cannabisnews.com: Patient Touts Benefits of Medical Marijuana





Patient Touts Benefits of Medical Marijuana
Posted by FoM on April 11, 2001 at 13:32:58 PT
By Kevin Murphy, Leader-Telegram Correspondent
Source: Leader-Telegram 
Jacki Rickert says smoking marijuana saved her life. So she asked a legislative committee Tuesday to legalize pot for patients under a doctor's care.Rickert, of Mondovi, said nausea and other side effects from medications she takes for two incurable conditions caused her weight to slip to 68 pounds before she began smoking marijuana several years ago. 
Cannabis helped her regain her appetite and about 30 pounds and enabled her to tolerate the medicine she needs for her ailments, which include Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and a degenerative bone marrow condition, she said.Rickert, who rolled her wheelchair from Mondovi to Madison in 1997 in support of increased medical use of marijuana, was one of five people invited to address the Assembly State Affairs Committee in anticipation of legislation to be drafted on the subject.After Demerol, morphine and synthetic forms of marijuana's active ingredient severely irritated her stomach lining or caused breathing difficulties, Rickert asked her physician about marijuana therapy.After three years of study, her now-deceased doctor told Rickert it was the "safest ... of any possible medications."Rickert was one of a few dozen people nationwide to be accepted into a marijuana therapy program, but the program was snuffed out before she received any.Rickert's doctor never was able to get complete clearance to prescribe marijuana for her."It was the first time in 35 years someone didn't honor his prescription," she said.So Rickert has turned to other sources for marijuana, which she calls "a God-given herb.""Be open-minded," she told the committee, "because tomorrow it could be you or your children in need of relief, and there's something out there that can help you."However, Rickert's testimony was sharply contradicted by Dr. Michael Miller, speaking on behalf of the Wisconsin Medical Society. Miller urged the committee not to "get ahead of the science." Although research has shown that pharmaceutical versions of marijuana's active ingredient have some medicinal benefits, smoked marijuana has none, Miller said.Until valid and accepted medical research demonstrates that the benefits of smoking marijuana outweigh its potentially consequences, the drug should not be legalized in Wisconsin or elsewhere, Miller said."Marijuana is not a benign drug. Addiction to marijuana can and does occur. Dysfunction and disability do result. Families can be destroyed by cannabis addiction," he said. "The risks of legalizing smoked marijuana are great, and the medical evidence of its benefits is lacking."Gina Dennik-Champion, executive director of Wisconsin Nurses Association, agreed that the medical benefits of smoked marijuana have not been thoroughly tested, but she said marijuana has been successfully used to alleviate a variety of discomfort for generations."There are some health care providers, including RNs, who sometimes suggest the medical use of cannabis to their patients," Dennik-Champion said. "Unfortunately, they will rarely document their advice so as to protect their license to practice ... (or) to protect the patient."She said research by the Institute of Medicine found marijuana to have a low potential for abuse and addiction. The same report also said there was no evidence that marijuana use could lead to other more serious substances such as heroin.Marijuana is used for therapy around the world, and a review of medical literature shows there is no reason for the continued prohibition against its medical use, she said.Political pressure has suppressed most studies designed to determine the medical benefits of smoked marijuana, said Gary Storck, director of a Madison-based medicinal marijuana advocacy group."The government has known that pot shrinks tumors, that it lessens glaucoma's effects, but there are political considerations working against it," Storck said after the hearing. "There's evidence that marijuana has been used for thousands of years in various treatments; no drug has been studied that much."State Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, said legislation to legalize marijuana for medicinal use would be finished in about a month, the second time since 1996 that he has sponsored it.Similar laws have been passed in eight other states and are pending in 15 more, he said.Note: Legislation expected to be drafted.Murphy is a free-lance writer based in Madison. Tim Stein, the Leader-Telegram's assistant local news editor, can be reached at: tim.stein ecpc.comSource: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram (WI)Author: Kevin Murphy, Leader-Telegram CorrespondentPublished: April 11, 2001Copyright: 2001 Eau Claire PressContact: leadertelegram ecol.netWebsite: http://www.leadertelegram.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Is My Medicine Legal Yethttp://www.immly.org Drug Policy Forum of Wisconsinhttp://www.drugsense.org/dpfwi/Medicinal Marijuana Debate Opens in Legislaturehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9333.shtmlCommittee Holds Hearing on Benefits of Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9326.shtml
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