Casey's Dream

Update on Maryland Medical Marijuana

2012-01-21T13:47:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday of last week I had the opportunity to meet with three of the four legislators spearheading the push to pass a comprehensive medical marijuana law here in Maryland. Last year as you may remember we had two competing bills. The first from Del. Dan Morhaim (D) Dist. 11 and the second from Del. Cheryl Glenn (D) Dist. 45. This year it appears we will have three. Del. Glenn has pre-filed her bill. Del. Morhaim is leaning towards to filing two bills, more on that later. It is my understanding that again this year Sen. David Brinkley (R) Dist. 4 is planning on also submitting legislation in the Maryland Senate I could not confirm that he and Del. Morhaim have the same strategy.

Before I address the more confusing story of Del. Morhaim and Sen. Brinkley’s legislation let me first discuss Del. Glenn’s bill. Del. Glenn pre-filed her bill to insure it gets a hearing. Del. Glenn’s bill has been assigned the designation HB 15. I spoke to Del. Glenn yesterday and again she stresses that for her the main issue is patient access. Del. Glenn’s bill allows for the personal cultivation of cannabis with some very reasonable limits.

Both Del. Glenn’s and Del. Morhaim’s bills call for a sliding scale for registration fees to insure that even those with limited means can have access to medical grade marijuana. Interestingly Del. Glenn has opened the door for private citizens to donate funds to insure the viability of her program in these tough economic times.

On to Del. Morhaim’s plans, the delegate tells me that it is his intention to introduce legislation based on the two different model legislations worked out over the summer in the Medical Marijuana Model Program Work Group (Work Group). The Work Group was unable to agree on a single model medical marijuana program so in the end they put forth two ideas. I will refer to them as the Sharfstein model which is explained next and the Morhaim model which is basically the same bill Del. Morhaim has introduced the past two years.

First the Sharfstein model, put forth by Sec. of the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Dr. Joshua Sharfstein and supported by ten other members of the work group[i], is based on what Dr. Sharfstein calls his “yellow light” approach. It relies heavily on participation by one of the “academic medical research institution” such as Johns Hopkins or the University of Maryland. It is not limited to these two school’s research departments but requires that the “academic medical research institution” be a teaching hospital with a residency program. I’ve been a patient in area hospitals too many times in my life. It doesn’t matter which one I looked at they are all either a part of the Johns Hopkins Hospital system or University of Maryland Medical System. Therefor the question that has to be answered at this time is does either of these world class facilities want to be a part of this. Will any “academic medical research institution” be willing to put their federal research dollars which are controlled by the whims of the current political party in power, at risk by participating in a program designed to prove the medical efficacy of cannabis? For the most part federal research dollars in the past have always gone to studies trying to prove the dangers of marijuana.

I tried reaching someone with Johns Hopkins and after being passed around between two media relations people I was referred to Dr. Ryan Vandrey. Dr. Vandrey an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins was a participant in the Work Group. I asked Dr. Vandrey in an e-mail the following question: Did the Work Group actually discuss with Johns Hopkins the idea put forth in Dr. Sharfstein’s model? This is his answer to my question: “My involvement with the workgroup was conducted as an expert on the science of marijuana and other cannabinoids, not as a representative of Johns Hopkins. The proposals generated by the workgroup should not be interpreted as representing the views of Johns Hopkins, U of MD, or any other academic or medical institution, and as far as I know the proposals were not submitted to anyone outside of the workgroup for review or approval prior to submission to the state legislature.” I have not heard back from the University of Maryland at the time of this writing. I will add any info I receive from them in the form of a comment.

The Morhaim model differs in that it would be private citizens who would run the cultivation and dispensing centers. This eliminates the possibility of passing a law that relies on “academic medical research institution” that could refuse to participate. Something they have in common is the collection of data pertaining to the success of treatment, addiction (which I’m sorry I don’t agree that marijuana is addictive) and diversion, meaning the illegal transferring of medical marijuana to someone who is not a part of the program. Del. Glenn’s bill does not have a data collection provision.

While some don’t like the idea of data collection it does address one issue that Del. Morhaim thinks was missed in the legislation passed in the early states. That would be the opportunity to collect data on the evidence of significant differences in the various strains of cannabis. Patients in some of the early states claim there is such differences, which is why there are so many different strains in available in states like California. Del. Morhaim is leaving it to the regulation process to address this issue. I would hope that at a minimum there would at least be one sativa strain and one indigo strain available to aid in this.

Personally I do not object to this because I think if we are going to take momentum from states passing medical marijuana laws on to the halls of Congress, the more data we have on efficacy the better. Plus it would be helpful to the patient to know for certain whether or not it is financially worthwhile to pay for a higher grade or different strain of cannabis from what they have been buying on the street.

Del. Morhaim and I share one fear over this year’s session of the General Assembly. We are both concerned that senators and delegates will come to the conclusion that last year’s affirmative defense law is sufficient to protect patient’s rights. I hope we are both wrong. While it is a step in the right direction we must not stop until patients are protected from arrest. It is great that should I be arrested I have an affirmative defense. However, it stills mean the police departments in Maryland can come in my home, drag me out in flex-cuffs, make me spend the night in jail, hire a lawyer and stand trial for something the affirmative defense says is not a crime. After all I keep telling those who will listen, it is my right to be as pain free as possible.

[i] The Work Group asked its members to sign on to one or both models. There were 11 signing on to the Sharfstein model and 10 to the Morhaim model with four members signing on to both and one abstention, Michael Young V.P Maryland Fraternal Order of Police.

Yellow Ribbons

2011-11-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

Yellow Ribbons

By Al Byrne

COO and Co-founder
Patients Out of Time

I'm not sure I'll get the words just right, and you do not want me to sing, but it seems to me it went something like:

“Oh she wore, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore it for her love who was far, far away. Oh she wore, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore it in the winter and in the month of May. Oh she wore, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore it for her love who was far, far away.”

It's an old US Army, Calvary tune. The Calvary wore yellow bandanas whether they were white troops or buffalo soldiers. It meant something to them when their women wore yellow.

Times change but in the US I see yellow ribbons on trees in front of houses, in some small towns they hang from the street light poles or beneath our flag and the POW banner. The back of every other car sports a ribbon or two.

Does it mean anything? These yellow ribbons. Or is it just the latest politically correct symbol? My vote is being held on those questions.

I'm waiting to see what the White House of the United States does with a petition they have received from citizens of both the US and Canada that do care about yellow. The signers of the petition were not yellow, anything but. The spirit that moves them is the other yellow, the yellow that says I care. I really do care.

“And when I asked her why she wore the ribbon, she said she wore it for her love who was far, far away.” Far away in danger or back at “home” she cared, she supported her troop.

The petition: “Allow United States disabled Veterans access to medical marijuana to treat their PTS(d).”

www.Veteransformedicalcannabis.org (VMCA) was the originator of the petition which was accessed on the White House web page. In a month VMCA easily met the 5,000 signature requirement that the White House says will give the petition a professional review and a published finding of white house action on the petition. I'm waiting. Seems simple enough. This country allows some Vets to have therapeutic cannabis. The feds issue cannabis to four Directors of Patients Out of Time. Why just them? Why not all disabled Vets? Why not all patients?

The President as I write just declared student loans in the US will play by new rules with the stroke of a pen. The VHA in July 2010 said cannabis is medicine (for some) with the stroke of a pen.

This past June when Delta and American airlines were found to be charging Vets for extra weight coming back from war the public uprising was immediate, dramatic. Delta and American became good citizens and dropped the charges that never should have been there at all.

Where is the uprising for proper medical care of the Vet with the extra weight? Not PC enough or is the yellow ribbon on the bumper indicative, of a different yellow? The color that's afraid. Cowardly? I did my bit, I put a sticker on my car!

The definition of a petition is that it is a supplication, a prayer, a written plea legally.

I would hope the White House leadership understands that this petition does not meet that definition. This petition is a demand. A demand, made by my signature and those Vets who signed with me, that our Veteran brothers and sisters have access to medical cannabis – very quickly.

In 16 states and DC Veterans are treated with dignity if they choose to use cannabis medically. This is true of the private medical community of MD's and RN's and in the Veterans Administration facilities.

Vets I know use cannabis for pain from wounds that shattered bones, incinerated flesh, removed parts of their bodies by ripping them off. I know Vets that use it for phantom pain. The leg they don't have hurts like hell. Vets use cannabis to quit drinking alcohol and taking harder drugs. They use it to sleep. Sleep, try living without it or waking every night, every hour of every night, with a horror story going off in your head. I have seen Vets with TBI use cannabis and how quickly and positively it affects them. It makes you forget some things that PTS wants you to remember.

What's wrong with any of that?

Whether any of us like it or not these men and women have done what they were asked to do. I had the privilege of being responsible for the logistic support of many combat troops of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard in Vietnam. The men I served with were the best definition of “man” I've ever witnessed. When they came home, when I came home, the country left us to flounder, to hurt, to feel unwanted, to die. In 1989 when I became a combat counselor for Nam Vets more had died by suicide than in the war. That was 22 years ago. That shall not happen again.

Not even a fucking parade?

So this petition is a demand. At least it is my demand. My name is Al Byrne, I'm a Veteran and I demand Veterans be allowed the option of medical cannabis under the supervision of health care professionals.

And it does not, should not, can not matter where the Vet lives. If there are 16 states that allow Vets to use cannabis, even under Veteran Administration facility care, that means there are 34 states plus territories, that do not allow therapeutic cannabis protocols.

This is a new, never tried before, medical experiment that does not meet anybody's ethical definition of proper medical care. No double blind stuff needed. No historical precedent I can find in human history except in concentration camps and such places. The real bummer is that this new treatment protocol, I call it “Treatment By Geography” has Vets as guinea pigs. I'd really rather use the pigs.

My friend Brian lives in Hawaii. He's an Air Force Vet. For over 20 years he was denied care in VA hospitals because he used cannabis medically. He called a while back to thank me for my small role in getting Vets cannabis use approval in VA facilities in those 16 states including HI and by extension to him. I appreciated the call. Where I live I'm not appreciated at all.

I live in Virginia where our Army Veteran governor continues to fund Swat teams, black helicopters, hundreds of cops with millions of dollars hunting cannabis plants each year. This summer they caught my neighbor, a two tour Iraq Vet, Marine, 100% disabled, with 3 plants in his garden which the state police stole. One of the troopers that harassed his young wife, while their cars idled, air conditioners running for a couple of hours, to make sure their cars stayed cool (just like them?) was an Iraq Vet.

In Virginia and another 33 states I am treated as a criminal for the therapeutic use of cannabis. My detractors, monolithic in their mantra of disingenuous prattle about medical “marijuana” ask time and again why they should believe my entreaty, my plea, my demand for medicine of my choosing. The answer is plain enough and well said by a Nam brother of mine from NC, Perry Parks, a retired Army Warrant officer, standing in the uniform he wore proudly for over 30 years, who answered a snarly Senator, “you should believe me because I said so!” What more does he have to prove Senator?

We know that cannabis is now accepted medicine in 23 countries, that huge pharmaceutical firms like Bayer and Novartis are distributing whole cannabis extracts called Sativex. We know that the guy running the federal US cannabis farm has a patent on cannabis suppositories and the feds themselves hold two patents on cannabis used medically. The largest hospital group in the US, the Veterans Health Administration has written that cannabis is medicine (1) and partially allows it's medical use. Allies, Canada, Czechoslovakia, and Israel use cannabis for their Veterans as a primary aid.

By the years end President Obama will have removed all but Embassy Marines from Iraq. In Afghanistan “they will soldier on.” I learned yesterday that a soldier died just this week- on his fourteenth tour. 14!

I only did one combat tour and that was enough for me or any troop. 3, 5, 14? What can that be like?

I do not have the arrogance, the mendacity to deny men and women anything that could help them after such service. Others do. I'm a Nam Vet and a Vet counselor, and an advocate for Vets and I'm convinced such ignorance is alive and well. What else could sponsor such a program as medical treatment by geography but ignorance, arrogance and a dead soul.

I want all of you to rise to this petition wherever you live, whatever your states law and DEMAND an end to the US official policy of Veteran mistreatment for injury while in the service of country. Do it, damm it!

“She wore the yellow ribbon in her hair for her love who was far, far away. Far, far away”

It meant something then.

Al Byrne for Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access

Medical Marijuana Work Group Named

2011-08-06T18:31:00.000-05:00

Maryland’s Gov. O’Malley has named the citizen member of the Medical Marijuana Model Program Work Group (Work Group). Alas, I was not named to the Work Group, but don’t dismay the citizen who was named is personally known to me. Deborah Miran supports the medicinal use of marijuana. You can read an interview she gave to the local newspaper The Beacon here, http://www.thebeaconnewspapers.com/baltimore-edition/features/medical-marijuana-maryland

Other members of the Work Group include, Dr. Nancy Cohen, MD Chapter of the Natl. Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Dr. Paul Celano, an oncologist, Dr. Joseph Liberto, a psychiatrist, Dr. Trudy Hall, a physiatrist, Lynn Billing, Nurse, Phillip Cogan, a pharmacist with the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Dr. Ryan Vandrey, Ph.D. a research scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Dario Broccolino, of the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Association, Maj. Kevin Anderson, representing MD Chiefs of Police, Maj. Sam Billotti, IV, MD Sheriffs’ Association, Michael Young, MD Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), and last but not least Karen O’Keefe an attorney with Marijuana Policy Project.

This is how I would handicap this group; Debby Miran is a yes by definition of the group. Debby applied to be “(i) one member of the public who supports the use of marijuana for medical purposes.”

I’ll explain my thinking as I go along. Dr. Nancy Cohen I see as a toss-up since she is with the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse however she did do a video supporting the healthcare reform bill. This speaks to some progressive thinking I hope.

Since oncologists were some of the first doctors to endorse cannabis use to fight nausea I see Dr. Paul Celano as a proponent. As for our psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Liberto again a toss-up, some psychiatrists support cannabis use to treat anxiety and sometimes depression though the latter is rarer. Others though insist there is a link between marijuana use and schizophrenia. I disagree with this assertion, layman that I am for this reason; schizophrenia is an inherited disorder and therefore cannot be caused by smoking marijuana. I will however acknowledge the possibility that it could cause an earlier onset of symptoms.

Continuing on, Dr. Trudy Hall is a physiatrist, this is a specialty that frequently deals with pain management and a member I hope we can count on as a proponent. My personal physiatrists have broken down this way. One was very curious about my use and success with medicinal marijuana. The other was the one, who told me it was time after ten years to come off of Vicodin and Flexeril, since they were probably no longer providing a therapeutic effect. I asked him directly about using cannabis instead and his answer was that he would prefer it over opiates and muscle relaxers since it is less toxic.

Lynn Billing is listed as a nurse. However the American Nurses Association (ANA) “recognizes that patients should have safe access to therapeutic marijuana/cannabis. Cannabis or marijuana has been used medicinally for centuries. It has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of symptoms and conditions." *Position Statement: Providing Patients Safe Access to Therapeutic Marijuana/Cannabis," American Nurses Association (ANA) website, Mar. 19, 2004. Her personal position is an unknown.

Phillip Cogan is a pharmacist currently with the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DHMH). The American Pharmacists Association adopted the following statement as being association policy: “APhA supports research by properly qualified investigators operating under the investigational new drug (IND) process to explore fully the potential medicinal uses of marijuana and its constituents or derivatives.”

The next person is one that I have actually spoken to. Dr. Ryan Vandrey, Ph.D. is a research scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is looking for a balanced approach that allows for data collection as to the benefits and/or detriments to the patients and society. His opinions can be heard more in this interview from 2009 General Wellness Webcast entitled “The Science Behind Medical Marijuana” hosted by Judy Forman. Also included along with Dr. Vandrey is heard Dr. Donald Abrams, M.D. http://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/webcasts/the-science-behind-medical-marijuana-transcript-1.aspx *copyright 2009.

The attorney on the Work Group you would have to say is on the proponent side. After all, her day job is with the Marijuana Policy Project. Karen O’Keefe knows the state of the law. She will be a terrific advocate for patients.

Dario Broccolino, of the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Association, Maj. Kevin Anderson, representing MD Chiefs of Police, Maj. Sam Billotti, IV, MD Sheriffs’ Association, Michael Young, MD Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), sorry but I think their affiliations say it all.

There that’s our Maryland Medical Marijuana Model Program Work Group. The first meeting will be in mid-August. At some point I am told there will be a website to follow the progress of the Work Group. There are also supposed to be some public sessions. I’ll keep everyone up to date on these aspects of the Work Group’s progress.

The final report is due to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, “including draft legislation that establishes a program to provide access to marijuana to patients in the State for medical purposes under a model analogous to a compassionate use protocol for unapproved drugs” by December 1, 2011. So now we wait while lawmakers define, “under a model analogous to a compassionate use protocol for unapproved drugs”

I spoke to Debby Miran the “citizen” member of the Work Group. I recently had lunch with Debby & Marybeth Nelson. Naturally the topic was the Work Group. For one Debby is a great choice. For Debby the days of using cannabis are over as her condition has improved. Marybeth is a strong voice for medicinal use of marijuana. She still does not use cannabis to manage her symptoms from MS. She is in it for the day when she can do so legally. We are all still concerned that there are some that want only a clinical trial program. A clinical trial will mean only a lucky few who get chosen to be a part of the trial will have access to medical marijuana. We also discussed where this marijuana is coming from. If somehow they get marijuana from the government stash in Mississippi it will be a lot less potent than what is usually considered “medicinal” in potency.

From the law there seems to be question as to what is supposed to happen via this Work Group. Is this what is supposed to happen? “The Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene shall convene a Work Group to develop a model program to facilitate patient access to marijuana for medical purposes.” Or is it “draft legislation that establishes a program to provide access to marijuana to patients in the State for medical purposes under a model analogous to a compassionate use protocol for unapproved drugs.”? Under the second statement it sounds like we’re getting a study not a real medical marijuana law. The second by position in the bill is likely to be the superseding statement.

Finally a Bill Signing

2011-05-14T10:39:00.003-05:00

At long last at around four o’clock last Monday afternoon I got an e-mail from Sen. Raskin’s chief-of-staff. Governor O’Malley would be signing SB 308 on Tuesday. Finally a small amount of progress, but there is still more to do. Delaware’s medical marijuana law was signed yesterday by Gov. Jack Markell (D). Not surprising it looks very much like the bill that failed passage this year and last in Maryland. The bill has the support Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) as it did here in Maryland. It would seem they have found the legislative formula for a palatable medical marijuana law for legislatures to pass. They tout on their website a goal of 27 medical marijuana states by 2014. I’m sure this includes Maryland since their bill is so close to passing here as well.

While I applaud any progress on this issue I do not like codifying into law the only place I can get my medicine is through these heavily state regulated cultivation and distribution centers. From the very beginning this has been about marijuana as an alternative medicine, one that you can grow in your own home. Maryland's proposed law of the last two years includes language limiting the number of cultivation and distribution centers to as few as needed to supply the need. From the discussions I have heard this could be as few as three for Maryland. In contrast Delaware will have three, one for each of its counties. A formula which if enacted would make Maryland’s law better providing for twenty-four cultivation and distribution centers.

I have had discussions with MPP’s legislative analyst Dan Riffle and I know as an organization they support personal cultivation. Their legislative strategy doesn’t seem to currently reflect this. The game plan has always been get medical marijuana legislation passed in as many states as possible and Congress will follow. Sen. Brinkley and Del. Morhaim both spoke of attempting to write model legislation that the federal government could follow. I fear if heavily regulated cultivation and distribution centers are what we are going to get from Congress than personal cultivation will die as an issue. This would be a mistake.

Too often what I hear is more about the potential of the plant for Big Pharma, to use to make more pills. This is not what I want. I am tired of the medicines that they already tout as coming from plants. I don’t know if any of my meds are derived from plants but I do know that some of them have caused me great harm. I for one will not give up the fight for any medical marijuana law, state or federal, to include personal cultivation provisions.

If we agree that marijuana is medicine and every dog in this fight does, than why abandon personal cultivation. MPP has not given up on personal cultivation however their support of the New Jersey model puts the issue on a back burner. As a former chef I can tell you, it is the stuff on the back burner that ends up getting destroyed. We can’t let personal cultivation be pushed to the back burner.

In the near future Gov. O’Malley will announce the names of who will be serving on the Medical Marijuana Model Program Work Group. Once those names are known I will post them here along with any contact information I can find. Hopefully this list will include my contact information since I have applied for appointment to that work group. Rest assured if I am appointed that personal cultivation will have a strong voice in the discussion. I may very well end up supporting something less, but not without making strong arguments in support of personal cultivation and small non-profit co-ops.

An approach that is less government might be easier to pass on a federal level than one that sets up another governmental bureaucracy. Maryland’s bill in 2010 was touted as being revenue neutral. What is more revenue neutral, you issue us an ID card and we pay you a fee? Your only cost is to maintain a data base which you can probably do on an IPhone 4 at this point.

I have yet to have someone tell me I’m wrong about this. Doctors can already write prescriptions for marijuana on their prescription pads. The reason being is that until someone fills that prescription no law is being broken. Why is this important? It means that all the state has to do is verify doctor’s prescription number and then scan it into the database. The per patient cost, unless the government tries to turn this into a jobs program, should be very reasonable, akin to a fishing license. This is a case where government needs to follow the business adage keep it simple s*****.

On a happier note, I hope to tract down a picture of me at the bill signing which I will add to this post.

OK here is the picture from the bill signing courtsey of Gov. O'Malley's press office:

Little Victories

2011-04-12T09:43:00.000-05:00

Little victories is often the path to true success. Yesterday the Maryland General Assembly passed a medical marijuana law. Well a sort of medical marijuana law anyway. With the passage of SB 308 Maryland has improved on its severely flawed Darrell Putnam Compassionate Use Act. Under Putnam a person arrested on marijuana charges could argue that they were doing so for medicinal purposes. However that argument can not be used at trial only at sentencing. Under SB 308 the medicinal use of marijuana will be allowed at trial as a mitigating circumstance, it is an affirmative defense. If the judge or jury agrees, than the defendant is found not guilty by reason of necessity. This is similar to if you kill someone in self defense or defense of others you can not be convicted of any homicide charge.

The other provision in the new law is the creation of a work group to study how to implement a true medical marijuana program. There are now many different approaches as to how to do this. Most people are agreed that we don't want to copy California's model. No one wants "pot docs" setting up shop next to dispensaries handing out recommendations to anybody with an ache or a pain. Those who oppose the California plan frequently point to a story 60 Minutes did a few years ago that showed a guy getting a medical marijuana recommendation for a sprained ankle. I agree we have to avoid this. Medicinal marijuana is supposed to be for people with severe, chronic pain. A sprained ankle is an accute injury, treatable with rest, ice, compression and elevation, along with a couple of aspirin. If aspirin or Tylenol or Advil doesn't cut it, try a shot of bourbon. If you can't drink OK try some pot but do so at your own risk until marijuana is as legal as alcohol.

The work group will have to examine how medical marijuana is working in other states. The sponsors of the new law wanted a New Jersey style law. One that relies on large grows along with heavily regulated and licensed dispensaries. The short comings of these plans have been widely publicized. Mainly it is that if the DEA raids them like they are still doing in other states, in one day Maryland's supply of legal medicinal marijuana will go up in smoke.

I am at the other end of the spectrum. I favor personal cultivation and very small patient co-ops. In a co-op the patients collectively own the cannabis. (I was going to say jointly but that sounded cliche') The logic of this plan is it is modeled after the growth and distribution plan that exists in most states, that being "under the radar." Until Congress passes a medical marijuana law we can not risk poking the dog that is the DEA with a stick. It just pisses them off and everyone suffers.

I have a number of people recommending me to Gov. O'Malley to be the citizen that favors medical marijuana that the bill says is to be included in a work group to study how to go forward from here. If I am you can be sure I will be pushing for personal cultivation and small co-ops over large grows and heavily regulated dispensaries. Licensing is OK because from a legal stand point I view Medical Marijuana ID cards as a license to use cannabis to treat my debilitiating pain.

