Why Do People the Government Says Don't Exist Keep Writing Us?

According to the federal government, 53-year-old Deborah Palmer (not her real name) doesn't exist. A grandmother and former California corrections officer, Ms. Palmer suffers from chronic spinal pain (the result of a pair of botched back surgeries) and fibromyalgia. Because her body is allergic to opioid medications, she recently began using medical marijuana to obtain relief from her daily suffering. That is until federal and state law enforcement officials raided the California dispensary that provided her medicine.

"What am I going to do?" she lamented in one of our recent conversations. "If I have to live in this amount of pain 365 days a year without access to my medicine, then I'm not going to stay on this Earth very long."

Having worked in drug-law reform for decades, we personally know hundreds of patients like Deborah Palmer. Unfortunately, those in the federal government who oppose the therapeutic use of medical marijuana appear to be unaware of even one.

Speaking last month to the Associated Press, Tom Riley -- spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy -- launched into an all too common ad hominem attack against medical marijuana and those who advocate for its regulation. "There is a charade going on here," he charged. "[P]eople who are interested in drug legalization using genuinely sick people as pawns to get sympathy to get their agenda through."

This critique bemuses us. After all, we actually know medical marijuana patients -- yes, real live medical marijuana patients. We interact with them at conferences. We help them organize protests. Some of us lobby with them in Congress or the state houses. Others help coordinate their legal defenses when they've been arrested. Many of them are our friends and colleagues too. Sure, we also want legalization, not just for medical use. But while the drug war continues to rage, we desire to have the sick and dying taken off the battlefield. Who wouldn't?

Meanwhile, we keep getting these letters from the people that our government claims don't exist.

"I have had multiple sclerosis and a seizure disorder for 13 years now. I tried treating my disease the legal way and just got sicker and sicker - to the point of staying in bed all day. Then I tried marijuana, and it's like a wonder drug for me! I do not get high from the marijuana; it helps relax my muscles and takes the spasms away. Not to mention it's the only way I have an appetite to eat anything. How could someone tell me, 'no medical marijuana for you?'"

"Six years ago I was literally struck down with fibromyalgia. I simply couldn't get out of bed one morning. I crawled versus walking most of the time as it was less painful. I was of no use to anyone, including myself. I also had no appetite whatsoever. I lost 20 pounds in a matter of weeks, leaving me a frail 100 lb 50-year-old. My husband thought maybe marijuana might help with my appetite, so he 'scored' some for me. It not only restored my appetite, it also took a lot of my pain away. It makes me sick to think we both could [be] arrested. When is this country going to wake up?"

"I am a six-year ulcerative colitis patient who quit all prescribed medicines and only took to cannabis. It worked faster and more effectively than standard medications and had fewer side effects. Now I can't have cannabis for job purposes and my symptoms are returning."

"I have Crohns disease. I do not smoke anymore because I'm afraid I could lose my job. My health has suffered because of quitting and I have suffered greatly. My own doctor has told me that cannabis can greatly benefit my disease, which has left me with the intestines of a 75-year-old person even though I am only 38."

"I've moved back home to a state that does not allow the medical use of marijuana, and it is very hard for me to find relief from my pain now. My doctor has increased my medications twofold, and I [still] do not get the pain control I had with [marijuana]. I just hope some day the government will stop demonizing a very useful tool."

"I am a highly qualified physician with years of experience in Africa and Asia, as well as seven years at the World Health Organization in Geneva. In 1991, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. I now have a serious form of the disease with marked rigidity, loss of balance and tremor. Medication has proved useless or worse. At present I take none. About ten days ago I tried marijuana. After a delay of several hours there was an amazing improvement. Rigidity and loss of balance were much milder. I 'got my body back,' and could do things that had been impossible for five years."

"I was recently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor inside the left the temporal lobe of my brain. I had surgery, and I've just started chemotherapy and radiation. The surgeon actually apologized for the fact that he could not write me a prescription for marijuana, but he told me it was safe to smoke. My prescriptions make me very dizzy and nauseous and I have ever-present headaches that top any of the worst hangover headaches anyone could possibly have. My brain is still so badly swollen. The swelling has actually gotten worse and is exacerbated by the radiation. Marijuana is saving my life right now; it has helped to kill my seizures, nausea, dizziness, and calm my headaches. If marijuana can help me with all my other problems in addition to possibly reducing the size of my tumor and extending my life, then why on earth would our government not allow me to have it?"

Despite the venom of Tom Riley and his ilk, this issue is not about us. It is about these real Americans, from all walks of life, who are desperately in need, and who are desperately seeking help and looking for answers. They deserve the freedom to manage their serious medical travails as best they can -- with medical marijuana, if that's what works best for them. At a minimum, they deserve an acknowledgement from the Tom Rileys of the world that they are alive -- and living in pain.

Perhaps to finally receive that, instead of just writing to us, they will need to confront those government officials who think so little of denying them legal access to a plant that can improve their health and well-being. Maybe then politicians and bureaucrats will stop cynically bashing "our agenda," and finally start responding to needs of the citizens it is their duty to serve.

Comments

[realitytrumpsbull]

I think they make pills that have the stuff in em that you can get from smoking dope...but you can grow your own dope if the cops leave you alone, but the slippery slope here is when you have people with giant 'legal' pot-grow operations that are 'doing it for a good cause' and next thing you know their freelance 'pharmacists' are distributing nationwide­...uninten­ded consequences, and all that.

