|
Source: Daily Astorian Oregon ------- A pro-cannabis group stopped on the North Coast Monday during a three-week tour promoting a somewhat controversial but now 25-year-old message. All drugs should be weighed according to the same standards and evaluated on a level playing field, said Sandee Burbank, executive director and co-founder of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse, or MAMA. That requires retooling the "illogical, draconian drug policy that threatens our families' health and well-being," and instead relying on "personal responsibility and informed decision-making," according to the group. "Even though we're talking about cannabis here, what we're really doing is introducing people to the fact that it doesn't really matter what drug you're taking. A drug is a drug is a drug, and all drugs can have dangerous side effects," said Burbank. "What works for one person may not work for another person. It's about personal responsibility and informed decision making, always keeping in mind respect for human dignity and our differences." The federal government does not recognize any legitimate use of marijuana, but about a dozen states, including Oregon, have decriminalized it for some medicinal purposes. Of 17,000 people benefiting from Oregon's almost 10-year-old Medical Marijuana Program, the average age is 50, according to MAMA. The latest figures from the state program show 14,868 registered patients. That includes 146 people with medical marijuana cards in Clatsop County. But the drug remains controversial, partly because of the financial sway held by the pharmaceutical industry, said Burbank. Marijuana has always been subject to widespread use, recreational or medical, legal or not, she said. "Since 1982, it was reported a third of the adult population regularly uses cannabis. That hasn't changed." She worries about those who support "prohibition." "When we make drugs illegal, it's very hard to talk to people about the negative consequences or what can be done," she said. "I would like to see this go from a punishment modality to a medicine-based modality," with a "policy based on reason, where we provide the individual the tools they need to make good decisions regarding all risky behavior. .. We could evaluate all drugs using the same standards then figure out how we can regulate and control those drugs." In that case, compared to tobacco, alcohol and some prescription drugs, marijuana's benefits might outweigh any social consequences, she said. However, problems persist for patients in the program, mostly involving public perception. Often, marijuana cardholders run into those problems at work. A North Coast daycare provider who declined to disclose her name attended the Monday presentation. She said she hoped to apply for a county job and met all the requirements for skills and experience, " but I think my Oregon medical marijuana card status would probably toss me right back out." She registered for medical marijuana after deciding it provided the most relief of migraine headaches and severe menstrual pain. To be eligible for Oregon's program, patients must suffer "debilitating medical conditions," such as cancer, glaucoma, or HIV, or other conditions causing severe pain or nausea, seizures or persistent muscle spasms. The daycare provider said she avoids smoke toxins by using a vaporizer. In addition, she said, "In a couple of hours, I'm going to be just who I was before," rather than experiencing grogginess sometimes caused by other medications. "I'm hoping in the next few years we can get in place some sort of standardized impairment test," she said. Then, "I could prove I'm not impaired at work, just because you can test it in my blood or urine. I'd like to change the face of this any way that I could." Burbank said impairment testing based on reaction time or other motor and mental indicators isn't likely to be implemented, but she would support it. "Impairment testing needs to be about impairment and not what your body contains," she said. "A person who used cannabis ... can sleep during the night, wake up and be refreshed. They're not going to be impaired at all, but they're going to test positive." In addition, she said, prescription drugs cause impairment, and "we now know prescription drugs cause more deaths than alcohol." But she acknowledged that cannabis is not free of problems. "You need to be educated about cannabis as well; it can interact with other medicines you're taking," she said. "But we've had the opportunity now to teach people who use cannabis medically. ... There are more and more people who don't smoke it." Just two community members attended the presentation, which was held in a room reserved at the Cannery Cafe with four people representing the Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse tour. Founded in 1982, MAMA will conclude its anniversary circuit Oct. 20 in Portland at a conference with speakers on industrial hemp and "sustainable hemp options," current and retired doctors, a retired