Congratulations to all the patients and advocates that made this happen. Thanks also to Senators Brinkley and Raskin along with Del. Morhaim who have championed this cause for the last two years. I also want to publically thank two people for getting me involved in this legisaltive process. First, Naomi Long, formerly of Drug Policy Alliance and second, Caren Woodson, formerly of Americans for Safe Access, it is these two terrifc women who convinced me that I could testify without law enforecement knocking the door down, so thanks ladies.

Closer, So Close

2011-03-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

In case you did not hear the Maryland Senate passed SB 308, a revamped medical marijuana bill. This is good news since under this law medicinal necessity will become an affirmative defense. The law also states that “The Secretary of Health & Mental Hygiene shall convene a Work Group to develop a model program to facilitate patient access to marijuana for medical purposes.” Since the stated goal of the work group is to develop a model program this is a strong step forward, for politicians. This is the fun time of the year legislatively because it is now when you see who’s really working a bill. When the law that passes is full of strike outs of old language you know someone was working hard to get it passed. Here are the amendments that SB 308 had as passed: http://mlis.state.md.us/2011rs/amds/bil_0008/SB0308_16807101.pdf and the original bill is here: http://mlis.state.md.us/2011rs/bills/sb/sb0308t.pdf Senators Brinkley and Raskin worked their butts off on this. Now it is time for the House of Delegates to step up.

Every year is the year for the House of Delegates. Why is that? We know in Washington, it is the House of Representatives that passes symbolic legislation that has not a prayer in the U.S. Senate. Our own House of Delegates even held impeachment hearings for Attorney General Doug Gansler. HB 291 has 61 co-sponsors. There are only 141 delegates total. This means before the first speech, before the first hearing we were just 10 votes shy of passage in the House of Delegates. And the Senate has held their hearings, given their speeches, negotiated amendments and once again passed medical marijuana legislation by a landslide, 41-6.

To Chairman Vallario, members of both the Health & Government Operations and the Judiciary Committee, the people have spoken on this issue. We want medical marijuana legislation this year. Delegates speak-up 61 co-sponsors, 41-6 passage in the Senate (for the second year), how much more public support do you need to see to get this done?

SB 308 calls for a Work Group. As called for in that provision, it calls for the group to have “one member of the public who supports the use of marijuana for medical purposes.” I will be lobbying to be that person. I certainly I have been involved in this process. In putting forth my opinions I have always pointed out where they differed from some advocacy groups. I will not waiver on personal cultivation. The lawmakers have to be made to understand, we have turned to marijuana because what the pharmaceutical companies gave us failed. In one way or another for each patient that is turning to cannabis there is one drug that didn’t work long term. Or your doctor just never found that right combination to make you comfortable. What is working for us isn’t one cannabinoid that can be isolated; it is the combination of cannabinoids in the various strains. It is therefore imperative that any new law allows for the personal cultivation of that strain or strains that work best for the patient. We must keep in the forefront of this discussion that we do, we do so for the patients.

The only thing left for the citizen/activist to do is call, call everyone. If you call your Delegate and they say they are not on that committee, tell them they should find someone who is and tell them to vote in favor. Tell them to tell their chairman they want to vote on it. Tell them to make it happen.

The media support is staying strong. WBALTV continues to report on the bill’s status. The Baltimore Sun recently ran the following article: “Lawmakers look to decriminalize marijuana for the sick,” by Julie Bykowicz http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-medical-marijuana-defense-20110325,0,5282974,full.story For the patients I say thank you. We’re so close, support; undying, unwavering support is what we need. Call your delegates, demand passage of HB 291.

The Struggle We Face

2011-03-18T08:50:00.000-05:00

The reason medical marijuana has not spread throughout the nation, is the same reason why states, like Maryland, that are attempting to pass medical marijuana laws are having such a hard time. Patients. While we may have a lot of support in our own lives in the end it is mainly patients that come to hearings to testify. This is not meant to diminish the efforts of those who are not actually the patients in need. It is to say we need more of you, many, many more of you.

One of the leading organizations, dedicated to passing medical marijuana is Americans for Safe Access (ASA). It is led by a patient, Steph Sherer. Many of the people that I have met over the years from ASA are also patients. They are wonderful, compassionate people but they too are hurting.

The movement was born out of patients. We organize, form organizations, raise funds, and recruit healthy people to support medical marijuana. It is patients, family of patients and at the extreme, surviving family members that form the core of the medical marijuana movement.

In Maryland I have watched as the number of patients coming to testify, grow from one in 2007 (myself) to the 15 or so that testified in 2010, to over 30 this year. This is to their credit that they would take the time come, testify, and endure the pain and fatigue, which inevitably comes as a result of their efforts. During the same time period the number of people coming to testify against has remained very low. Patients come because they know that they are not criminals and they are tired of being considered as such under Maryland and federal law.

Delegate Dr. Dan Morhaim and Sen. David Brinkley both have said for two years that their intent is to “get the sick and dying off the battlefield of the war on drugs.” I am asking that healthy, able-bodied citizens who support us to join the struggle. We need help to keep sick and dying out of the legislative hearing rooms across the nation and home taking care of themselves.

The Delegate and Senator Brinkley and bill co-sponsor Senator Raskin continue to work behind the scenes to salvage something to improve on Maryland’s medical marijuana law. Their legislation (HB 291 & SB 308) is in danger of falling short again. These three men are working hard championing the rights of sick and dying patients. Just yesterday thanks to the work of Senators Raskin and Brinkley an amended version of SB 308 passed in the Judicial Proceedings Committee.

The revamped bill does two things. First it amends Darrell Putnam Compassionate Use act so that medicinal use of marijuana would be a true affirmative defense. Currently the way the law is written it is merely a mitigating circumstance a judge can take into consideration when sentencing. Under the new law if medicinal neccessity is proven, than the defendant is NOT GUILTY. Currently you have to first plead guilty before medical use even comes into question.

Second the law sets up a study commission to look at how or if Maryland should allow medicinal use of marijuana. Details on how the study will work have not been announced. I will update this story when more information becomes available. I am also waiting for a call back from Del. Morhaim's Chief of Staff to find out what is happening on the sister bill HB 291, will update.

I urge everyone who supports a patient’s right to use marijuana to relieve, their nausea, lack of appetite, muscle spasms, severe and chronic pain, to write their delegates, senators, and Gov. O’Malley and tell them so. Tell them that the criminal penalties for the medicinal use of marijuana have to end, in 2011. Do not force these patients to endure one more cold, windy, rainy day to come to Annapolis to fight for rights already codified under 2003’s Darrell Putnam Compassionate Use Act.

Update - Where Do We Go From Here?

2011-03-04T14:21:00.001-05:00

Well this year's hearings on Maryland's medical marijuana bills HB 291 and SB 308 have concluded. To say these bills are on life support is optimistic. But hey, a little optimism goes a long way. There is still activity outside the hearing process to try to work out something. I will of course keep readers up to date on anything that comes out of those discussions.

I want to thank Del. Morhaim and Sen. Brinkley for championing this issue in our state. I also want to tell everyone, that despite my opposition to their approach on cultivation and distribution these two gentlemen have treated me and all proponents of personal cultivation with the utmost respect. I thank them and their staffs for the kindness they have personally shown me.

The big news coming out of these hearings has been the change in position by Governor O'Malley and the Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). The governor sent the Secretarty of DHMH Joshua Sharfstein to convey this to the committees. This spurred the following response from yours truly in the Baltimore Sun:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-medical-marijuana-20110302,0,3781625.story

That article apparently caused the Associated Press to contact Prof. Lyle Craker of the University of Massachusetts Amherst for comment. That lead to this article on the AP wire this morning: http://headlines.verizon.com/headlines/portals/headlines.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=headlines_portal_page__article&_article=3347693

We as medical marijuana activst are asking all concerned citizens to contact Sec. Sharfstein (JSharfstein@dhmh.state.md.us) to urge him to end his opppostion this legislation. We do not need though we would like to have it, his support. If he would simply come out and say at this time DHMH is not taking a position, it might be enough to move forward. Certainly contacting Gov. O'Malley's office(http://www.governor.maryland.gov/mail/) as they say, "couldn't hurt."

This is what I wrote to Sec. Sharfstein a short while ago:

Dear Sec. Sharfstein,
Thank you for coming to testify on HB 291 & SB 308. While I disagree with your assessments on the value of the medicinal use of marijuana I appreciate your involvement in the debate. I think it is important that you see this article from the Associate Press today: http://headlines.verizon.com/headlines/portals/headlines.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=headlines_portal_page__article&_article=3347693

I believe this is a direct result of my op-ed in the Baltimore Sun. I would very much like to be included in further discussions on this issue between you and the medical marijuana advocacy groups.

In 2007 I was the only Maryland patient to come forward to testify. At that time the Bush White House vehemently opposed all medical marijuana laws in the United States. To block Maryland’s attempt they sent Dr. Bertha Madras, of ONDCP to testify against me.

Yours and her testimony sounded an awful lot alike. Both of you seem to think that the only safe medicines are FDA approved. How than do you explain the spontaneous bruising I experienced while taking Celebrex and eventually Vioxx. While on Celebrex I began to experience sudden bruising in my extremities after swimming. I asked my pharmacist about a possible drug related cause. She checked the information sent to all patients by Pfizer concerning Celebrex. She was of the opinion that while the literature clearly stated the problem of spontaneous bleeding in the stomach, a closer reading meant that this could happen anywhere in the body.

On her suggestion I decided to try Vioxx to see if this spontaneous bleeding would be less on a different COX2 inhibitor. On the evening of December 27, 2000 while watching TV I experienced a stroke. The stroke was due to spontaneous bleeding in my brain and not a clot.

To date it seems the only investigations even being considered by the FDA pertain to the isolation of various cannabinoids. This research approach does not take into consideration the interaction of all the cannabinoids contained in “whole” cannabis. There have been papers written about this and I urge you to have your staff look them up for you so you can be better informed.

From the age of sixteen I have dealt with osteoarthritis. By the time I reached my mid-twenties I was begging doctors for something stronger than over the counter medicines like , aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen. It was not until I was forty-five and finally told of my Post-Polio Syndrome that I was finally prescribed stronger drugs.

These same doctors have taken me off the opiates and muscle relaxers because they are no longer effective. Also because further long term use would surely cause liver damage. Pain management, as it was once explained to me by a nurse practioner, working with a pain management clinic is controlled addiction. If we are going to allow controlled addiction should we not consider allowing the use of a substance that does not have the potential for liver damage that these other drugs do.

I understand that at this time we will never have your full-throated support of medical marijuana legislation. All we as patients are asking is that you put your reservations aside for now and take no position on Maryland’s attempt to improve on the Darrell Putnam Compassionate Use Act. Until the federal government begins to study the therapeutic benefits of inhaled or orally ingested cannabis it is up to the states to join patients in what is an active of civil disobedience and allow the medicinal use of marijuana.

As each new state begins their own medical marijuana programs, the anecdotal evidence increases. The stronger the anecdotal evidence accumulated by more and more states, the more likely the federal government will be to begin studying the therapeutic benefits of inhaled or ingested cannabis. I believe that the closer we get to a majority of states having a medical marijuana laws on their books, the closer we get to a federal medical marijuana law.
Sincerely,

You can't change anything by staying silent. Let your government know the time has come to pass comprehensive medical marijuana laws not only in your state but in Congress also.

Let’s Not Do This Again!

2010-12-16T12:55:00.000-05:00

A few days before Halloween my wife came home and told me she had heard Sen. David Brinkley (R), Maryland state senator from the 4th district, representing Carroll and Frederick Counties, on the Afternoon News Journal with Shari Elliker. Her show is heard on WBAL-AM. He was on to state he intended to reintroduce his medical marijuana bill from last year. That evening I visited the show’s web page and found the following article http://carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/article_479ed848-d9a2-11df-93ab-001cc4c002e0.html. In it, Dan Riffle of Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) points out the short comings under current Maryland law. It highlights other positions as well, like those of “The Partnership for a Drug-Free America” (The Partnership) and the DEA. Obviously the DEA opposes medical marijuana legislation, favoring instead the use of Marinol. I’ll have more on that later in this article.

“The Partnership for a Drug-Free America” told the reporter that they understand that some report the benefit of smoked marijuana. Despite that, they still believe that marijuana is harmful. This says to me that “The Partnership” has decided that what they learn from the DEA has more weight than all of the anecdotal evidence to the contrary. They claim for instance that it is harmful to the teenage mind. Is it a bad idea for a teenager in high school to start smoking pot? Yes just the same as it is a bad idea to start drinking in high school. Yet they still do, just as many of us did when we were in high school. These are after all intoxicants and an underdeveloped teenage mind is likely to choose intoxication over U.S. History or Algebra. However I challenge the assertion that it damages the brain. There are simply too many anecdotes about successful people who did both, smoked pot in high school and did well in life. However that is a debate about prohibition as a national policy and has nothing to do with the debate over medical marijuana.

This debate is about the best policy to allow severely ill patients in Maryland to use marijuana to alleviate their symptoms or the side effects of certain medical treatments.
In 2007 there were 24,710 arrests for marijuana (http://www.drugscience.org/States/MD/MD.pdf ). According to Dan Riffle of Marijuana Policy Project they are aware of only a handful of cases where the Darrell Putnam Compassionate Use Act’s (Darrell Putnam) affirmative defense was invoked. As everyone should know by now Darrell Putnam is not a defense against the crime but a mitigating circumstance in sentencing. To invoke Darrell Putnam you must first plead guilty to possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Even if that defense at sentencing was used 100 times (and no one I know thinks it any where near that large a number), it would account for less than one half of one percent of all marijuana arrests that year.

Concerning Marinol as an alternative to smoked or orally ingested marijuana, I was surprised by some of the testimony about this drug. In particular I was horrified by the comments of Sen. Nancy Jacobs. She related to the committee the anecdote about her mother who had used Marinol when she was suffering with Parkinson’s disease. She told the committee that, not only did the drug not do what she was told it would, which was increase her appetite it caused her to have hallucinations. Conversely, Sen. Jacobs also told the about a friend of hers from California. She is paralyzed from the waist down. She has successfully used marijuana to alleviate “phantom pain” in her legs.

Last year we made an historic achievement by passing SB 627 in the senate by a vote of 35-17. Maryland has already demonstrated that it is time for real, effective medical marijuana legislation in this state. Legislation that passes by a more than 2 – 1 margin has to be considered to have passed by a landslide. Medical marijuana legislation will face the same fate as last year if Chairman Vallario uses his “third” vote to prevent the bill from going to the floor. Members of any committee get an extra vote on an issue. Members get to vote on a bill that is before the committee they are assigned to, while the rest of their house will only get to vote on the final bill. Committee chairs get a “third vote” in that they have the power not to call for a vote on any bill before their committee. If a bill cannot make it through committee, it is not heard by the full Senate or House Delegates.

I have reached out to both Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and Marijuana Policy Project concerning an idea I have. In an e-mail to Rob Kampia, Executive Director and Dan Riffle, Legislative Analyst, both of MPP as well as Caren Woodson, Dir. Of Government Affairs and Kristin Ford, Field Liaison both at ASA, regarding this idea. The idea being that both groups and as many patients the two groups can muster hold a joint press conference to inform the public on our positions concerning the best way to implement effective medical marijuana legislation in Maryland.

Even before that e-mail, I had reached out to Dan Riffle at MPP concerning this idea. He said that he doubted MPP would be interested. Furthermore he told me that MPP feels that patients like myself that testified in favor of SB 627 “gummed up the works,” when as a part of our testimony we spoke about the importance to patients that any law contain the right to personally cultivate our own medicine. To date I have not heard back from MPP.

Caren Woodson, Dir. Of Government Affairs at ASA has replied to the idea. She informed me that, “ASA has a standard policy to not do press conferences with MPP unless extraordinary circumstances are in play.” She went on to say that ASA had been “burned” by MPP in the past, citing MPP’s remark about patients “gumming up the works.” She rightly asks if I felt like patients had “gummed up the works?” The answer is of course no. If anyone is gumming up the process it is MPP.

I find it difficult to reconcile MPP’s position on personal cultivation as a provision of medical marijuana legislation in Maryland with their overall mission statement. In their mission statement they assert they are endeavoring to “3. Change state laws to reduce or eliminate penalties for the medical and non-medical use of marijuana.” If in fact marijuana was to finally enjoy the same treatment under the law as alcohol it stands to reason people would be able to “grow their own.” This would be in keeping with our right to produce our own alcoholic beverages but with limitations as to the quantity of beer, wine, or spirits.

Currently under U.S. law a person may produce, up to 100 gallons of alcoholic beverages per person (200 gallons per household). That is the equivalent of about three 12oz beers a day. Of course that can double to almost a six-pack a day if you are the only one in your house that drinks. Change beer to whiskey and you produce enough to get pretty schnockered every day before you are breaking any laws. So why than is MPP resisting inclusion of personal cultivation in any proposed medical marijuana here in Maryland. Their answer is the Morhaim/Bentley bill is better than what we have now. I disagree.

We are currently at a point where what is included in the bill is up for negotiation. MPP believes including personal cultivation is a “poison pill.” I on the other hand believe that at the opening of negotiations you ask for everything and negotiate down from there. When out to buy a new car have you ever asked the salesman “what is the real price of that car” or something to that effect. I was once a car salesman and I can assure you that if they don’t point to the sticker price, they won’t be selling cars there long. They are trained first you ask for sticker, let the buyer offer something lower. That way you at least have a chance of getting full price. This is the attitude we should have when it comes to medical marijuana legislation, ask for everything, see how much support you can garner, then begin to broker a deal if you can’t have it all. Do not begin by giving away patients rights in favor of the rights of pharmacies to get into the cannabis selling business.

Open To All

2010-12-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

I am announcing today that I am doing something I should have done years ago. Nearly four years ago I began the blog Casey’s Dream, http://caseysdream.blogspot.com
At that time I made the decision to control all postings to the site. My main concern remains and that is any stoner with a computer could post any thing he or she wants. I hope that is not the case. Today I am opening up Casey’s Dream to all medical marijuana activists. We all have our sites where we promote this idea. What I propose is what ever you post on your site also post it here. Let’s make Casey’s Dream a clearing house for ideas on how to pass not just state laws, but a federal medical marijuana law. It should be protective of the rights of patients and should always include a personal cultivation provision. This is a civil rights issue and should be treated as such. Sadly I can not figure out how to make it truly open to anyone. So if you would like to being an author of this blog you have to send me your e-mail address to caseyscannabisdream@comcast.net so I can add you to the list of authors. There may be some bugs to work out but hopefully not too many. Welcome all new contributors, I hope there are many!

Gearing Up In Maryland

2010-09-30T23:36:00.006-05:00

Well 2010 is three quarters gone. With the election a little less than a month away it is time to start thinking about 2011. Medical marijuana activist are all ready gearing up for the 2011 Maryland General Assembly Session. What will happen when the legislature returns in January? What we are hearing is there will be a new old bill put in the hopper. Early this year I told you about HB 712 & SB 627. SB 627 made it through the Maryland Senate but HB 712 died in the House of Delegates. What was not talked about was HB 1388, a second medical marijuana before the House of Delegates. It was allowed to go by the wayside in favor of HB 712 because 712 had more sponsors and certain provisions that made it more palatable. Here's the deal - we were wrong to let that happen. If all goes as planned currently HB 1388 will be re-introduced this year, with possibly a few improvements.

There were two main flaws in HB 712 and we knew it. One there was no provision for personal cultivation. Second was the basic premise of the bill which was to set up state licensed large operations to grow cannabis. Here is the problem with that. It is not likely DEA will allow large grows to spring up in Maryland. How would that look, an acre of pot, or a large greenhouse growing marijuana just over the boarder from the nations capital.

HB 712 was modeled after New Jersey's recently passed medical marijuana law. NJ's law is still not finalized. Rules have not been agreed upon. The deadline for those rules is being pushed back at the request of first year governor of Gov. Christie (R). I spoke to the NJ Dept of Health and Senior Services back in late March of this year. At that point not one person had applied to become a grower. I’m sure that when this bill was before the New Jersey legislature the lawmakers were told that people will flock to become legal marijuana growers. According to the person I spoke to people aren't even calling to ask what the process will be. Actually the person I spoke to made it clear that she and many of her co-workers oppose having to implement the law. This is what we told Maryland lawmakers would happen if we enacted HB 712.

This is what you can expect if we pass a newly resurrected HB 1388. You can expect to be able to live without fear if you choose all natural cannabis over the narcotics of Big Pharm. You will be issued an ID card that lets every police office know that in Maryland it is legal for you to be in possession of marijuana for medicinal purposes. You will be allowed to grow your own. How much is under discussion whether it would be a certain number of plants or the preferred “canopy” method of measuring. Under a “canopy” provision you will be allowed to designate a certain area, measured in square feet of your property to grow your own medicine. You will be allowed to designate a “caregiver.” A “caregiver” is a person you can designate to obtain cannabis for you because you are unable to say travel. This person may be someone who allows you to medicate in their residence because you have children present and don’t want to expose them to you breaking federal law. There are many other provisions; to read them all go to: http://mlis.state.md.us/2010rs/bills/hb/hb1388f.pdf
For now there will be a series of conference calls to begin the organizing process. If you would like to participate just send your e-mail address to me at caseyscannabisdream@comcast.net. I’ll make sure it gets added to the mailing list. As always you can learn more about what’s happening in Maryland and all the other states by visiting the Americans for Safe Access (ASA) website at: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/ Remember it is your right “to be as pain free as possible.” It is time for Marylanders to stand up for their rights. Please join us this year to protect the right of Marylanders facing terrible illnesses to use cannabis to alleviate the debilitating disease symptoms and or side effects of the medicine they have to take for them.

Could Maryland Be the 15th Medical Marijuana State?

2010-03-13T13:15:00.003-05:00

I recently wrote of my opposition to Maryland House Bill 712. I'm here to revise and amend my remarks. Last Friday afternoon February 26, 2010 in Maryland's Joint Committee Hearing Room was a sight to see. A bill that already had an impressive list of sponsors had an even more impressive list of witnesses testifying in favor of HB 712. On the house side, the bill currently has 48 sponsors so it is not an orphan by a long shot. Over one fifth of the bills sponsors are Republican in a heavily Democratic state. Of the ten Republican sponsors, three are minority whips. What really excited the proponents was when bill sponsor Del. Morhaim said in his opening remarks that he was considering revisiting the issue of personal cultivation. That was not the only high point.

The high point for me had to be the number of patients that came out to testify in favor of Md. HB 712. It was John McCarthy who HIV positive, Christa (hope I spelled that right) who's body has forgotten how to make collagen, Mike Bullis with glaucoma, then there were two cancer survivors Suzi Rank and Pamela Hughes, all of whom came forward to say, I need this law. In 2007, I was the only local patient to testify in favor of medical marijuana. This year it was panel after panel, each with multiple patients, or at least that was how it seemed sitting in the hearing room.

Even as I write, I am hearing of support from unlikely sources like the relative of a friend of a relative who just posted to his Facebook page a link about my testimony. I don't mention his name because he is law enforcement and I didn't get his permission. Nevertheless, that brings me to another point. Law enforcement statements are that they are not going to make a public statement. Again, it is a first in Maryland, a medical marijuana bill without law enforcement’s active opposition.

We had our experts too. Can't get anything passed without experts. There was Dr. Applebaum a geriatric specialist and Robyn Elliott representing Maryland Nurses Association, along with others. Of course, we cannot discount the fact that Del. Morhaim is also Dr. Morhaim. The fact that it is a doctor bringing forth the legislation says a lot. In Dr. Morhaim's ideal, we would get a real prescription from a doctor, take it to our local Rite Aid, CVS, Epic or pharmacy of our choice and be able to receive whatever cannabis, in whatever form that our doctor ordered.

Don't get me wrong I would like a country where I can get a thirty-day supply of cannabis products for a fifteen-dollar prescription co-pay. In the mean time, I want to be able to grow my own medicine. That way I get to use the whole plant, the buds, the leaves even the stems. One good thing is both ideas for seeing that the medicine gets to the patient can operate simultaneously. So if I want to continue to cultivate my own I can or I could get it safely from my neighborhood druggist.

