Home  Medical Use Pain Management Georgia: Patient Who Gets Free Federal Cannabis Speaks Out
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Georgia: Patient Who Gets Free Federal Cannabis Speaks Out |
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ALBANY: Few people know that, despite the federal government's vociferous denial of cannabis's medical uses, it nonetheless provides free medical cannabis to a handful of patients who were able to prove they needed it decades ago. The Investigational New Drug program provides up to six pounds of cannabis a year to these patients, along with federal documentation that they may legally use and transport it anywhere in the country. Ms. Musikka thinks that should be true for all cannabis patients.
Musikka, a widely known advocate of medical cannabis use, credits pot with restoring her vision. Musikka said Thursday during a visit to Albany State University that the drug should be used as a medical treatment for illnesses because it helps to make the body function better and, in her case, restored lost eyesight.
"My left eye was messed up by a surgery when I was 14, and I never thought I would get it back," Musikka said. "At my last checkup, it was 20/100 (improved from 20/400), and I was totally thrilled because I never expected that as I got older, my sight would be getting better. But if you eat/smoke cannabis, your whole system gets so much better."
Musikka claims that prohibiting the use of cannabis by keeping it illegal is blasphemous, and hopes that Christians across the nation will urge lawmakers to make the drug lawful to use.
"To arrest a patient for using the creator's work could not be described as anything except blatant blasphemy," she said. "We really need an overwhelming majority of us Christians to come together and remind ourselves that we cannot kill and we cannot steal and we cannot lie. With this prohibition we are doing all of the above."
Musikka, one of only five people enrolled in a federal program to use pot for medicinal purposes, said that she thought the doctor who prescribed the drug to her was crazy. "I have been smoking it (medicinally) for 31 years," Musikka said. "I never smoked until a doctor said I should smoke it or I would go blind. I questioned his sanity." Musikka was prescribed the drug to combat her glaucoma, she said.
On Wednesday, an appeals court ruled that a California woman could be prosecuted for breaching federal drug laws even if she uses cannabis because it is reportedly the only medicine keeping her alive. But Musikka says that there should be more impetus for U.S. residents to rise up and urge lawmakers to make the drug legal. "That just shows that I really need every one of you to take an interest" in the fight to legalize cannabis, she said at Albany State University Thursday, where she spoke to students about the need.
Musikka helped establish a medical cannabis defense in Florida in 1988, according to a news release from Albany State University.
Story by: Joshua Brown, Albany Herald (GA), March 15th, 2007
http://www.albanyherald.com/stories/20070316n2.htm
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