[Flying Goat]

We are still living under draconian laws here in Alabama. Even if you are out of state, you can still help us in our attempt to legalize down here.

HB642, Compassionate Use Act, is coming before the Judiciary Committee of our House of Representatives next Wednesday, a week from today, March 31, 2010!

All medical users, I would like to ask that you write a letter telling of your experience with medical marijuana & how it has made your life better.

Please send your letters to our Judiciary Committee at the Email addresses below:

Camjulward@aol.com (334) 242-7750
steve.mcmillan@alhouse.org (334) 242-7723
spencer.collier@alhouse.org (334) 242-7719
paul.demarco@alhouse.org (334) 242-7740
charles.newton@alhouse.org (334) 242-4460
marcel.black@alhouse.org (334) 242-7667
Tammy.Irons@alhouse.org (334) 242-9032
jamie.ison@alhouse.org (334) 242-7711
laura.hall@alhouse.org (334) 242-7688
chris.england@alhouse.org (334) 242-7703
john.robinson@alhouse.org (334) 242-7728
howard.sanderford@alhouse.org (334) 242-4368

Rep. Thomas Jackson & Rep. Mark Keyhee have already said that they will use their influence to help pass this bill. However, they are not on the Judiciary Committee.

This is a plea for those of you in legal states to unite with us in our fight to bring the South into the fold... Your Southern brothers & sisters NEED YOUR HELP!

Please Email your letter today. For those of you who prefer to telephone, PLEASE do so. We need to flood the Committee with phone calls & Emails, as time is of the essence.

Please act TODAY!

[ArcticBlast]

dude i'll be so pissed if Alabama gets it before PA lol good luck bro

ArcticBlast

[Flying Goat]

Um... I'm a sis, bro...

Please don't feel as if we non-legal states are in competition, ArcticBlast. Each time a state becomes legal, it becomes much easier for the rest to get their bills passed.

Please help us down here in the Dirty South!

[ArcticBlast]

sorry it came off as hostile, ma'am i certainly didn't mean for it to sound that way! good luck!

ArcticBlast

[Flying Goat]

Here is the letter I sent. Yours need not be this long...

Honorable Members of our Judiciary Committee:

Greetings!

I write to you in support of HB642 and urge you to vote "Yes" in support of this bill.

I am 48 years old, reside in Baldwin County, and am a medical marijuana patient. After being hit by a drunk driver in 1983 in Texas, I sustained 3 neck fractures & 6 back fractures, along with crushed ribs, shattered legs, a crushed wrist & skull fracture. Over the next 20 years, I developed fibromyalgia which was misdiagnosed for several years. After several years of enduring epidural steroid injections & trigger point injections into my spinal cord & greater occipital nerves of my skull, I underwent rhizotomies of my entire cervical spine (they insert a needle through the lateral neck muscles & use radiowaves to heat it to 90C to burn out the nerve root), which helped my chronic pain & migraines temporarily but was not a permanent resolution for my pain & muscle spasm. Unfortunately, the surgery was too hellishly painful (I was wide awake & paralyzed) for me to undergo again.

A pain management physician (Bejan Daneshfar, M.D. of Amarillo, Texas) did the above surgery & thereafter managed me on pain medications such as Oxycontin, MScontin, Duragesic & fentanyl patch, and ultimately suggested I undergo implantation of a morphine pump in my abdomen with cannula into my spine to help the pain. Morphine & most derivatives cause severe constipation for me - bad enough that I did not want to proceed with this alternative.

Besides fractures, I have the XMRV virus which underlies most cases of fibromyalgia. This is an inflammatory condition. For many years, my physicians had me taking loads of anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals, including Vioxx & Celebrex, Voltaren & Toradol. As a result, my liver has been destroyed to the point I fear taking a single Tylenol or ibuprofen for relief.

In the case of every single drug offered to me by my team of physicians, all have side-effects which are at least as severe as the symptoms being treated (liver destruction, etc.). By 1998, I was taking 16 different prescriptions, several of which were intended to treat the side-effects of the drugs originally prescribed. I was an extremely ill woman, in constant pain, depressed & trying to work & raise a 10-year old child. Because of the extreme sedation brought on by the morphine and opiate-based drugs (which still did not cover my pain, as I am opiate resistant), I had practically no life. So, I resolved to get off all the pharmaceuticals if I could.

I discovered marijuana initially at age 16 but "outgrew" using it while in college. In 2000, a friend suggested I try it again for pain, nausea & muscle spasms. To my surprise, it worked! I began tapering off my use of the heavy opiate drugs I was frankly addicted to & began using the marijuana to alleviate my pain. Surprisingly, it also worked to calm my digestive system as well, allowing me to gain enough weight to appear a normal person again.

Over the next few years, I relied ONLY on marijuana to treat my symptoms & was healthier than ever before, altho still totally disabled. My quality of life increased immeasurably. Yes, I still had chronic pain & had to fight every day to remain positive & productive, & take care of myself & my family. Marijuana was the starting point to my holistic treatment program which included organically-grown fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat & dairy products - all of which I raised myself on a small plot of land. I was successful in achieving a remission which lasted 4 years, allowing me to take my son on a trip across SE Asia & Australia.

