wisconsin,
terrorizing vets who need both the opiates and cannabis to manage their pain.
"As Jacki has put it, 'This bill, this time'," Storck said. "I have
never felt this level of support before. People are fed up with being
forced to use toxic meds. A lot of folks have no insurance. We are
tired of looking over our shoulders, and buying medicine from drug
cartels instead of dispensaries or getting it from
caregivers."
The next step for the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act (AB 554/SB
368) is a combined public hearing of the Assembly and Senate Health
committees at the state Capital 10 a.m. Dec. 15.
If you'd like to track or learn more about the Jacki Rickert Medical
Marijuana Act, check out http://jrmma.org/.
States with medical marijuana laws and when they were voted
in:
Alaska, 1998
California, 1996
Colorado, 2000
Hawaii, 2000
Maine, 1999
Michigan, 2008
Montana, 2004
Nevada, 2000
New Mexico, 2007
Oregon, 1998
Rhode Island, 2006
Vermont, 2004
Washington, 1998
Advocates Say Time Is Right For Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act
An unusual world record was set last month by 56-year-old Florida
stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld when he smoked his 115,000th joint of
marijuana grown and supplied by the federal government.
He set the record on Nov. 20, which was the 27th anniversary of his
first shipment of medical marijuana from the feds.
Rosenfeld is among a handful of federal medical marijuana users who
receive prescription marijuana monthly under what is known as the
Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, which came into
existence in 1978 when glaucoma patient Robert Randall sued the
government to allow him to use the only drug that relieved his
glaucoma - marijuana.
Suffering from a congenital bone disease, Rosenfeld took all manner of
prescription drugs to ease his pain, including the highly addictive
legal opiate Dilaudid. The drugs came with side effects that prevented
Rosenfeld from leading a normal life. Then he discovered that smoking
marijuana eased the pain without the side effects.
Rosenfeld's doctor petitioned to have him admitted to the federal
medical marijuana program, and on Nov. 20, 1982, his first tin of
legal joints arrived.
Every month Rosenfeld receives nine ounces of federal pot grown at the
University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. The harvested marijuana is
sent to North Carolina, where it is rolled into joints. Rosenfeld's
monthly allotment comes to 360 joints.
He smokes about a dozen joints a day, including in the designated
smoking area of the office where he works in Fort Lauderdale. His
employers are on record saying he is an excellent stockbroker and they
don't mind the marijuana smoke wafting outside the building.
Rosenfeld's been off Dilaudid for almost two decades and has led an
active life since. He plays softball and teaches sailing to the
disabled. He also believes the marijuana use has inhibited the painful
growth of benign tumors that grow on his bones as a result of his condition.
The Compassionate Investigational New Drug program - the very name of
which implies the feds had planned to study the efficacy of medical
marijuana - was rescinded by the George H.W. Bush administration in
1992, but those already admitted to the program were grandfathered in
and continue to receive their pharmaceutical marijuana.
Today there are four remaining federal medical marijuana recipients.
The other three are multiple sclerosis patient Barbara Douglass,
George McMahon with Nail Patella Syndrome and glaucoma patient Elvy
Musikka.
All four patients were tested in a 2001 study funded by a national
medical marijuana advocacy group called Patients Out of Time
(medicalcannabis.com). It's known as the Missoula Study. All
physiological systems were examined by neutral investigators,
something that had never occurred to the federal administrators of the
medical marijuana program.
The tests concluded Rosenfeld was in excellent health for a man with
multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses.
The Food and Drug Administration, which administers the federal
medical marijuana program, continues to support the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Schedule I labeling of marijuana as a dangerous drug
that has no accepted medical use. Federal law prohibits physicians
from prescribing Schedule I drugs.
Yet the FDA provides medical marijuana to four patients, which begs
the question, does marijuana deserve to be a Schedule I drug alongside
heroin, or do deep pocket pharmaceutical companies who have everything
to lose if marijuana is accepted for its medicinal properties really
control the strings?
