Nausea and pain are constant companions. One struggles to eat enough to stave off the dramatic weight loss that is part of this disease. Eating, one of the great pleasures of life, has now become a daily battle, with each forkful a small victory. Every drug prescribed to treat one problem leads to one or two more drugs to offset its side effects. Pain medication leads to loss of appetite and constipation. Anti-nausea medication raises glucose levels, a serious problem for me with my pancreas so compromised. Sleep, which might bring respite from the miseries of the day, becomes increasingly elusive.

Inhaled marijuana is the only medicine that gives me some relief from nausea, stimulates my appetite, and makes it easier to fall asleep. The oral synthetic substitute, Marinol, prescribed by my doctors, was useless. Rather than watch the agony of my suffering, friends have chosen, at some personal risk, to provide the substance. I find a few puffs of marijuana before dinner gives me ammunition in the battle to eat. A few more puffs at bedtime permits desperately needed sleep.

This is not a law-and-order issue; it is a medical and a human rights issue. Being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I am receiving the absolute gold standard of medical care. But doctors cannot be expected to do what the law prohibits, even when they know it is in the best interests of their patients. When palliative care is understood as a fundamental human and medical right, marijuana for medical use should be beyond controversy.

Sixteen states already permit the legitimate clinical use of marijuana, including our neighbor New Jersey, and Connecticut is on the cusp of becoming No. 17. The New York State Legislature is now debating a bill to recognize marijuana as an effective and legitimate medicinal substance and establish a lawful framework for its use. The Assembly has passed such bills before, but they went nowhere in the State Senate. This year I hope that the outcome will be different. Cancer is a nonpartisan disease, so ubiquitous that it’s impossible to imagine that there are legislators whose families have not also been touched by this scourge. It is to help all who have been affected by cancer, and those who will come after, that I now speak.

Given my position as a sitting judge still hearing cases, well-meaning friends question the wisdom of my coming out on this issue. But I recognize that fellow cancer sufferers may be unable, for a host of reasons, to give voice to our plight. It is another heartbreaking aporia in the world of cancer that the one drug that gives relief without deleterious side effects remains classified as a narcotic with no medicinal value.

Because criminalizing an effective medical technique affects the fair administration of justice, I feel obliged to speak out as both a judge and a cancer patient suffering with a fatal disease. I implore the governor and the Legislature of New York, always considered a leader among states, to join the forward and humane thinking of 16 other states and pass the medical marijuana bill this year. Medical science has not yet found a cure, but it is barbaric to deny us access to one substance that has proved to ameliorate our suffering.

Gustin L. Reichbach is a justice of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on May 17, 2012, on page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: A Judge’s Plea for Pot.

Source: New York Times (NY)
Author: Gustin L. Reichbach
Published: May 17, 2012
Copyright: 2012 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
URL: http://drugsense.org/url/vise0Lro

Two months ago, Brooklyn judge Gustin Reichbach wrote an op-ed for the NY Times, expressing his support for medical marijuana and detailing his three-and-a-half year struggle with stage 3 pancreatic cancer, "My survival has demanded an enormous price, including months of chemotherapy, radiation hell and brutal surgery... Inhaled marijuana is the only medicine that gives me some relief from nausea, stimulates my appetite, and makes it easier to fall asleep." Yesterday, Reichbach passed away in his Brooklyn home.

The Daily News calls Reichbach "a colorful, courageous and controversial presence on the bench for 21 years." Barry Sheck, head of the Innocence Project (and O.J. Simpson defense team lawyer), was at his deathbed and said, "I’ll remember the creativity and insight that he had. He was a remarkable guy."

Reichbach attended SUNY Buffalo and then Columbia Law School (George Pataki was in his class; Bruce Ratner was his roommate). The News reports, "Reichbach became an antiwar advocate and member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society — a move that led the state bar’s Committee on Character and Fitness to delay his admission, Scheck recalled. Among Reichbach’s many clients during two decades as an attorney was infamous radical Abbie Hoffman... Reichbach made headlines early in his career [as a judge] by handing out condoms to hookers in an effort to stop transmission of the AIDS virus."

In his Times op-ed, Reichbach calls medical marijuana "not a law-and-order issue; it is a medical and a human rights issue."

Being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I am receiving the absolute gold standard of medical care.

But doctors cannot be expected to do what the law prohibits, even when they know it is in the best interests of their patients. When palliative care is understood as a fundamental human and medical right, marijuana for medical use should be beyond controversy...