I did miss the opposition from last time though. It was a little daunting last time to learn the Bush Whitehouse had sent Dr. Bertha Madras. Dr. Madras was the Deputy Director for Demand Reduction, Whitehouse Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The Bush people were serious. They didn’t want Maryland to have a medical marijuana law some 6.5 miles from the Whitehouse Portico. It was nice to see the Obama Administration have a slightly different take on the issue.

Whom I really missed was Joyce Nalepka. Joyce Nalepka is a citizen activist from the other side. She was successful in passing bans on paraphernalia in Maryland and other states. She had been horrified went she went to buy an album and there were all these bongs on display at the record store. How shocking! Where I went to college her name was Sally, I won’t tell the name of the store where she worked. We called her our one stop record shop. She sold everything, music, papers, pipes and something to put in it. If Mrs. Nalepka only knew what was under the counter or in the storeroom back then.
What made Joyce so entertaining is that she has this scroll of names. I don’t want to misrepresent what is on the scroll so leave it to say it is the names of people whose lives were ruined by marijuana. I think it is the names of people who went on to use heroin and later died. As I said, I don’t want to overstate her case for her. What’s important is the theatre with which she rolls out the scroll.

When we were before the House of Delegates committee, she got away with it. However, when we got over to the Senate side they wanted no part of her street theatre. You know senators they all think their house is more revered. As she was approaching the point where she rolled out the scroll, she was admonished from the Chair not to do it. Well you know even conservatives aren’t afraid of a little civil disobedience to make a point. Out she rolled the scroll right on cue. The Chairman called for the Capital Police to come and take her and her scroll away. When the officer started to roll, it back up he was told that, that was precisely what they didn’t want. The officer did a “scoop and grab” and away went Mrs. Nalepka and her little scroll too.

The bill did have its detractors. Mainly they were concerned about the use of cannabis by schizophrenics. This exchange sounded like global warming. Those who want schizophrenics kept away from cannabis said their scientists were smarter than those who thought they had science on their side. It all has to do with the different cannabinoids and how they react on the brain. The important part being that what ever the effects on the schizophrenic mind it is a small part of the population. There are also thousands of other medicines I suspect, that it would be inappropriate for schizophrenics to take. We do know that whatever the law, someone with in the 1% of the population that has schizophrenia, will get their hands on one of those medicines and it will have a tragic maybe even newsworthy results. This should not change my right to medicine that works on the other 99% of the population.

Maryland is very close this time out. What I need as a patient, is for all those who support medical marijuana to contact the Maryland Legislature and voice your opinions. Here are some links that will help:http://mlis.state.md.us/2010rs/billfile/hb0712.htm Pick a sponsor and let him or her know you support the bill. On the other hand, you could contact Chairman Joseph Vallario of the Judiciary Committee at joseph.vallario@house.state.md.us Chairman Vallario last time refused to call for a vote in the Judiciary Committee effectively killing the bill in 2007. Let Del. Vallario know you want an up or down vote this time. If you live in Maryland, contact your Delegates or State Senator and voicing your opinion to them. They are easy to find here http://mdelect.net/default.asp
It is time again to show your support of medical marijuana. Remember this time we have a lot of politicians on both sides supporting us. Please keep your rhetoric civil. Your Momma was right. You catch more bees with honey than vinegar and some of those bees are looking for an excuse to vote no. Don’t give the one; give them a reason to vote yes.

Amigos para Siempre- "Friends Forever" by Jane

2010-02-20T08:13:00.007-05:00

Brenda & Eddie were the popular steady and the king and queen of the prom…Billy Joel ©1977

Every high school has their Brenda and Eddie. We had such a couple in our high school. Hap was King of the prom but alas, his queen Jane was relegated to the queen’s court. Like in the song, many of those high school sweethearts who got married frequently ended up divorced. However, this was not the case for our king and his queen. They had a very successful marriage. They first started dating in seventh grade. They broke up when he went away to camp without saying good-bye. She would learn later that it was because he was grounded for skipping school. In the vernacular of the Internet, BTDT.

As we all entered high school, their relationship got another spark. In our neighborhood, we had “teen center” where we went to dances every Friday night. It was there one Friday in October of 1968 that a life long love affair caught fire. Their fire burned slowly and steadily for over 40 years until pancreatic cancer took Hap. They were “Amigos Para Siempre.” Now Jane is coming forward to tell you how cannabis helped Happy (Hap) endure his battle against this devastating cancer. Casey

Amigos para Siempre- "Friends Forever". by Jane

My late husband, Happy, would whisper it to me at the table during a candlelit meal of fine wine, steak and artichoke. It was one of his favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber songs, and I was his favorite girl.

I first met him in Mrs. Frost's 5th grade class after moving to the States from Canada. For me it was love at first sight. He was handsome, fun loving and a friend to all. We were inseparable during high school, voted the cutest couple and were married our 3rd year of college. Along the way we had many adventures, Hap loved to ski- downhill, water and cross-country. We lived in a Chevy van our last semester of college, traveling out west and skiing at all the major areas. We traveled across the world together, through 41 states from Key West to Maine, to California, through Canada, Europe and the Caribbean finally settling down to raise 4 beautiful children.

As a financial planner Hap's business took us to Massachusetts, back to Maryland, then on to Rhode Island and, finally, to Syracuse New York. Each new place held new adventures for the the whole family. Happy was a patient teacher and wonderful role model for all. He showed us what it meant to care for others and how to respect others personal space and privacy. He also taught his children how to respect the law.

Hap's father had passed away from prostate cancer at the young age of 54. Being aware of this, Hap was diligent about being tested himself for the disease. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed in 1995 and underwent a radical prostatectomy at Johns Hopkins. The surgery was a success and we began to move on with our lives.

In November of 2007, after a bout with heartburn, unexplained weight loss and fatigue Hap was again diagnosed with cancer. This time it was Pancreatic Cancer- the most deadly kind with an extremely low survival rate. He immediately underwent major surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital for removal of his pancreas, spleen and portions of his stomach. During the surgery, the doctor found that the cancer had wrapped itself around a major artery and the surgery was aborted. Before sewing him up, the doctor was able to perform an emergency gastrogeugenostomy so that Hap might be again able to eat and drink.

Recovery from the surgery was extremely slow and painful. Hap had difficulty drinking or eating anything and he became dehydrated and malnourished. He had to be transported to the hospital via ambulance several times for emergency IV therapy to save his life. He was on major medications as well as chemotherapy. Unable to walk very far he spent his days in a recliner in the family room. Hap was undergoing toxic chemotherapy drugs that left his body ravaged and unable to eat. His weight plummeted from 190 to 140 pounds. Everyone in the family was there to lend support and they were always greeted with a trademark smile from Hap. True to his character, he always put himself second to others in the room.

During this time, the family relied on the Johns Hopkins online discussion board for pancreatic cancer patients and caregivers. In an attempt to find ways to encourage Hap's appetite, the use of marijuana to stimulate food consumption came up. Hap and I had been together since I was 14, he 15 and in that time we had never used drugs of any kind, including marijuana. Hap had told me that he had used it once before we were together when he and a friend had gone on an overnight canoe trip in Maine. The friend's brother had brought back some from Viet Nam which they tried. He recounted a night of feeling spacey and said he didn't care to repeat that feeling. We continued to abstain from drug use during the course of our marriage.

Hap did not want to use the marijuana, as he did not want to set a "bad" example for our children. I understood and agreed with this, however, it was apparent that if he did not increase his food and fluid intake he would surely die. The family spoke to him, actually begged him, and he finally agreed to try some. A friend from Hap's work bought him a water pipe; another was borrowed from a second friend. The actual marijuana was obtained and Hap went down to the basement to smoke some (he refused to smoke upstairs). As he did, I had the oven on and had several "fattening" foods ready, French fries, mozzarella sticks and the like for when he was done. Soon after he had smoked, he was able to eat and drink. The family and I were relieved at this and soon Hap began to gain weight. He did not smoke every day, although he told one of our daughters that after he smoked he at least had a brief time where he was pain free and felt relatively "normal" again.

It took Hap a few months to regain almost all of his weight back. After he did, he gave up the marijuana use and we had what he dubbed "the summer of love". We traveled to see family and friends in Maryland and Maine and also spent some time on the Jersey shore. He was able to have an experimental Cyberknife treatment in July and in August; we were in Maine with family at our summer camp where Hap was able to say his goodbyes to many friends and family members.

Unfortunately, when we returned in September Hap developed an allergic reaction to the chemotherapy that had been helping to keep the cancer at bay. He tried several other chemos, but the cancer continued to progress.
In the early morning hours of January 28, 2009, the love of my life died peacefully in his sleep next to me.

Hap donated his body to the Anatomical Research Group here in Syracuse. He was a generous man- even in death and he wanted to provide a means for others to learn from his body.

The family will never regret Hap's decision to use marijuana to help him sustain his life.

He will forever be in my heart- "Amigos Para Siempre".... I love you Happy!

No More Vicodin For Me

2009-10-29T15:05:00.009-05:00

That's right no more Vicodin for me. No more Flexiril either. You might ask why would someone who has taken Vicodin and Flexiril as a part of a pain management regiment for about eight years make such a drastic decision. Three letters is all the answer you need, DEA! If I want to continue with this very successful drug regiment I have to prove that I am not using cannabis.

What does the DEA have to do with a persons lawful and longtime use of two widely prescribed drugs. Simple. DEA controls whether or not a physician can prescribe scheduled narcotics. Don't play by their rules and they take away your prescription pad. Where are those Republicans in Congress who don't want bureaucrats telling doctors what to do. They are of course lined up squarely behind the DEA. Afterall it is their 40 year Drug War. Yes of course Democrats have supported the Drug War also, but that is pure political survivorship. Speak out against the Drug War and watch your political career go in the dumper.

It works like this the DEA has issued a series of guidelines/regulations that doctors who are certified in pain management have to adhere to. The guidelines are suppose to insure that illegal narcotic users don't also receive prescription pain killers such as Vicodin. That is fine. We don't want people dying because they shot up heroin then took four extra strength Vicodin. However, doctors I have spoke to are in agreement, cannabis does not negatively interact with these drugs.

Initially these regulations had doctors bringing patients in once a month to get new prescriptions. At that time most are made to provide a urine sample. That drug test has to show the proper level of the drug you are taking and no other drugs, including over-the-counter medicines like Tylenol. Tylenol is counter-indicated with Vicodin because along with the 5mg of Hydrocodone in Vicodin there is also 500mg of Acetaminophen the active ingredient of Tylenol. Too much Acetaminophen will surely damage a liver. This policy changed but not all are in agreement that the change has been effective. The Washington Post reported on the change back on Sept. 7, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/06/AR2006090601756.html

Up to here I'm fine with. They will also look for "street drugs." Here is where it gets sticky. I recently had one of these tests. It reported that I had Dilaudid (Hydromorphone Hydrochloride) in my system. Both my doctor and pharmacist agreed that this is Vicodin in its metabolized form. In other words the urine tests that most people take do not completely identify what drug you took. They test for how much of the metabolized drug is in your system. The policy breaks down for me because they are not doing a thorough chemical analysis identifying which drug had been ingested. Yet let there be just a trace of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and BAM you are out of pain management.

Therefore despite wide spread belief that Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) does not negatively impact the metabolizing of either Vicodin or Flexiril, medical marijuana patients are not allowed opiates like Vicodin, if the patient tests positive for THC. This is true even in states where medical marijuana is allowed. Here's a kicker, as I am researching this topic I learned that Felxeril (I have seen Flexiril spelled both ways) is not effective on muscle spams caused by neuro-muscular disease. SO my case is a chicken or egg situation. Are my muscle spasms caused by over use or by the residual paralysis from polio, in other words post polio syndrome.

Where does this leave me? It leaves me where I have been for far too many years. It leaves me playing "Lester Burnham" in "American Beauty" and hoping the new kid next door sells pot. Worse it leaves me going to bars that my mere lack of "ink" makes me suspect. Worse it makes me a target for being ripped off. It leaves me having to choose between breaking the law and having pain relief or not breaking the law. I have to choose between Vicodin and Flexeril that has undesired side-effects like constipation and breaking the law to use cannabis, which has none of the undesirable side effects.

I once appeared on "Viewpoint" on Retirement Living TV. The producers loved one quote of mine from the show. "I have the right to be as pain free as possible..." I still believe that more and more each day. Today I met someone I'll call "Al." Al is a paraplegic who needs methadone to combat his constant pain. He will be discharged from the "pain manager's" practice if he tests positive for cannabis just one more time. The DEA is making the "what do I want to take for my pain medicine opiates or cannabis" and making it a question of being willing to break the law or not. It should be simply do I want to take opiates or do I want to use cannabis. Of the doctor's I have spoken to on this issue most are unwilling to express support of cannabis use because of the smoking issue. For that reason they are reluctant to come right out and say "If the law changes then I will recommend to my patients the use of cannabis." They are actually more likely to voice support for ending treating drug addiction as a criminal matter rather than a health matter. Do you have to make this choice? Should anyone have to make this choice? For me the answers are yes, and absolutley NO!

Pot City, USA

2009-10-20T10:15:00.004-05:00

Last night the A&E network ran the documentary Pot City, USA. The documentary highlights the conflict in Humboldt County, Ca. The conflict lies in California's Compassionate Use law that allows patients to use and grow cannabis for medicinal purposes and the illegal growing of marijuana for profit. What a stroke of programming genius. Of course, they had no way of knowing that on the day the show would air, the Obama Administration would issue new guidelines to U. S. Attorney's regarding the use of federal funds to arrest and prosecute patients in the 13 states that now have Compassionate Use laws.

The town of Arcata has a problem they want to support California's Prop 215 law. What they don't want is the people moving to their town and by extension Humboldt County to grow pot for sale to anyone not just medical marijuana patients. Growers are coming to towns like Arcata because of liberal grow laws. Their business is driving up rents on houses, which makes it harder for renters to stay in their homes. One couple had their rent for a two-bedroom home go from $950.00/month to $1,900.00/month. Landlords are having a problem because their tenants are destroying their properties because of a variety of problems. Not the least of which is hydroponic grows that are done in secret trap all the excess moisture in a small area and mold begins to grow everywhere. Some landlords have had fires in their properties because growers have overloaded the existing electrical system with grow lights.

Medical marijuana patients have always had the support of the town of Arcata. However, that support is eroding because of the illegal grows. The Arcata Eye, the local newspaper was a strong supporter of the patients living in Arcata. They now increasingly have to report crimes involving violations of Prop 215. The editor says he used to report crimes as benign as a stolen garden hose that he took a page from Shakespeare and did so in verse. The editor now reports on raids by the Humboldt County Drug Task Force.

I have seen other documentaries on this subject. They are right to point out the problems arising from on one hand being able to legally grow up to 99 marijuana plants for personal medicinal use and/or to function as a caregiver and supply other patients with the medicine they need. So far, though the solution to the problem ends up being one lone person at the end of the show pointing out the obvious solution.

What is that obvious solution? Legalize marijuana for use by all responsible adults. So why doesn't America legalize marijuana? Boy, that post might set a record for longest blog post ever, since there are so many different answers. Primarily the answer lies in the political discourse of the day that has come to the forefront during the "debate" of healthcare reform. The opposing side lies, than when questioned, they tell the same lie, than when they are challenged with the truth they lie louder. What is the lie the opposition tells? The same lie that William Randolph Hearst and Harry Anslinger told back in the 1930's; Marijuana is a dangerous addictive drug that acts as a gateway to other "harder" drugs. This is patently false. Marijuana users don't try other drugs because of some component in marijuana. They do so, when they do, because like the candy at the checkout counter at say a hardware store the supplier of illegal cannabis also has other illegal drugs to sell. Marijuana users however, do not tend to go to sellers dealing in other drugs anymore because that is asking to be there when the DEA comes barging in to arrest the guy for selling cocaine or heroine.

One lie I have always thought totally obscene is that "X" percentage of people in jail for drug use started using illegal drugs by first using cannabis. I love writing on the internet because as editor I can say "BULLSHIT!" People who use cannabis usually begin with either nicotine and/or alcohol as in cigarettes and beer.

For landlords living in states where renters are turning their properties in to grow factories the answer is even simpler. Inspect your properties. When growing up, my folks owned four rental properties, which the inspected every few months. I used to be a renter. When we first moved in our landlord came around a couple of times a year. After three or four inspections, they told us it is obvious that, to you this is your home. They then made us the promise that we could live there as long as we like and they would keep the rent as low as they could. Our rent went from $590.00 to $850.00 a month over the course of nineteen years. When we moved out other renters in our court were paying up to $2,000.00 a month. Not for the reason rents went up in Arcata, but because Maryland is one of the most expensive states in the Union to live.

Landlords can also amend the standard rental lease they got from Staples to prohibit the growing of cannabis. Just like, they can prohibit or allow pets. This way they can evict tenants for violating the lease. It would also make it easier to recover damages in a civil suit. If they truly support medical marijuana laws, they could come to an agreement with their tenant as to the number of plants and the manner in which they are grown with the same simple amending of the pre-printed lease. Each party initials the change and every body’s rights are protected.

I have been through the legislative process of trying to pass a medical marijuana law in Maryland. The opposing testimony before the committees considering the bill came from ONDCP. Their argument boiled down to, if the FDA has not approved it as medicine than states should not allow the medicinal use of cannabis. I'll leave it to the reader to judge the validity of that argument. Know this however; the FDA says they want to conduct studies on the efficacy of cannabis as medicine. DEA is blocking that research through foot dragging on issuing licenses to possess cannabis for scientific research.

The senators and delegates questions frequently focused on how do we keep medical marijuana use separate from recreational use. They fear exactly what is happening in California might happen in Maryland. The answer I believe is the patients will keep it separate. States are fooling themselves if they think grow houses do not exist in every state in America. They do. It is just that when you have compassionate use laws, illegal growers flock there because they think they know that it is safer than in other states. DO NOT kid yourself. What happens in medical marijuana states is growers get sloppy and greedy. They feel less pressure to hide their activities. In Arcata, landlords actually advertise properties as suitable for "grow house." Then they raise the rent through the roof.

This argument is coming to a head. There is a simple two-step answer and it falls on Congress to enact it. First, pass a federal compassionate use law. Second after that, law has been in place for a few years come back and pass a bill in the spirit of the repeal of the alcohol prohibition. Legalize marijuana use for adults over the age of eighteen. When we repealed prohibition because of the crime that prohibition created, crime especially murder went down. We were in essence saying that in America you have the right, to chemically alter your perception, so long as you do so in a responsible manner.

News From Patients Out of Time

2009-09-09T08:08:00.005-05:00

I first learned about Patients Out of Time from Irv Rosenfeld. Don’t get me wrong, Irv’s story as one of the last living federal medical marijuana patients is compelling. Even reason enough to pass a medical marijuana law for everyone. However, Patients Out of Time is a unique organization in the battle for the right to use cannabis medicinally.

Patients Out of Time is an all-volunteer organization. No one is paid a salary to run Patients Out of Time. This is not true of other pro-pot organizations. I was, prior to the recession, a member of both Americans for Safe Access and Drug Policy Alliance. They worked with me when I testified before committees in both houses of the Maryland legislator. They are great organizations. However, Patients Out of Time is demonstrating the power of volunteerism through its continuing educational programs.

Patients Out of Time has recently announced an online education program for MD’s and RN’s to earn Continuing Education Units or Continuing Medical Education credits. “This is CME and CEU credits for them, cheap!,” according to my friend Al Byrne a Patients Out of Time volunteer. The 2008 Patients Out Of Time Fifth National Clinical Conference On Cannabis Therapeutics is now online. The UCSF School of Medicine site is hosting it at http://www.cecity.com/ce-bin/owa/bel?cc=CECA&aid=14422.For more information and to register please contact Patients Out Of Time 1472 Fish Pond Rd., Howardsville, VA 24562, Telephone (434) 263-4484 or on the Internet at http://www.medicalcannabis.com. The cost for laypeople will be around $150.00. Professional’s costs are higher.

Patients Out Of Time is also announcing their Sixth National Clinical Conference On Cannabis Therapeutics. Warwick, Rhodes Island is the host city. The conference begins on Tax Day April 15th 2010 and runs through April 17th 2010. Patients Out of Time has lined up as featured speakers: Donald Abrams, MD, Raphael Mechoulam, MD, Lyle Craker, PhD, and Andrew T. Weil, MD. Conferences are held every two years.

As with the online 2008 conference, the University Of California San Francisco School Of Medicine will be offering Continuing Medical Education credits for physicians and Continuing Education Units for nurses attending. This forum will also be available for credit on line at a future date.

Using the Internet to its fullest Patients Out of Time will soon be posting the 2006 conference on line this fall. That will make the Forth, Fifth and Sixth versions of the National Clinical Conference On Cannabis Therapeutics available on line for professional and laypersons alike. Patients Out of Time is a great volunteer organization for medical professionals. It is also a organization for patients in need of information about the medicinal use of cannabis. You can larn more at their website http://www.medicalcannabis.com/.

Time to Legalize Drugs? - Nicholas D. Kristof Blog - NYTimes.com

2009-06-18T11:47:00.001-05:00

There was a companion piece to this on Sunday by Mr. Kristof, "Drugs Won the War" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14kristof.html?_r=1. It is good to see prominent editorialists stating this opinion. Many more of us have come to the same conclusion, for the same reasons years ago.

Through the courtesy of my friend at Drug Policy Alliance here are some more editorials in recent days. I have not read these as of yet but it is important that they're are being published. There are some esteem people who believe it is time to end the drug war. Even Walter Cronkite has a documentary available on line where he looks deep into the cost of the drug war and question its lack of results. If this was a shooting war with another country that had gone on for forty years, well the American people would never stand for it.

1) AlterNet: Ethan Nadelmann's Speech at America's Future Now Conference; Posted on June 12, 2009, Printed on June 12, 2009 - I became active in drug reform after hearing Ethan speak at Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus in Baltimore back in 2006.

2) Chicago Tribune: Feature on Kathie Kane Willis: (From Heroin
Addiction to Leader in Reform Movement) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-confession-bd-14-jun14,0,4399112.story

3) Albuquerque Journal: DPA op-ed on Overdose Crisis and Solutions
to Problem http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/guest_columns/152214189251opinionguestcolumns06-15-09.htm

4) AlterNet: Will Marijuana be Taxed and Regulated in CA? Ballot
Initiative in 2010

People are rethinking the drug war for a variety of reasons. 1st is the ineffectiveness of the policy. We spend billions on interdiction, arrest, trial and incarceration. Yet it is my opinion that there has not been a net result of even one drug addict prevented. Yes some people have avoided becoming a drug addict or even a drug user. But for everyone they have prevented there is more than one new user to take their place.

Another reason is because the drug laws have been unfair for many years. Depending on where you live being caught with marijuana could me jail time or a slap on the wrist with sometime in drug abuse "classes." Here the offender is basically forced to take in all of the same "Reefer Madness" (Tell Your Children) propaganda that was disproved as fast as it made the rounds back in 1936. Some states it has the same affect as a jaywalking ticket. The courts are still addressing the issue of sentence fairness between crack cocaine and powder cocaine.

It is time to stop listening to the likes of General Barry McCaffrey the former Drug Czar. I recently heard him on MSNBC saying that legalizing marijuana because it would be a money maker for the government was liberal 1970's thinking. He went on to say it was stupid or silly or some other derogatory adjective. His argument basically that drugs are like communism and should not be allowed in America.

Despite how some tend to describe us I am not some lone stoner. I am politically active as well as leading a full life. Someone recently has a post blaming the government for the tragic deaths of some teenagers (If memory serves) who died during a high speed chase by the police. I know first hand the tragedy of a sudden death of a young person. But I draw my line at defending the acutely indefensible action of running from the police. Never break two laws at the same time. If you are going to use cannabis than you have to be certain to follow all the other laws; particularly traffic laws. The young people that died in that tragic accident were wrong when they chose to run instead of facing the reality of the situation. If you are under the influence and possessing cannabis and you see the red lights of a police car. You loose; pull over and deal with the situation.

