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When Marijuana Helps the Ill |
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ByCristina Hernández*
Tierramérica
spoke with individuals who consume marijuana for medical purposes
in the U.S. city of San Francisco, where the practice is permitted
under local law.
SAN FRANCISCO - Soft music and tall tables
along the walls create a relaxed atmosphere at the Love Shack. The
customers are calmly engaged in conversation. It could be just about
any café, if it weren't for the fact that the tea, cigarettes
and cakes served here are made with marijuana.
Love Shack is one of the more than 30 medicinal
marijuana clubs in the San Francisco bay area, in the western U.S.
state of California.
It has some 100 people on its roster of patients
and offers marijuana (Cannabis sativa) in 10 different forms, with
prices ranging from 15 dollars per gram to 325 dollars for 28 grams.
The club's managers, Damian D. and Chris M.,
as they opt to identify themselves, told Tierramérica that
their objective is to provide a safe place for the patients so that
they do not have to turn to the streets to obtain marijuana.
To gain access to clubs like this and to avoid
arrest for drug possession, each customer has to have an identification
card from the Public Health Department, which requires, among other
things, a medical history and a prescription for marijuana consumption.
California is one of eight U.S. states with
laws that permit the use of the plant for medical purposes. In 1996,
California's Compassionate Use Act legalized the possession, use
and growing of marijuana for medicinal use.
Since then, however, there has been a constant
battle between the state and federal legal jurisdictions over the
matter.
The Federal Controlled Substances Act prohibits
the cultivation and consumption of marijuana. The White House and
the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) maintain that Cannabis sativa
is a dangerous substance due to its toxic components and psychotropic
properties, and that there is no rigorous scientific proof of its
medicinal value.
Despite the looming danger of being charged
with a federal crime (with penalties ranging from monetary fines
to life imprisonment), 30,000 Californians turn to marijuana to
alleviate pain or nausea associated with illness, reports the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
The plant, whose active chemical compound is
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), provides relief to the side effects
of some treatments for cancer and HIV/AIDS, and serves as a treatment
for glaucoma, as well as alleviating the pain of arthritis and multiple
sclerosis.
According to the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medicinal
Marijuana (WAMM), whose members are mostly chronically ill and grow
marijuana to distribute it to others like them, free of cost, the
"weed" mitigates nausea, epileptic seizures, insomnia,
lack of appetite and muscular atrophy.
"This patient can use four a five cigarettes
a day, which cost 400 dollars a month," says Jack, member of
the marijuana club Helping Hands Center, pointing out a man who
has multiple sclerosis and suffers constant tremors.
According to Jack, by controlling the shaking,
the patient achieves a sense of well being, allowing him to fight
off depression and dedicate himself to his passion: painting.
But marijuana consumption can have side effects,
admit its defenders.
A marijuana user might feel drugged, lack the
ability to concentrate and experience unfounded fears, according
to Ricardo Alvarez, director of the Clinica de la Esperanza, at
the Mission Neighborhood health center. The clinic, whose clientele
is mostly Latino, provides HIV/AIDS-related medical services.
"The patient needs a calm environment
and a state of tranquility. If he suffers paranoia, for example,
that feeling could be magnified by marijuana use," Alvarez
told Tierramérica.
Nevertheless, the physician believes that the
right of the patient to choose must be defended.
The experience with marijuana has been positive
for Marcos Deumetrious, 47, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1994.
Deumetrious works two jobs, exercises daily
and describes himself as energetic with a good attitude. "The
conventional medications didn't let me work. I'd fall asleep on
the bus. I couldn't get out of bed because of a nerve problem in
one leg. I started using marijuana and my energy came back,"
he said.
"I think the effect depends on the individual,"
he added.
The effects are nearly immediate when marijuana
is smoked, but take a half hour to an hour if it is eaten. Deumetrious
says this is an advantage because it allows him to easily manage
the dosage.
Although marijuana is banned under U.S. federal
law, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the medicine
Marinol, a synthetic compound of THC for treating cancer and AIDS.
But a bottle of 60 Marinol capsules costs 800
to 900 dollars. WAMM calculates that a year's treatment with the
government-approved drug would cost 30,000 dollars.
One of the country's leading pro-marijuana
activists, Ed Rosenthal, was recently tried by a federal court on
charges of growing more than 100 Cannabis sativa plants.
During the trial, the judge did not allow testimony
that Rosenthal grew the marijuana for a medical center in San Francisco.
He could face 5 years in prison.
And the marijuana controversy will rage on.
In response to the continued DEA raids on cannabis clubs, the citizens
of San Francisco approved "Proposition S", which won 63
percent of the vote in the November elections.
Under the statute, the local authorities
will be authorized to grow and distribute marijuana for medical
purposes. San Francisco would thus become the first U.S. city government
to provide the "weed" to the ill among its population.
* Cristina Hernández is a Tierramérica
contributor.
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