Pubdate: Sun, 04 May 2003
Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
Copyright: 2003 Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Contact:  http://www.telegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/509
Note: only publishes letters from state residents.
Author: Dianne Williamson, Telegram & Gazette Columnist

CANNABIS USERS FACE DAILY FEAR

Marijuana Supporters Seek Understanding

It's hard to ignore the humorous aspect - the sniggering side - of efforts 
to legalize marijuana. A week before this city hosted yesterday's first 
"Cannabis Liberation Day" rally, I received a press release from organizers 
and called the person listed as the contact. Except that the man who 
answered the phone wasn't the organizer - his number was mistakenly listed 
with the contact's name.

"Her cell phone number got confused with my number," 22-year-old Yakov 
explained, rather fuzzily. "Things got mixed up while we were putting this 
stuff together." He later added that organizers tried to hold a similar 
rally last year, but failed to secure the necessary permits "in a timely 
manner."

Like, hey, go figure. Marijuana is blamed for many things, but it's never 
been accused of turning users into CEOs.

But the time and money spent by law enforcement to prosecute benign pot 
smokers is no laughing matter, especially when municipal budgets are 
busting and we're laying off cops. Nor is it funny that sick and dying 
people are denied access to medicinal marijuana, when voluminous anecdotal 
evidence shows it can ease a host of painful and debilitating symptoms.

Marcy Duda is a 42-year-old mother of four who lives in a three-bedroom 
ranch in Ware. She's suffered from severe migraines since she was 12. Five 
years ago, she underwent two surgeries to remove five aneurysms from her brain.

She still has the migraines, along with nerve damage from the surgery. Her 
doctors prescribed OxyContin, but the drug makes her nauseous. So about 
once a month, when she feels a migraine begin its excruciating dance behind 
her eyes, she smokes marijuana to relieve the pressure.

"I'm just trying to survive," said Ms. Duda. "There are times when these 
migraines come on, I wish I had a gun. It's like a hot ice pick is grinding 
around in my brain. When I smoke pot, at least it doesn't feel like my 
head's going to blow up."

If not for pot, she said, "I'd be hooked on OxyContin, and I don't want to 
be. When I take that, I feel drunk and like I want to vomit. I can't even 
drive to a lousy soccer game."

As the well-heeled drug wars sputter on, the real crime is that someone 
like Marcy Duda lives in constant fear of getting arrested in a society 
where marijuana prohibition causes more social damage than the drug itself. 
She said she doesn't keep pot on her premises and wisely declines to 
divulge her drug source, although one time her grandmother supplied it and 
"friends who love me" sometimes help out, she said.

Ms. Duda urged compassion when she spoke in 2001 before the state 
Legislature's Joint Committee on Health Care, if we can ignore the pun. And 
earlier last month, Beacon Hill held more hearings to consider the 
decriminalization of marijuana, after polls and referendums showed solid 
public support for removing marijuana from the criminal realm.

Meanwhile, law enforcement continues to treat pot smokers like Al Capone. 
Last month, police in the small town of Holland raided the home of a vocal 
advocate for pot legalization after citing in their request for a search 
warrant the man's recent letter to the editor and involvement in "pro 
marijuana rallies." After finding $850 and one-quarter of a pound of pot in 
the home, police charged David and Judith Bunn with possession of 
marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and violation 
of drug paraphernalia laws.

Mr. Bunn wasn't home at the time of the raid; he was in the hospital after 
undergoing stomach surgery. He said six armed police officers used a 
battering ram to burst into his home. One officer handcuffed his 
18-year-old son while four others "had their guns trained on my son's naked 
girlfriend as she stumbled across the floor to get her clothes," he said.

Mr. Bunn showed up at yesterday's rally in a wheelchair. Earlier last week, 
he told me he smokes marijuana to ease a breathtaking array of physical and 
psychological medical woes, including bipolar disorder, panic attacks, 
arthritis, asthma and a swallowing disorder.

He acknowledged he's been smoking pot for 34 years and has been arrested 
for it a half-dozen times. And if you question whether he really needs 
marijuana for medicinal reasons, the real question we should be asking is - 
who cares? Why is our cash-strapped government wasting time on this man?

"I'm a criminal in my own country and all I do is smoke marijuana in my 
home," said Mr. Bunn, 49, a board member of the Cannabis Reform Coalition. 
"The things that are done under the guise of this drug war make me sick."

Opponents of medicinal marijuana use the "slippery slope" argument, 
claiming that it opens the door to full legalization and leads to community 
breakdown, as if an influx of Twinkies and renewed interest in "Gilligan's 
Island" reruns would cause lasting social harm.

"I absolutely do not believe marijuana has any positive medical effects on 
people," said William T. Breault, chairman of the Main South Alliance for 
Public Safety, who acknowledged he has no medical training. "There are 
better, more effective drugs than lighting up a joint."

When I asked him to name one, he offered Marinol, an FDA-approved drug that 
contains synthetic THC, a component of marijuana. Marinol is well known to 
Ms. Duda - under her Mass Health insurance policy, it would cost her $2,080 
a month to use it.

If pot were legalized, she said, she'd grow 10 plants a year for free on 
her acre of land in Ware.

"I'm getting very frustrated with the Legislature," said Ms. Duda, a former 
home health aide who said she's seen sufferers of AIDS and multiple 
sclerosis benefit from marijuana. "I pay my bills and my taxes. I do 
everything I'm supposed to do as a parent. I'm not a criminal, but I'm 
always looking over my shoulder."

The New England Journal of Medicine has called on federal authorities to 
rescind their prohibition on the use of marijuana for seriously ill 
patients. And for those who would still deny Marcy Duda the means to ease 
her suffering, she issued a challenge.

"I'd tell them to put their feet in my shoes when I'm having one of my 
headaches and then tell me no," she said. "If it's still no, then these 
politicians don't give a crap about me."
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