I think also that you're going to live about as long as you're going to live, there's way too much money spent on healthscare as it is, and further, I wonder why they don't prescribe Laudanum for people with chronic pain. If you're screwed, healthwise, why suffer?

But, also, when medical marijuana becomes universally accepted, how hard will it be to become officially diagnosed with glaucoma?
Koff, koff...

[gettysburg]

When I first contracted fibromyalgia I used to think I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But it would be really sweet if Tom Riley and his ilk would be stricken and stricken bad. People with chronic pain conditions know all to well the anger and sometimes hatred it can produce. Tucker Carlson once had some very negative comments about Dr. Kervorkian.I think he's a saint. I'll bet the song these unfeeling bastards sing would be different if they or their children could walk a mile in our shoes. Please God, give the likes of Riley and Carlson a dose of my life.

[accountability]

I'm in 100 percent in agreement.

AND even if this woman could take opiates she may not be allowed to get enough of them.

Now doctors, even pain specialists are being prosecuted for "over prescribing" (in who's opinion I'd like to know?) They have their hands tied. They want to help their patients combat pain and can't, everywhere they turn they are being stopped.

I too have fibromyalgia. I have been on medicaid. The drug that is supposed to help is not permitted by Medicaid.

I stopped smoking years ago, before fibro due to just being uncomfortable with it. who knows maybe it would be different in counteracting pain.

Odd though, one of my brothers has it prescribed for depression. I'm so glad for him. He has battled depression for years and I guess this is helping.

[commonsenselives]

Excellent post, and spot on.

Why on earth should the greed of big pharma/textiles (hemp could easily replace cotton and other natural fibers) be put ahead of the comfort of truly sick people?

This is what happens when greed runs rampant and is backed by well-funded propaganda. Sad. Pathetic AND sad.

[oldpotsmuggler]

It was 78 when I had the pleasure of roaming around Thailand for awhile but I truly doubt that this would be any different now. We were using a car and driver, and detoured through some villages near a place the guide called “The Summer Palace”. The opium poppy fields in that area were particularly stunning.

We passed a little old man sitting in the shade on his porch. In the front yard were a couple of by far the largest pot plants I had ever seen. Trees really. These, however, were used only for seasoning food, and really didn’t have any potency. Interesting.

But what was really interesting is that we did stop and have a smoke with the old gentleman. I’m not sure where that was grown at, but suffice it to say that there was no shortage. Drugs are cheap and plentiful in Thailand, but they still have a societal prejudice against people just indulging at will. Except for old people that is. After they’ve raised their family, and virtually as a reward for a productive life, seniors are allowed to stay in oblivion for their remaining days if they choose. A little pot, a little opium, a little more pot, and that is just considered to be a part of the natural cycle of life. Kind of like here, except we pump the old timers full of stuff that doesn’t make them feel near as good, and that is not near as good for them. (Hell, why don’t we not only supply them all the weed they can smoke, but throw in a generous measure above that for income, and we would have the makings of some real social security reform.)

[baylaw73]

Damn straight! My friend has been advocating just this position for years. Vote at 18, drink at 21, smoke at 65. Sounds good to me!

[EricSterling]

The framers of the Constitution provided that if you were 25 years old, you were mature enough to serve in the House of Representatives, if you were 30, you could serve in the Senate, and if you were 35, you were mature enough to be President.

In the view of adult maturity and responsibility held by the framers of the Constitution, wouldn't a sick person who is 35 years old -- mature enough to be President -- be mature enough to decide for himself or herself whether he or she could smoke marijuana for a therapeutic purpose? Maybe even as young as 25, and old enough to serve in the House of Representatives?

[baylaw73]

This is a prime example of the corruption going on at the Federal level. There is absolutety NO reason to deny medicine to sick people. It's inhumane. The "war on drugs" is a money-making scam. It is backed by lies, bogus "science," and reactionary ignorance. I am so fed up, I'd even be willing to let big pharma have exclusive rights to cannabis (they get thier profits, people get their needed medicine) so as to let these folks have the relief they are morally entitled to.

[ADunafraid]

Big Pharma controling it is the only problem which isn't really one. Any idiot can grow marajuana. There is a reason they call it weed. Because of that someone can't make money off it.

[fredamae]

it isn't just the pharmaCo's, its the liquor industry, beer/wine, Law Enforcement budgets, drug testing manufacturers and administrators, the drug rehab facilities, lobbyists and the politicians they serve. without the "perks" from lobbyists for all these big business/c­orps/orgs, would the politicians really give a rats behind? In the meantime, sick people are incarcerated and denied a medicine that is cheap and effective without harmful side effects by comparison to PharmDrugs! If cannabis was legal for medical use, it would SAVE billions FOR the Insurance industry!!! You would think, they would get on board with this.

CANNABIS HAS PROVEN EFFICACY TO THE POINT OF KILLING CANCER CELLS. It is a CANCER PREVENTATIVE! why are the people not outraged?
Approx $85,000,000,000.00 EVERY YEAR of OUR tax dollars spent/wasted on the war on drugs! WHY?

[baylaw73]

I meant, legalize it and give pharma the exclusive right to produce and distribute. Look, I don't like that idea, but I'm desperate to get these folks the treatment they deserve, that's all. And with all other "drugs" remaining illegal, the issues raised by fredame below are addressed (in part).