Pubdate: Thu, 29 Jul 2004
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: The Windsor Star 2004
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Craig Pearson, Windsor Star
Cited: Detroit Medical Marijuana Initiative http://www.mmdetroit.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Detroit+Medical+Marijuana+Initiative

DETROIT TO WEIGH MEDICAL POT USE

DETROIT -- Rochelle Lampkin has become an unlikely advocate in a referendum 
campaign to allow the use of medical marijuana in Detroit.

The 45-year-old sufferer of multiple sclerosis, who uses marijuana to 
alleviate what she calls debilitating pain caused by the degenerative 
disease, does not aspire to political activism. She says she merely wants 
to be free of pain and is speaking out on the medical benefits of marijuana 
in advance of the Aug. 3 citywide referendum called Proposal M.

"I don't want sympathy, I just want to be able to fight for my quality of 
life," Lampkin said at her government-subsidized apartment where she takes 
a number of prescription drugs for the condition she has endured since her 
early 20s. "I've hurt so bad that I don't know my own name. Especially my 
eyes and my head. My legs are bad, too.

"My whole body feels like a charlie horse sometimes."

Lampkin says she has tried a number of prescription medications over the 
years -- with limited success.

But she said when MS caused her to go blind for almost a week five years 
ago, she left her reservations behind and decided to give pot a try.

She says pain subsides within five or 10 minutes after smoking a couple 
puffs of a joint, which she does every night during bad spells, and perhaps 
a few times a month when she's feeling relatively good.

"Smoking marijuana relieves the pressure so much it allows me to rest. You 
have to allow your body to rest. And if you are in excruciating pain, rest 
is truly not possible. Marijuana does not do to your mind what pain does."

If the Aug. 3 vote passes, Detroit would become the first city in the 
American Midwest to pass such a law, which worries antidrug forces. Ann 
Arbor faces a similar vote in November and supporters say local yes votes 
will encourage them to lobby lawmakers in Lansing to pass a similar 
resolution across Michigan.

One of the most vocal critics of the controversial initiative is Detroit 
councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi. Though she did not return several 
phone calls from the Windsor Star, Tinsley-Talabi recently criticized 
medical marijuana as a first step to wider drug use in an interview with 
the Detroit Free Press.

"I feel there would be horrible unintended consequences if it went through 
under the guise of medical marijuana," she was quoted as saying. "I think 
it would be hell for the city."

If the proposal passes, Detroit police officers would no longer be able to 
arrest anyone who uses marijuana on a doctor's advice, with a letter to 
prove it, although federal and state police would still be able to charge 
users with marijuana possession.

Since 1996, nine states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, 
Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington -- have allowed the use of medical 
marijuana, although U.S Attorney General John Ashcroft's office continues 
to prosecute medical marijuana cases.

One California case has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices are 
still deciding whether the federal government has the right to prosecute 
sick people who smoke marijuana on the advice of a doctor.

"We're expecting a yes vote," said Tim Beck, chairman of the Detroit 
Compassionate Care Coalition which landed the initiative on the Aug. 3 
ballot. "Anytime medical marijuana has reached a ballot anywhere in the 
country it has always passed."

Beck said the initiative makes sense to most people.

"The National Institute of Medicine, the New England Journal of Medicine, 
the American Nurses Association, the AIDS Action Council, and many, many 
credible medical organizations have overwhelmingly attested to the value of 
the medical use of marijuana. It is only the theological objections of the 
Bush administration that's preventing this."

[sidebar]

MEDICAL POT IN CANADA

The U.S. state-by-state system is in contrast to Canadian law, which in May 
1999 began allowing the medical use of marijuana -- through legal 
exemptions granted by Health Canada -- although many patients complain it's 
still too difficult to legally obtain cannabis.

"The Americans are actually moving further ahead with their medical 
marijuana programs than Canada at this point," said Brain Taylor, editor of 
the B.C.-based Cannabis Health Journal and former mayor of Grand Forks, 
B.C. "California has 75,000 people registered. Washington and Oregon have 
between 8,000 and 9,000. In Canada, we have now dropped below 800 patients." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake