Source: marijuananews.com
Pubdate: 28 Oct 1998
Contact:  http://www.marijuananews.com/
Author: Richard Cowan, Editor and Publisher
Note: This is a rare exception to policy posting of an article published
only on the web. - Richard Lake, Sr. Editor

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY 

It is a staple of the prohibitionist opposition to medical marijuana that
the movement is "exploiting" the patients. Here is a somewhat different
perspective.

I was talking by phone to a friend in D.C. He told me that when he was
about to get in bed late on a rather cold night last week he looked out his
window and saw a man in a wheelchair dragging himself along by his one leg.
He was putting up medical marijuana posters on my friend's street. To do
this, the man had to push himself up on his one leg and hold on to the pole. 

My friend got into bed, but was so moved by the image that he had just seen
that he had to get up. He bundled himself up against the chill of the fall
night and grabbed a staple gun that he happened to have and headed out. 

People in wheelchairs putting up posters don’t move very fast, so my friend
had no difficulty catching up. The man was a little startled, as D.C.
streets are none too safe at night, but he was pleased when my friend asked
if he could help. 

Oh yes, I forgot to say that the wheelchair was towing a little wagon
filled with the posters. 

My friend asked if the fellow was a medical marijuana user. Yes, he
explained; the accident that had cost him his leg also left him with a
spinal fusion and a lot of pain. He even has to wear a catheter. He found
that the pharmaceutical pain relievers were ineffective and too
debilitating, so he uses medical marijuana. 

With my friend’s help they plastered the neighborhood with "Vote Yes On 59
- -- Medical Marijuana" posters.

When they ran out of posters the guy in the wheelchair thanked my friend,
but he wasn’t too bashful to ask for a contribution for the "Yes On 59"
campaign. (They get no money from the "Billionaire Backers" of most of the
other initiatives.) 

My friend said yes, but they had to go back to my friend’s home to get a
check. Since the entrance is up some stairs my friend ran in and grabbed
his checkbook and went back out and gave the man a check. 

My friend then went back to bed as the wheelchair disappeared into the night. 

The relevance of the check is that the guy in the wheelchair got my
friend’s address from it, and so the next morning there were ten more "Yes
On 59" posters stuffed in my friend’s door. 

The guy in the wheelchair had crawled up the stairs to leave them for
someone who had helped him spread the word on a cold night.

These are the people behind the medical marijuana conspiracy. Truly, they
will stop at nothing!

PS -- My friend who got out of bed was Allen St. Pierre, the National
Director of the NORML Foundation. It is a very small conspiracy.
- ---
Checked-by: Richard Lake