"I cannot fathom the reluctance of my federal government to allow the
use of medical cannabis for the sick and dying of the U.S.," Rosenfeld
said in a press release sent out to announce his world record. "My
experience of use, the calming of my negative symptoms, that has
allowed me to be a useful, contributing member of society must be
extended to all the ill based on the judgment of medical professionals
and not guided or restrained by the dictates of law enforcement who
have no empathy for the ill nor the education to appropriately enter
into doctor-patient relationships and treatment options."
Rosenfeld appeared before the Michigan legislature to testify on
behalf of medical marijuana when lawmakers were deciding whether to
send a medical marijuana initiative to the voters. The initiative
passed in Nov. 2008, making Michigan the first Midwestern state and
13th state in the nation to allow medical marijuana.
Medical marijuana bills have been introduced regularly in Wisconsin
since 2001, but each time have been strangled in committee.
When introduced in the fall of 2007, it was given the name Jacki
Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, in honor of a wheelchair-bound Mondovi
woman who has been a leading medical marijuana activist and is founder
of the advocacy group Is My Medicine Legal YET? (immly.org).
Last month Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and Sen. Jon Erpenbach
(D-Waunakee) reintroduced the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act
(Assembly Bill 554/Senate Bill 368).
Supporters say recent events bode well for the Act this time around,
including the Obama Administration telling the DEA to stop hassling
medical marijuana patients and suppliers in the 13 states where
marijuana has been approved by voters as medicine, and the American
Medical Association announcing in November a resolution urging "that
marijuana's status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be
reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical
research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines."
The timing couldn't be better, said Gary Storck, communications
director of Is My Medicine Legal YET?
"Not only has the Obama Administration's new policy of tolerance to
state medical marijuana programs greatly improved the landscape
politically, so has (Gov. Jim) Doyle's official pronouncements (in
support of medical marijuana)," Storck said. "His opinion is no
surprise as he told me that if elected, he would sign the bill if it
reached his desk in March 2002, and he repeated that pledge to me and
others over the years. By saying he would sign it publicly, he has
helped win it more support in the legislature."
And speaking of the legislature, Storck said with the new Democratic
majority in the Assembly, "the abstract became a possibility."
The Act has already drawn support from a number of state groups,
including the Wisconsin Nurses Association, AIDS Resource Center of
WI, Epilepsy Foundation of Southern WI, Hospice Organizations and
Palliative Experts (HOPE), and the Wisconsin chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union.
"It's the largest number so far," Storck said, adding that they also
expect to hear from veterans groups.
"The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act includes post traumatic
stress disorder as a qualifying condition," he said. "I expect that
we'll hear from a number of veterans, including Iraq/Afghani war vets
with serious PTSD remedied with medical cannabis. The bill would also
help vets on conventional opiate pain meds. Currently, in the 13
medical cannabis states, the VA will not cut off opiates to patients
with a doctor's note. This happens frequently in Wisconsin,
terrorizing vets who need both the opiates and cannabis to manage their pain.
"As Jacki has put it, 'This bill, this time'," Storck said. "I have
never felt this level of support before. People are fed up with being
forced to use toxic meds. A lot of folks have no insurance. We are
tired of looking over our shoulders, and buying medicine from drug
cartels instead of dispensaries or getting it from
caregivers."
The next step for the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act (AB 554/SB
368) is a combined public hearing of the Assembly and Senate Health
committees at the state Capital 10 a.m. Dec. 15.
If you'd like to track or learn more about the Jacki Rickert Medical
Marijuana Act, check out http://jrmma.org/.
States with medical marijuana laws and when they were voted
in:
Alaska, 1998
California, 1996
Colorado, 2000
Hawaii, 2000
Maine, 1999
Michigan, 2008
Montana, 2004
Nevada, 2000
New Mexico, 2007
Oregon, 1998
Rhode Island, 2006
Vermont, 2004
Washington, 1998
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