"I did it because I am on all these narcotics through the VA. The narcotics tear your liver up ... "

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... For more about veterans and marijuana use ... including the VA's new policy on medical marijuana ... use our search engine ... here ...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=marijuana&op=and

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Medical marijuana: Patients laud benefits of controversial drug

By Marla Miller | Muskegon Chronicle

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/201
0/02/stirring_the_pot_patients_laud.html

Air Force veteran Brian Martin served his country in undercover operations in Vietnam.

He survived two shootings in the line of duty as a deputy and a stabbing as a corrections officer in Florida.

He has had open heart surgery and repeated strokes, and attributes many of his health issues, including diabetes, glaucoma and kidney problems, to Agent Orange exposure. He also is battling cancer in various parts of his body and takes pills for pain, blood pressure and depression, among other things.

“Come on Michigan, get on the ball,” he said. “Don’t look at the bad side, look at the good it can do.

“My eye pressure is gone and I don’t have the tearing and watering in my eyes. I did it because I am on all these narcotics through the Veterans Administration. The narcotics tear your liver up and the drops they gave me don’t do nothing.”

Martin, who lives near Rothbury, is one of nearly 8,000 people in Michigan to obtain a medical marijuana registry user card since the Bureau of Health Professions at the Michigan Department of Community Health began issuing them in April.

The department has a backlog of applications and is processing valid ones received in early November, said James McCurtis, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Community Health.

The Michigan Medical Marihuana Association does not track applications on a per-county basis at this point, he said. Program officials did not estimate how many applications might be received in the first year, but McCurtis is not surprised by the interest.

“It’s something the people voted for and something they wanted,” he said.

‘One of the safest drugs on Earth’

Although the people wanted it, they are finding it difficult to locate doctors willing to recommend them for medical marijuana. Many have turned to doctors from other areas who organize clinics throughout the state for patients seeking a doctor’s approval.

Martin and Nigel Douglas are two of them. They both obtained a user card through Robert “Bix” Kenewell, who runs Clinic for Compassionate Care in Troy but travels statewide to see and certify patients. Kenewell did not return several calls to his office.

At 28, Nigel Douglas has dealt with pain and limited mobility in his legs for his entire life. Born with cerebral palsy, his physical problems worsened after being hit by a car at age 14. The accident cracked three discs in his lower back.

While attending culinary school in Chicago, he fell and fractured his ankle and never received proper treatment.

Even though Douglas said he feels like a 90-year-old man when he wakes up, he does not complain about his health problems. He does not want pity or prescription pills to deal with the pain. He prefers to use medical marijuana and cannot wait for the day when it is socially accepted.

“If the doctor has common sense, they know there’s nothing wrong with it,” Douglas said. “Marijuana is one of the safest drugs, if you will, on Earth, yet everyone is against it.”

Tired of taking so many narcotics, Martin began investigating medical marijuana in the summer. He approached his doctor about recommending him for a user card and the doctor tried to prescribe more pills, he said.

Now that he is a registered user, Martin’s biggest problem is finding a steady supply of marijuana, especially of the strain to treat glaucoma. Martin favors cooperative grow operations or dispensaries so patients have easier access to their medicine.

In places such as California and Colorado, where medical marijuana has been legal for years, dispensaries and cannabis stores have become commonplace.

In Michigan, the law allows a registered patient to grow up to 12 plants for personal use, or they can assign those rights to a caregiver. Caregivers can cultivate marijuana for up to five patients, for a total of 60 plants. The total rises to 72 if the caregiver is also a patient.

One downfall with the current law is that users and caregivers are afraid to grow plants in their home due to the risk involved, Martin said.

“It’s kind of rough because it puts their homes in jeopardy,” he said. “Nobody wants to touch it, nobody wants to get into it.”

‘I believe I would go to jail’

Katie, 28, of Whitehall, has looked into applying for a patient user card, but she is scared of all the unknown legal ramifications. Living in a small town, she is not convinced law enforcement would leave her alone and not monitor her home if her husband became her caregiver and they started growing marijuana plants.

“Even if I was a card carrying medical marijuana user, do I believe I would not be arrested? No. I believe I would go to jail,” she said.

Katie, also leery to use her last name because of her family’s business, said she and her husband are regular people who attend church and her sister’s school sporting events.

She started having recurring outbreaks of the painful condition shingles about seven months ago. Her family physician prescribed Darvocet and then wanted to give her the powerful fentanyl patch, which can lead to dependence and in some cases death.

“The rate of addiction is astronomically high,” she said of Fentanyl. “And Darvocets are another really heavy duty drug. I could not function, I was tired. After three months I stopped taking them and I was sick, I was becoming addicted.”

Her 89-year-old grandmother, “a very conventional old Polish lady,” even used marijuana to relieve arthritis pain after hearing about it on CNN, she said. It was around the time Michigan voters approved medical marijuana.

“She medicated with it and felt pretty darn good,” Katie said. “It helped her arthritis and helped her gain weight. She asked her doctor about it, and her doctor laughed at her.”

Her grandmother died a year ago and Katie and other family members took care of her at home in her final weeks. Hospice workers gave them liquid morphine, which they administered orally to help alleviate her pain.

“It made her vomit and she said ‘it makes me feel funny,’” she said. “It was just really tough on all of us. Morphine is serious business, and marijuana is a natural substance. God put it here.”

‘Go get yourself educated’

Like Martin, Douglas said his long-time family doctor declined to help him apply for a medical marijuana user card so he sought out Kenewell of Clinic for Compassionate Care. Kenewell came to the area in September and gave Douglas the recommendation and he received his card last fall. Douglas has since referred more than 100 people to Kenewell.

A graduate of Reeths-Puffer High School, Douglas moved back to the Muskegon area in 2006. He told his regular doctor he smoked marijuana to medicate prior to the passage of medical marijuana legislation. His doctor said he was willing to give him a recommendation, until the time came to actually do so.

Douglas does not like the side effects or addictive qualities of many painkillers on the market.

“It’s not for me,” he said of the pills. “My doctor told me to go to the pain clinic and get on liquid methadone or OxyContin. That’s one of the big things about this. People die off that stuff. That’s acceptable but using marijuana is not. It’s really unfair from the medical perspective.”

Douglas stopped taking his prescriptions and relies on marijuana to alleviate pain and help him sleep. He does see concerns with the current medical marijuana law as far as patients using marijuana along with prescription medication and not telling their doctors.

A culinary school graduate and past sous chef, Douglas currently works as a line cook at a local restaurant. He also has a young daughter and considers himself an upstanding citizen.

He chose to elect a caregiver to grow the marijuana for him due to safety concerns for his daughter and recommends people develop a legal, binding contract.

“You really have to find someone you know and trust,” he said. “Do your homework before you sign over those rights.”

Douglas is tired of the fact people can talk about all the prescription medicine they take, but if he brings up medical marijuana, he sees the stares of judgment and gets labeled a “pot head.”

“I just wish the general public did not look down on this,” he said. “Go get yourself educated on the topic, don’t just pass judgment on everybody.”

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