Given my position as a sitting judge still hearing cases, well-meaning friends question the wisdom of my coming out on this issue. But I recognize that fellow cancer sufferers may be unable, for a host of reasons, to give voice to our plight. It is another heartbreaking aporia in the world of cancer that the one drug that gives relief without deleterious side effects remains classified as a narcotic with no medicinal value.

Because criminalizing an effective medical technique affects the fair administration of justice, I feel obliged to speak out as both a judge and a cancer patient suffering with a fatal disease. I implore the governor and the Legislature of New York, always considered a leader among states, to join the forward and humane thinking of 16 other states and pass the medical marijuana bill this year. Medical science has not yet found a cure, but it is barbaric to deny us access to one substance that has proved to ameliorate our suffering.

Reichbach, whose daughter died last year, had hoped Albany would pass a medical marijuana bill but politicians couldn't get it together. Reichbach was never disciplined by the judicial conduct commission for admitting he was using marijuana.

Short-Term Effects of Cannabis Therapy on Spasticity in MS.

INVESTIGATOR: Jody Corey-Bloom, M.D., Ph.D.

STUDY LOCATION: University of California, San Diego.

PROJECT TITLE: Short-Term Effects of Cannabis Therapy on Spasticity in MS.

PROJECT TYPE: Clinical Study.

STATUS: COMPLETE.

http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=150:short-term-effects-of-cannabis-therapy-on-spasticity-in-ms&catid=41:research-studies&Itemid=135

The full results of this study have been published in CMAJ. http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2012/05/14/cmaj.110837

CMCR. CENTER FOR MEDICINAL CANNABIS RESEARCH. Report to the Legislature and Governor of the State of California, presenting findings pursuant to SB847 which created the CMCR and provided state funding.

Executive Summary. The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) at the University of California was created in 2000 to conduct clinical and pre-clinical studies of cannabinoids, including smoked marijuana, to provide evidence one way or the other to answer the question “Does marijuana have therapeutic value?” To accomplish this objective, the CMCR issued calls for applications from researchers at leading California institutions, developed a close working relationship with state and federal agencies to gain regulatory approvals, established panels of nationally-recognized experts to rigorously review the merit of applications, and funded carefully designed studies that have now been published in high impact scientific journals, making significant contributions to the available literature on cannabis and the cannabinoids. http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/images/pdfs/CMCR_REPORT_FEB17.pdf

Published Studies excerpt { Table 1. Clinical Studies Published or Submitted for Publication.

Donald Abrams, M.D. UC San Francisco Cannabis for Treatment of HIV-Related Peripheral Neuropathy

Donald Abrams, M.D. UC San Francisco Vaporization as a Smokeless Cannabis Delivery System

Jody Corey-Bloom, M.D., Ph.D. UC San Diego Short-Term Effects of Cannabis Therapy on Spasticity in MS

Ronald Ellis, M.D., Ph.D. UC San Diego Placebo-controlled, Double Blind Trial of Medicinal Cannabis in Painful HIV Neuropathy

Mark Wallace, M.D. UC San Diego Analgesic Efficacy of Smoked Cannabis

Barth Wilsey, M.D. UC Davis Double Blind, Placebo Controlled Trial of Smoked Marijuana on Neuropathic Pain }

That FDA arm of the U.S. federal government for decades was prevented from finding support for "smoked marijuana as medicine" by NIDA another tentacle of the same U.S. federal government octopus. That was the reason a recent medically scientific study of "smoked marijuana" for MS sufferers was commissioned:

Marijuana May Ease Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms. Posted by CN Staff on May 14, 2012 at 12:22:46 PT. By Amy Norton, New York. Source: Reuters http://cannabisnews.com/news/26/thread26962.shtml

Smoking pot for multiple sclerosis? Study finds it helps May 14, 2012|By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times/For the Booster Shots Blog http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/14/news/la-heb-marijuana-multiple-sclerosis-20120514 Excerpt: { "Forty-five minutes after smoking placebo or cannabis cigarettes -- provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse-- subjects were administered a test of muscle tone in the elbows, hips and knees, a walking-speed test, a pain inventory and a test gauging cognitive symptoms." }

NIDA provided the cannabis, surprisingly! That's why the researchers used cannabis cigarettes.