The drug war like it or not is being look at as a drain on our federal budget. It represents something in excess of a trillion dollars in total cost. If we stop spending money on the drug war than lawyers, court clerks, paralegals, will all be out of a job and that's not all . All around the courthouses I used to work in there were other businesses that depended on the courthouse being there. There were drugs stores, restaurants and lunch counters, and convenience stores. It could mean in the future a decrease in the number of guards needed for our prisons and jails. This is obviously not likely, even if the percentage of people being incarcerated goes down the size of the population is probably going to increase.

America as a nation needs to recognize that people will do drugs. Just like we learned that people will drink. People do and will continue to smoke despite the health consequences. This is why it is fruitless to try to prohibit these activities. Harry Anslinger did say one thing right as America's first "drug czar." He reportedly once said something like how am I supposed to police a weed. The drug misuse issue is often described as insidious or a scourge. This is why just saying no even if not saying no means jail, just saying no does not address the problem. America at this point has become the mother screaming at her children, "No, ...no, no, no...didn't you hear me I said NO, ...NO, NO, NO, don't you dare do that...NO!!!

Time to Legalize Drugs? - Nicholas D. Kristof Blog - NYTimes.com

Norm Stamper: One Cop To Another: Don't Arrest Phelps for Bong Photo

2009-02-08T11:08:00.001-05:00

Do not arrest Michael Phelps. Do not support any company that pulls their endorsement deals because of this incident. Once again the voice of reason rises from the front line of America's War on Drugs. The idea of arresting a young man so "out of control" that he accomplished a physical feat that no other swimmer could is absurd by definition. The time is here that those who oppose the legalization of marijuana recognize that most users of marijuana fulfill life's obligations. They get up in the morning, go to work, do a flawless job at work, come home make dinner for their family, and have dinner together as a family. The difference is this. Many of those who support the "War on Drugs" pop open a beer or prepare a mixed drink as soon as they are home. Those who use cannabis retire to a more private part of their home to smoke cannabis. If it were my house and I could without risking arrest take a toke or two I would then be the one cooking dinner. Even now thirteen states have taken the first step in opening the eyes of the American public that marijuana is not this evil substance that it is made out to be. Those states are recognizing the medicinal abilities of cannabis. It starts state by state, which means it starts with people speaking up and calling for a reevaluation of the historic failure of the last half of the twentieth America's War on Drugs. Michael Phelps has done nothing wrong, the law is wrong.

Norm Stamper: One Cop To Another: Don't Arrest Phelps for Bong Photo

Daily Kos: Oh What a Day!

2009-01-21T20:03:00.001-05:00

This is the diary I wrote yesterday while I was watching the Inauguration Ceremony. Millions worked harder than I to get President Obama (boy that sounds good) elected. Still I did what I could to elect a man I thought uniquely qualified to be president at this time. In earlier blog entries I told of my experiences volunteering for the Obama campaign. Simply put they were rewarding. It was a far more diverse a group than those on other campaigns I have volunteered with. So I hope you enjoy. Change of presidents is only one part of bringing change to America. The second part is for all of us to participate in our democratic government. If we all do that then change will truly have to America.

Daily Kos: Oh What a Day!

Retirement Living TV

2009-01-11T11:49:00.014-05:00

Today I had to remove my link to Retirement Living TV's (RLTV) Viewpoint show on medical marijuana. My participation in this show was a high point of 2007 for me. I met the producers when I was about to testify before the Maryland House of Delegates' Judiciary Committee. RLTV was following around a new friend of mine Irv Rosenfeld. Irv is one of the four living (it was five living) federal medicinal marijuana patients. It was great fun going out side to smoke with Irv that day. I would go out and light up one of my menthol light cigarettes. Irv would light up one of his federally supplied joints. Needless to say I was green with envy. My legal prescriptions are not capable of relieving my pain when I push myself that much.

Sadly, the bill Irv and I were pushing failed. The committees never even voted on the bill. I am told that the organizations that pushed that bill are looking for sponsors for a new bill. I'll have more on that later. If the various organizations fail to put a bill in the hopper I am seriously considering trying to find a sponsor to resubmit the old bill, Maryland's Compassionate Use Act (House Bill 1040 and Senate Bill 757). This would big a big step for me because I am the novice and the groups considering submitting a new bill are the veterans. I'm not naming them here because I don't have firm information from a variety of groups that may or may not be submitting a bill this year. When I have firm information I'll post it here as soon as I know for sure.

Lastly on the subject of Retirement Living TV I have two items. According to RLTV website (http://www.rl.tv/press/release.cfm?id=58) Walter Cronkite is now contributing his unique point of view on life after 60. I haven't been able to find any new programs featuring Mr. Cronkite. However as recently as yesterday they aired a segment of The Art of Living featuring Mr. Cronkite talking about his love of yachts. Mr. Cronkite, along with Jesse Martin a young man who sailed solo around the world without the help of fossil fuel, was one of my inspirations to begin sailing at age fifty and the onset of Post Polio Syndrome. Walter Cronkite still sails his yacht and he's 92. Lets hope he appears more often in 2009. Second item is that RLTV has a terrific episode of Healthline about polio and post polio. Polio is in danger of coming back in America. The debate over vaccines and Autism has lead to parents not having their children vaccinated against polio. This is a mistake. I survived polio in the early 1950's. While my recovery was extensive, my post polio has been severe. I urge everyone to find out when this show is being broadcast in their area and watch it. The world never did eradicate polio as many people think. Don't risk the heartbreak of watching your child try to survive polio, it is a life long sentence of paralysis and pain.

Advertising

2009-01-08T09:28:00.001-05:00

If you support medicinal cannabis than tells us how you can help further that cause otherwise don't use my blog to advertise your business.

Marijuana News Medical and Otherwise

2008-12-19T08:07:00.001-05:00

It is time for an update about marijuana and its various uses. Back on Election Day there were eight ballot iniatives. Two notable ballot initiatives were in Massachusetts and Michigan. In Michigan voters passed a compassionate use law allowing Michigan residents to use cannabis for medicinal purposes. That makes thirteen states with medical marijuana laws. Massachusetts passed a referendum making it no longer a criminal offense to be in possession of marijuana if the weight is less than one ounce (28gms). There is more on the ballot initiatives below. Also yesterday I received a press release from Patients Out Of Time (POT) announcing that my friend Irv Rosenfeld has become the patient longest to use federal supplied marijuana. POT’s press release will follow. Details about other changes in marijuana laws across the country will follow the press release.

So here is the press release:
For Immediate Release from Patients Out of Time:

When Noah started to give God some lip he was asked, “Noah, how long can you tread water?

The US government’s free for the asking (once) medical marijuana program has treaded in an ocean of medical cannabis hypocrisy for 30 years.

This hypocrisy is best personified by Irv Rosenfeld: husband, career stock broker, dog lover, champion handicap sailor, and recipient of 9 ounces of US government supplied medical cannabis every three weeks since 1982. Irv just passed the previous record held by the late Robert Randall, who in 1976 became the first patient to be supplied cannabis from the federal government for the treatment of glaucoma and received it for 26 years.

Irv Rosenfeld comments that, “Four of us in the federal medical cannabis program (IND) were examined for three days at St. Joseph's Hospital, Missoula, MT in 2001using private funds. All of us were found to be in fine physical and mental condition. (1). I am long passed feeling euphoria from my medical use but what I do feel is a lack of pain and discomfort and a frustration with my government for not allowing other citizens to have what is given to me with my gratitude.”

Sitting in his Florida office Irv continued, “While the US government has been arresting patients and caregivers for using cannabis medically they have been sending it to four of the Directors of Patients Out of Time (POT). In my case I have gotten my medicine for over 26 years, the longest use of any medicinal cannabis patient. Federal myths about cannabis not being medically accepted, coupled with its world wide use as a medicine on every continent plus the 14 states that have accepted the medical community’s endorsement of medical value (1) has created a conundrum for US medical cannabis policy. Political whim versus hard science for the federal employees of the HHS and NIDA has been the mantra for making medical decisions concerning cannabis. That professional betrayal the Obama administration can correct. HHS needs to answer The Petition to Reschedule Cannabis in the affirmative. Meaning, declare my medicine may be good for all citizens and turn our medical use of cannabis over to the health care community instead of having us treated by the police and jailers.”(2)

Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, President of POT and pioneer in the education of the health care community about the therapeutic uses of cannabis adds her comments from her VA office,
“Irv suffers from a rare disorder called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostosis and without the medical use of cannabis he would be crippled, unable to work and on numerous pharmaceuticals to manage his pain or maybe even dead. Cannabis is a safe and effective medicine for a variety of ailments. Irv and only 3 other US citizens can legally smoke cannabis supplied by our government. What about the rest of us? Why does our government forbid us this medicine? There is no honest justification for the prohibition of cannabis”

(1)www.medicalcannabis.com
(2)www.drugscience.org
IND=Investigational New Drug Program

Irv Rosenfeld
Newbridge Securities
(877) 447-9625

Al Byrne
Co-Founder Patients Out of Time
(434) 263-4484

My friend Naomi Long with Drug Policy Alliance passed along to me this information sent to her from Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). This is a list of the various ballot initiatives:

MICHIGAN: MPP's medical marijuana initiative passed by 63% to 37% in Michigan, making it the 13th state to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail. While any new medical marijuana law is a great victory, this one is especially notable, since Michigan is now the first medical marijuana state in the Midwest, and the second largest medical marijuana state in the country (with California being the largest). See http://www.stoparrestingpatients.org/ for details.

MASSACHUSETTS: MPP's landmark initiative to decriminalize marijuana in Massachusetts passed by 65% to 35%. The measure removes the threat of arrest and jail for possessing an ounce or less of marijuana, replacing it with a $100 fine, which can be paid through the mail without lawyers or court appearances, just like a speeding ticket. This is the first time in history that voters have passed a statewide initiative to decriminalize marijuana! See http://www.sensiblemarijuanapolicy.org/ for details.

CALIFORNIA: A measure that would have required the loss of public housing benefits for recent drug convictions lost by a 70% to 30% margin. (The measure would have also increased spending on prisons and law enforcement, as well as increased penalties for gang-related activities and other crimes.)

CALIFORNIA: A measure that would have expanded the number of drug offenders diverted from prison into treatment — as well as improving the marijuana decriminalization law that was originally enacted by the state legislature in 1975 — lost by 60% to 40%. See http://www.prop5yes.com/ for details.

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA: A measure (which received $5,000 from the MPP grants program) to expand the non-residential zones where medical marijuana dispensaries can locate, issue zoning certificates, and bring Berkeley marijuana possession limits in line with recent court rulings passed by 62% to 38%. See http://www.yesonjj.com/ for details.

FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS: A measure (which received $3,972 from the MPP grants program) to make adult marijuana offenses the lowest priority for local law enforcement passed by 66% to 34%. See http://www.sensiblefayetteville.com/ for details.

HAWAII COUNTY, HAWAII: A measure (which received $19,800 from the MPP grants program) to make adult marijuana offenses the lowest priority for local law enforcement passed by 53% to 39%. See http://www.projectpeacefulsky.org/ for details.

FOUR DISTRICTS IN MASSACHUSETTS: Voters in four out of four state House districts passed four nonbinding public policy questions directing each district's state representative to vote in favor of legislation that would allow seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana if they have the approval of their physicians. See http://www.dpfma.org/ for details.

For those of you on facebook Students For Sensible Drug Policy Foundation has a petition up asking President-elect Obama to make specific changes in our nations drug policy. you can join the 5,748 other signatories at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/15?m=d0d72069&recruiter_id=15811807

Finally of interest to those who seek to change our marijuana laws is this video from MPP up on YouTube:

Thanks for reading and remember marijuana was medicine before it was a controlled dangerous substance.

YouTube - H. R. 5843 Some Marijuana Reform By Barney Frank and Ron Paul

2008-10-17T08:48:00.001-05:00

H. R. 5843 Some Marijuana Reform By Barney Frank and Ron Paul

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPLH-Q41PJA&eurl=http://apps.facebook.com/youtubebox/video.asp?uvid=4695043&ref=feed-story&_fb_fromhash=65925567d7fb218060dc2532065

Once again some in Congress have seen through the tress to see the forest that is our ill conceived drug laws. Congressman Frank is not alone in Congress but most will only offer off the record words of encouragement to pursue passing marijuana reform laws. In case you don't know how to do that go to http://www.house.gov/, then look up your congressman and tell him you want marijuana reform passed now!

Obama's debate camp: Florida: The Swamp

2008-09-21T08:39:00.001-05:00

It is time for the undecided to decide. Debates are what a lot of them look to for the tipping-point. Government regulation is often that tipping-point. The lack of which was ushered in by McCain's Commerce Committee. In other words he didn't give us the Blackberry he gave us the worse financial crisis since the Great Depression. If Sen. Obama can get that point across it is game over. Retiree's in Florida saw their nest eggs take a big hit. I don't think we have seen the end of down days for Wall Street

Obama's debate camp: Florida: The Swamp

That's What We're Talkin' About

2008-08-31T10:06:00.003-05:00

From the lion Teddy Kennedy to the not so silent lamb Michelle Obama, that is the way to start a convention. Baltimore's favorite Californian Speaker Pelosi let the convention know that we'll get to take on John McCain, later. [Just heard the Tonight Show audience's response to Leno's question to McCain about houses and his POW answer - Carson would have thrown them out of the theatre] Back to what I was going to say. The themes they spoke about are the ideals that first brought me to the Democratic Party. First family, seating down to dinner together, helping kids with home work, helping neighbors when they need it. The other ideal, that to who much is given, much is expected. There are two views of America - one that looks at the shining city on the hill and the other stands on the shore looking out on the horizon.

I grew up in one of those post World War II neighborhoods that could see neither. What we saw was one red brick row house attached to another red brick row house. We didn't get to see the individuality of each until we were let inside. Then we saw Early American furniture or modern furniture ar even yes furniture covered with thick clear plastic covers so the furniture was never enoyed. Ours was Early American/Colonial. The rugs were red and the walls royal blue and white - go ahead laugh I understand. Heck I first learned about the Revolutionary War from the lampshades with scenes of the signing of the Decalaration of Independence and Washington crossing the Delaware.

Those who could see the shining city on the hill from their little wooden boat wanted to get there. Why, because once your on top of the hill you can look down on those looking up. Guess what they are still on top of the hill and they are still looking down. Those are the people of Regean/Bush/Bush. But we were (are) Irish Catholics.

As such we were pointed in a different direction. We were in our little wooden boat looking out to the horizon. Stand on a beach, East Coast, West Coast or Gulf Coast in doesn't matter as a rule there's nothing as far as the eye can see. You know for some of us that is the most beautiful sight in the world. Do you know why? Simple there is something out there and all you have to do to find it is set your course for that horizon. Do you know why some people in their little wooden boats look to the city on the hill. Becasue the horizon scares the shit out them.

Here's the thing, Jack, Bobby and Teddy showed us that if you live in those red brick row houses you too can see the vast horizon of an open sea. It is in a school book or a painting on the wall of the bank or the illustrations in the family bible. They taught us that once you've scene it, it is always there in your memory. You know like ET said "I'll ... be ... right ... here." Then when you first stand on the beach and look out on the vastness of an entire ocean you realize that it was pretty fucking amazing that someone in a wooden boat sailed off to look for something they weren't even sure existed.

Teddy and the incomparable Ken Burns reminded us of that tonight. But Michelle proved to us that it is possible. Now I don't know if you can see to the Canadian side of Lake Michigan from the Chicago but I'm pretty sure you can see the Michigan side. Like looking out across Chesapeake Bay it is not the same. But Michelle's parents, and my parents and your parents assured you that there is a place where if you look out over the water you won't be able to see the other side. They taught us that even though you can't see it, you don't know what it looks like, it still is there. They taught us the journey is just as rewarding as getting there.

Awhile back I was beginning to think I would never ride in an airplane. I would never see a Caribbean Island. Yet just before Barack Obama announced his run for the White House I watched from an airplane as the island of Jamaica rushed up out the window. Later that week I jibed a 12' catamaran to the west and sailed out on to the Caribbean Sea. Was I thinking about rogue waves, vicious squalls or hurricanes. Not for a second, I was thinking I wish I had a bigger boat.

Being President of the United States of America, now that's a bigger boat. Barack Obama is ready at the helm to steer the boat towards a new horizon. Michelle has already signed on as mate. Me I'll gladly cut bait because it is time to go fishing. Fishing for the soloutions to many problems, justice for all, energy independence, global warming and many more. Here's the thing alot of people sailed west from Europe but it was only the crews that worked together that reached the West Indies. They didn't always agree, they were even ready to throw Colombus overboard. But when the wind rose, and the seas swelled they worked together because if the didn't they would die.

Islamic terrorist want to destroy our way of life. Russia wants to put the Soviet Union back together. And the Republicans are doing everything they can to spur them on. Heck right now they are Knute Rockney cheering from the bench. Only this time an actors rhetoric isn't going to get it done. This time the world needs a real leader. One that is not a hawk and not a dove. A leader independent of big business and the MIC. We need a leader of men.

Tonight Michelle Obama and Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy reminded a nation that when those with much do what is expected and when families work hard at being a family this nation does great things.

The End of Casey’s Dream

2008-05-26T10:31:00.004-05:00

This is the tale of Casey’s Dream. It is an important story because it demonstrates the shortcomings of two segments of American life, a broken healthcare system, and a declining economy. It is also the story of one person, a little boat, a blog page, and the end of one. The person is me; the boat is called Casey’s Dream and so is the blog. So let me take you back to the summer of 1998.
July 1998 the nation was embroiled in the Monica Lewinski scandal. My wife and I were enjoying what is up to now our best financial situation since we had started our family eleven years earlier. So one weekend we decided to take our kids to see one of our favorite places on earth, the Shenandoah National Park, better known as Skyline Drive. It was nearly all we hoped it would be. It started out as a daytrip with some light hiking. It was great. The kids were blown away by the sight of the mountains, the deer, and most of all the bears. While hiking up Old Stoney Man Mountain we had even crossed paths with a mother bear leading her two cubs through the woods. The one low point that first day was I was having trouble with my legs. I had expected that hiking might be a problem after all I am a long time smoker. It wasn’t shortness of breath that was the problem it was incredible weakness in my legs. Still we were having so much fun we decided to see if we could possibly find some place to stay. The next day we did a little more difficult trail. Of course the first day’s hike was hard I had driven all the way to Front Royal, Va. and down the Skyline Drive before starting our hike up Old Stoney Man. That second day was a bitch. I had to stop every five minutes to rest. We adjusted our hike out by taking the fire road out since it was less steep. That was the beginning of a downward spiral.
My problem was diagnosed as a muscular skeletal problem. I knew what the problem was. It had been suggested two years earlier that I had “second stage polio.” This is now called Post Polio Syndrome. Unfortunately my primary care doctor who had made it perfectly clear that he didn’t like having to treat HMO patients, had declared “I have a patient with post polio syndrome, you don’t have post polio syndrome.” I guess he was a fan of Senator Lloyd Bentsen. The point is he didn’t like having to refer to specialists. He had already had to refer to a neurosurgeon and an orthopedic surgeon. So a third referral was not to his liking. So when I was told I had a muscular skeletal problem I knew it was post polio syndrome. I had learned that the best specialist to diagnose my problem was a physiatrist. It took a physiatrist less than fifteen minutes to diagnose my post polio. He also told me that it would be best if I stopped working, stopped driving a car with a clutch and move into a house or apartment without stairs. The car was easy. My wife drove our minivan so we switched cars. The house and the work were more difficult.
At the time this all started, my wife and I were negotiating to buy the house we had rented for the previous eight years. It was a real déjà vu moment. When we were expecting our first child we were trying to buy a house. She was let go from her job as a waitress when she was seven months pregnant. The following morning the bank called to tell us we had been approved for a mortgage. I told the person from the bank that we had just decided that we had to call them to inform them that we had just lost one of our incomes. They were willing to pretend that they hadn’t heard that. We felt we had to back out. Affording a house on two incomes was a stretch. With in a week after my son was born I was fired for talking to a possible new employer while at work.
Now eleven years later we were being told getting a mortgage would not be a problem. All we had to do was agree on a reasonable price for the house. Affording a house had not gotten any easier on one income in the eleven years since and now my income was in jeopardy. In fact my health was spiraling back in ‘98 continued and by September I had to stop working.
The next five years were full of pain, depression, a near divorce, and battles with Social Security, and bills, lots of medical bills. But as my fiftieth birthday approached our marital problems had worked themselves out. We had navigated the Social Security Disability maze. In fact thanks to a new job for my wife even paying bills was getting easier. The one thing that was not getting better was my post polio. By then I had learned about a Post Polio Syndrome clinic in D.C. The clinic recommended that I trade my electric scooter in for an electric wheelchair. I suddenly had something of value and a mid-life crisis to go with it. I sold the scooter and bought a little boat.
The boat was a daysailor. Even though I didn’t know squat about sailing I had just read a book about a seventeen year old boy that had sailed a boat just five feet longer than the one I bought around the world single-handedly. I decided if he could sail around the world I could sail around Chesapeake Bay. I picked up sailing pretty quickly. More importantly everyone I knew was saying the same thing. They couldn’t believe the change the boat had on me. Sailing at once had become both physical and mental therapy.
Naming the boat had been easy. When I was in college my family had owned two runabouts both had been named some variation of Casey. Prior to the boat my hobby had been HO trains, something I had loved since a child. My only memory of my grandfather was him coming over to watch the TV show “Casey Jones.” My father was a huge baseball fan. While in the war (WWII), he played a lot of baseball. Apparently he was inclined to argue calls like the notable baseball manager Casey Stengel so his fellow soldiers gave him the nickname Casey. Add on to all of that my mothers initials were KC. I had dreamt of owning a boat ever since I could remember naming the boat was a synch. I named her Casey’s Dream. Later I would use the same name for my blog.
That was August 2003; before she was a month in the water she survived the tropical remnants of Hurricane Isabel coming up Chesapeake Bay. She was yare. Up until a year and a half ago we could afford the boat. Since then it has been getting harder and harder to meet the bills associated with owning a boat. My medical bills have been steady for the most part but now my daughter is having health problems. Even with the best health insurance coverage and the highest income my wife and I have ever had we are drowning in medical bills.
My daughter’s condition requires that I drive her everywhere. Despite not being able to work she has insisted on continuing her education. Obviously as a parent I have to do everything possible to help her do that. The problem is even with her cutting back to nine credits a semester my activity level is through the roof. Not only do I have to drive her to and from school everyday, and doctor visits weekly if not more, I have to do everything around the house that she used to do to help me out.
Post polio is one of those conditions that can be kept in check if you manage your daily physical activity. We are told, do as much as we can without doing to much. Until late last year, that meant brief periods of activity followed by longer periods of rest. Caring for my daughter does not allow for that. Now it is longer periods of activity with seldom rest periods. Usually rest comes in the form of days of complete exhaustion. This is causing my health to fail. So how does all this relate to healthcare and recessive economics?
My wife and I earn more than we ever have in the past. We have better health insurance than we have had in nearly twenty years. Despite never getting back to the point where we could consider buying our home we pay half of what others in our community do to rent our home. So we should be able to weather this economic down trend OK right. Hardly, with each increase in income or reduction in healthcare the cost everything else has risen. Not just a little either. From gas to groceries to cigarettes, everything is going up we all know this. Now imagine two or more visits to a doctor a week. Imagine paying 30% of three physical therapy sessions a week for three months on top of that.
Now throw in each new doctor only looking to see if the problem falls in his or her specialty instead of trying to see how each symptom might add up to something outside their specialty. Well you might think that your primary care doctor is doing this. You would be wrong. For instance, it wasn’t until an ear, nose, and throat doctor suggested that the only explanation for my daughter’s dizziness might be heart related, but “there is no reason to suspect that,” that things started happening. You see I had to ask my daughter’s doctor why there was no reason to suspect that, considering the heart problems left from a congenital heart condition. I had to tell him that she had residual heart problems even though it was on her “history.” “Physical History,” is an insurance farce. We all have to fill out this section of an intake sheet for each and every doctor we go to. The problem is they never even look at them, much less read them.
We make more than ever, we spent about half what most spend to live where we live, yet we are drowning. All the time we have been doing our best to keep Casey’s Dream, the boat afloat. Sailing has been a part of my life that affirmed my abilities not my disability. Life has other plans. In March Casey’s Dream experienced severe damage. The boat is about to be totaled by the insurance company. So we have to throw off the expense of a boat to pay our doctor bills, our food bills, and our fuel bills both house and cars. Our electric bill is about to increase by 88% or nearly double. An electric bill, which we have done our best to reduce usage where ever we can and it, is going to double in spite of our efforts.
In 2006 I began to blog on Democratic Party Builder, http://www.democrats.org/page/community/blog/barryconsidine. It was an inspiring experience. It inspired me to start my own blog a short time later. That blog is Casey’s Dream, http://caseysdream.blogspot.com. It is dedicated to advancing the cause of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. While medical marijuana is not the only topic I blog about there it is the main topic. So as the political season heated up I decided I wanted to blog somewhere that had a larger readership. That is when I became Barry C aka Casey at Daily KOS (http://barry-c-aka-casey.dailykos.com/). Blogging will continue to do what sailing began to do for me five years ago, affirm my abilities. Since beginning to blog I have been actively involved in two political campaigns. I have testified before committees of my state legislature. I have even met with my congressman’s Senior Political Advisor.
It is my understanding that after the election this fall, despite all rhetoric from all the followers of all the various candidates the blogosphere will become quieter. It will not fall silent but many will feel that the fight is over, no matter what the outcome. Their candidate will have won or lost but the competition is over. Then there are others, like my self that will continue to fight for issues. Issues like universal healthcare will not magically become the rule of the land if a Democrat wins. Republicans will still oppose it. Quality education will stiff need its champions. Fair wages, equal pay for equal work, for everyone, including women is not assured no matter who wins in November. Global warming will not go away if the Democrats win by a landslide. Medical marijuana will not become a national law instead the law of a few states no matter the outcome. All of the issues that are driving this campaign still need voices. Writing a blog is one thing but writing a letter to the editor or your senator or your congressman or woman these are the things that feed the bulldog. Signing petitions, taking petitions around to your neighbors, joining in protest marches those are actions that change a nation. Political action doesn’t end at the end of a keystroke. It ends when you have changed your world. It may be as big as helping to get someone elected President. Or it may be as small as getting curbside recycling in your neighborhood or getting the busy body off of your homeowner’s association board.
As for me I see no end in sight. Casey’s Dream the boat may soon be a thing of the past but Casey’s voice is not going silent. It will continue to show up on blogs like Daily KOS and Casey’s Dream. My comments will show up on Huffington Post, Free State Politics, The NewsHole and many more. My representatives both federal and state will continue to hear from me – regularly. So if you see a guy with long hair and a grey beard rolling out of the Capital Building or rolling back and forth on a picket line in an electric wheelchair say hi to him. It just might be the electric wheelchair that launched Casey’s Dream the daysailor. It might just be me Casey of Casey’s Dream.

