Wisconsin Senate and Assembly consider bill this month.

December 2, 2009 – Linda Moon felt crippled by medications prescribed for her by doctors.

“For three years, I laid in bed. I was almost comatose, and couldn’t move,” she said.

One day, the 50-year-old Fond du Lac woman threw away 25 different kinds of pills and turned to marijuana to treat chronic conditions that had left her disabled.

“I was able to get food in my system. I could get out of bed and I had a personality again,” Moon said.

She is among the supporters of a state medical marijuana bill co-sponsored by state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee. If the legislation passes and is signed into law, a person with a prescription from a doctor could obtain up to three ounces of marijuana from a licensed dispensary or grow up to 12 plants at home.

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act would cover people with cancer, AIDS, Crohn’s disease, Hepatitis C, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and other diseases that could be labeled serious medical conditions.

In October, the Obama administration announced that the federal government will not prosecute users or distributors of medicinal marijuana as long as they follow state laws. The announcement is the latest part of a trend that has seen several states, including Minnesota, take an increased interest in the issue.

Currently, 13 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal use.

Personal stories

Teresa Shepherd of Jackson chairs the community outreach committee for the new Milwaukee chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

A gymnast and martial artist, the 34-year-old suffers from fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease and arthritis.

“The medications I was given made me sicker than I was,” said Shepherd, mentioning Vicodin and Lyrica. “I have been unable to work for over a year now. I didn’t think there was any hope.”

Marijuana use put her back on her feet, with no side effects.

“The people coming forward — they aren’t just trying to get high,” Shepherd said. “These are intelligent people who do not want to live on disability.”

Shepherd said she goes through about an ounce and a half each month, obtained through people she most likely would not talk to otherwise in the black market.

“I’m coming forward for every fibromyalgia patient out there. I’m tired of the suffering,” she said.

Jeffrey Smith of Brillion was paralyzed from the chest down 20 years ago and lives in constant pain.

The drugs prescribed for him — Baclofen and Gabapentin — had ill effects and their dosages were life threatening, he said.

“The Gabapentin didn’t stop the pain so much as it gave me a ‘chemical lobotomy,’ made me too spaced out to speak. On the other hand, the use of cannabis hemp as a medicinal treatment has given me a greatly improved living quality. I can once again compose music, perform it and even write for two online magazines. It has given me a life that patented medication surely took away,” he said.

Pros and cons

Dr. Steve Harvey, anesthesiologist and board-certified pain physician with Aurora Health Care in Fond du Lac and Sheboygan, sees medical marijuana as playing a significant role in treating debilitating conditions caused by cancer and chronic pain.

“I think in the case of patients with nerve pain, shingles or post-shingle pain, with pain that radiates down the leg or arms, or herniated discs, it has a direct analgesic effect,” Harvey said.

Particularly useful, he said, is marijuana’s demonstrated anti-nausea effects on cancer patients.

“There are forms of cannabis available outside of smoking it. Any arrow in the quiver that is available to us can be very useful and I think that is being demonstrated in other parts of the country. Frankly, I don’t have a problem with it,” he said.

Marijuana opponent and Fond du Lac psychiatrist Dr. Darold Treffert says the push for medical marijuana is misdirected, unnecessary and holds great risk.

“I have treated patients with AODA problems, including marijuana, for over 40 years. And marijuana is not harmless. Whatever the benefits, if any, of making medical marijuana available by prescription are far outweighed by the risks of how easily in other states it has led to ‘sham clinics’ with mass diversion to street use,” he said.

In Michigan, which recently made medical marijuana available, there are 1,000 new applications per month from patients and growers, and a “cannabis college” has been established to teach students how to grow the plants most effectively. In dispensaries, the marijuana often has rather exotic, non-medicinal-sounding names.

“I sympathize, and do have compassion, for patients experiencing long term pain or other intractable problems. But the risks of diversion and all its attendant problems far outweigh the benefits of making medical marijuana (smoked) readily available, and there are other alternatives available for such circumstances without those risks,” Treffert said. “Research is under way to synthesize THC or other cannabinols that can be delivered in standardized doses in a conventional manner. I support that research. It is simply a more sensible and less dangerous way to proceed.”

Agnesian HealthCare was unable to provide a physician that would discuss the use of medical marijuana.

More views

State Rep. John Townsend said he opposes any marijuana use, and would vote against the bill.

“Under federal law, it is an illegal substance, and there may by some problems with that. Some state statutes allow medical marijuana, but my question is whether it is really being used for medical purposes — or is it recreational? And who is regulating this use? I’ve been in contact with the local medical community, and they are not in favor of it,” he said.

Disabled veteran Steve Passehl of Wittenberg broke three vertebrae during the Gulf War and has undergone 13 surgeries.