law enforcement officer, patients in Oregon's program and one in a handful authorized to use medical cannabis through the federal Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, which is now closed to new patients. Group lights up in favor of medical marijuana Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse tour the state to reveal the truth about legal drugs By: Katie Wilson | Freelance Reporter | Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: News http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/ news/2007/10/15/News/Group.Lights.Up.In.Favor.Of.Medical.Marijuana-3032541.shtml Everyday people are destroying their bodies with perfectly legal and easily accessible drugs, says Sandee Burbank, executive director for Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse. The worst part? They have no idea that they are doing this to themselves. Burbank spoke at the downtown Eugene Public Library last Friday as part of a state-wide MAMA tour. The organization is on a mission to pull back the veil on what Americans are being told to put into their bodies. "It's amazing how uneducated we are about the drugs out there," Burbank said. MAMA advocates the Medical Marijuana Program primarily because it has seen people destroyed by pain when the medicine prescribed by doctors didn't work. Often, it made things worse. "The more (medications) they gave me, the problem got worse," said Alice Ivany, who traveled with Burbank to share her story. Ivany's left arm was amputated after an industrial accident in 1977. She was on a number of pain pills which made her very ill. Nothing worked. Life was further complicated by a surgery. She began taking Tylenol and continued taking it for 10 years. As a result, she developed high blood pressure and will be on medication for that condition for the rest of her life. Running out of options, she discussed medical marijuana, also called cannabis, with her doctor. "I hadn't thought of it as a medication at the time," she said. "It's given me a quality of life I didn't have before." After a life spent physically pushing his body, Jack Thomas finally came crashing down when he destroyed discs in his spine. The doctors prescribed three daily doses of 600 milligrams of ibuprofen. "By the time I finished that, my stomach was gone," Thomas said. Doctors prescribed more medication to treat the new problems, but this only led to further complications until Thomas was, more often than not, flat on his back in pain. What helped him was cannabis. "Here is something I realized," Thomas said. "In my life, I didn't drink. I knew alcohol might kill me. I was told marijuana would kill me, so I didn't want to do that. Then they gave me meds and that almost killed me, so now I'm back to marijuana." Prescribed drugs have their benefits and their place, Burbank said, but she also holds that "a drug is a drug is a drug." She said many people are allergic to certain drug ingredients, and some medications are just plain dangerous. Yet, doctors and pharmacists are ignoring the safe and effective cannabis option. "They are telling us these (other) drugs are safe. They aren't. There is a better way," Burbank said. "We used to say, 'Go talk to your doctor, talk to your pharmacist.' It's no longer enough to do this if you want to be safe. You have to get over the thought that because the doctor told me to and because (the medicine) is legal that it's safe. You need to get online and do some more research. Just because a doctor tells you to take a pill doesn't mean it's right for you." Currently, the medical marijuana program is on rocky ground, so MAMA is working to educate the people in power and the people in pain about the benefits of cannabis and the dark side of legal medications. Burbank pointed out that it is impossible to overdose on marijuana. It's not so hard to overdose on legal drugs. She wants to stop the flow of misinformation coming from school boards, political figures, and "The War on Drugs." Ivany said MAMA has a motto: Follow the money. "Who is profiting from marijuana prohibition?" she asked. "Somebody's getting rich," Thomas added. "I think of doctors and pharmacists as representatives," Ivany said. "It's a powder, it's a cream, it's a pill. It's all marketing and sales." "It's amazing how messed up it is," Thomas said. "It's like they're trying to get rid of us." He thinks part of the problem is the emotion that the subject of medical marijuana brings to the surface. "When you start being emotional, logic is gone," he said. "All I know is this stuff works, and without it I wouldn't be here." "The war on drugs has failed," Burbank said, citing the meth problem that didn't exist in past years in the way that it exists now. "What we're doing isn't working, and we need to change it around." She wants people to "tell the truth, and stop the lies." "People have to get their minds out of the '60s," Ivany added. "(Medical marijuana) is not about getting stoned." |
Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse (MAMA)