Glaucoma patient turns to marijuana 'to ease my suffering'

[grace]

Glaucoma patient turns to marijuana 'to ease my suffering'

by Denise Ford-Mitchell

The Saginaw News

29 November 2008

Saginaw News

http://www.mlive.com/saginawnews/news/inde...ns_to_mari.html

 

Unlike former president Bill Clinton, Charles H. Snyder III inhales.

 

On bad days, he heats up marijuana three times a day. On good days, it's less.

 

However, on bad days -- when the chronic pain from glaucoma and the rare genetic disorder Nail-Patella syndrome becomes unbearable -- the 31-year-old Genesee County resident sniffs more marijuana through an electric vaporizer.

 

"For seven years, doctors tried to find the right formula of pain pills to help me lead a more normal life," said the married father of a toddler daughter. "They never found the right combination or dosage amount that didn't make things worse. It's not about getting high. I'm not a thug. I'm trying to ease my suffering."

 

Snyder estimates he's one of approximately 50,000 Michigan patients struggling with chronic pain who rejoiced when citizens passed the controversial Proposal 1 in the Nov. 4 general election.

 

When the proposal takes effect Thursday, Michigan will join Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington in permitting medical marijuana to treat cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic pain and HIV/AIDS -- without fear of state prosecution.

 

Compassionate?

 

Snyder is a member of the Ferndale-based medical marijuana reform advocacy group Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care.

 

An unemployed construction worker, he began using marijuana after reading about the relief it provides. Absent or underdeveloped kneecaps and thumbnails characterize Nail-Patella, which causes bone, joint, fingernails and kidney abnormalities.

 

He began buying it seven years ago from "underground people I trust."

 

He uses a vaporizer to heat the drug to 356 to 392 degrees -- nearly the same temperature as baking a cake -- to release active cannabinoids, but below the point where the heat produces carcinogenic tars and noxious gases.

 

"There are less than 100 people in mid-Michigan that I'm aware of using marijuana for medical reasons, but who knows for sure, since people are afraid of being put through the ringer or arrested," Snyder said. "For me it's more important to have some type of quality of life, so the fear and danger involved with buying illegal drugs are worth it because I'm taking a more proactive role in my overall well being."

 

The proposal allows people to use and grow marijuana to treat certain medical conditions with a physician's authorization. However, users of the mind-altering drug -- also known as cannabis, weed, herb, maryjane, reefer, 'the chronic', pot and blunts -- must register with the state.

 

Once licensed, patients may possess 2.5 ounces or less of marijuana and cultivate no more than 12 plants in an enclosed, locked facility, according to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

 

A federal no-no

 

That's not the case federally, warns Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas.

 

"Proposal 1 is a state issue, there's nothing that will exempt medical marijuana users from federal prosecution," Thomas said. "The last I heard, our federal drug czar (John P. Walters) has not given up the ability to prosecute people and is very much against its use."

 

The Food and Drug Administration continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance having a high potential for abuse and no medicinal value -- making it illegal to possess or sell.

 

State police and Department of Health officials have an additional 120 days to create and implement rules regulating how doctors prescribe it, the distribution, patient use and issuing permits, Thomas said.

 

"The real irony is America has spent decades and countless amounts of money advertising how toxic cigarettes are and the dangers of second-hand smoke. From all of the information I've read smoking marijuana is 10 times more carcinogenic than tobacco," Thomas said.

 

Dr. Michael C. Cappelli, 45, agrees. The radiation oncologist at St. Mary's of Michigan Seton Cancer Institute, 800 S. Washington in Saginaw and Michigan State Medical Society board member has "mixed feelings" about the initiative's passage.

 

"I can't believe it passed," he said. "It's terrible public policy that can become a bridge to federal legalization. I'm in favor of relieving pain and suffering, but the problems, such as lung damage, associated with smoking pot will cause greater harm to public safety than any benefits. It also opens a Pandora's box for law enforcement."

 

However, Cappelli is staying open-minded.

 

"There are so many new legal drugs out there to work with there's no reason we shouldn't be able to find a legal medication that works. ... (My feelings) may change, especially if it's the only thing that will relieve a patient's chronic pain."

 

Glaucoma specialist and ophthalmologist Dr. Usha Bulusu, who has a private practice at 4705 Towne Centre in Saginaw Township has "mixed emotions" as well.

 

"I don't see a need for it," she said. "While it does reduce the painful pressure in the eyes of patients with glaucoma, it's not a suitable treatment because the effects only stay in the body for a limited amount of time and the best treatment should provide long-term, consistent management."

 

"There are no clear answers. Depending on the circumstances, it could be a good thing for those who really need it. Or it could create a channel for abuse ... and that's the problem."

[Nooby]

"The Food and Drug Administration continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance having a high potential for abuse and no medicinal value -- making it illegal to possess or sell."

 

Yet from another post, this from the very same U.S. dickwad Government.