Medical Marijuana in Maryland

2008-02-16T13:36:00.007-05:00

The struggle goes forward. In association as a volunteer with Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org/ and Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org/ I continue to work for a better medical marijuana law in Maryland. This year we are conducting an education program. We will be holding teach-ins through out the state. By attending one of these teach-ins we hope you will come away with a better understanding of the following:

* Your rights under Maryland Law
* Your rights under Federal Law
* Current research of marijuana as medicine
* How to contact your state and federal representatives
* And much more!

You are not alone! There are thousands of people throughout this nation working to insure you have the right to use cannabis (marijuana) to relieve your symptoms from disease and chronic pain due to injury or disease. I am sure that if enough people in Maryland and the Nation join us in speaking out we will once and for all have the right to avail ourselves of the medicinal properties of cannabis. Marijuana has been used as medicine for thousands of years. We should not be prevented from using marijuana as medicine. Teach-ins are currently scheduled for:

Baltimore, Md, on Tuesday March, 11th, 2008 from 6 to 9pm, at St. Paul's Church, 2460 St. Paul St., Baltimore, Md. 21218; For more information call (415) 283-7404
Salisbury, Md. on Tuesday March 18th from 5:30 to 8:30pm, at Wicomico Public Library, 122 S. Division St., Salisbury, Md. 21801; For more information call (410) 713-5374
Silver Spring, Md. on Thursday March 20th, 2008 from 6 to 9pm, at NAPWA, 8401 Colesville, Rd. Silver Spring, Md. 20910; For more information call (415) 283-7404
Hagerstown, Md. on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 from 6- 9pm, at Hempen Hill BBQ, 13208 Fountainhead Plaza,
Hagerstown, Md. 21742; For more information call (415) 283-7404

On a more personal note, I have been active in the movement to pass a truly compassionate, Maryland Compassionate Use Act, for about a year and as half now. There is an awful lot of support for this legislation. Even some of the more conservative representatives to the Maryland General Assembly are on board to vote in favor of a better law than the current Darrell Putnam Compassionate Use Act. It is extremely important to all of us to support medicinal marijuana laws. While most do not currently qualify for such protection, life's a bitch and you never know what's around the corner. For instance, how many of us know someone who was fine one day and facing a lifetime of pain the next due to a car accident. I have a neighbor, who we all thought was the picture of health. Than suddenly they are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. How about cancer, how many of us know someone in our extended families facing cancer? We never know when we will find ourselves in need of the protection to use cannabis to relieve our suffering. I hate that word suffering it is a defeatist word. While I am in pain 24 hours a day I don't like saying that I am suffering even though by definition it fits my circumstance. Why, for the same reason I don't refer to myself as a polio victim. I prefer the more positive term polio survivor. I don't suffer with pain, I live with it because that is all a person can do. I prefer marijuana over Vicodin because I trust Mother nature more than I trust Pfizer.

Notes from the Novice

2008-02-02T18:16:00.000-05:00

I'm a 54 year old first time canvasser. Today I spent the afternoon going around two neighborhoods in Annapolis, Md. canvassing for Sen. Obama. Mark and Maya were the boots on the ground and I did as I've done for sometime now - drove a couple of young people around in my mini-van. All day long the homes had four or five steps to climb which for me is like mini-mountains. While M and M hit the houses on their list I rolled around in my wheelchair. It was a beautiful day here for a Groundhogs day. A good number of people were out doing there sunny day chores. So I took advantage of it to engage them in a discussion of who they were going to vote for in Maryland's upcoming Presidential Primary. I was glad late in the afternoon when we turned on to a street with no porches. Now it was my time to knock on doors and ask people to support Sen. Obama. Overwhelmingly whether it was chatting to people washing their cars or people at the door, the response was favorable for Sen. Obama. It was a truly uplifting experience for an old hippie. It was great that Mark, Maya, and I could engage voters in such a positive atmosphere. This was unlike when I was voting in my earliest election. I remember people driving by and giving me the finger just because I had a McGovern/Shriver bumper sticker. There was none of that today. One lady did shock me when she said she was a registered Democrat but not supporting Sen. Obama. When asked why, she said because she doesn't like what he stands for. When I asked who she was going to vote for she said she didn't want to answer. It left me somewhat bewildered as I walked away but even as she declined to support my candidate she did so in a polite and courteous manner. It was a first for me and I'm glad I did it. I'll probably drop by and do some calling on Thursday evening. I will definitely drop by the local office on Tuesday evening to watch a few of the early returns come in. I wish I could stay there all night but like most of Barack's supporters I have commitments to my family that have to come first. I have my wife and two voting age kids fired up and ready to go. Between now and Tuesday the twelfth, I hope to get more of my neighbors fired up and ready to go. As I said to one man today, who was unsure of how he would vote, I asked him how old he was on June 6th 1968. He said he was fourteen, the exact same age as me. I looked him in the eye and told him you and I remember how things were going before that night. I shook his hand and told him sincerely, we now have the best chance to get back to that time of change. He smiled and said that's what I want.

Sen. Barack Obama

2008-01-26T13:22:00.000-05:00

While I have written in favor of the senator's various positions I have not made a formal endorsement. That ends here. I believe that the one Democrat that can truly change this nation for the betterment of the average American household is the Honorable Junior Senator from the state of Illinois, Sen. Barack Obama. Why? He was right on Iraq. He is right on the issue of lobbyist in Washington. He is right about the havoc that insurance companies and drug companies have to to our healthcare system. He is right on the corruption of wealth in the oil industry. He is right on the need to concentrate on protecting and improving the environment. He understands why my wife and I are making more money than ever before, yet are budget is past the breaking point. He understands that we are no longer viewed in the world community as the great United States of America. We are viewed as a nation that is wrong on Iraq, wrong on trade, and wrong on diplomacy. Our nation was for many years as the last best hope. Now more everyday we are viewed as a nation of greed and corruption. The generation after the baby boom of the late forties and fifties was called the 'Me" generation. As a nation at 232 years old we are coming into our teens. So the choice is do we want a to be a generation dedicated to change that helps all or a "me" generation dedicated to seeing this new gilded age going forward. From this amateur historian's point of view I can't help but point out that while the "gilded age" did build a lot of wealth and founded companies that are still at the heart of our economy, it also was the catalyst for the "Great Depression." So the question is do we re-elect a "Hoover" ensuring a second "Great Depression?" Or do we want to elect a "FDR" and make the course correction before the disaster hits.

Dear Senators

2008-01-25T11:15:00.000-05:00

It is time to shoot for the stars. When it comes to healthcare that means a single-payer system. When Dick Cheney piled a bunch energy execs in a room to work out the nation's energy plan we all shouted foul. As we look back at how the Clinton's jointly did the same with healthcare we again are calling foul. Why, because the results seem to be much the same - rising costs for the American people. That is only the first foul I want to call on the Clintons.
Recently in a diary with the help of a comment on this site I have joined with many Dems calling for a single-payer healthcare system. Some like to lump this under the banner Universal healthcare. I called for socialized medicine. I was corrected and it was suggested that it be called "Civilized Medicine." Which I agree wholeheartedly with because the name fits.Quite frankly the plans that are out there fall short. They seemed to be more designed not to dry up the upper-middle class donors that a campaign thrives on. I like quoting Aaron Sorkin because he his a great weaver of political tales. In "American Prsident" there is a great passage where he describes the process of gathering together supporters and launching a campaign:

You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character

The thing is that IS how we do it. We the people drag our candidates down to the level we saw last night. While Sen. Obama tried hard to run a campaign of ideas and goals, the Clintons have trotted out some cleverly disguised misrepresentations.Sen. Clinton crossed the line for me last night. For Sen. Clinton to bring up what an associate attorney did for a particular client, relating to a real estate deal is a foul. Especially IF the truth is that he only did a few billable hours for Tony Rezko. If the truth is that there was nothing illegal about what Sen. Obama did when comes to that real estate deal in Chicago, then it is a foul worth ejection from the game. It is as if Bill owns the team but Newt Gingrich is calling the plays, because what she did last night was right out of his play book. I mean afterall isn't that what a huge part of the Nineties was about, a hyped up real estate deal where there was no illegality on the part of the Clintons. Wasn't that the fundemental basis for Mrs. Clinton's famous "part of a vast right wing conspiracy" statement. She was speaking in response to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. However, she would not have been able to even garner the little bit of credibility she did, if not for years of "Whitewater" investigations. I don't think the House impeaches if they didn't have "Whitewater" in the back of their minds.
I know why Sen. Edwards wants to hang in there. If this is the way this campaign is going to go with Sen. Clinton making misrepresentaions of Sen. Obama's record. Then followed as he must Sen. Obama responding to those charges, then he Sen. Edwards can sit back and watch to see who, if anyone remains standing. In the end he ends up the nominee or gets to be the power broker who gets to choose who runs as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.So in an effort to offer an original, yet archaic idea, I offer this. This one sort of harkens back to the 1960 Convention and all those deals worked out in cigar smoke filled back rooms. We shoot for the stars on the Democratic ticket. As soon as it is known whether or not the nominee is Clinton or Obama, they announce they are running on the ticket together. Lastly and this is out there, announce at the convention, in the acceptance speech that if they win Sen. Edwards, a pitbull of a trial attorney, will be the nominee for Attorney General.So shoot for the stars, first true universal single-payer, "Civilized Medicine." Shoot for the stars and show that we have indetified the three best Democrats to lead this nation in the wake of Bushgate and they are all three pointed right at the Republican Party.
UPDATE: I posted this diary on Daily Kos the other day, so to again quote Mr. Sorkin: "Yea, but we got art"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/25/9843/11339/497/442909
I wanted to predict this but choked I guess!

Free Lunch

2008-01-20T10:37:00.000-05:00

Everyone should watch Bill Moyers Journal from last night. Both of his guests last night spoke to the problems of today and how we got there. First up was David Cay Johnston of the NYT. The second was Harvey J. Kaye a professor at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. Their books that they discussed last night are now on my list to read in full. Mr. Johnston's book Free Lunch: How the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense (and stick you with the bill) exposes grants subsidies and other ways we pay to support the likes of Donald Trump, Geo. Steinbrenner, and a former Texas business man, turned Governor, turned (stole) President, George W. Bush. I'll get to Mr Kayes book after the flip.
To finish my introductions Prof. Kaye's book is "Thomas Paine and The Promise of America." Paine is one of my favorite people in history because "Commons Sense" is the 1770's version of a viral video. So let's start with the link: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01182008/watch.htmlI never understood why we all include links since we all know how to google.The first guest up was David Cay Johnson, of the New York Times. Not only did he capture my attention he stoked the fire of political activism in me. We all know that our government is out of control with spending. While I suspected that there was something rotting in the potato bin Mr. Johnston has gathered the facts that bear out those suspicions. In the interview he highlights certain people who are benefiting, more like feeding from the government tit. First up is Warren Buffet. I like many people cheer when Sen. Obama talks about his (Warren Buffet's)tax rate and his secretary's and how he's going to change that. I have always opposed lower tax rates for capital gains for the reasons we have heard over and over again. It rewards wealth over work. Years ago when Maryland first started a lottery a friend who is a CPA was explaining how through investment and lower capital gains rate we could comfortably live on the bottom tier prize of $1,000,000.00 paid out at a rate of $50,000.00. Back then I thought heck just the $50K/year would be enough to live comfortably. My wife and me make more than that now and it is a struggle.Here is what Mr. Johnston says about Warren Buffet:

BILL MOYERS: You mentioned Warren Buffet. I was impressed in the book that you do name names. And so let me mention some of the names that you talk about in the book. Warren Buffet. Everyone respects him as the world's greatest investor. Yet he's in your book on free lunches.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: In Several places.
BILL MOYERS: Several places.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: He got a $665 million interest-free loan for the utility he has in the Midwest. Now--
BILL MOYERS: From? He got the loan from?
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: From the taxpayers. Now, imagine for a moment that the house you live in today, you bought it 24 years ago and you agreed to pay the price then. And now you've got to pay back with no interest half the price in the dollars you agreed to in 1924. You could be rich just from that alone?
BILL MOYERS: But those are the rules. Buffet was doing something legal.

Pretty disheartening don't you think. And yesterday when Bush announced his stimulus package the rebate had grown from $600 per tax payer to $800 per tax payer. OK you want to give me back some of the money you took from me fine. But then as usual came the tax breaks for corporation. "Free Lunch" goes into detail about tax breaks, etc. Two more quick quotes on the subject of tax breaks.

BILL MOYERS: Let me read you this quote from one of your critics, Larry Kudlow of NATIONAL REVIEW online and CNBC. He wrote this a couple of years ago after in response to something you had reported in the New York Times about how Bush's tax cuts on dividends and capital gains had helped people with the highest incomes. Quote: "These entrepreneurs use their God-given talents within the Reagan-esque free market framework that deregulated, slashed tax rates, and provided the first strong dose of economic incentives since the 1920s. A rising economic tide over the last 20 years has lifted living standards, productivity, and employment throughout America. Everyone got richer with a full $39 trillion in new wealth created during this period. Fair?
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: No. Not accurate either. First of all a rising tide lifts all boats unless you're in the dinghy tied to the dock. And then you get swamped. The poor America, and it's not like being poor in the third world, but the poor America are worse off. Most Americans have seen their incomes stagnate or decline slightly. People have fewer fringe benefits. They have less in retirement. They have an enormous amount of debt. For every additional dollar since 1980 the people have gotten in equity in their homes, they've taken on $2 of debt. That's not a prescription for getting well off.
Entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurs are people who are going to perform no matter what. And we had our greatest economic growth when we had much higher tax rates. You want entrepreneurs. You need entrepreneurs to have a good society. I don't have any problem with entrepreneurs. But we need to have a system that also fairly distributes-- and government rules affect the distribution of this; it is not in a vacuum-- the burdens of society and the benefits of society. And so when we have people who make billion dollar a year incomes and pay 15 percent taxes and janitors who pay the same tax rate and school teachers who pay a 25 percent tax rate, something's amiss.

This next quote is near and dear to my heart because I grew up watching Johnny U lead the Baltimore Colts to victory after win after victory. So when they came to us in Maryland and said "build it and they will come" most every football fan in Baltimore said go for it.

BILL MOYERS: You remember what Art Modell said back in 1996 when he was manipulating Baltimore and Cleveland into a bidding war for his football team? He was asked how he felt about taking money for his out of-- for his own pocket at the very same time library funds were being cut. Remember what he said?
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Oh, yes. The pride of having a professional baseball team is worth more than 30 libraries.

We were also told that the team would make so much money for us in tax revenue that not only would we not have to close libraries, we could build those thirty libraries.Again the segment is worth the time. I have the book on order from my neighbor the Anne Arundel County Public Library.The second segment with Harvey Kaye had its moments too. First, as I said in the intro Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" was like a viral video, it was read by plantation owners, blacksmiths, silversmiths and farmers in the field. Washington, you know the first George W, often quoted Paine to inspire his troops. He was, for many the person who inspired the revolution.

BILL MOYERS: And you say he was-- you say he turned Americans into radicals. And, quoting you, "We have remained radicals at heart ever since." What do you mean by that?
HARVEY J. KAYE: You know, I hesitated to say that when I wrote it. And there was a friend of mine who was visiting with his wife. And his wife read the little bit of the book that I'd written. And she said, "Why don't you say what you really want to say." I said, "What do you mean?" She goes, "You know what you really want to say is that Paine made us all into radicals." And I said, "That's right. That's what I want to say." And I stuck that in and I felt comfortable with it. And what I meant is that, look, working men's parties, free thinkers, abolitionists, suffragists, populists, socialists, progressives, peace activists, Paine's memory was never forgotten, even though we didn't always find him on the mall in Washington, in monuments elsewhere. But you know, Andrew Jackson-- I think it was Jackson made the remark. He said, "Paine doesn't need a monument, you know? His words will forever be his monument." And I bet if everyone tonight gets themselves a copy of Common Sense and at bed time starts to read it, they'll feel like they're reading a friend. Someone who's speaking directly to them.

I for one have never given up my radicalism. In fact it is what keeps me going. I want another revolution. One that gives back to the ordinary citizen that which has been stolen from us by the people in Mr. Johnston's book. "These are times that try men's souls.", Paine wrote. Well my soul is tired of being tried and so is my patience. For that matter so is my back. So I have suggested some reading material, the books by Misters Johnston and Kaye are worth the read I suspect. But "Common Sense" is probably even more important to read now because we do have an aristocracy in this country and I'm tired of supporting them.

Obstacles

2008-01-16T12:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, while in a waiting room of a physical therapy facility I met a man with Muscular Dystrophy. I was enduring CBN's Pat Robertson on the television. I started to scribble some notes for a possible diary. Then from behind me came the voice of someone who was definitely not a fan. The fellow was engaged in a conversation about the hypocrisy of some (I'm being generous) conservative Christians. Soon we began to compare notes on how both of us have ended up needing to use a wheelchair part time. When ever I tell someone I had polio the conversation turns to President Roosevelt. He made the statement that what made FDR great was his need to overcome the limitations brought on by polio. That dealing with physical obstacles makes one look at things differently.
I think he's right. When you start having to figure out new ways to do old things your whole mental process changes. When bending over to tie your shoe is a sure way to get a face full of floor you start sitting down to tie your shoe. We came to the conclusion that this might me part of the reason for FDR's success. As I thought about this on the way home I thought that maybe that is also why President Kennedy's ideas were so fresh. He too had to learn to adjust the way he he did things so as not to aggravate his back. I recently heard Newsweek's Jonathan Alter speaking about FDR. Something he said about FDR really made sense. He said basically, FDR knew he didn't have all the answers for getting us out of the Depression. What he knew was that he had to keep trying. I wish I could remember the exact term that Roosevelt used to express this but in short it was the old cliche' "Try, Try, Try again. This is what he did. He would implement a program to deal with an issue. After a reasonable amount of time he would evaluate the success of the program. If it wasn't working he would try to figure out why. Then he would try to incorporate those parts that were working with some new idea in an effort to allow it to succeed. How does this relate to our times? Sen. Clinton and Obama are both facing the uphill battle to be the first, the first black person or the first women to be elected president. Beginning with New Hampshire the debate stopped being about problem solving and started being the same old he said, she said crap. All the while they bickered the Republicans sat back saying this is just what we need - Democrats fighting with each other.The thing is that if they have put an end to the nit picking over he said, she said they both have something in common with FDR and JFK, an obstacle. The obstacle they both face is the prejudice of the electorate. So I suggest that as we all face the decision of who to vote for for president we examine each candidate as to what is their obstacle and how did they overcome it. For instance, we were well into another election cycle before I knew that Sen. Dole had a bad arm. Same with Sen. McCain. These men faced physical limitations that anyone of us could face someday. Yet they both have found a way to deal with it so as not to make it obvious. This year two of the candidates have obstacles that none of the others have to face. There is now way for either to hide their obstacle. Senator Edwards can never know what it is like to be a woman striving to be president. Congressman Kucinich can never know the hardship of being a black man running for president. Always holding a pen in one hand isn't going to cut it for these two. We on the other hand have what I think is the enviable position of observing just how these two Senators handle their individual obstacles. How do you get an electorate to look past your race or your sex to see the possibilities you bring to the office of President of the United States of America.

Why Universal Healthcare?

