MEDICAL MARIJUANA RELIEVES SUFFERING

I'd like to tell George Will about one of those marijuana "customers"
he denigrates in his column, "Rocky Mountain High" (Dec. 11). Tim
DaGiau is a full-time college student in Colorado, and he frequents
the medical marijuana dispensaries there. Tim suffers from chronic
seizures. He has undergone five brain surgeries and has been put on a
dozen anti-seizure medications over the years. Tim continued to have
seizures while solely on prescription medications, despite the surgeries.

Then Tim tried marijuana, and miraculously, the seizures stopped. He
continues to use marijuana, with his doctor's recommendation, every
day in Colorado, where it is legal for him to do so. Now Tim is
seizure-free. He is 20 years old and he looks like a typical college
student. In fact, if George Will saw Tim walking into a medical
marijuana clinic, Will would be certain that Tim just wanted to smoke
pot. The truth is that marijuana is a remarkably safe and effective
agent for a wide variety of medical conditions. It is not surprising
that patients who have access to therapeutic marijuana appear healthy.

One of the problems Tim continues to face is that his family lives in
Clifton, NJ. Tim wanted to see his mother and father over
Thanksgiving, but he dared not return home, for fear that sudden
withdraw from his medicine would again trigger his seizures. New
Jersey lawmakers have an opportunity to solve Tim's dilemma next month
by passing the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act (S119/A804)
into law. They should not hesitate to do so.

Ken Wolski, RN, MPA

Trenton

The writer is executive director of the Coalition for Medical
Marijuana New Jersey, Inc. www.cmmnj.org