News (Media Awareness Project) - US NM: Editorial: Anti-Starvation Drug Should Be Made Legal |
| Title: | US NM: Editorial: Anti-Starvation Drug Should Be Made Legal |
| Published On: | 2005-02-18 |
| Source: | Albuquerque Journal (NM) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-16 23:36:36 |
ANTI-STARVATION DRUG SHOULD BE MADE LEGAL
Max Gardner was at death's door because he had little desire to go through
the kitchen door. Stricken with colon cancer, he didn't have much appetite
and chemotherapy-related nausea made it difficult to keep food down,
according to his mother, Vicki Plevin. A skeletal six-footer in his
mid-20s, Gardner weighed about 80 pounds.
Modern medicine has developed an amazing array of weapons against cancer,
but they are pointless if a patient dies of starvation. That's where
age-old nature comes in: Marijuana enhances the appetite, calms queasy
stomachs and helps patients keep their strength up for the battle of their
life.
But nature runs contrary to the law. Gardner's doctors could prescribe
morphine and other highly addictive drugs for pain, but they couldn't
prescribe marijuana. It was often suggested, usually in whispers and
typically by a nurse, that he needed to get some. "He had to go find a drug
dealer in that condition," Plevin said.
Other victims of cancer and several other conditions won't need to break
the law to realize therapeutic benefits of marijuana if Senate Bill 795
becomes law.
It would set up a review board that could permit patients whose doctors had
recommended marijuana to possess a sufficient quantity to treat their
conditions. Besides cancer, other eligible conditions specified in the bill
are glaucoma, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, HIV-AIDS and some spinal cord
injuries. The marijuana would be provided to registered patients by a state
Health Department-licensed producer.
The bill also provides penalities for abusing the therapeutic license, but
there have been only a handful of prosecutions in 10 states in which
patients are permitted to use marijuana. This is not a crime problem.
It would probably reduce crime. Many of the 200-300 projected patients in
New Mexico, like Max Gardner, are probably "filling the prescription"
illicitly, pumping money into the black market trade. It would be better if
they could hang on to their dignity while fighting to regain their health.
Max Gardner was at death's door because he had little desire to go through
the kitchen door. Stricken with colon cancer, he didn't have much appetite
and chemotherapy-related nausea made it difficult to keep food down,
according to his mother, Vicki Plevin. A skeletal six-footer in his
mid-20s, Gardner weighed about 80 pounds.
Modern medicine has developed an amazing array of weapons against cancer,
but they are pointless if a patient dies of starvation. That's where
age-old nature comes in: Marijuana enhances the appetite, calms queasy
stomachs and helps patients keep their strength up for the battle of their
life.
But nature runs contrary to the law. Gardner's doctors could prescribe
morphine and other highly addictive drugs for pain, but they couldn't
prescribe marijuana. It was often suggested, usually in whispers and
typically by a nurse, that he needed to get some. "He had to go find a drug
dealer in that condition," Plevin said.
Other victims of cancer and several other conditions won't need to break
the law to realize therapeutic benefits of marijuana if Senate Bill 795
becomes law.
It would set up a review board that could permit patients whose doctors had
recommended marijuana to possess a sufficient quantity to treat their
conditions. Besides cancer, other eligible conditions specified in the bill
are glaucoma, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, HIV-AIDS and some spinal cord
injuries. The marijuana would be provided to registered patients by a state
Health Department-licensed producer.
The bill also provides penalities for abusing the therapeutic license, but
there have been only a handful of prosecutions in 10 states in which
patients are permitted to use marijuana. This is not a crime problem.
It would probably reduce crime. Many of the 200-300 projected patients in
New Mexico, like Max Gardner, are probably "filling the prescription"
illicitly, pumping money into the black market trade. It would be better if
they could hang on to their dignity while fighting to regain their health.
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