 

"US Patent No.6630507 was issued on 7 October 2003. It has been kept hidden for five years, and it has only been the assiduous work of people trying to get marijuana legalised for medical use that has uncovered this. The application went in on 2 February 2001. Here is the abstract:

Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of a wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present in vention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH3 and COCH3.

The inventors—and I dislike that word because it is like a version of plant-variety rights—are: Hampson, Aidan J.; Axelrod, Julius; and, Grimaldi, Maurizio. The assignee is the United States of America, as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services. So, the US government knows the medical value of this substance.

I want to read also—this is quite extensive, but worthwhile hearing—the definition of oxidative associated diseases. These are some of the things with which cannabis can deal.

`Oxidative associated diseases ' refers to pathological conditions that result at least in part from the production of or exposure to free radicals, particularly oxyradicals , or reactiv e oxygen species. It is evident to those of skill in the art that most pathological conditions are multifactorial , and that assigning or identifying the predominant causal factors for any particular condition is frequently difficult. For these reasons, the term 'free radical associated disease' encompasses pathological states that are recognised as con ditions in which free radicals or ROS contribute to the pathology of the disease , or wherein administration of a free radical inhibitor, scavenger or catalyst is shown to produce detectable benefit by decreasing symptoms, increasing survival , or providing other detectable clinical benefits in treating or preventing the pathological state.

Oxidative associated diseases include, without limitation, free radical associated diseases , such as ischemia, ischemic reperfusion injury, inflammatory diseases, systemic lupus erythematosis, myocardial ischemia or infarction, cerebrovascular accidents ( such as thromboembolic or haemorrhagic stroke ) that can lead to ischemia or an infarct in the brain, operative ischemia, traumatic haemorrhage (for example, a hypervolemic stroke) that can lead to CNS hypoxia or anoxia, spinal cord trauma, Down's syndrome, Crohn's disease, autoimmune diseases (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes), cataract formation, uveitis, emphysema, gastric ulcers, oxygen toxicity, neoplasia, undesired cellular apoptosis, radiation sickness and others.

The present invention is believed to be particularly beneficial in the treatment of oxidative associated diseases of the CNS because of the ability of the cannabinoids to cross the blood brain barrier and exert their antioxidant effects in the brain. In particular embodiments, the pharmaceutical composition of the present invention is used for preventing, arresting or treating neurological damage in Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and HIV dementia, autoimmune neurodegeneration of the type that can occur in encephalitis, and hypoxic or anoxic neuronal damage that can result from apnea, respiratory arrest or cardiac arrest and anoxia caused by drowning, brain surgery or trauma such as concussion or spinal cord shock.

What is interesting about that list is that many of those illnesses, symptoms and conditions that I have just read out that this patent recognises can be treated with the use of cannabinoids are exactly the conditions that the people who are trying to get medical marijuana are treating when they can get hold of the cannabis to treat those symptoms. To tell us that the science is not there is totally inaccurate."

 

 

Busted!

[Dragonfan]

"For seven years, doctors tried to find the right formula of pain pills to help me lead a more normal life," . . . "They never found the right combination or dosage amount that didn't make things worse. It's not about getting high . . . I'm trying to ease my suffering."

. . . since people are afraid of being put through the ringer or arrested . . . it's more important to have some type of quality of life, so the fear and danger involved with buying illegal drugs are worth it because I'm taking a more proactive role in my overall well being.

Dr. Michael C. Cappelli . . . radiation oncologist . . . has "mixed feelings" . . . he said "It's terrible public policy that can become a bridge to federal legalization. I'm in favor of relieving pain and suffering, but the problems, such as lung damage, associated with smoking pot will cause greater harm to public safety than any benefits . . .

"There are so many new legal drugs out there to work with there's no reason we shouldn't be able to find a legal medication that works . . . . (My feelings) may change, especially if it's the only thing that will relieve a patient's chronic pain."

Glaucoma specialist and ophthalmologist Dr. Usha Bulusu . . . has "mixed emotions" as well.

"I don't see a need for it," she said. "While it does reduce the painful pressure in the eyes of patients with glaucoma, it's not a suitable treatment because the effects only stay in the body for a limited amount of time and the best treatment should provide long-term, consistent management."

"There are no clear answers. Depending on the circumstances, it could be a good thing for those who really need it. Or it could create a channel for abuse . . . and that's the problem."

The above are the most salient points of that article, to me . . . and it makes me so cranky! This man is just one of hundreds of thousands who live in pain on a daily basis because Marijuana is illegal . . . and he's having to break the law to relieve his pain, to take some control of his own life, to have some quality to his life . . . shouldn't we all be allowed this basic human right?

Then of course you get the Quacks comments . . . "There are so many new legal drugs out there to work with . . . " except 'legal' drugs are just pharmachemicals and for many of us are far more detrimental than helpful . . . and I have to laugh at an opthalmologist saying she doesn't SEE the need for it, I'd like to whack her in the back of the head! Except for her final comment, ". . . it could be a good thing for those who really need it . . ." well we all KNOW it's a good thing we just need the rest of the world, the lawmakers, law enforcers and pollies to wake up . . . if they were in this guys shoes, what would they do I wonder?