MEDICAL MARIJUANA ENDORSED BY PATIENT

ALBANY -- Elvy Musikka, a widely known advocate of medical marijuana
use, credits pot with restoring her vision.

Musikka said Thursday during a visit to Albany State University that
the drug should be used as a medical treatment for illnesses because
it helps to make the body function better and, in her case, restored
lost eyesight.

"My left eye was messed up by a surgery when I was 14, and I never
thought I would get it back," Musikka said. "At my last checkup, it
was 20/100 (improved from 20/400), and I was totally thrilled because
I never expected that as I got older, my sight would be getting
better. But if you eat/ smoke marijuana, your whole system gets so
much better."

Musikka claims that prohibiting the use of marijuana by keeping it
illegal is blasphemous, and hopes that Christians across the nation
will urge lawmakers to make the drug lawful to use.

"To arrest a patient for using the creator's work could not be
described as anything except blatant blasphemy," she said. "We really
need an overwhelming majority of us Christians to come together and
remind ourselves that we cannot kill and we cannot steal and we
cannot lie. With this prohibition we are doing all of the above."

Musikka, one of only five people enrolled in a federal program to use
pot for medicinal purposes, said that she thought the doctor who
prescribed the drug to her was crazy.

"I have been smoking it (medicinally) for 31 years," Musikka said. "I
never smoked until a doctor said I should smoke it or I would go
blind. I questioned his sanity."

Musikka was prescribed the drug to combat her glaucoma, she said.

On Wednesday, an appeals court ruled that a California woman could be
prosecuted for breaching federal drug laws even if she uses marijuana
because it is reportedly the only medicine keeping her alive.

But Musikka says that should be more impetus for U.S. residents to
rise up and urge lawmakers to make the drug legal.

"That just shows that I really need every one of you to take an
interest" in the fight to legalize marijuana, she said at Albany
State University Thursday, where she spoke to students about the need.

Musikka helped establish a medical marijuana defense in Florida in
1988, according to a news release from Albany State University.