2007-12-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

The real question should be why socialized medicine. When I posted this on Daily KOS someone suggested a better name would be "Civilized Medicine," so I'll go with that. The answer is really quite simple because capitalism and compassion do not go together. For at least 2 decades, our country has been governed politically by a mindset that making profits, increasing personal wealth, shameless consumerism, and endless financial growth were the “Holy Grail” of civilization, and that from these all good things flowed. Cutting taxes, cutting operating costs, lowering prices, increasing credit availability were all strict tenants of policies to further its progress. I believe that the root cause of the medical availability issue runs much deeper. As a society, we have embraced a culture where these goals have superseded all others. The casualties have been any element of business or government that does not further these ends, such as health care benefits and funded pensions.
2007 has not been a very good year around our home. Two visits to the ER, two hospitalizations, one because of a botched colonoscopy that resulted in a perforated bowel. That also led to a second colonoscopy in one month. One illness, that has gone on now for seven weeks. All of this together has revealed even more loopholes in modern health insurance.
Many people have this loophole in their policies and are unaware. The bowl perforation led to an emergency bowel resection. I was in the hospital, I had met my deductible and wasn’t worried about the bills everything should be covered and it was because it was an emergency. However the other surgery was not an emergency. So the hospital was paid and the surgeon was paid, both in full. The anesthesiologist was not paid in full. You see anesthesiologists for the most part do not participate with health insurance companies, at least according to my health insurance company. So while your plan will pay the doctor usual and customary fees, the anesthesiologist can bill what they want and you have to pay the rest.
Not enough to get on board, OK how does this sound to you? Approximately seven years ago my primary care doctor threw me out of his practice. Now I had been going to him for about ten years and thought he was a compassionate practitioner. Once when I was out of sick days and vacation days he did his very best to keep me out of the hospital. When I finally ended up in the hospital with viral pneumonia, both he and his partner came and visited my bedside to check on my progress.
So why ask me to change doctors? Two reasons why, first I was upset, that this doctor refused to learn anything about my Post Polio Syndrome (PPS). He was too busy and I was his only patient with PPS. The second was because I insisted that he do his job as “gatekeeper” of my overall healthcare and actually read the reports that other doctors sent. You remember the term gatekeeper. That’s what they told us our HMO primary care doctors were going to be. The reality is that to be profitable doctors have to see too many patients to be able to read every report, so I’m told. Primary care physicians prevent patients from going to one specialist after another, when it really isn’t medically necessary. This was going to cut down on the ballooning healthcare costs in America. They have been around now since 1973. These plans have even mutated to something called a PPO. Under PPO plans like I have now I can self refer. Or in other words pay enough and you can see who ever you want.
For along time now healthcare advocates have suspected that the basic structure of HMO plans rewards doctors by allowing for greater profits for both if, in fact these doctors limited their referrals to specialists. Though, I’m unaware of anyone actually proving that there are “kickbacks” going from insurance companies back to physicians. It is only because the way the plans work between doctors and insurance companies does not fit the true definition of a ‘kickback.
Recently I learned of another way primary care doctors can increase their profitability. They simply do not qualify for hospital admitting privileges. So in other words, you might be going to a doctor for regular check-ups, go see them if you have a sore throat, maybe a stomach virus and they will diagnosis then treat your illness. However, if you arrive at your primary care doctor with a dangerously high fever they can’t say I have to admit you to the hospital. They may ask that you call someone to take you to the hospital or even call 911 so an ambulance can transport you to a hospital. They can not pick up a phone, call a hospital admitting department, and say “I’m sending Mr. Jones in, he needs to be admitted to a medical floor, or he needs to be admitted to a surgery floor or intensive care.” That is exactly what happened to me when I had pneumonia. In that case I was just a less than three percentage points of O2 saturation away from being admitted to the intensive care unit. That doctor (the one that threw me overboard) was a throw back to the days when doctors routinely qualified for hospital privileges.
Your doctor may still maintain his hospital privileges and may spend a certain amount of time each week going to the hospital to check on patients. My wife’s doctor, again the same one that threw me out of his practice, has decided to join a new group of physicians. He has announced that he is joining the ever increasing group of doctors that are practicing concierge medicine. Under these arrangements you pay the doctor a retaining fee, say $1,500.00 a year to be able to go to that doctor. My wife’s doctor quickly points out that you can pay this retainer with your flex spending accounts. Like everybody has a flex spending account. These concierge doctors are on the rise with a bullet. They are a result of the medical communities fear over universal healthcare. The other side of the equation is health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies working together to increase their profits.
You say, wait they can’t do that what about anti-trust laws, and price fixing laws, won’t they prevent this. Well they haven’t so far. Ask yourself this, how many times during the current administration, have you heard about prescription drugs going from prescription to over the counter medicine. It is always the pharmaceutical company asking for the change so more people can by their drug over the counter, which increases their sales potential. The insurance companies love this because every time that happens it is one more prescription drug they don’t have to pay for. An example of this is Prilosec, the maker Proctor & Gamble Pharmaceuticals successfully lobbied the FDA to allow for over the counter sales. So when my doctor prescribed the prescription strength Prilosec, the insurance company made me first try the over the counter version. Claritan D or the generic Loratadine D went through the same process. The FDA allowed for a change of status again freeing health insurance companies from the expense of paying for yet another prescription drug.
Next find out just exactly what you are going to have to pay for physical therapy (PT). Under my various coverage’s over the years it has averaged out to about $47.50 per session. What exactly does this mean? It means that if you fall off the ladder, after you pay the hospital co-pay and the physician co-pay and the X-ray or MRI or CAT scan co-pay, you will still have to pay for the physical therapist. Now sometimes this co-pay is the same as a doctor’s office visit co-pay but more frequently it is a percentage of the therapist’s bill. Say you are one of the luckier ones and you have to pay your $30.00 specialist co-pay. If you are unlucky you will pay 10-20-% of the therapist bill. For me that has been as high as $65.00 per session. The doctor is going to routinely prescribe 12 visits at a rate of three times a week. So in the month that follows an injury it might break down like this. I’m using my figures from the past. Co-pays – ER $50.00, X-ray $50.00, MRI $50.00 (you will probably have both x-rays and an MRI because x-rays don’t always show everything that might happen during such a fall), ER doctor $30.00 for a grand total of $180.00 before PT. So that is $180.00 for the ER visit your benefits coordinator told you would be only $50.00. Not that they were lying the ER did only charge you $50.00 but whoever sold you your health insurance probably stresses the fifty dollar part and glossed over the other charges involved in going to the ER. Now we get to PT, so let’s average out between $30.00 if it is billed as an office visit and $65.00 if it is a percent of the fee. That would be $47.50 per visit times 12 which is $570.00. It adds up doesn’t it, a slip and fall easily can run you $750.00 before any medicine is bought and what ever your prescription plan if you have one will cover. What a great system we have. I love it, don’t you?
In 2004, one of the most important elections of the last one hundred years only slightly more than 55% of eligible voters actually cast votes. This time out the two parties are once again dividing the electorate. The Republicans are stressing the need to stay engaged in Iraq on foreign policy. All the while they are insisting that we don’t need universal healthcare on domestic policy. Conversely the Democratic candidates are calling for a pull out of our forces from Iraq. The top three candidates are insisting they have the universal healthcare plan that will cover every American. Senator Edwards says we don’t need to work with health insurance and pharmaceutical companies we need to beat them. Senators Clinton and Obama have very nearly the same plan but insist that each has the better, more universal healthcare plan. I sorry Senators if your plan does not cover absolutely every person fully and paid for with tax dollars it is not enough. There are many nations around the world that have figured out that this is what modern societies do. They take profit out of the equation. Many when they hear this idea grab their chest like Fred Sanford exclaiming “it’s the big one.” It is the big one. It is possibly the single biggest thing we can do to better this nation.
One of the biggest reason politicians refuse to entertain such a comprehensive health plan is the cost. They look at Medicare and Medicaid costs then extrapolate them out to cover every one which is what causes them to do the Fred Sanford thing. The thing is these programs cost so much because they have been raped by fraud. NBC recently had an example of a $5,000,000.00 wheelchair. I have an electric wheelchair, recently I had to find out how much it cost initially so my insurance company would pay for replacement batteries. The cost was just under $4,000.00; a lot less zeros in that number don’t you think.
So while on the subject of my wheelchair, see if you think this is fair. I am disabled. I have to use my chair when I go out of my home. My home is too small to practically use the chair inside. So when I go to the grocery store or the mall or a stadium event or just a walk around my neighborhood I use my chair. I keep it in my mini-van. I have a lift to put it in and take it out. Do you think the insurance company or Medicare paid for this lift? NO. Medicare won’t pay for it unless I’m working but if I’m working then I’m not disabled and don’t qualify for Medicare. My insurance company feels that a lift to get the chair they readily paid for in and out of the van is – wait for it – a luxury. A fucking luxury that’s what they consider having the mobility to do some of what is necessary to live life.
There you have it my reasons why our healthcare system is out of control. Insurance companies make beaucoup bucks. The pharmaceutical companies make beaucoup bucks. The heads of these companies personally make obscene beaucoup bucks. And how do they do it by declaring the ability to go to the movies with my daughter is a fucking luxury. The system is ripe with fraud because it asks for it. The little guys see what these behemoths do with all the money that comes their way and decide maybe it’s time for a little Bonnie & Clyde or Jesse James only against the healthcare industry this time. So before anyone else can be seriously hurt by the criminals committing fraud to get what they see as their fare share of the profit pie, lets take profit out of the equation. That doesn’t mean that mean people won’t get paid for doing the various tasks with in the system it means we wont pay costs plus. We’ll just pay costs.

Come smoke a federal government "joint" with Irv!

2007-11-19T12:40:00.000-05:00

This is a follow up to my most recent post. Tuesday morning at 10:30am federal medicinal marijuana patient Irv Rosenfeld will be holding a press conference at the Westin Hotel, 400 Corporate Drive, Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. 33334, in the Board Room. Irv is celebrating 25 years of legally smoking marijuana medicinally. There you and hopefully a gaggle of reporters will have the opportunity meet and listen to Mr. Rosenfeld. Irv is one of five surviving patients of the Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program of the Food and Drug Administration. Irv participated in "The Missoula Study". It not only confirmed his need to use marijuana medicinally it also verified his success with it. I told you in my last post about what I witnessed last spring. I most recently became aware of a fellow named Al Byrne and Patients Out of Time. You should listen to his opening remarks from 2004 at The Third National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics Link

For thousands of years just like with alcohol man has been aware of the analgesic properties of cannabis. But ever since William Randolph Hearst and Harry Anslinger put their heads together and came up with less than half a brain we have been told of the evils of marijuana. Al spoke of these lies as he opened that conference. I have no doubt that he will speak of them again in April of 2008 at the Fifth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics. I'm sure Irv will speak on Tuesday about his dramatic lack of ill effects on his health despite smoking roughly 10 joints a day. Joints sent to him every month, made from marijuana grown on the campus of the University of Mississippi. I hope I have that right it's been nearly a year since Irv told me about this program. Like all of us blogging here Irv has been to the doctor, and since he is not a cigarette smoker there are no signs of lung cancer, no emphysema, none of the lung disease that others say cannabis will cause. I have no doubt that there are many in Congress who might privately, off the record tell you that they know medical marijuana is real and not a myth put forth by a bunch of aging hippies. I've met Steph Sherer of Americans for Safe Access and she is by no means an aging hippie. However until we tell our own congressmen and senators we hold them responsible for the propagation of the lies of Hearst and Anslinger people will either continue to suffer in silence or risk going to jail. So come Tuesday I'll be looking to see what media outlets cover this story. Or will they fill their papers and news programs with news about what the presidential candidates said about each other. Or perhaps they will fill their pages or last three minutes with another story about Britney Spears or OJ or Paris Hilton's latest escapade. I'm not asking for a banner headline or to be the lead story. But it would be nice to see some major newspaper give the issue a hundred or so words below the continuation of a lead story. I would dance for joy if Brian Williams gave us the last ninety seconds of The Evening News before throwing it to Deborah Norville and Inside Edition. Heck I'll take the last ninety seconds of Inside Edition. So watch for it on the news but only hold your breath if you are using marijuana to ease your symptoms.

Adequate Care or Nobody Cares?

2007-11-17T17:45:00.000-05:00

That was the title of a press release I received the other day. But before I put up the whole press release I would like to tell you about one of the five patients referred to in the release. I met Irv Rosenfeld last year when Maryland's House of Delegates' Judiciary Committee was holding hears on HB 1040 Maryland's Compassionate Use Act. We spent the whole day together waiting for us to be called into the hearing room. We learned a lot about each other that day. For one I learned that someone is passionate enough about medical marijuana laws to give up basically two days to come all the way to Maryland from Florida to help me be able to get the medicine I need.
The second thing I learned is pain is visible. I sort of knew this already just from looking in the mirror everyday. But as Irv and I and several others wandered the halls outside the hearing room I could see it. I watched it slowly creep back into Irv's face every couple of hours. I also learned that I have to keep up this fight if not for myself then for the thousands of others that face debilitating pain everyday of their lives. I have to admit here that on that day I was getting jealous as the day rolled on into late afternoon. You see under my regiment of medicine I couldn't take anymore medicine until around six o'clock in the evening. Irv however could freely walk outside light one of his government provided cannabis cigarettes, you know "joints", every couple of hours. So while my pain steadily increased with every hour, Irv got relief every couple of hours. Now I'm one of those nasty cigarette smokers you know the regular kind. So when ever Irv went out side to get pain relief, I went outside and got my nicotine fix. While that does calm a smoker's nerves, and I was plenty nervous waiting around, it did nothing to alleviate the stabbing pain in my spine. So here is the press release I have spent too many words introducing. I hope there are many more who care than not.

November 14, 2007
Adequate Care or Nobody Cares?

On November 20, 2007 a Florida stockbroker will light up a “joint”, provided to him by the government of the United States.

He will not be arrested. Nor will he be sued, harassed, fired, demoted, or called an addict or a criminal.

Unless you care no one will.

Certainly the DEA, National Institute of Drug Abuse, US Justice Department, Health and Human Services, FBI, and Florida law enforcement will not care.

They have proved that over a 25-year period, but more importantly all the federal cannabis patients are healthy. (1)

When Irv Rosenfeld’s “Silver Anniversary” of November 20 arrives he will have been smoking, from a silver tin can, non-medical grade cannabis for a quarter of a century without the federal government ever studying the results of their treatment protocol.

This is how the US government treats the five legal cannabis patients left alive in the US, and they are special, deemed “investigational.” The rest of the millions of cannabis patients or potential patients cornered, caught, are arrested, harassed, fired, jailed.

The five: Irv, Barbara, Elvy, Corrine and George are living examples of a misdirected, punitive even mendacious policy of improper medical treatment by the US government to all other patients.

This is not a medical policy that keeps you or your loved ones from a potential medical solution; it is a political policy of ignorance and prejudice.

It can change (2), if you care.

Patients Out of Time

(434) 263-4484 fax (434) 263-6753
1472 Fish Pond Rd.
Howardsville, VA 24562
Al@medicalcannabis.com

1. Chronic Cannabis Use in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program: An Examination of Benefits and Adverse Effects of legal Clinical Cannabis. Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics, Vol. 2(1) 2002. www.medicalcannabis.com.

2. The Petition to Reschedule Cannabis. www.drugscience.org.

I have written by now several thousands of words on this topic. I have posted here and else where on the subject. I have written state legislators and members of congress. I have had letters to the editors published. I'm not alone. In fact the number of people who support what I feel is our constitutional right to be as pain free as possible is growing everyday.

Checks and Balances - The Fifth Estate

2007-10-15T09:52:00.000-05:00

Today is blog action day. A day set aside for everyone that writes a blog to choose an issue and then try to raise awareness of that issue. Least ways that's the way I understand the assignment. My issue is the new political activism of the Internet.

Our founding fathers spent considerable time crafting this union, The United States of America. Several conventions were held prior to declaring independence from England, and a few more on how we should govern ourselves. First came the Articles of Confederation and when that wasn't working came the Constitution of the United States.

The beauty of our Constitution is its system of checks and balances. Three branches of government with specific powers to balance it out.

From the beginning, well actually before the beginning there was another check on the balance of power, from Ben Franklin's Poor Richards Almanac to Thomas Paine's Common sense, writers. News people kept a watchful eye on our governments whether that is King George or our president or our congress or our courts. There has always been a group of people watching and observing their society. Most try to objectively report the news of the day. But there always was that group whose job it was to interpret the news, the editors.

Today we are luck for as writers we don't have to wait for an editor to decide if our story will go out. Will it fit in the space available in an ink and paper daily newspaper? We don't have to wait while a producer cuts and edits what we have recorded to fit our videos between Vladimir Putin and Angelina Jolie or the impotence drug commercial.

No we can edit and produce ourselves. While sometimes we get that goofy guy tearfully pleading for people to leave Britney Spears alone, the Internet has also given us Daily KOS, and other sites that give voice to many. I post here at my own site but also on Daily KOS, the Democrat's Party Builder site and Barack Obama's blog site. I post comments at Keith Olbermann's Newshole as well as Arianna Huffington's The Huffington Post.

Many years ago a newspaper person whose name escapes me called the press the forth estate. Charging that the press had a responsibility to not just report what was easily scene in public. No, they had a responsibility to investigate, to delve into the hidden, even secret back story of the news.

This is how it always has been. There are many instances of this in journalistic history. The two best known might be Edward R. Murrow's interview with Sen. McCarthy that exposed a senator for the Chicken Little he was, running around telling people there was a communist under their beds. The second has to be Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein's reporting on that criminal enterprise we call the Nixon Administration. Good reporting and evaluation of the news around us does change things.

I remember the night Walter Cronkite ended his news broadcast with a condemnation of the Viet Nam War. It changed things immediately. War protesters suddenly had validation for what they were attempting to do, stopping the war. These are accomplishments, and there are many, many more of the forth estate.

Today the Internet is our fifth estate. Full of the bright and the dim witted for sure, but an estate none the less. It was the Internet that spread the word about the stained blue dress that resulted in the impeachment of a president. Then there are all the websites that are there to inform on one particular issue. Every non-profit or political action committee has a site in reality right next to your local pizza shop or sadly next to your neighborhood pedophile's web page, as we recently learned.

What is really best about the Internet is that hidden between Al's Auto Body Shop in Pocatello, Idaho and Zen for Dummies are two of the most important sites on the World Wide Web. They are: http://www.senate.gov/ and http://www.house.gov/, you can also find the White House web page but I suggest you wait until it is occupied by someone who cares and who can read. How ever you choose your voice need not ever be silent again. Write your own blog page or join the thousands who post or comment on other blogs. Don't want assault weapons on your street write your Senator or Congressman. Better still think locally, in Maryland all you need is right here the Maryland General Assembly's web page: http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/07leg/html/ga.html; County not fixing pot holes for me it is Anne Arundel County Department of Public works http://www.aacounty.org/DPW/index.cfm.

Really it is all just point and click and your voice will be heard. It might still be ignored but that's just the cynic in me.

Terry's Story

2007-10-13T10:42:00.000-05:00

As it has been my policy from the beginning I will from time to time post the story's of patients that are being helped by using cannabis. Here is Terry's story:

I am a 60 yr old male 5'6" tall and weigh 118 pounds. Without mj I wouldn't eat at all. I think they call this wasting away syndrome. If anyone has experienced it, you know how weak and just plain bad not eating makes you feel. I also have considerable joint pain, for which I have been prescribed Oxycontin and methadone. The mj is superior to the opiates I have been prescribed. The VA will not even prescribe pain meds for me because I smoke pot to keep eating. Luckily, with the mj I don't need the VA's attitude. If it helps, smoke it and admit it. Our prisons are already grossly overcrowded. If we all admitted to using med mj, they couldn't do anything to us. They would have to build new prisons. They would also be full of senior citizens with huge medical bills. This would wreck their budget and back up their courts. They can sure have my medical bills!!! I smoke pot everyday. If not, I would not get off my couch. This is the land of the free and we can't even possess a harmless herb that 90 studies have shown to have medical benefits. 70 percent of Americans believe pot should be legalized or decriminalized. Do our elected officials not read these reports? Where is our government's compassion? I'm sure Americans consider themselves compassionate people. But we are not. We allow people to suffer needlessly. Med mj is also the best anti-depressant 'available'. It is a shame politicians and law enforcement officials are the way they are. In particular, the cops and judges think they can judge whether or not we need med mj better than our Doctor's can. The main drug czar does this without even seeing us. He must have powers unknown to us mere mortals. Legalize it! Terry Olinger

Once again as it happens everyday someone, a contributing member of our society is forced to break the laws. Will you join us to help change this reality? Contact me through this website and I will put you in touch with people who can help.

Fired Up!

2007-10-11T19:37:00.000-05:00

I arrived question in hand to Wednesday night's Countdown to Change in Largo, Md. Novice that I am I was hoping for some sort of question and answer session after Sen. Obama spoke. Even though that was wishful thinking I certainly was not disappointed at all. After all I was there because the campaign, Kyle Watkins particularly, took note of my e-mail grousing about getting invitations everyday to attend this event or that, for a small donation. Though it would have certainly been nice to be in the VIP Tent with the candidate before hand I had good seats and met a terrific lady.

The sun was just about to set behind one of the buildings on Prince Georges Community College. A huge American flag hung as a backdrop for the stage. While an eclectic mix of music boomed form speakers, the crowd seemed to grow and grow. I could not help but think how much it reminded me of time spent waiting for the band to come on at a rock concert. I found a campaign volunteer that help me skip the waiting in line. Eventually I was pointed to an area with other handicapped supporters close to the stage. From this vantage point I could see great.

I guided my wheelchair in to a spot along what I hoped might be part of the rope line that the candidate would walk later. "I was thiiisss close" as some forgotten comedian used to say. I had pulled up along side a woman slightly older than me who was also in a wheelchair. In the spirit of the event I extended my hand and introduced myself saying, "Hi, I'm Barry. I'm a polio survivor." I thought I'd slide right out of my chair when she said, "I don't believe it I am too. I survived polio too." What a strange thing that fate. Together we passed the time discussing how we came to be Barack Obama supporters, when we had polio, when did Post Polio Syndrome come on and something that really binds polio survivors how much we do that we know we shouldn't. She told me about going to college at Berkley in 1970. I told her about what it was like being in the middle of Baltimore's big anti-war riot. (Which by the way was little more than a bunch of cops on horses charging in to one of the quads at Baltimore's Washington Monument, where a group of hippies had gathered to listen to people play guitar and sing protest song. With out a single warning to the crowd the police rode in hurling tear gas into the crowd.) Twice campaign volunteers came along to pass out signs. Since I have not loss my ability to walk, just the ability to walk far, I stood up and reached out to get a sign that I gave to my new friend, Vardrine.

Eventually, the sun set behind that building and someone introduced the Fredrick Douglass High School Marching Band. Then that same faceless voice introduced Maryland's Attorney General Doug Gansler. AG Gansler was pretty enthusiastic for a politician not facing re-election for three more years. He was sorry Doug, a snooze compared to what was coming. Maryland's Attorney General spoke of how Sen. Obama reminds him of the first president he learned about in school, John Kennedy. A few more pieces of red meat liberal rhetoric and Doug introduced Congressman Elijah Cummings.

Now we're going to get things going. Rep. Cummings has the delivery of an old-time revivalist minister. I think he blew out the ears of the sound man when he first greeted the crowd. With much more enthusiasm than Mr. Gansler, he warmed up the crowd. He told the crowd how they had thrown the college for a loop. He said they were expecting about 1500 people but that there was at least twice that many there. Something that really had impressed me was that seventeen days before this event wasn't on anybodies calendar. In sixteen days they put together what I suspect may be the largest political rally ever in Maryland. With ever rising excitement the time had come, as Congressman told the crowd "give it up, give it up for Senator Barack Obama, holding that last "a" like a baritone in the choir.

With more than just a mere spring in his step Sen. Obama bounded on to the stage. Now it really is like a rock concert. The cheer went out like Raven's fans when Todd Heap catches a third down pass. By this point I am so caught up in the excitement I haven't even glanced over to see Vardrine's reaction. She was stoked, just beaming ear to ear. I guess I'll never be a reporter, I have no idea how long Barack spoke. I don't know that I could list the specific topics he spoke about. Except that he said what they had come here to hear him say. He spoke of his roots which began as a community organizer. He spoke of President Bush and Dick Cheney, telling the crowd about Cheney's version of how to put together an energy policy. He told them that Cheney met with the environmentalists once, he met with the alternative energy source suppliers, once, and he met with the oil company executives 40 times. More like Abbey Hoffmann than Abraham Lincoln he told them that he would do everything he can for now to end the war in Iraq. Telling about how he and others in Congress are doing their best to convince Republicans that the time is now to tell their President no to more money with out a time line to get out. He spoke of his mother pouring over healthcare insurance manuals as she slipped away from cancer at only 53 years old. The senator promised the crowd to have a healthcare system that will provide healthcare for ever citizen. That coverage will be at least as good as he and Elijah have as members of Congress.

Much of what Sen. Obama said I had already heard. Whether it was the YouTube Debate or on an interview show or one of the many video clips that another blogger friend sends me regularly. I didn't come to this event not knowing about Barack Obama. I had read "The Audacity of Hope." When I was reading it I was reminded of the scene in "The Patriot" when Benjamin (Mel Gibson) is finished reading Cornwallis's Diary and says he's just been in the mind of a genius. I felt like I was reading the words of a president, or at least someone who should be president.

Finally the end was near; Barack begins to tell his Greenwood, South Carolina story. Something else I had seen on the internet. I was trained as an actor. The hardest thing about acting for live theatre is keeping it fresh every night. Imagine saying the exact same thing at the exact same time, every night for a year or more. That is acting on Broadway. So I was interested if Barack could do the same with the Greenwood story. He did not disappoint.

