Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jul 2013
Source: Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)
Copyright: 2013 Telegraph Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.nashuatelegraph.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/885
Author: Samantha Allen

Cannabis Care

MANCHESTER GRANDMOTHER FEARS GETTING CAUGHT FOR USING MARIJUANA

Editor's Note

New Hampshire is the 19th state to allow some form of medical 
marijuana. The Telegraph's six-day series, Cannabis Care, examines 
New Hampshire's therapeutic marijuana legislation and how the law 
will work, including who can get the drug, how much it will cost and 
what needs to happen before the first batch of marijuana is legally 
distributed in the state.

Inside her small apartment, Darlene Wilson looked over her various 
Native American artifacts and paintings that hung on the walls.

The daughter of a Huron native, the 59-year-old woman extended one 
slender finger as her eyes settled on an old photograph on her 
refrigerator. She and her ex-husband stood together in front of a 
"big rig" truck they operated in a family business fleet years ago. 
That was before Wilson learned she had developed the crippling 
condition chronic pancreatitis, and one of the few likenesses she has 
around that shows her at her healthiest.

"My average weight should be around 115 or 118. I'm down, I go 
between 81, 82 pounds," she said. "Each year I lose a little more, 
five to 10 pounds more each year. And of course, with it comes all 
other problems."

Wilson says the only thing she believes will save her life is legal 
access to marijuana for medicinal purposes, to fight off the pain and 
help her work up an appetite.

"I've been fighting for this cause for almost 18 years. I firmly 
believe in it," she said. "I have seen the effects of it helping 
people. I'd like more than anything before I leave this world to see 
it legalized for medicinal uses. I'm not pushing for recreation."

Wilson is a medical marijuana advocate with the group New Hampshire 
Compassion and she admits she uses marijuana occasionally now, 
because she said it helps her manage her pain, which includes extreme 
nausea and vomiting.

"When I can get it," she said frankly. "But I can't exactly. I'm 59 
years old. I can't exactly go out on the street, bothering young 
children for it."

Wilson says she has been living with pancreatitis for the last 12 
years, with cysts cropping up from time to time, but she said she was 
an advocate for the benefits of marijuana long before that. In her 
experience, it's the only way she can work up an appetite enough to 
put on some weight. She also uses an intrathecal pump connected to 
her spine internally that's filled with morphine and helps her manage 
her excruciating pain, though it doesn't always do the job.

She noted when she does obtain marijuana, she's extremely worried 
about getting caught. She stresses there are people just like her all 
over the state  they're patients, not criminals, she says.

"None of us want to be arrested," Wilson said. "None of us want to 
get into trouble. We've been struggling."

Rep. Donna Schlachman, D-Exeter, said now that the bill has been 
signed into law, it could take 18-24 months for the marijuana 
dispensaries to be set up with regulations and administrative rules 
handed down from the state Department of Health and Human Services. 
Those rules still have yet to be established.

Schlachman said there is no protection for a patient before these 
dispensaries are established. That's why she said she wanted the 
"grow your own" section included, but that has since been removed. 
Even after the bill was signed by the governor, some may still have 
to wait two years to get marijuana legally.

"You talk to these people, and you know that our policy with cannabis 
at the federal level is just not right," Schlachman said. "You don't 
have to hear so many personal stories to know there's something wrong 
with this picture that we're not allowing people to access this."

Wilson hauled electronics for the government for 14 years through her 
trucking operation. During her travels across the country, she would 
experience white-out blizzard conditions in mountain ranges and meet 
different types of people.

She tapped into her Native American heritage by visiting reservations 
and started to collecting authentic artifacts from her culture, only 
a fraction of which are still scattered around her one bedroom space.

She pointed to Marinol, a synthetic cannabinoid drug approved by the 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which health care 
professionals say provides beneficial side effects similar to that of 
marijuana and it's psychoactive THC ingredient. But Wilson said she 
hasn't found that to be very helpful.

"The people are dying and we desperately need it for many, many 
things...," she said. "We're not pushing for recreational smokers, 
for a lot of people to be sitting around listening to Pink Floyd and 
smoking a joint. For old people, it's not like that at all."

Recently, Wilson went to the state Legislature to speak on behalf of 
what some consider to be a "miracle drug" that needs to be made 
available, and she suffered a medical setback later that night.

She said she waits in agony today, for the bill to be passed. She 
remembers when former Gov. John Lynch vetoed a medical marijuana 
proposal last year and she said she wept before her daughter, who 
lives nearby and cares for her as often as she can. Wilson also has 
grandchildren who visit and is expecting a great grandson in 
September. She said she prays she'll be around to meet him.

"It's horrible living like this."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom