A PLEA TO LEGALIZE MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

FOR MOST, the question of whether to legalize medical marijuana use in
Maryland is an abstraction. Not for me.

The Maryland House of Delegates literally will be voting on my right to
live a normal, healthy life when it considers the Darrell Putman
Compassionate Use Act. The bill would legalize the medical use of marijuana
for seriously ill Marylanders.

There is strong scientific evidence for medical marijuana's safety and
efficacy.

The Institute of Medicine reported in 1999, "Nausea, appetite loss, pain,
and anxiety ... all can be mitigated by marijuana." Lester Grinspoon and
James B. Bakalar have written in The Journal of the American Medical
Association, "One of marijuana's greatest advantages as a medicine is its
remarkable safety."

But scientific journals don't tell the whole story.

I have been fighting Crohn's disease, an illness characterized by
inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, for more than 10 years. The
symptoms of the disease completely derailed my life, beginning when I was
10. I was afflicted with intense, piercing stomach pain and never-ending
diarrhea. I lost 40 pounds and became extremely weak. Instead of attending
school with my friends, I was stuck in the bathroom all day, anguishing in
pain and despair.

My doctors first tried to treat my illness with Prednisone, a steroid drug
that, along with reducing inflammation, can cause psychosis, stunted
growth, high blood pressure, weak bones and glaucoma. Instead of improving
my condition, Prednisone made my life worse, creating mood swings and
stunting my growth during adolescence. Desperate for any alternative, I
even attempted an "elemental diet": breakfast, lunch and dinner fed through
a tube that ran up my nose and down to my stomach. None of the treatments
worked, and the constant pain and diarrhea kept me in and out of classes
from elementary school through high school.

After high school graduation, I went to California to write for a video
game magazine. California had passed Proposition 215, the nation's first
medical marijuana law. There I discovered - legally - that smoking
marijuana before and after meals controlled my symptoms. Finally I had
found something that worked.

The first half of last year proved difficult for the video game industry,
publishing and the economy in general. I found myself feeling physically
great, but emotionally drained. The magazine for which I had been writing
ran out of money, and I suddenly was unemployed 3,000 miles from my family
and support structure. Overwhelmed by homesickness and a desire to further
my education, I returned home to Maryland where I could attend college near
the family and friends I missed so much.

But in Maryland I can't use my medicine without fear of arrest and jail. My
doctors are delighted that medical marijuana works so well for me, but they
are afraid to officially recommend marijuana to me, fearful of official
reprisals for prescribing an illegal drug.

The alternative is Marinol, a legal prescription medicine that contains a
synthetic version of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active ingredient
in natural marijuana. Marinol would be ideal, if it worked properly.
Instead, its effects are too intense. One dose incapacitates me for more
than four hours. Smoking marijuana controls my illness while allowing me to
function normally.

For Marylanders like me, for whom doctors would be willing to recommend
marijuana if it were legal, it is crucial that the use of medical marijuana
become legalized in Maryland. To arrest those who need marijuana as
medicine is cruel and pointless. Let those of us who require it fight our
illnesses in peace, without fear of jail.