“Marijuana helps with spasms from my paralysis and neck injury. It helps me deal with chronic pain, fights my depression, and gets me to eat,” he said.

According to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, House and Senate Bills (AB 554 and SB 368) define how many people can be cared for and place caps on the amount of marijuana that can be available in compassion centers, as well as allowing production and distribution facilities.

Previous bills in Wisconsin relating to the topic failed despite occasional bi-partisan support.
By Sharon Roznik. Source.

Additional Facts
WHAT’S NEXT

# A hearing on the medical marijuana bill is set for Dec. 15 in front of the Senate and Assembly health committees. Written testimony can be e-mailed to Kelly.Johnson@legis.wisconsin.gov in state Sen. Jon Erpenbach’s office. The mailing address is Room 8 South, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882. Erpenbach’s office will make all submitted written testimony available to all members of both committees.
# The complete bill can be read at www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/AB-554.pdf.

August 16, 2009 – In 2008, the American College of Physicians (ACP) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, released a position paper entitled Supporting Research Into the Therapeutic Role of Marijuana that expresses the group’s support for increased research and investigation into the medicinal functionality of marijuana, including one of its key elements, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC as it is commonly known. Since marijuana is federally classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, legitimate research investigating its efficacy medicinally has been limited due to its illegality and the stigma that often accompanies it. Yet, preclinical, clinical, and anecdotal reports continue to support the increasingly acknowledged fact that marijuana’s key components treat a host of maladies, including cancer.

Prior to 1942, marijuana was recognized and included in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia, the official public standards-setting authority on medicine in the United States. According to Marijuana as Medicine? The Science Beyond the Controversy by Allison Mack and Janet Joy, marijuana’s earliest known medicinal uses date back to twenty-seventh century B.C. China where then emperor Chen Nung discovered that it effectively treated gout, rheumatism, and malaria.

Fast forward to nineteenth-century America when research showing marijuana as an effective treatment for chronic cough, gonorrhea, cramps, headaches, fever, diabetes, impotence, and general aches and pains was becoming widely known due to research conducted by the Ohio State Medical Society. In fact, in the 1930s at least two American pharmaceutical companies were successfully marketing standardized extracts of marijuana for use as an analgesic, antispasmodic, and sedative. One company even began marketing a cigarette form for treating asthma.

Everything changed in 1937 when the U.S. Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 which heavily restricted the sale of and prescription for medicinal marijuana which ultimately led to the end of its production by drug companies. By 1942, marijuana was removed from the U.S. Pharmacopoeia on the grounds that it was a harmful and addictive drug, thanks in part to the increased recreational use of marijuana for non-medicinal purposes by the general public and propaganda campaigns conducted against the plant around the same time period. Eventually, it became the Schedule I controlled substance that it is today, regarded in the minds of most Americans as merely a dangerous drug that deserves prohibition.

Many books, papers, articles, and studies delve much further into the history of marijuana and its gradual extinction as a generally recognized and efficacious medicinal treatment, but in recent decades, the debate over its usefulness in medicine has begun to emerge once again. As many states have begun legalizing forms of marijuana for medicinal purposes, the subject has begun to reform into one worthy of serious debate. Additionally, the demand for investigation into it has seen a gain in momentum, especially among medical professionals. Because countless reports of marijuana’s amazing healing properties continue to materialize, thanks to the free flow of this information across the internet, the truth is rapidly spreading about its potential and the medical profession appears to be taking some notice.

As it pertains to cancer, for example, anecdotal reports in recent years have shown the amazing effectiveness of marijuana in treating and curing cancer with virtually no side effects. A Canadian man named Rick Simpson claims that potent extracts of hemp oil containing THC successfully cured the illnesses and cancers of many in his small Nova Scotian town. For years he produced and provided this oil to his fellow neighbors in need free of charge until the authorities clamped down on his trafficking of the illegal substance. Simpson’s hemp oil was non-hallucinogenic and purely medicinal, taken both orally and topically in gel form. He has much convincing documentation supporting his claims and tours Canada holding seminars about hemp oil.

While just one example begs further review and consideration, there is escalating interest among people of all stripes into this taboo subject. Many, including professional and well-respected groups such as ACP, are calling for a revaluation of marijuana, essentially calling for an end to the negative stigma that has inhibited serious inquiry into the legitimate uses of a plant that holds seemingly nonpareil healing capabilities. Health minded individuals everywhere would do well to research the subject for themselves and support this legitimate effort in discovering the truth about marijuana. By Ethan Huff. Source.

Sources:

American College of Physicians. Supporting Research into the Therapeutic Role of Marijuana. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians; 2008: Position Paper. (Available from American College of Physicians, 190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106.)

Mack, Allison. Marijuana As Medicine? : The Science Beyond the Controversy. 2001. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2001.

Phoenix Tears – Promoting Hemp Oil as a natural healing agent…