News (Media Awareness Project) - CN ON: PUB LTE: I'm The Proof |
| Title: | CN ON: PUB LTE: I'm The Proof |
| Published On: | 2003-07-26 |
| Source: | Hamilton Spectator (CN ON) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-19 18:26:32 |
I'M THE PROOF
RE: 'A Case Against Smoking Marijuana' (July 25).
I have just finished a second perusal of Dr. Andrea Barthwell's synopsis of
the medicinal utility of cannabis. As a young woman living with chronic
progressive MS, and as a legal medical marijuana patient in Canada, I am
truly thankful that Barthwell -- deputy director at the White House Office
of National Drug Control Policy and a past president of the American Society
of Addiction Medicine -- is not in my country.
As far as I am concerned, Barthwell is in the same category as Health
Minister Anne McLellan -- misinformed. Barthwell doesn't frighten me. It
will just take a little longer to educate her.
She argues that the proof of medicine is in the patient's getting better,
not just feeling better. Well, I am her proof.
Ten years ago, I couldn't get out of a wheelchair and could not stop shaking
violently when I tried to cross a room. I was taking more than 32 pills plus
600 to 2,000 mg of morphine a day. I lost full control of my bladder and
bowel. Next came the worst pain known to medicine that was also incurable --
Tic Douloureux.
Before too long and many, many doctors later, I was introduced to marijuana.
The results were instantaneous.
Over the last four years, I have halved my prescription medications that
were my life for more than 10 years. I am also out of a wheelchair more
often and not using my walker at all. Would Barthwell believe I could do
this if I weren't improving?
I am one of hundred of thousands of Canadians who have shown the Canadian
government just how much our quality of life has improved. My health is
better now than it ever has been. I am walking every day of my life now with
a cane, I have everything under control when I have the proper strain of
cannabis and things could not be better.
I feel sorry, not only for Barthwell because one day she may need this
incredible plant, but for her patients who will obviously be denied an
indisputable service while she cages the suffering innocents of her country.
Shame on her.
Alison Myrden
Burlington
RE: 'A Case Against Smoking Marijuana' (July 25).
I have just finished a second perusal of Dr. Andrea Barthwell's synopsis of
the medicinal utility of cannabis. As a young woman living with chronic
progressive MS, and as a legal medical marijuana patient in Canada, I am
truly thankful that Barthwell -- deputy director at the White House Office
of National Drug Control Policy and a past president of the American Society
of Addiction Medicine -- is not in my country.
As far as I am concerned, Barthwell is in the same category as Health
Minister Anne McLellan -- misinformed. Barthwell doesn't frighten me. It
will just take a little longer to educate her.
She argues that the proof of medicine is in the patient's getting better,
not just feeling better. Well, I am her proof.
Ten years ago, I couldn't get out of a wheelchair and could not stop shaking
violently when I tried to cross a room. I was taking more than 32 pills plus
600 to 2,000 mg of morphine a day. I lost full control of my bladder and
bowel. Next came the worst pain known to medicine that was also incurable --
Tic Douloureux.
Before too long and many, many doctors later, I was introduced to marijuana.
The results were instantaneous.
Over the last four years, I have halved my prescription medications that
were my life for more than 10 years. I am also out of a wheelchair more
often and not using my walker at all. Would Barthwell believe I could do
this if I weren't improving?
I am one of hundred of thousands of Canadians who have shown the Canadian
government just how much our quality of life has improved. My health is
better now than it ever has been. I am walking every day of my life now with
a cane, I have everything under control when I have the proper strain of
cannabis and things could not be better.
I feel sorry, not only for Barthwell because one day she may need this
incredible plant, but for her patients who will obviously be denied an
indisputable service while she cages the suffering innocents of her country.
Shame on her.
Alison Myrden
Burlington
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