NH: Liz Kucinich Talks Drug Reform With 22-Year-Old MD Patient
Clayton Holton was scheduled to receive a visit from Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich Tuesday morning at his residence, the Riverside Rest Home in Dover, NH. At 22, Clayton is the youngest person ever admitted into a retirement home in New Hampshire, and Kucinich wanted to hear his story.
Unfortunately, Kucinich had to race back to Washington to vote against continued funding for the war in Iraq, so his wife Elizabeth came instead. Did Clayton, who suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, mind the substitution?
"She's beautiful," he told me on the way back to his room following a lengthy, intimate conversation with Mrs. Kucinich in the cafeteria.
Clayton got his first big taste of the limelight Oct. 6, when he encountered Mitt Romney following an "Ask Mitt Anything" event in Dover. The video was broadcast on CNN and all over the internet.
After explaining his condition and the relief he receives from marijuana, Clayton asked Romney a pointed question: "Will you arrest me and my doctors if I get medical marijuana prescribed to me?"
"I'm not in favor of medical marijuana being legal," Romney replied, and quickly escaped to shake hands with less instructive voters.
The encounter generated considerable discussion about medical marijuana policy nationwide. And that, of course, was Clayton's aim all along. He says he got involved with a campaign called Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana to change public opinion so that people like him all over the country could be helped by legal access to medical marijuana. Clayton's MySpace page, which showcases video from his encounters with Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Ron Paul, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani, is topped with a simple quote: "Making the world a better place."
Elizabeth Kucinich sat and listened for what seemed like an hour as Clayton told her his story. He said that although he only weighs 79 pounds, he is actually six feet, two inches tall. His genetic disorder, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, manifested itself in early childhood and robbed him of his ability to walk at age 10.
Losing the ability to walk had one positive consequence for Clayton: his stepfather stopped beating him and started ignoring him. As if his medical problems weren't enough, he describes his home life as "screwed up" and says he never had a real friend until he was 14 or 15.
Clayton first experienced serious painkillers at age 16 when his wheelchair was struck by a car. The doctors gave him Vicodin. "I blacked out for a day and a half, and I don't remember any of it," he explained.
Since then, Clayton says he has been prescribed every type of painkiller in existence. "They change who you are," he said. Since he is unable to use marijuana at the retirement home (he'd be exposing his caretakers to possible arrest), he has to use Oxycontin, but went without it Tuesday in order to be lucid for his expected meeting with the Congressman. "It makes me feel angry for no reason at all... I don't like being around people when I'm on it," he told the congressman's wife, echoing concerns voiced by chronic pain patients all over the country.
Soon after the wheelchair accident, Clayton tried marijuana as a substitute for Vicodin. The effects were entirely positive. Clayton was able to dramatically reduce his intake of painkillers, and as an added bonus, he found that marijuana took the edge off his anxiety and depression, stimulated his appetite, and helped him maintain a healthier weight.
That is, until recently. Clayton checked into Riverside Rest Home a few months ago when his mother chose to stop taking care of him. There was nowhere else for him to go. Without access to marijuana, his weight is down along with his spirits. Now he is a young man with an 89-year-old roommate, an expressionless gentleman who sat immobile listening to a very old set of headphones as I visited their room following the interview. But Clayton is a man with a cause, and Elizabeth Kucinich, for her part, is quite convinced.
"You are a real lesson to everyone out there who has no illness, who has no disease," she told Clayton.
As the conversation came to a close, the congressman's wife signed Clayton's copy of her husband's book and assured him she would make arrangements for him to attend their New Year's Eve Party in Manchester.
After the chat, I spoke briefly with Mrs. Kucinich. "He's such a courageous man," she told me. She also praised Clayton for understanding that although politics can be ugly, "engaging in the process is the only way to change the policies."
Clayton is happy with the attention he has been able to draw on the internet, but he told Mrs. Kucinich the real attention should be on the fact that the DEA is still conducting raids on medical marijuana patients: "There's more information about me than the raids that are going on... that's not right."
But still, his biggest fear isn't that he'll wind up in a jail cell.
"I'm just worried we're gonna end up with Romney," Clayton confessed to Mrs. Kucinich. "The man's on a power trip."
(As we chatted back in his room, Clayton asked me to publish his email address: clayton.holton@yahoo.com. He also asked me to communicate the fact, obvious to visitors, that a retirement home is no place for a young man who needs to keep his spirits up. "I really need a family," he told me.)
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The FIRST thing that must be done is to have the scientists see if marijuana is properly classified as a CLASS 1 Narcotic. (I do not think that it is)
I think that if it was classified correctly, most of the legal arguments would fall away.
Notice that Mitt asked him if he had used the synthetic marijuana?
Of course, it caused him bad side effects, as do so many of the synthetic engineered drugs. That is because they alter them so they can patent them and make more PROFIT from them. But, by altering them, they have changed them into something else entirely.
