FEDERAL POT SMOKER BURNS BOTH ENDS FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Every month George McMahon receives a silver tin of prescription
marijuana courtesy of the federal government. He is one of five
survivors in the Federal Drug Administration's Compassionate
Investigational New Drug program.

"Personally, I won," said the Iowa man who has been receiving 300
free government joints every month since 1990. " I don't have
anything to beef about. That's really hard to explain to somebody
like Jacki (Rickert, for whom the new Wisconsin medical marijuana
bill is named), who can't win."

Even though he can legally smoke marijuana for his medical condition,
McMahon remains a tireless advocate for the majority who are still
denied the benefits of medical marijuana. "We're not talking about
legalization for everybody. We're talking about sick people who need
it," he said.

McMahon suffers from Nail Patella Syndrome, which is characterized by
abnormalities of the arms and legs as well as kidney disease and
glaucoma. He has suffered countless broken bones over the years from
the disease. He wrote about his medical troubles and how marijuana
has helped in the 2003 book "Prescription Pot," in which he describes
the quality and content of that monthly tin of joints he receives.

"Compared to all the patients who live in fear of arrest and pay
hundreds of dollars each month to get black market medicine of
questionable quality, I have it easy. I just cut open the joints,
clean out the seeds and stems, moisturize the herb and re-roll the
joints with my own papers," he wrote in the book.

McMahon said he smokes about 10 joints a day in place of other
medications previously prescribed that only seemed to make him worse.
"I was continually getting worse on legal pharmaceuticals," he said.
"I haven't taken any other medicine in 18 years, maybe a few
antibiotics and I might take as many as six aspirin in a year. That's
it. It's amazing stuff."

And that, he says, is why he will continue to fight for everyone's
right to legal medical marijuana. "As we teach people, we convert
people. We've been converting enemies, people who really thought they
were right. They just had to have the information," he said. "If they
say they're against it morally, well, that's no reason. If they say
science, we can debunk it. But if they just stand there and say no,
that's even worse."

If anyone wants to know of the long-term health effects of smoking
marijuana, McMahon refers them to the Missoula Chronic Clinical
Cannabis Use Study conducted at the University of Montana-Missoula
with the assistance of four federal prescription pot smokers who have
used "a known dosage of a standardized, heat-sterilized
quality-controlled supply of low-grade marijuana for 11 to 27 years."

Here are the conclusions and recommendations of that study:

Cannabis smoking, even of a crude low-grade product, provides
effective symptomatic relief of pain, muscle spasms, and intraocular
pressure elevations in selected patients failing other modes of treatment.

These clinical cannabis patients are able to reduce or eliminate
other prescription medicines and their accompanying side effects.

Clinical cannabis provides an improved quality of life.

The side effect profile of NIDA cannabis in chronic usage suggest
some mild pulmonary risks.

No malignant deterioration has been observed.

No consistent or attributable neuropsychological or neurological
deterioration has been observed.

No endocrine, hematological or immunological sequelae have been observed.

Improvements in a clinical cannabis program would include a ready and
consistent supply of sterilized, potent, organically grown
unfertilized female flowering top material, thoroughly cleaned of
extraneous, inert fibrous matter.

It is the authors' opinion that the Compassionate IND program should
be reopened and extended to patients in need of clinical cannabis.

Failing that, local, state and federal laws might be amended to
provide regulated and monitored clinical cannabis to suitable candidates.

And that, McMahon points out, is just one of many studies that have
been conducted around the world.

"The studies going on are just mind-blowing," he said. It's not that
misunderstood anymore. If they deny it now, it's knowingly doing it.
There's no lack of credible information. The science has been done
and pretty basically if they're not looking it up, it's willing
ignorance. They're not really that ignorant. It's up in the air to
see what they do."