" It should be up to a patient and their doctor, to assess the benefits and weigh the risks concerning the use of medical marijuana, without fear of prosecution ".
Our goal is to provide new ideas and viewpoints on an ever growing issue. I hope that those in the know and those that want to know can find a common ground on an issue that can have such a impact on medical patients in the State of Michigan.
I absolutely support protecting Michigan’s medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail for using their doctor-recommended medicine.
There are legitimate patients all around our Michigan, with many
different forms of debilitating ailments. AID'S, MS, Cancer and such.
The diagnosis of which rarely ever includes a cure. Symptoms like
chronic pain, nausea, wrenching muscle spasms and the like make these
afflictions just a little less than your own private hell. The
medications available to alleviate these symptoms each comes with it's
own price. Addiction, severe intestinal disorders, risk of stroke and
possibly even death, all that and with the high price of medications to
boot! None are as effective or as benign as cannabis.
I myself have Degenerative Disc disease and have had 3 of my lower vertebrae fused together. I live with chronic pain and severe spasms and no end in sight. My Doctor told me I have the back of a 90 year old man who has done a hundred sit-ups every day of his life. I am not that old, although I do feel like that 90 year old man. I watched my mother ate up from the same thing until eventually her head slipped unto her chest. That didn't kill her, eventually the cancer she fought for the better part of 20 years won out. I watched her go through addiction to pain killers and the side effects thereof, she almost died from the methadone prescribed to her, twice. It was not a pretty end to her life. There was a better way. A more dignified way. I myself have been offered Opiate therapy and Oxy-Cotin, both I refused because of the high addiction rates and the side effects. It's trading one bad thing for another.
I have been on the "legal" alternatives. With them I have experienced addiction, the withdrawals thereof, chronic constipation, nausea, hypersensitivity, the relief is only temporary and the amount of chemicals you have to keep in your body is frightening. I have used these nerve pills ( Neurotin) designed for seizures, those didn't do anything and they come with the risk of causing seizures ! Yay. Something new to deal with. No thanks!
"If Marijuana was discovered
tomorrow in some remote jungle it would be touted as a miracle cure."
Medical organizations largely agree. The American Nurses Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the American Public Health Association, and the AIDS Action Council, among many others, all support protecting patients from arrest. And earlier this year, the American College of Physicians – the second largest physician group in the U.S. – released a position paper which cites “marijuana’s proven efficacy at treating certain symptoms and its relative low toxicity†and “strongly urges protection from criminal and civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.â€
"The
most damaging effect of using medical marijuana is prison"
I personally would like the freedom to pursue relief from my condition in my own way, without fear of prosecution. I believe it is my right as a human and a patient. Nobody except I and my family know what I go through, nor do they know what they would do in a like situation. I relate my situation to being adrift in an ocean, and you come upon a island and it's covered with no trespassing signs. What would you do?
Read about the initiative at The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care ( http://stoparrestingpatients.org ) and see for yourself it's not designed as a self-serving platform for legalization.
Most everyone knows or has known someone who has such a life altering ailment. For that person, take the time to inform yourself on such an important issue as legalizing Marijuana for Medical use.
Mike
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