That has been done with hormone replacement therapy that treats menopausal symptoms. I tried the synthetic types, which were horrible with all kinds of side effects, then found the bioidentical ones that come from natural ingredients and did perfectly fine.
Of course, the bioidentical hormones are put together by my pharmacist just for me, not the corporatist drug companies, so the corporatists hate it. Cutting into their profits, you see. In fact, one tried to stop pharmacies from being able to do that, trying to force those like myself to use their synthetic poisons instead. Fortunately it did not work, because so many of us protested.
That is how it works. They take something that is great, with few side effects, then change it so they can patent it and charge huge amounts of money. Because it is altered, it causes many side effects, so people to have to take MORE drugs to counteract those side effects. That's how people end up taking all kinds of drugs and becoming cash cows for the pharmaceutical companies. It's a scam, as usual!
Obviously Mitt is in on it, and getting funds from the corporatists running the drug companies.
Bob Marley said, "Herb is the healing of the nations"
For you Rightwingers (on the huffpost???) "God gave us all the plants and herbs to use"
Joe Biden and Charles Rangel have been HUGE supporters of the drug war.
P.S. Why are some so dismissive towards Dr. Paul? Do you fear a politician that tells the truth more often than not?
Marijuana should be legalized. The continued criminalization of its use is a complete waste of taxpayer money, and to interfere with its use for medical purposes is both unethical and immoral.
Oh yeah, to state the obvious, Dennis Kucinich is one lucky man.
Despite the media's almost total blackout, Kucinich has a healthy following.
Once people find out what he stand for and who he is - something the media has worked very hard to keep from happening - they get very excited about him and what he can offer the country.
Below are some links for anyone interested in finding out more about the man who has stood against the war from the start and who had the courage to offer articles of impeachment - HR333.
Judy Woodruff on PBS is interviewing all the candidates from both parties. Here is her converation with Kucinich. http://www
Excellent articles about him:
http://www
http://www
From the Atlantic Free Press, http://www
And here's a piece by Studs Terkel that was in
The Nation: http://www
and another one at http://www
Gore Vidal on Kucinich: http://www
I think the Federal Government should focus on problems more critical than marijuana, medical or otherwise ... violent crime, for example, corruption in its ranks, poverty, global warming, senseless war, and concentrate on "peace on earth" for the now generic "holiday season". But, I'm just a silly old grandmother tired of the nonsense.
Independent vote a key factor in NH, 28 other states
Democratic Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich, who has been the runaway winner in polls of the Party’s progressive, grassroots base in recent weeks, scored a landslide win yesterday by capturing almost 77% of the vote in a nationwide poll sponsored by a coalition of Independent voting groups across the country.
Of the more than 80,000 votes cast for Democratic candidates at http://www
http://www
Someday medical marijuana will be legal, but it may come too late to help young people like Mr. Holton. Since people have such a hard time changing their views, I imagine it will have to wait until the older people have all passed on. I knew a woman who died of cancer, but her daughter was able to buy some marijuana for her to help with the nausea. I cannot imagine denying a sick person something as innocent as marijuana if it makes them more comfortable. I tried it a long time ago, and I hated it, but I guess a lot of people find it useful.
I would like to think that Mr. Holton's Mom "gave up" on him so he could qualify for the nursing home, but the article sure doesn't read that way. We can only hope that someday scientists are able to come up with a cure for MD.
http://www
Ah? Sorry? Drug reform??? Oh! I'm sorry, I was got lost in the depths of those beautiful baby greens... : )
This young man needs either Paul or Kucinich to win. Either one would be a breath of fresh air. If Hillary or Romney wins we'll be seeing more of the United Snakes of Generica. If Guliani wins, it'll be the United Shakes of Hysteria.
So this has to be Medicaid, it seems to me. He ain't getting a nursing home for free, and there was no mention of a job.
For what it's worth, I can goddamned well guarantee you that you could fly him down to Jamaica and pay a Rasta Man to feed him, keep him high, and shelter him from the rain for much less than we're spending now. Or make it Thailand because they have opium to go along with some great buds.
Or just get him the weed and the O and let him be homeless in a warm place like Miami. Be better than where he's at now.
Or just legalize and let him do what he wants where he wants.
But that makes too much sense.
meant to say medical problem and not CRIMINAL one.
This idea that the US is under attack from drugs is insane.
Americans are waking up to this myth.
Any doctor in the country would tell you this is a medical problem and not a social problem.
We dont throw drunks in jail.
We get them help.
Why do this to the pot smokers?
No sense what so ever.
Things will change if my candidate makes it in office, I can promise you that.
Liz Kucinich is amazing.
I hope someone prints the name of his mom and stepdad
They sound like Republicans to me.
Those people need some national-level exposure.
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