The Greenwood story has another parallel with Broadway. There is a school of acting (I forget which one) that says if you bang your fist on a table, saying God damn it, God damn it, over and over again, you can't help but feel real anger welling up in your body. Well, that is sort of the point to the story of the little bespectacled lady in the hat from the Greenwood City Council. Sen. Obama arrives at an early campaign event tired and wet. The city councilwoman is heard asking someone "Fired up?" and the person answers "Fired Up." The she asks "Ready to go?" and the person responds "Ready to go." then to the whole room she questions "Fired up?" The whole room loudly answers "Fired up!" Again she says "Ready to go?" Even louder than before the room answers "Ready to go!" As the Senator tells the story he too is getting louder and more emphatic each time he says "Fired up?" "Ready to go?" The he looks out to the sea of supporters and asks loudly "Prince Georges I have one question, Fired Up? the crowd roars back Fired up!" Barack then asks "Ready to go? Louder than before the supporters chant back Ready to go!" Back and forth it goes Fired up?, Fired up! Ready to go?, Ready to go! Then with one more Ready to go!; "alright then lets go win this election."

It was really an exciting evening. When it was over I turned to Vardrine, her excitement evident in the big smile on her face. We had already exchanged e-mail addresses and promised to keep in touch. A new friend and a chance to maybe have seen a future President of the United States, an evening I won't forget. How do I know, because I still remember shaking hands with Hubert Humphrey, the then Vice-President of the United States, I was about eleven or twelve.

Me a lobbyist???

2007-10-05T23:03:00.000-05:00

Wednesday morning (10/3/07), for me was at once like a scene out of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" and Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." In the past I have had letters to the editor published in both my small town local paper, and the more major Baltimore publication The Sunpaper. Also encouraged by frequent and usually rather timely responses to e-mail letters, I recently went old fashioned and sent a snail mail letter to Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, (D-MD) . In my letter I asked to meet with the congressman about his position on medical marijuana. Specifically I was asking him to sign the "Tandy Letter." The letter authored by John Oliver (D-MA) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) asks DEA Administrator Karen Tandy to accept DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner's opinion/ruling in favor of the UMass-Amherst Medical Marijuana Research Production Facility, more on that later. While Rep. Ruppersberger did not sign the "Tandy Letter" he has voted each time in favor of the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment. When I was contacted by the congressman's office the "Tandy Letter" had already been sent (Sept. 19 '07) sadly sans Rep. Ruppersberger's signature. Still they did call and offer me a meeting with Senior Policy Advisor Walter Gonzales. My reaction of course was an emphatic affirmative. When I hung up the phone I was overwhelmed with a feeling of "What have you gotten yourself into?"

My second reaction was to contact Caren Woodson of Americans for Safe Access to ask her to come with to keep me from putting my foot in my mouth. While I am learning, my cumulative knowledge of the medical marijuana issue is based in my own use. I am a polio survivor and what is now many years ago, turned to cannabis to help relieve the pain of compressed discs, arthritic facet joints of the spine, and painfully fatigued muscles. Earlier this year I spent a day visiting state legislators asking them to support Maryland's pending compassionate use bills. Had they passed they would have allowed Maryland to join California and eleven other states that already have compassionate use laws. A few weeks later I found myself in a committee room in the House of Delegates testifying. Then came the Maryland State Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee and that's it my total lobbying experience.
So Wednesday after wading through DC's usual clogged traffic, I met Caren for breakfast in the House Cafeteria. Our topic of the day Lobbying for Dummies, or how you don't ask someone to marry you the first time you meet. I was given the basic primer of where federal law is concerning marijuana research and how we got here. Let's see if I can condense it down even farther. Jumping ahead a few decades from when the AMA objected to the first laws against cannabis to more recent times to 1976, the federal government created the Investigative New Drug compassionate access research program. Under this program five patients still receive cannabis from Uncle Sam. 1988 a different administrative law judge calls marijuana in its natural form, one of the safest therapeutically active substances known... Basically he told DEA to stop standing in the way of patients and the benefits of marijuana. DEA ignored this ruling. Fast forward from this agency to that agency and it all boils down to this FDA wants cannabis researched, DEA doesn't. Two administrative law judges have ruled in favor of cannabis research. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) a study of cannabis. IOM concluded that cannabis is a safe and effective medicine; of course the federal government ignored this study. The Supreme Court found nothing in the law to prevent the DEA from continuing to use medical marijuana patients as easy pickings to boost the confiscation numbers. They did however question the wisdom of these raids and urged congress to pass a law allowing for the medicinal use of cannabis. So FDA wants cannabis research to go forward, the DEA says ok we'll issue permits, but the permits will be controlled by National Institute of Drug Addiction (NIDA). NIDA who believes that all drugs are addictive is basically say "Yea Right, I'll get right on that." So that is where we stand in trying to get medicinal marijuana legislation, caught up in a 21st century "Catch 22." Our government on one hand says marijuana is safe and effective and on the other hand our government says marijuana is a dangerous drug with no medical efficacy. Here I am the poor Yossarian caught up in this modern Catch 22. Thanks Caren, now I'm completely confused let's go meet my congressman's Senior Policy Advisor.

Which is what we did. Walter Gonzales is a very engaging person. He took genuine interest in to why I am asking the congressman to support unraveling this catch 22 that is medical marijuana. He explained why Rep. Ruppersberger has voted in favor of Hinchey-Rohrabacher in the past. Apparently my congressman, I suspect is a bit of a weekend warrior or at least was in the past. I have met Dutch in person and if you ever played in the backfield of a football team, you definitely would want him on your line not your opponents. Seriously Rep. Ruppersberger has already had multiple joint replacements and probably knows more about chronic pain then he would prefer. Mr. Gonzales seemed glad to hear me say that I was upset about the patient on 60 Minutes that had a torn ligament that he was treating with marijuana. I told Mr. Gonzales that, I felt that was an abuse of the compassionate use statute in California. A torn ligament is an acute injury, like a cut on your finger. If you treat the injury correctly it will heal. Actually, I said that person needs to take a couple of Tylenol or Advil, put his leg up, and rest so it can heal. Caren as in the past buffered my passionate plea for understanding the need to help people in need. Caren knows how Congress works so while I was giving Mr. Gonzales the why, she pointed the way to the how. Rep. Ruppersberger is on the House Appropriations Committee and also the Justice Dept. Appropriations Sub-Committee. Caren pointed out that as a member of those committees the congressman can ask the tough questions. In the end Mr. Gonzales promised to have us back again and urged us to keep being involved in America. So as we left the Longworth House Office Building I looked around at where I was.

From where I was I could peek through the trees and see a bit of the Washington Monument and the Capitol Dome. So feeling rather proud of myself, I pointed my chair in that direction. It was a beautiful fall afternoon. Now this was not my first time to Washington, but it was since another beautiful fall morning. I had noticed the barriers I had been directed through. It wasn't until I got closer to the Capitol Building that it hit home. This place that I had seen in person and marveled at its openness was now barricaded. As I motored my chair around to the front of the building so I could gaze upon the "Monument" I looked up to see the helicopter overhead. It was just circling there above our seat of government protecting us. Still despite the helicopter, despite the barricades, I had just come from the office of the United States Congressman that represents me. Wow, Mr. Smith really can go to Washington.

Reflections on "The War"

2007-10-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

I watched all the segments of Ken Burn's "The War." Besides again being totally blown away by Mr. Burns' ability to tell complex stories I do have some thoughts on the documentary and how it dovetails with our current situation in Iraq.
The fact that Mr. Burns began this project prior to Sept. 11, 2001 makes it even more amazing the relevance that can be drawn from this film. I saw Ken interviewed a number of times while the show was being aired and think he is absolutely correct in the major difference he points out when interviewed. During the early forties after Pearl Harbor this nation did some amazing things. These monumental accomplishments were only possible because everyone in the nation knew they had to help. Citizens were asked to do many things from donating silk stockings for parachutes to gas rationing, to the simple act of conserving our precious resources. I know from my own parents that at home this was done with a sense of patriotism. Patriotism like that was not again seen until Sept. 11th. FDR while mindful of keeping specific plans undercover spoke to the nation often about the responsibilities of those on the home front. But as Mr. Burns so simply puts it when interviewed, "After 9/11 we were told to go shopping."
During the war years of the 1940's whole companies switched from making brass knickknacks to making bullet shells. The auto makers went from making cars to making what ever was needed be it trucks to plane parts. Quite a different mind set don't you think.
In support of the Second World War our manufacturing capabilities switched from peace time production to war time production. They reached production levels that would be hard if not impossible to reach today. Not just for American manufacturers but for any industrialized nation. For instance we were building air planes at the rate of one a week. Ships that took years were crank out in months if not weeks. Maybe the difference between then and now was we lost many ships and planes as a result of the Pearl Harbor. On Sept. 11th we lost stockbrokers. While that is an immense tragedy, especially for those individual families and I am not minimizing their lives or their contribution to America in life or death. However, its affect on our capability to defend ourselves or to respond to the attack militarily was nil.
Today our President uses every chance he can to try to draw a parallel between the war on terror and "The War." The parallel is just not there. We have lost to date is 3,809 since March of 2003. There were campaigns in WW II, individual battles that saw losses at the rate of 1600 soldiers a week. Just on Omaha Beach we lost 2,374 men. Iwo Jima we lost 6,326. Two battles out of a four year struggle and we lost 8,700 soldiers well over double our current losses in Iraq.
If President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had joined forces with Saddam Hussein, which everyone knows wouldn't happen. Then if the two of them together, again an impossible alliance, had join forces with Osama bin Laden, they still would represent but a mere fraction of the threat we faced in World War II. Again President Bush is attempting to draw the same erroneous correlation he did prior to invading Iraq with Iran. The idea that the Iranian Republican Guard is a serious threat to this nation is absurd. Can they cause havoc in the Iraqi conflict, yes. But for Congress and those Democrats who voted with the Republicans to pass a resolution identifying them as terrorist is playing in to the hands of the Bush Administration.
Is Iran attempting to build a nuclear weapon, yes with out a doubt. But does that threaten America? Not if we do what the 9/11 commission recommended over three years ago. Secure our import system. Iran, to the best of my knowledge, lacks the missile technology capable of hitting us with a ballistic missile at this time. While it is attempting to acquire such technology they are still a few years away from being a true nuclear power, Like China is and the Soviet Union once was. However, one thing still has not changed. We are the only nation on the face of the Earth that has a proven record of being willing to use nuclear weapons. Personally I believe a Democratic president would be more likely to use nuclear weapons against a sovereign nation to prevent that nation from being able to attack us with a nuclear weapon. It is what President Kennedy was talking about when he told Russia to get his nukes out of Cuba. Islamic radicals must know that we will nuke them before they can nuke us. But let's face it, Israel will do it long before we have to. So please don't begin to compare the remaining two Islamic stooges with Hitler and Tojo.
I am more afraid of Christian fundamentalist, like President Bush and the supporters that put him in office, of starting a war that could drag on long enough and cost us so much that we are unable to keep our military edge. It is happening already. How many retired generals have we heard caution that we are stretched to our military limits already. I fear it is this more than anything else that has emboldened ex-KGB officer President Putin to strip away the democratic reforms that the Republican Party claims only came about because of their foreign policies.
Today torture is again in the news. The American people and the world want to know: Does America torture? Sorrowfully, I believe we do. What I learned from "The War" was even when our guys were told "take no prisoners" and prisoners were taken, many GIs refused to summarily execute their prisoners. "The War" does not hold our guys up as saints incapable of atrocities. It does however point out that, during the largest military conflict the world has known, the average American soldier had no stomach to stoop to the level of his enemy, they are better than that. Today we don't always have to ask our soldiers or intelligence officers to torture or commit an atrocity, that's what we pay Blackwater a billion dollars a year to do for us.
Today the world is a complicated jumble of emerging nations, waning nations, super powers, and once super powers. If our leaders are going to lead effectively they must know the history of at least the 20th century. A century that twice saw true allegiances battling. One side was looking to rule the world and one side ensuring that nations are sovereign. While President Bush speaks of the "coalition of the willing" which was really the coalition of the "OK I'll let you have 500 troops if you don't count me as against you." The Second World War saw all nations who hold freedom dear, join together to form "The Allies." It was "The Allies" that made it happen. Did the rest of the world need our help you bet. If we had waited to fight them here then there wouldn't have been any free nations left to form such a powerful military alliance. But with out our Allies who would have taken the other three beaches on D-Day.
"The War" is powerful, poignant, and informative film. So much so that considering some of the truly bonehead votes that have come out of Congress lately, like the recent ones against the Iranian Republican Guard and MoveOn.org, it should be required viewing. Required viewing by not just of Senator and Congressman, but of everyone in government, at all levels. It should be scene by the county council men and the private in the Army. National Guard generals should watch with their Governors. The Cabinet should sit down with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and watch it. Then hopefully when everyone understands what true world threats and true military coalitions are we will never again go to sleep wondering "What's next?" We will know that our leaders know what is at stake when they bandy about phrases like "We have to fight 'em there so we don't have to fight 'em here."

The losses of war

2007-09-26T13:13:00.000-05:00

Last night I spent more time talking to one of my brothers than I have in many months, perhaps years. Our conversation was inspired by Ken Burns and his documentary "The War." He told me stories he remembered that I did not. He told of how my father would hear a plane over head and could tell by the sound of the engine if it was one he knew. He would hear then spot planes that had seen action in war. All the time we talked we knew one thing. We would never know the losses of war first hand. Our father survived and I, along with my three brothers managed to escape the horrors of Viet Nam.
However, we do understand loss. This man of many faults that had come through The War is gone now. He died suddenly at the age of 49. I was 15. Before eight years had passed I had experienced loss twice more. One just as suddenly as that Sept. day when my mother came home and told her five children that their father was dead.
Nearly all of us on this site have similar stories or know someone else who have similar stories. Loss is loss; it is devastating, gut wrenching, and unforgettable. Even now thirty years later, I can hear the echo of my scream echoing through a Sears & Roebuck hours before it open. The brother I was talking to last night had come and told me one of my brothers was dead, killed in a car crash.
If we are going to inflict this kind of pain, sorrow, and loss on our fellow citizens, we must be able to answer one question. We would inflict this kind of sorrow on ourselves. We would be willing to send our husbands, wives, or children to fight in a war. Last night I learned something I did not know about my father. I thought he had volunteered after Pearl Harbor. I was wrong, my father enlisted in October of '41, nearly two months prior to Pearl. What did he know even before the rest of the nation did? I'll never know. But he somehow had answered that question about would you be willing to...
When we were going after the terrorist that attack us, my answer was yes. But now, I would bar the door to keep either of my children from going off to war. Not because the people of the Middle East don't deserve freedom they do. I say stop this war now not because I don't want freedom and democracy to spread throughout the world but because it is not about that. It is about money and oil and power. Why did Karl Rove want a permanent majority for the GOP? Because that is what FDR gave the Democrats. The thing is FDR lied, kept the truth from the public, yes. But again I say that Osama bin Laden could not in his wildest dreams ever en masse the fearful power of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Bring our troops home now, not some but every last soul. No more money for troops and not a single paycheck more for the likes of Black Water Int.

60 Minutes Medical Marijuana Story

2007-09-22T10:31:00.000-05:00

Heads up to everyone helping to get a Federal Compassionate Use Law passed. This evening on their season debut show Morley Safer is doing a segment about medicinal marijuana laws. Specifically, he is examining California's law and the dispensaries that it has spawned. The story is also up on their website at
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/20/60minutes/main3281715.shtml#ccmm
Please watch the story or read it on line and let your voice be heard. Remember that the more voices political leaders hear the more they listen.
Also, because I have been very busy I want to thank everyone at the Takoma Park Folk Festival that stopped by the Americans for Safe Access table. The response was good and the feed back even better. We had people signing our petition and signing up for action alerts, all the while enjoying great music, great food and terrific late summer weather. Thanks Again!

Freedom of Speech '07

2007-09-19T11:10:00.000-05:00

While I am an avid supporter of protecting free speech I am also for knowing when to speak. Mr. Andrews had an opportunity to speak truth to power. I have to question why he was not willing to relinquish the microphone. If his aim was an act of civil disobedience he had accomplished that when the security people approached. Going limp is always a way to passively resist police or security. Here is the sticking point, Mr. Andrews continued to resist. This is not the way to be a passive resister to a policy. I object to tasers in most cases that they are being used, including this case. My point is civil disobedience is a right and even an obligation in certain circumstances. However, it should always be peaceful protests that include passive resistance.
On the other free speech topic of the week the censorship of broadcast television, I have been livid ever since the wardrobe malfunction. I have been for a very long time in favor of removing the muzzle on broadcast television. Ever since CBS wimped out and canceled the Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour, the federal government has increasingly pressured network television to homogenize their programming. Instead of protecting free speech by being a watch dog agency reviewing who is controlling or trying to control the air waves, they are actively censoring content. This was most evident Sunday evening when Fox television network took the extra method of cutting away from the speaker so no one could possibly even read their lips. Give me a break! (And I cleaned that up!) It is time to do away with the seven or six or even one second delays so citizens who choose to use the language they would use in their home or elsewhere can. I applaud the TNT network for doing their part to break down the censorship rules. Credit for this by extension goes to Academy Award winning actress Holly Hunter and the cast and writers of her show "Saving Grace." I implore the traditionally live show producers to tell the broadcast networks to either remove the gag or we're taking our ad revenue and giving it to TNT a network that obviously supports free speech.
Mr. Andrews had a right to ask why Congress, beginning with the House of Representatives has not begun impeachment procedures. He had the right to ask if Sen. Kerry belongs to Skull & Bones, but he did a disservice to those of us attempting to change the direction of this country. How, by behaving in a way that will allow the right to once again paint us as the lunatic fringe.

Myths and Realities About Medical Marijuana

2007-09-07T08:19:00.000-05:00

I was suppose to posts this article weeks ago. Unfortunately I have been consumed by a neighborhood organization project, more on that in another post.

Please read Alex Coolman's article below because we need to deflate the myths and shine a light on the realities of what America's drug policies are doing to this country. I know a young man who is going through court ordered counseling after being arrested for possession of .3 gms of marijuana. In a recent class the teacher actually quoted Harry Anslinger as a source for what he defines as the reality of marijuana use. If you do not know who Harry Anslinger is, you should. If you are familiar with the movie "Reefer Madness" you know Anslinger's vision of cannabis. Myths are for uneducated societies. Great societies are well educated.

Myths and Realities About Medical Marijuana
A lot of otherwise intelligent people seem to hold beliefs about medical marijuana that have almost no basis in reality. Here is a quick guide to some common myths and the reality behind those myths.

Myth: Medical marijuana is a fringe issue that only a few people support.
Reality: In fact, the American public overwhelmingly supports access to medical marijuana. In four separate polls taken since 2002, between 68% and 80% of voters said they support medical access to marijuana, depending on how the question was worded (see also these polls, conducted by AARP, the Pew Research Center and other groups, which reach the same conclusion). In a democratic society, those numbers are really, really strong. To put them in context, fewer people -- only 64% -- believe that the federal government should guarantee health care for all Americans, according to a 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation Poll. This is why both Republicans and Democrats -- even very cautious Democrats like Hillary Clinton and very conservative Republicans like Rep. Dana Rohrabacher -- have spoken out in favor of ending federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries: not because these politicians are so cutting edge, but because the massive support for the pro-medical access position is simply a political reality that only a very thick-witted politician should ignore. It would be lovely if we could also get journalists to grasp this reality rather than viewing this issue exclusively in terms of inaccurate stereotypes and generalizations.

Myth: When medical marijuana is available, marijuana use increases.
Reality: Nobody who makes such a claim can back it up with any data, because the fact is that marijuana use has been steadily falling for a decade, even as a dozen states have legalized the medical use of marijuana during the same period. The annual Monitoring the Future study of teen drug use shows that marijuana use peaked in 1996 and has been steadily dropping ever since (see Table 1 of the most recent Monitoring the Future report (pdf)).

Myth: Allowing medical marijuana will lead to the legalization of marijuana.
Reality: Again, there is no evidence to support this claim because this has never actually happened. Instead, the fact is that there are 12 states that have legalized medical marijuana. The number of states that have gone on to legalize marijuana altogether is zero.

Myth: Medical marijuana isn't a "real" drug because you can't "smoke" a drug.
Reality: Several pharmaceutical companies have developed methods for delivering drugs that involve fancier versions of what marijuana users call "bongs" and "vaporizers." Go check out the Exubera Inhaler, for example. Or consider the Staccato System, Alexza Pharmaceuticals' "novel technology" that "vaporizes unformulated drug to form a condensation aerosol that allows for systemic delivery through deep lung inhalation." Some readers may also be familiar with an obscure drug known as tobacco, which is taken by smoking and can be counted on to deliver pretty much the same dose and the same experience for the user over and over.

Myth: There is no need for medical marijuana because people can use Marinol, the prescription drug that contains some of the active ingredients in marijuana.
Reality: Taking Marinol is a viable option for some people, and indeed some medical marijuana patients actually prefer Marinol to medical marijuana, but this is not true for everyone. Marinol, which is taken orally, is a drug that has a very slow onset and long duration, and the dosage can be difficult to control. Smoked or vaporized marijuana, on the other hand, can be considerably easier to manage. Ultimately, the decision to use one product or another should be made by an individual and his or her doctor -- not by law enforcement officers, politicians and pundits who try to score points by saying that Marinol is the answer to everything.

Myth: Allowing medical marijuana opens the door to rampant "fraud" like they have in California, where people use marijuana to treat whatever they want. The same thing will happen in any other state that allows it.
Reality: There are many different ways to regulate medical marijuana, just as there are a lot of different ways to regulate any other kind of drug. Some states have fairly tightly controlled systems, such as the New Mexico regime that only allows the drug to be used only by individuals with debilitating health conditions such as glaucoma and HIV. California's law, on the other hand, is much broader. It allows people to use marijuana for "any condition for which it provides relief." What some misinformed pundits call medical marijuana "fraud" in California is actually the state law operating in the way it was designed to operate. Other states, though, can and do set more stringent standards for access, and that works fine too. The point is, medical marijuana programs come in many different varieties and can be tailored to respond to community values. The only thing that can't be tailored to community values is total prohibition, which ignores the preference of of the vast majority of people and imposes a damaging, expensive criminal structure in place of a safe, regulated market.

(Big hat tip: Medical Marijuana ProCon.org.)

Homeowner's Rights

2007-09-07T07:23:00.000-05:00

I'll keep this quick and dirty. I have been researching the role of Homeowner Associations in Maryland. Before the end of the month I will hopefully post a link to an op-ed I am writing on this subject. If it no newspaper wants to publish the op-ed, well that is the beauty of the Internet now isn't it. I'll just publish it here.

The thing is of the people who I have spoken to by going neighborhood to neighborhood their is an overwhelmingly negative opinion of homeowner associations (HOA). I have heard one over riding sentiment; it is my home, the most expensive thing I will probably ever buy, no one has the right to tell me what I can and can not do with it. An example of something HOA's like to ban - window air conditioners. One home owner who supports the ban said if they can't afford to run their central AC, the should consider moving to a cheaper home!

I am an experienced real estate title searcher. Deeds used to contain restrictions that banned the following on the property: No niggers, pigs, goats, chickens or Jews. Obviously the reference to two races were outlawed by the Fair Housing Act. The keeping of live stock is regulated by zoning laws. The thing is the point of these restrictions was to insure that property values in the neighborhood weren't impacted by the actions of any one homeowner. This is the exact same justification for the existence of HOA's. So we haven't really come that far have we?

Update about Retirement Living Viewpoint

2007-08-14T22:18:00.001-05:00

Back on August 1st I posted comments that I had submitted to Retirement Living TV's Viewpoint. They had recently aired an episode about the question of the medicinal use of marijuana. They can be found here: http://caseysdream.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-comments-sent-to-retirement-living.html But before you read them please take the time to view that show. I think some will be surprised and learn something about an issue that promises not to go away anytime soon. Update 8-19-07 Just click the link to Retirement Living Viewpoint to see the whole show now.

Comments

2007-08-08T16:18:00.000-05:00

I just realized that if someone wanted to leave a comment that it had to go through me first. I apologize for that. It just goes to show what a novice I am. I want everyone who visits my blog to feel free to comment even disagree with what I say here. I am willing to defend a person right to free speech even if I disagree with what they say.

