My mom died in July of 1999, from pancreatic cancer; a mere five months after diagnosis, typical for this type of cancer; it shows up with little warning and moves very quickly.
My siblings and I banded together and took turns being with her for days at a time. I think the thing that was most difficult for me was the extreme discomfort and pain she experienced from the constant throwing up and nausea. We all learned early on to carry a plastic bucket and roll of paper towels when we left the house for doctors’ visits or to simply go for rides. She would sit in the passenger seat with the pail between her legs. Sometimes we would pull over to the side of the road so she could have a change of scenery while hanging out the door. I’m describing an attractive woman, who had always prided herself on looking like a million bucks, no matter how much money she didn’t have.
Rubbing her back as she hugged the toilet bowl, I grew frustrated and angry that the pill prescribed to alleviate this discomfort always ended up getting flushed. This pill was called Marinol, cost about $12 a pop, and wasn’t covered by insurance. Ironically, this alternative to the real thing, marijuana, is prescribed as treatment for nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy, when conventional medications for these symptoms fail.
For my mom, and many other critically ill people, this isn’t the case. Her cancer was in her digestive system, which couldn’t process anything anyway. It seems to me common sense that she wouldn’t be able to keep the pills down long enough for it to be effective.
Of course I knew there was a better way but mom was radically resistant to the idea of smoking pot. All the years she feared her “perfect” children were using drugs was hard to shake off. As I headed home to try to catch up with my own life, I was determined to score a few joints for her. Much to my surprise, younger friends of my Mom’s beat me to the punch. With much trepidation, she tried a few “puffs.” I have to admit it was actually quite comical to watch my mom, a cigarette smoker for years, stretch her head out the screen door, take a toke and try not to choke. It didn’t take her long to admit she did feel better. She could hold food down, wasn’t nearly as nauseous, and therefore wasn’t spending as much time on the bathroom floor or hanging out the car door. As things began to wind down for her, I think the only thing she’d acknowledge now, if she could, was the morphine was even better at relieving her distress.
That November, following mom’s death, I was grateful that Maine voters were progressive enough to approve a bill to recognize marijuana for medicinal use. Eight years later, while going to the polls to vote, I was met at the door with another very similar petition. What had happened? The answer to my dismay; not very much!
I guess I’m not surprised by the countrywide effort to restrict the use of marijuana as an alternative to its synthetic substitutes. Pharmaceutical companies can control and profit from the manufactured substance but cannot own the rights a living plant. The natural version is a major losing proposition for the medical field, manufacturers, and distributors because people can treat themselves using a substance not controlled by these corporations.
Question 5 on the November Ballot is The Maine Medical Marijuana Initiative. It clears up the ambiguity from the bill passed in 1999, which the organization, Maine Citizens for Patients Rights, admits was poorly written (mainepatientsrights.org). Despite Maine voters’ approval of a Medical Marijuana Law, there is still no legal ways to dispense the “natural” version to those who qualify to use it and doctors have their hands tied with laws that don’t allow them to legally prescribe it. The Initiative simply allows an alternative to the synthetic version, when natural ingredients are either preferred or is the best choice for the patient and the illness he or she is facing. Something many of us thought we were approving 10 years ago.
I’m supporting the Maine Medical Marijuana Initiative this November because I want to have the legal choice that my mom didn’t have. I don’t plan to be hugging a toilet bowl if life deals me a bad card and I think I should be able to do it, legally. I don’t know many people who, when facing a debilitating illness or in their final days, wouldn’t choose whatever gave them the safest, most reliable relief and more importantly, the most dignity. Please Vote YES on Question 5!
Sincerely,
Nancy E Teel
Farmington
Work Cited:
http://forum.grasscity.com/medical-marijuana/69100-marinol-vs-natural-cannabis.html
http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=18651&name=MARINOL
http://www.themarinol.com/marijuana-vs-marinol.php
http://exceptionmag.com/politics/perspectives/000711/case-maines-medical-marijuana-initiative
I will vote YES on Question 5. I think there are far too many restrictions on drugs, many of them maintained for reasons that have nothing to do with health.
I think the writer would make a stronger argument for her advocacy of smoking pot if she did not cite as a reference the forum of the legalize-all-drugs radical website grasscity.com…
….or you could vote no and patients would continue to feed the black markets. Mike what you fail to realize is there will be no “Winning the war on drugs”. .EVER!!!
“There are a lot of poeple who wanna talk about freedom, but when they see a truely free individual it scares them.”
Vote Yes on 5.