In 2009, I moved to Alabama after returning to the States from Australia, where I had been studying & unfortunately suffered a relapse into full-blown fibromyalgia. When I investigated the laws regarding marijuana in Alabama, I was horrified to learn that our state has a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 years for growing a single plant!

Ladies & gentlemen, marijuana is the ONLY medicine that works for my symptoms. I am not a "party girl," nor do I enjoy the sensation of being "high;" rather, I put up with it in order to gain the relief of my pain, muscle spasms, & nausea. Because my lungs are sensitive, I obtain greater relief by making the plant into baked goods & eating those. By eating 1/2 a slice of banana nut bread made with cannabis-infused butter, I am able to achieve 1/2 day of pain relief without having the dizzy feeling of being "high." This has been a godsend for me.

However, in order to access marijuana to treat myself, I must deal with individuals who frighten me & go to places that frighten me. If the vendor cheats me, I have no recourse. If he brandishes a gun & takes my money without providing the cannabis (this has happened once in Mobile), I am terrified & lucky to escape with my life. Often, I prefer to simply suffer rather than go into certain areas attempting to find marijuana. Another issue is that I must pay exorbitant prices, yet have no guarantee what strain of cannabis is being provided & whether or not it will help my symptoms... I am simply at the mercy of the black market & criminal elements which supply the black market.

Many of my neighbors are VietNam vets with injuries obtained during the war, some of whom are on the abdominal morphine pump & some of whom must rotate their consumption of heavy opiates in order to be able to walk around... All of us live in fear of prosecution for trying to obtain our medicine - except those who refuse simply because "it is not legal." These people, however, state that they will be first in line to use medical marijuana should it be legalized because of the negative side-effects caused by the drugs they must take to survive.

Ladies & gentlemen, I urge you to vote "yes" on HB642 & take the first step toward allowing people like myself to be treated as patients instead of criminals. I firmly believe that if medical use were legalized in our state & regulated as provided in our bill, the criminal black market element (along with the violence that occurs in the drug-dealing community) can be safely eliminated for vulnerable persons like me.

Should legalization occur in our state, it is my intention neither to buy nor sell this plant, but to simply grow a few for personal use for myself & a few other patients who are more incapacitated than I...

In particular, I have interest in the ruderalis strain of cannabis, which, although not as high in THC & therefore less potent than cannabis sativa or cannabis indica, contains CBDs which, to my knowledge, are the only source of natural anti-inflammatory compounds that are NOT metabolized in the liver.

It would seem to many that the obvious solution for me & those patients like me would be to simply move to one of the 14 states that have already legalized for medical use. However, this would be impossible for me, as I am married to a man who is employed at one of the shipyards in Mobile. Also, as my disability check is based on the income I earned in Texas, I could never afford the cost of living in California. Because my condition is exacerbated by altitude & cold weather, I cannot move to Colorado or New Mexico. Still, my primary reason for not wanting to move is that I LOVE the great State of Alabama. I love the Bay, the seafood, the beauty of its unspoiled countryside & rivers.

Also, my grandmother instilled in me the belief that I should "bloom where I am planted." That is why I have chosen to work toward legalization here in Alabama.

I beg you all to vote for HB642 and deliver patients like me from the criminal elements we must come in contact with to access the only medication that truly helps us. By legalizing for medical use, we would be able to greatly reduce the black market trafficking & at the same time, regulate it to make it less available to children & "recreational" users.

The passing of HB642 would restore my faith in the true compassion of our State government, while removing the criminal stigma which embarrasses those of us who rely on this plant for our daily comfort & health.

Very truly yours,




cc: Alabamians for Compassionate Care

[qdavid]

I live in NW Florida. I fully support AL passing MMJ law and applaud your effort in that cause. I couldn't figure out how to PM you, or I would. Hey mods, maybe a linked icon in the messages might be a good thing?

But I am a little confused about,"I am 48 years old, reside in Baldwin County, and am a medical marijuana patient". I didn't think there were any medical marijuana patients in AL right now. I assume you WANT to be a MMJ patient.

I guess I have to do a little research to see if AL HB642 is worded to allow personal growing for patients. If so I will write a letter. Thanks.

Edit: The anser is YES! 12 plants. Writing.

Go Alabama Legislation!

FG...........it took BALLS to write that letter and post it here. Thank you from all MMJ pts around the country!

[stc9357]

Everybody in NC get their shotguns, assualt rifles, and handguns to storm the state legislature we need it now!

[Flying Goat]

Dear Lola & Mary -

Thanks for your support! it is so hard every day to keep myself moving forward despite pain, depression & negativity. As a result, the only fighting I have time or energy for is our fight to legalize!

I don't know about balls, Mary - more like ovaries of solid steel! (I hope)

Thanks again for your words of encouragement. It really means a lot.

Hugs.