A PATIENT PLEADS FOR ACCESS

"My husband has terminal lung cancer," said the woman on the phone.

That was her introduction to a complicated, sometimes harrowing story
about trying to obtain the only medicine that gives her husband relief.

The medicine is marijuana.

She called a day after Tracy Manzer's Sunday story listing 11 Long
Beach locations where, police say, marijuana is sold to people in
medical need, and perhaps to people pretending to be in medical need.

Manzer's story also quoted aides to City Attorney Robert Shannon as
saying those places were about to have some form of legal action
taken against them. Shannon has since announced that such action is
on hold pending future developments by the state attorney general and
a court of appeals.

The suggestion in Sunday's story that the marijuana sellers might be
shut down left the woman fearful that her husband would be unable to
purchase the drug to relieve his cancer.

"We have not been pot or drug abusers or anything like that," the
woman told me. "But it has become obvious that the only way he can
get any relief for his breathing is from marijuana. The other things
they give him just do not work.

"He has a (Long Beach) place he goes to get it. The first time we
went we felt like we were in a dark alley; like we were illegal. The
whole thing felt so bad to us," she says.

In time, however, she decided her guilt feelings were not
appropriate. After all, wasn't California law on her side? Well, yes.
In 1996, Proposition 215, legalizing the sale of medical marijuana,
was approved by 56 percent of state voters.

But this is where the situation becomes more complicated.

Agencies at Odds

Diana Lejins, who is with Advocates for Disability Rights and will
figure further in this story, says 215 guaranteed seriously ill
Californians the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes.

A dozen other states have enacted similar laws, all of which are
being ignored by the federal government. The result is a standoff,
with the chronically ill caught in the middle.

The man and wife cited above are Long Beach residents. She has given
me permission to use her name. However, I will not do so because the
federal Drug Enforcement Agency has a history of making raids on
people using marijuana for medical relief.

Frustrated by her husband's being unable to buy marijuana legally,
Mrs. X is also bothered by what she says is her inability to present
his dilemma to officials: "Where can we go to lodge our viewpoint?"

I suggested the City Council, even while feeling this is not likely
to do her any good.

For all her troubles and those of her husband, Mrs. X says she
understands the city's position: even if medical marijuana sales were
sanctioned by the federal government, it would be difficult to
prevent ineligible marijuana users from abusing the system.

"I agree there are people who are getting marijuana and are not
eligible for it," she says. "How do we stop that? How do we get that
under control?"

An Advocate's View

Before hearing that Shannon was not ready to close marijuana outlets
in Long Beach, Lejins said this, "Closing down the medical marijuana
cooperatives in Long Beach would be cruel and inhumane to those in
dire need of this medicine."

Allowing patients to grow their own marijuana in restricted amounts
is one possible solution. But Lejins notes that not all patients are
physically able to do that.

She adds, "Forcing patients who cannot grow their own medicine to
seek it on street corners puts them at considerable risk. The quality
of the marijuana from these sources is often poor and not as
effective as higher grade cannabis. Also, the locations of these
sources are often dangerous."

Recognizing there may be neighborhood resistance to marijuana
dispensaries, as they are called, Lejins sees a need to limit the
number of such facilities, and adds, "This is a golden opportunity to
create guidelines for the co-ops that would benefit the health and
welfare of patients rather than driving them underground."

"Most co-ops wish to be good neighbors and would appreciate the
opportunity to work with local government toward that endeavor. It is
ludicrous to deny them a permit to operate, then close them down
because they don't have a permit," she says.

Addressing the compassionate aspect of medical marijuana, Lejins
adds, "Who would ask their 80-year-old grandmother, dying of liver
cancer, to go to a perilous street corner begging for a medicine that
could help alleviate her suffering?"

Please do not interpret this column as an argument to legalize
marijuana. That is a different debate.

The column is actually a plea on behalf of one cancer patient, and
thousands of others who, like him, are seriously ill.

Are they to suffer because the government cannot devise a system
whereby those in pain can be helped, and those seeking to get high
can be turned away?

Not even the government can be that stupid and that lacking in
compassion. Or can it?