FDA-APPROVED DRUGS KILL A MILLION AMERICANS PER DECADE! THE FDA IS A ROGUE CRIMINAL AGENCY Jon Rappoport Infowars.com May 18, 2012.

Article here: http://www.infowars.com/hidden-in-plain-view-fda-murders-10000-a-year/

The last thing I want, the last thing I will accept is some drone trying to save me from myself. Why would I not listen to more educated, more knowledgeable people who do not pretend that cannabis is dangerous and want to profit from human ignorance. He says, no medicinal value? Even pretending that he is somehow saving people from themselves and a benign plant!

Neil Young - Unknown Legend

This link has many Neil Young songs after playing the Americana cut.

Also:

My post is what is always the trouble with broad generalizations. But I was only trying to make a statement, [as usual].

This terror is based not on the belief in Jesus but by pure evil in their souls. You can find these terrorists in all 50 states. There are just some places where it's worse than others.

We have report of a stolen car that matches this description and we will just need a minute a run a check. It this is not the stolen car in question we will let you go in a minute or two. So, while we are waiting for the report, do mind if we have a look in your car. They never take no for an answer.

Your chances are pretty good that you will be pulled over in Missouri if you have tags from another state, especially an MMJ state. It happens every single day. They will look for any reason they can to pull you over so drive the speed limit, don't tailgate, wear your seatbelt, use your turn signals when turning or changing lanes, make sure every light works including license plate light and be aware that in Missouri and many other states it is illegal to drive in the passing lane of a highway that has two or more lanes in each direction unless you are actively passing another vehicle. They use that last law, passed only in 2010, more than any other reason to get probable cause to pull you over.

There are three counties where it is an epidemic. Harrison, Saline and Callaway. Harrison is on Interstate 35 right at the Iowa border, and the other two are on Interstate 70. Saline county is about 50 miles east of Kansas City and about 10 miles north of Sedalia, and Callaway county is about 120 miles east of Kansas City and just to the east of Columbia. They'll also snag you in the boot heel on Interstate 55 from the Arkansas state line to around Cape Girardeau. However, it can happen to you in any county!

I know they have to be using dogs just like the terrorists in Oklahoma did to me. There's every reason to believe that this activity is coordinated and takes place in many other states. I know of a bunch of college students who were all pulled over and searched on I70 in Kansas after spending spring break in Colorado. It was solely intended to attack cannabis. Assume it WILL happen to you when you travel.

In Missouri, possession of under 35 grams of cannabis or synthetic cannabinoids (smoked incense) is a misdemeanor. You will also be charged with possession of paraphernalia if you have a pipe, vaporizer or papers. Rarely people are ticketed and released, but most times people will be thrown in jail.

Please be careful! Law enforcement aren't out to protect and serve, they're out to intimidate, terrorize and destroy.

I love surfing the web and how it can lead to very interesting things sometimes.

You may have heard about Paul Michael Glaser's getting busted in Kentucky.

I was reading about all that and one of the links I picked up on apparently led to his Facebook page. It is very interesting... the comments his facebook fans left. He's apparently left some comments, too.

Unless it's one of those facebook celebrity pages the celebrity has nothing to do with. It's interesting and relevant to the situation. He was arrested in Kentucky.

R.I.P. Donna and Robin

Bee Gees - I Started a Joke

Donovan - Colours http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EPfyID0nZ4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBDF04fQKtQ

Further, if I may parphrase Willie Nelson, I hope the judge is discovering that this wonder plant brings peace to friend and stranger and even further that this is salvation he is smoking and it's forgiveness will blow his mind.

Yes that site Hempworld posted. I don't think that's news that wasn't reported. That was someone's two cents worth about a lot of stuff. And it seemed so negative, harsh, judgmental, hateful, defeatist, and condescending... I knew I didn't need it!

You probably don't either, Hempworld.

But now he will be singled out and 'punished' to set an example across USA.

http://www.nycourtsystem.com/applications/judicialdirectory/Bio.php?ID=7023088

I think he will get "In trouble". He'll be drug tested and removed from the bench. Maybe punished. Maybe not. He's not likely to ever get much of his pension or retirement.

Will Gustin L. Reichbach, Pot-Smoking Judge, Get In Trouble for Using Medical Marijuana? (UPDATE)

At this point he knows what it does to you, he must also realize how oppressive the recreational and industrial bans are.

Anyone who is politically savvy MUST realize that the reason medical cannabis is still illegal is because of the vested interests behind the larger prohibition on the plant.

***