MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENT SHARES HIS STORY

George McMahon's only option is to smoke marijuana or die a painful
death. Diagnosed with Nail-Patella Syndrome, also known as Fong
Syndrome, the 54-year-old was not expected to live past 40.

Within his life, he has had 19 major surgeries and been declared
clinically dead on several occasions.

During one emergency room visit, he was told that he only had five
hours to live.

The many medications doctors prescribed for McMahon in the past
included morphine, Demerol, Codeine and Valium. And some of these
strong medications caused him respiratory and renal failure as well as
hallucinations.

"The drugs they were giving me were killing me," McMahon said. "I
would get this new drug or that new drug and it would cause a lot of
problems."

The syndrome that McMahon suffers from is a rare genetic disorder that
causes a variety of symptoms and physical deformities such as improper
development of the fingernails and toenails, absence or
underdevelopment of the kneecaps and underdevelopment of certain bones.

McMahon lives with a fractured back, severed muscles and nerves on the
right side of his body, bone and muscle joint injuries and brittle
bones.

McMahon said that marijuana causes the pain to decrease. In
particular, it causes the nausea and spasms to cease.

He is one of seven people who receive medicinal marijuana from the
federal government through their Investigational New Drug program.

The government provides McMahon 300 marijuana cigarettes every month,
of which he smokes 10 cigarettes each day or one cigarette each hour.

McMahon's wife Margaret, who has been by his side for the 34 years
they have been married, said that the marijuana works.

"When he started smoking the marijuana, he got stronger," Margaret
said. "He could do things that he could not do before."

Christopher Largen, McMahon's spokesperson and close friend, has
toured with McMahon speaking on the issues of medicinal marijuana for
the past three years.

"George could have stayed at his home and lived out his days there,
but he cared enough to have other people receive the same relief that
he has," Largen said.

At a forum held Wednesday at the Lyceum, third floor of the University
Union, McMahon, Largen and Dr. James Quinn, professor of Substance
Abuse and Addictions at NT, shared with the 300 hundred students in
attendance the value of medicinal marijuana for ill patients.

During the forum, Quinn said there is no evidence that shows marijuana
is able to cure anything, but there is evidence that marijuana makes
life bearable for those suffering.

Marijuana, Quinn said, can facilitate a calm mental state, promote
some forms of immunity and has neuro-protectant and
anti-oxidants.

However, smoking marijuana for a prolonged time can cause lung, mouth
and throat cancers and other respiratory problems.

Largen has worked with disabled people and has witnessed the benefits
of medicinal marijuana in other patients in addition to McMahon.

Before meeting McMahon in 1998, Largen said he worked as an aid to a
quadriplegic male who was always in pain and suffered from regular
spasms.

Eventually, the man began taking marijuana and the man immediately
showed improvements, Largen said.

"I witnessed the transformation of my friend and it was then that I
knew the effects of marijuana," Largen said.

A new drug expected to enter the market is Sativex, which contains oil
extracts derived from marijuana sativa plants.

This medication is ingested through a spray in the mouth. Developed by
GW Pharmaceuticals, the medication will be dispensed by Bayer.

McMahon said he is looking forward to switching from smoking marijuana
to taking Sativex, but he is thankful for the success he has had using
his current medication.

"I think that I have had a good life," McMahon said. "I am not dead.
With using marijuana, the difference is that my quality of life has
gotten better."