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Faulking Around - Jun 6, 2005 - Printable Version
- Winning the War on Drugs.....One Cancer Patient at a Time
by Mark Faulk
As my father lay dying from cancer just over two years ago, he dealt with many of the same symptoms that all cancer patients contend with - nausea (from the chemotherapy), constant pain, an inability to sleep, and of course, the understandable depression that accompanies the knowledge that your days are not only numbered, but you have a pretty good idea what that number is, and it only has two digits. His doctors (that "dedicated" bunch at the Veteran's Administration Hospital) tried a number of medications, including morphine and valium, both of which basically turned him into a zombie, and still couldn't effectively control his symptoms. Then, he tried another medication. Miraculously, this one worked. He was alert, his nausea disappeared, his depression subsided, and it even eased his pain......all without the zombie-like side effects that the "hard drugs" gave him. It was also the least harmful of all the drugs available, and incredibly, wasn't even physically addictive, unlike the narcotics that they had been force-feeding him for months.
Unfortunately for my father, this particular medication, although less dangerous and addictive than the vast majority of painkillers that are prescribed by the hundreds of millions every day, is illegal in most states.....even for those who need it to ease their pain while they are waiting to die from cancer, or, God willing, recovering from cancer after chemotherapy treatments.
And as of today, June 6, 2005, the Supreme Court has chosen once again to trample on the rights of the ten states where this medication is legally available by prescription, and on the rights of cancer patients, glaucoma patients, multiple sclerosis patients, HIV patients, and a host of others who could benefit from taking it.
What is this drug that is so heinous that the federal government wants to prosecute dying cancer and HIV patients as common criminals, instead of giving them the compassion and respect that they so deserve? And more importantly, why would they want to prosecute terminal patients when our streets are filled with drug dealers, junkies, crack heads, and meth addicts?
In an article from the Associated Press today, they put it this way: "Helping patients control pain and the nausea from cancer chemotherapy have been among the leading uses of medical marijuana. Such patients are likely to be affected by the Supreme Court's decision Monday allowing federal prosecution of sick people who use the drug, regardless of state laws."
Is there one person in this entire nation, straight or stoned, who can tell me why our Administration would want to waste our tax dollars, time, and efforts to prosecute sick people who are taking a medication that is legal in their own state, especially one that is less dangerous than any narcotic on the market, and the vast majority of other painkillers as well? Maybe if I smoked a joint right now, this apparent return to the era of "Reefer Madness" would make some kind of bizzaro world sense to me.
So.....it's okay that Newt Gingrich, Al Gore, and in his own doublespeak way, even our illustrious Commander-in-Chief have admitted to smoking pot (and I'm guessing that not one of them had a legal prescription for it), but it's not okay for those who really need it to have it prescribed by a licensed physician, even in the ten states where it's legal? It makes me wonder what the Supreme Court justices have been smoking (it's probably not weed, or the outcome would have been decidedly different).
As for my father's dilemma with the laws of our own conservative state of Oklahoma (where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, and some of the best homegrown weed in the country is grown) - he asked his VA doctor if he could prescribe marijuana for his nausea and pain, and told him that he had traded his valium for the weed he needed to conduct his own personal "drug trial". The doctor replied that he couldn't prescribe marijuana in Oklahoma (Morphine or Demerol? No problem.), but that he could prescribe 100 valiums a month, enough to put him into a permanent coma (or worse, if he took them all at once). And.....even though he couldn't legally prescribe the marijuana my father needed, whatever he did with the 100 valiums was his business. Illegal? Certainly. Compassionate? Without a doubt.
But that was two years ago. As of today, compassion has officially been declared illegal by the highest court in the land (no pun intended), and the federal government, has yet again chosen political demagoguery over the rights of our states and our private citizens......even those lying on their death beds.
"If I were you, I wouldn't tell your kids that you smoked pot unless you want 'em to smoke pot. I think it's important for leaders, and parents, not to send mixed signals. I don't want some kid saying, 'Well, Governor Bush tried it.'" ~George W. Bush
(Editor's note: As it turns out, we have, in fact, returned to the era of "Reefer Madness". A google search just turned up "Reefer Madness! the new 'hit' musical", which debuted on Showtime this April.)
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