Gather round for notes

2007-08-08T08:33:00.000-05:00

It doesn't matter if you are a high school drama teacher speaking to the cast of whatever over done play you're rehearsing or Martin Scorsese speaking to a cast full of Academy Award winners, actors dread those words. Why because, someone is about to point out your mistakes, missteps and blown lines. So gather round candidates for notes on last nights debates.

My first note goes to every candidate on the dais. Answer the question asked you. I have nearly five pages of notes full of no answer, evaded question, off point and every other phrase I can think of to say "you didn't answer the question"

Next time limits, it is very disturbing that people who are seeking to be the most powerful person in the world can't keep to a simple time limit when answering questions during debates. These first two notes apply to every candidate at every debate I have ever watched.

Next, if the moderator didn't ask you about global warming but rather, he asked about education funding and you begin your answer with I want to speak about that last question, I think the moderator should have the right to turn off your microphone, never to be turned on again. Thus leaving you looking even more stupid as you stand there not being allowed to answer any more questions.

Next, if a question requires a yes or no answer than at the beginning of your answer, you should say yes or no. Then take the rest of your time explaining your answer.

Finally on general notes, ever since the YouTube debates we have been hearing about nuance. Please all candidates leave the nuance at the door. If I am going to give you an hour and a half of my time I want to hear frank and honest answers. Not giving voters the straight talk answer is what had Democrats looking to John McCain back in 2004.

Now the specifics and I'm just going to go through my notes and hope they make sense in the light of day. On the subject of infrastructure, most candidates eventually got to the point though in Sen. Obama's case it took two tries. However, when Keith Olbermann came to to him for a follow up, he gave the best answer. Large public works projects do provide much needed jobs. It is through this job creation that money spent on the project eventually comes back in the form of increased tax revenue. This is true trickle down economics. People earn money that is taxed, people spend money for goods and services, and that increases sales which increases tax revenue.

Trade, or as asked would you support keeping NAFTA. Here at a labor union forum was the time for a straight answer. Dennis Kucinich gave the straightest answer. Every one else had some form of "I'd amend it" or "I'd enforce it." To all the candidates that said they would seek to amend NAFTA than you don't support NAFTA. "Does this dress make me look fat?" "Well, actually if the truth be told I think I would alter it so there was more room in it." Try that out the next time you're getting dressed to go out.

In politico speak all the candidates handled the question of China pretty well. China is in fact both an ally and an adversary. They all realize that the problem with China is that our relationship has been good for Wall Street. A great many products made in America are now for sale in China. This is something I wouldn't have thought possible thirty years ago. But here is where trade agreements shout unfair, unfair. We deliver to China well made products and get back unsafe products. It will be a true test of the next president's abilities to see if we can't make progress on the inequities of our current trade agreements. Here I think I trust Edwards over Obama, but only slightly. It is one of the arenas I don't trust the Clinton's. President Clinton did, in the end, choose NAFTA over Universal Healthcare.

As far as China as our largest debt holder, we know what the answer to that is - balance the damn budget. And don't do it on the backs of people making less than $100k/year. When I hear people making six figures discuss the unfairness of capital gains I could puke. I heard a lady the other day on the radio, she was so upset, she didn't know where to put her $300k in investments so she could pay the least amount possible in taxes. The worst part is she was also complaining that the Democrats won't be looking out for people like her "in the middle class." Lady people in the middle class don't have an extra $300k lying around to worry about.

Possibly the biggest no answer of the night came when Mr. Olbermann put forth the hypothetical of what if we leave Iraq and Al Qaeda takes over. Everybody told how they would prevent that from happening. That wasn't the question, the question was what if. The answer should have been the second coming of shock and awe. If the people of Iraq, nearly all of whom are armed allowed that to happen then we should be prepared to show them what it truly means to be bombed back to the Stone Age or possibly into extinction. Unless some other nation steps in and gives them the weapons needed they are not going to be able to shoot down a B-52 bomber with an AK-47. We won't even mention their ability to defend themselves from the Navy's cruise missiles.

On opposition to funding the war and why did you wait so long to cast your vote? Well most people I know are never going to be satisfied with these candidates answers on that. It was clear that Senators Clinton and Obama waited 'til there votes were irrelevant. Now that's real duck and cover politics.

On true labor issues like pension protection and OSHA enforcement I think Sen. Clinton had the best answer, though Sen. Edwards probably will handle the problem better in reality. He acknowledged that S.C., like my own Maryland is a right to work state. This doesn't mean you have a right to work. It means that your boss has the right to fire you. And he can do so just because he's in a bad mood or doesn't like your appearance. Or as someone explained it to me - you have the right to work anywhere, where you agree with the companies hiring policies and practices. The reason I think Edwards is going to be best on labor issues is he made the pledge to outlaw scabs. We are now feeling the affect of Regan's firing of air traffic controllers. Unions do need to recognize that every one has a right to earn a decent living, have healthcare and a pension worth the paper it is printed on. However, everyone does not necessarily have the right to be able to keep up with the guy next door. By the way, root cause of conspicuous consumption!

In regards to lobbying, this again is where I will give an edge to Sen. Edwards; he has been touting publicly financed elections for a while now. Sen. Clinton's stump answer is true that some lobbyist do represent core Democratic constituents, like teachers, like fireman. But most of the constituents that have lobbyist are in fact members of the AFL-CIO. I did learn a new term last night that is "bundling." If it is what it sounds like than it goes to show how corrupt our political system has become. Too often we accept that people will always try to get around a law. When we speed in our cars we are not committing an act of civil disobedience we are breaking the law. Bundling sounds like lobbyist evading prosecution under our current campaign finance laws. Which inherently means the law is being broken and we are just looking for the technicality that allows us to get away with it. When this happens in criminal court we are furious, like the recent case where a child rapist got off Scott free because of the "need" for an interpreter. It is just as ugly.

I'm going to skip the last two rounds of questions, like what have you accomplished, the Barry Bonds question, even the stop no bid contracts question. Why because I think they were, what they were -questions to fill the remaining time.

So candidates you have my notes, go home, practice your lines, and come back better prepared to answer the questions asked, in the time allowed for your answer.

It’s The Infrastructure Stupid!

2007-08-03T11:06:00.000-05:00

Last night Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News asked the rhetorical question could infrastructure become a big issue in the upcoming presidential race? It definitely should. Remember way back when, when we had a balanced budget and a project surplus. Oh wait that wasn't that long ago. Anyway, President Clinton was sounding the alarm. He was saying that we should use the surplus to sure up Social Security and work on the infrastructure. So far this summer we have had a man made volcano erupt in the center of New York City, killing one and a bridge collapse in Minnesota killing a yet unknown number of people. I am not one who gets motion sickness. I have flown through moderate to heavy turbulence, been on the water in a small boat when the bay I am on gets rough, and I love to ride roller coasters. I used to drive on an overpass that shook so bad when an eighteen wheeler went underneath my stomach did flip flops. The point I am trying to make is that our infrastructure is 50 to 150 years old. Other than your great grand-mothers dining room table, what in your life that is 50 years old would you trust to use everyday? When it comes to the bridges above and the pipes below our street are failing. How many times in the last two years has your local news lead with the story of a water main break? How many times have you heard about a sink hole opening up some where? These are all the result of failing infrastructure. New York City's volcano really just missed being a major tragedy because those steam pipes that run under New York City run side by side with natural gas lines. What happens if the next time a pipe blows it also blows the natural gas line lying next to it? Some of these side by sides are actually under Wall Street. Next to the natural gas lines are electric and fiber optic lines. So if the natural gas line blows it could also take out the electricity that powers fire alarms. Bridges are a whole 'nother kettle of fish. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (http://www.cbbt.com/) was opened in 1964. Here is something I just found this morning.

"VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - As Hampton Roads shed layers of clothing in the 93-degree heat earlier this week, workers suspended below the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel wrapped fiberglass jackets around the road's supports.

The outfit is one of several techniques meant to repair 623 cracked and corroded piles, made of concrete and steel reinforcement, damaged by ships and salty water.

Going to the Outer Banks or Virginia Beach have fun. Will you feel comfortable on the bridge or in the tunnel? This is just two examples I know about. A barge hit the CBBT years ago but what if it had been a super tanker like the one that took down the Skyway Bridge in Tampa Beach, Fl.

I know that in Maryland we have traffic cameras all over the place on our highways (http://www.chart.state.md.us/TravInfo/trafficCams.asp). Does yours? If so check out the number of cars on any local bridges and realize that no one even forty years ago was planning for the volume of traffic on our highways. This is why you are always in backups for road widening. Well happy driving!

My comments sent to Retirement Living TV

2007-08-01T14:15:00.000-05:00

My name is Barry, I am the Barry featured in your story today. First I want to thank Lea Thompson and the producers from Retirement Living for bringing attention to this important issue. Despite having little sleep last night I made sure I was awake to watch this show. Since the time the show interviewed me I have heard from quite a few people both for and against, but predominantly for allowing the medicinal use of marijuana. Like the doctor at the end recommended I have tried the other drugs. I have been prescribed various NSAID's since I was in my mid twenties. Initially I tolerated these drugs. The problem is they are hard on your stomach. My onset of osteoarthritis began while I was still in high school. You see as a polio survivor my muscular skeletal system had already been ravaged at age 20 months when I first contracted paralytic poliomyelitis. I have vivid memories of going door to door collecting for the March of Dimes. Back then we had the support of the nation in our fight to get better. I'm not really feeling that anymore. While most of us had some degree of recovery, very many of us are now experiencing Post Polio Syndrome. Sadly, despite the numbers like those in the survey's at the end that show great support for our fellow citizens, despite many lawmakers trying to legislate compassion, a small hand full of people are blocking my access to a safe reliable pain reliever. I believe that pharmaceutical companies are the ones pouring money in to the opposition coffers. So I urge anyone who supports congress passing a national compassionate use act to go on line, go to http://www.house.gov/, look up your congressman, and tell them you want the Hinchey-Rohrabacher bill passed when it comes up next year. I truly believe this is one of those situations that Bobby Kennedy was speaking about when he said “I dream things that never were and ask ‘why not’."

News About Drug Policy Reform

2007-08-01T07:01:00.000-05:00

By now many know that presidential candidate Gov. Bill Richardson signed compassionate use legislation back in April. New Mexico is now the twelfth state to allow people with certain chronic illnesses to use cannabis for medicinal purposes. I strongly support compassionate use legislation if not Gov. Richardson's candidacy. Gov. Richardson has to get credit for also signing the less publicized 911 Good Samaritan bill. This is a great piece of legislation that goes a long way to saving lives. Under 911 Good Samaritan legislation persons who are present when someone overdoses can now freely call 911 to get that person the help they need. People routinely do not call 911 because under most states laws people who are on the scene of an overdose risk being charged with possession. New Mexico's new law provides limited immunity to those people who do the right thing and call for help.

The second piece of news that did not get much coverage is that, seat belt we don't need no stinking seat belt, Gov. Jon Corzine (D) recently signed clean needle legislation. Sorry Governor seat belt use is a must in my car even if I am just pulling up to parcel pick up at the grocery store. Seriously, Thank you Governor, you have broken new ground for your citizens. While the law only sets up a pilot program in six New Jersey cities I'm sure that you will find a drastic drop in new cases of HIV from needle sharing. This is a big step forward. Having lived in Brigantine, N.J., I hope you make sure that AC (Atlantic City) is one of those cities. I understand that their mayor and city council have expressed an interest in being one of those pilot cities. Unfortunately, for that area, Atlantic City still has way far too many neighborhoods that can be accurately described as ghettos thirty years after gambling passed.

The third story is the San Diego Superior Court was correct in their recent ruling. The court rejected three local governments' attempts to invalidate the states medical marijuana law that has been on the books since 1996. Patients have the Drug Policy Alliance, American's for Safe Access and the ACLU among others to thank for their hard work protecting your right to the medicine you need. To those who sought to over turn the California statute, guys this isn't even stare decisis (settled law), this is enacted law.

Another not so small victory also comes out of California (Lake County). Briefly a patient in Lake County had been in a way being reimbursed the cost of their physician recommended medicinal marijuana. Lake County had been taking in patient costs when determining the patient's level of public assistance. I know there could be a knee jerk reaction of "They were doing what." Follow me on this, if I had no health insurance or prescription drug plan, my cost of expensive cholesterol, diabetes or other medicines would be used in determining my level of public assistance. Unless you are like my fellow medical marijuana advocate Irv Rosenfeld who has to use 11 to 15 joints a day to alleviate the pain from the tumors that invade his body, the cost for a month's supply of cannabis is much less than many of our FDA approved medicines. Then three years ago Lake County stopped reimbursing for those expenses. They claimed that federal law prohibited it from doing so. Drug Policy Alliance stepped in and after numerous hearings and one appeal an administrative court issued an opinion. In that opinion the court made it clear that federal law does not prevent the state from honoring their own state medical marijuana law. By the way, Irv doesn't have to incur that expense either; the federal government provides his supply of cannabis. To learn more about Irv and others fighting for your right to use cannabis to relieve your chronic symptoms, from cancer, HIV/AIDS, MS, Crohn’s disease and many others please visit Retirement Living TV's website at http://rl.tv/ after 1:30pm and watch Viewpoint. Retirement Living TV is included on many digital cable or satellite TV lineups. If I’m lucky you might even get a glimpse of me.

A Family Affair

2007-07-25T08:15:00.000-05:00

Monday evening's YouTube Debates was the culmination of 22 years of having the evening news as a constant dinner companion. My wife and I were joined by our two voting age children to watch the debate as a family. The tradition of having the news on during dinner goes back as least as far as November 22, 1963. My family of seven always had dinner together and even before the "experts" began stressing its importance, I had continued the practice.
I was really not sold on the idea of the YouTube Debates. That being said I found the format really quite interesting. While CNN was falling all over itself about how this debate was going to be so different, it really wasn't. CNN and YouTube were in the end the final arbiters or if you prefer editors of the questions. No one was surprised that the candidates had staff pouring over the submissions so there were no questions that caught any candidate off guard.
So let's get down to brass tacks here. We all watched intently the various candidates as they responded to the questions. While we all have candidates that we are leaning towards, we all heard something from most of the candidates that made us remark that they had just heard an answer that more closely aligns with their opinion.
Mike Gravel's urging to "follow the money' resounded with us. We (meaning more than one of us) favor federal funding of campaigns. We are tired of big money running this country. The Bush Administration is the single biggest argument as to why we should do that.
My children are extremely opposed to the Iraq War, so when Gov. Richardson called for all troops to be out before the end of the year, that hit home for them. Their generation is quickly beginning to have the shared experience of knowing someone who has been touched personally by the war. That was true during the Viet Nam War. Everyone I knew back then knew of at least one family who had one of its members in harm's way. Most of us knew of at least one family that had suffered the loss of a loved one in that conflict.
Sen. Biden's loss of his wife and daughter was something I did not know about, having experienced the loss of a family member at age fifteen, that was a connection for me. While it is not a reason to vote for him or not vote for him, I understand how that tragedy may shape his politics. Sen. Biden's plan to divide Iraq into three autonomous states is probably the best plan for that area. Sharing of the oil revenues is a must and his plan covers that. My personal opinion is that after we do that we get paid. After all that is what we were promised by the "Bushies."
Dennis, Dennis, Dennis in principal you should be leading this race. However, Congressman Kucinich I just don't see how you can not be perceived as a bit of a kook. The politics of peace is something old hippies like me can get behind. Sadly answering text peace to almost every question was not the way to win friends and influence people.
Sen. Dodd, other than knowing that you are an excellent Democratic Senator, you said nothing to even perk up my ears. That is not a bad thing; it just means that so far you haven't convinced me to even consider your candidacy.
So on to the top tier, my two children are very much supporting Sen. Obama, and with good reason. They like many others believe that if there was a winner of the debate, Barack is it. He spoke to their issues and really didn't give them any reason to change their vote. They, like me, think that this minor dust up between Obama and Clinton on how to handle the rogue states is as Shakespeare said, "much ado about nothing."
Sen. Edwards gets the prize for making our eyes and ears to perk up. Not on any one answer, rather with every answer. With just about each of his answers one of us commented that, that more closely defined our position on the various topics. I forget who said it but some one commented that the biggest thing that Sen. Edwards has going against him is he is a rich white guy. Personally I find my self hedging my support for that very reason. The logic being is, if any party is going to elect a black person or a woman president it is going to be the Democratic Party, and we don't want to impede history.
Finally, Hillary Rodham Clinton is a person we all respect and admire. In 1993, when she was trying to bring us universal healthcare, you couldn't find two people rooting harder than my wife and I that she succeed. At the time we were still reeling from a major health crisis in our family. More to the point, we had vivid memories of two insurance companies arguing over which one has to pay the lion's share of those bills and which one gets to skate off with the remainder of $250,000.00 worth of hospital bills. Today the biggest stepping stones to get our support are these. One, apologize for not seeing thru the Bush smoke screen leading up to the war. I didn't see through it, but I'm just a would be political pundit, you on the other hand are a United States Senator, whose presidential aspiration have been know for years. Two she just doesn't connect with people the way President Clinton does. Unfortunately, Monday night Senator Clinton may have only taken a baby step towards being able to make those connections.

Wouldn't It Be Loverly

2007-07-10T10:41:00.000-05:00

I point you to AP's story posted today entitled "China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Chief." Now there's an idea, FDA approves a drug that has potentially catastrophic side effects, after the recall we execute the head of the FDA. Now in China their head of State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) was in fact executed "for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash." This is different than here in the States. Here we make the drug companies "test" their drugs, than they get to bribe the FDA so as to get them approved, despite the side effects. China realizing it has a systemic problem also sentenced to death a former head of SFDA. Luckily for him, he's on the road to commutation. No he isn't going to have his sentenced completely commuted as a first step to a complete pardon. No, his sentenced if he is lucky will be commuted to life in prison. Which unless things have changed, means he will spend the rest of his life in jail. Unlike people in the United States, that are sentenced to life and then are paroled for good behavior.

Let me take my tongue out of my cheek here. The point to be made here is that FDA is failing to keep unsafe medicines off the market, by understating the side effects on some drugs while overstating the side effects of other drugs. Case in point Celebrex -v- Ibuprofen. Yes, Advil (Ibuprofen) is an irritant to the stomach lining and can cause bleeding ulcers in those who take it daily or those who misuse it by taking more than the recommended dose. Fine I understand that. I also understand that if you don't wake up with a headache and throw four Advil and a cup of coffee at it, if instead you have some toast, maybe an egg or cereal, milk instead of coffee, the recommended two Advil will do little to irritate your stomach lining. Not true with COX2-inhibitors, these drugs can cause spontaneous bleeding any where in the body. For me it showed up as unexplained bruises on my arms after swimming. I mean before it caused a stroke while I sat quietly watching a movie with my wife and daughter. They still won’t let me watch the end of "Stepmom."

Here's the rub, I believe that there are drugs making it to the market place that wouldn't have seen the light of day under previous FDA leadership. I am not just condemning the current head of FDA, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, or even the head of FDA under the former President Bush. I don't know how far back I have to go to find an FDA that was doing its job. Just visit fda.gov, and go to the recall, market withdrawals (politico speak for recall) and safety alerts archives, you will be shocked at the shear number of entries. Why does FDA have to go behind itself so often to add "Black Box" warnings, or simply add on more side effects? Why do so many companies have to pull their products for safety violations? I say bad management, and for many years. FDA was supposed to insure the safety of food (that's what the "F" means) and medicine (that's the drug part). While I'm sure that there are hundreds probably thousands of excellent scientists at FDA, I charge that upper management has been in the pocket of the pharmaceutical companies for years now. When corruption becomes systemic, you can have all of the best scientists working for you, but their work, and their voices are silenced by the checkbook. I further charge that this is a known in politics at the highest level. In other words when a President, appoints a new head of FDA, that person comes in knowing that they don't have to worry about where to take the family on summer vacation, because its on Pfizer. Vail for Christmas, no problem call the guys at Merck and let them know the dates.

I understand that Michael Moore has done a far better job of condemning health care in America, in his movie "Sicko" I can't wait to see it. But I am addressing one small fragment of the overall healthcare problem this nation faces. So this is the question I ask. If as their website says, that FDA has been around from 1862, why are they so bad at what they do? You would think if an agency has 145 years to practice that their batting average would be higher.

P.S. Visit Daily KOS where I have included a poll about how much faith you have in the FDA. I blog under the name Barry C aka Casey. The diary entry has the same name there as here.

Executive Hijack

2007-07-05T10:23:00.000-05:00

This is exactly what we have been watching for over six years. President Bush and Vice-President Cheney have set about creating the imperial presidency that Nixon tried so hard to achieve. In doing so they realized that first they had to hijack the Justice Department. In John Ashcroft they thought they had their man. Then despite his condition Mr. Ashcroft was thinking clearly enough to tell Gonzales that Justice wasn't going along with the warrantless wiretapping scheme. Then eight months later when A.G. Ashcroft resigns, the evil twins insert warrantless wiretapping scheme architect Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. America's cop had just gone on the pad.

Everyone seems to want to tap dance around who is the leader of the band when it comes to Bush/Cheney. When you look at Bush 41's relationship to Richard Nixon you have to ask the question. Is Bush 41 pulling the strings of Washington from Kennebunkport, Maine? This is not a popular idea. After all, it has been fatherly George H. W., that has been going around with Bill Clinton raising money for the poor and devastated people of the world. The former President Bush, has been looked upon much as President Carter is. Both have done a lot of good charitable works since leaving office. I'm not taking that away from President Bush (41). I am however wondering why we have so many former Nixon staff members back in the executive branch. Heck they would bring back John Dean if he still wasn't such an out spoken critic of this kind of politics.

It just seems to this observer that everything that the Nixon White House tried to do such as the illegal invasion of Laos and Cambodia and others are being repeated. We invaded Iraq under false pretenses. We have the illegal wiretaps, the attempt to do away with habeas corpus, the pre-war rhetoric concerning what to do with Iran all with correlations to the Nixon years. Nixon bugged Daniel Ellsburg's psychiatrist's office, they spied on Americans through the CIA, Nixon continued the illegal Viet Nam war, despite being elected based on a secret plan to get us out of Viet Nam, then in 1970 Nixon escalates the whole mess by invading Laos and Cambodia. Gonzales' midnight raid on Attorney General Ashcroft's hospital room is akin Nixon's firing of Archibald Cox. If John Mitchell had still been A.G., Cox would have been gone before his coffee got cold.

In the end it was the Justice Dept. through the Supreme Court that brought President Nixon down. I fear that the "Bush Court" will not rule as the court did back in the seventies. President Bush has seen to that. His problem with courts, right now anyway, are with military courts, that keep ruling against him when it comes to Gitmo. The Bush Administration never considered that military justices would rule against them. They figured if they fixed the Supreme Court that would be enough. Instead they have to count on this Supreme Court always ruling in their favor. Three words on that coming to fruition - Sandra Day O'Connor, the "conservative" woman qualified to be on the "Regan Court."

Hopefully this court will in the end do its job and rule to keep our checks and balances intact. After all that is their job. Any rulings that ensure the executive branch's limitless power, in the end takes away power from the Supreme Court. Have you ever wondered why James Madison decided to name our highest court the "Supreme Court". I believe that Madison expected these justices to be the finest in the land. A court free of political influence and party loyalty or worse party obligation is what our forefathers envisioned. Through the years our leaders have done their best to thwart this effort. So much so that we have the "Berger Court" or the "Rehnquist Court" sometimes called the "Regan Court". Up until now every architect of the Supreme Court has been disappointed by the courts rulings. I fear that after two hundred years of practice, of bringing down the Supreme Court, to the mean low level of the Congress and the Presidency, they may have succeeded.

I’ll stoop to her level

2007-06-27T09:51:00.000-05:00

Why should I care about how a right wing, anorexic, lipstick lesbian (sorry girls), who is a one trick pony, thinks. She spews all kinds of misinformation about Senators Clinton and Obama, but when she gets to Sen. Edwards out she spews vile like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist." Maybe the two of them can remake "Chained Heat." Oops my apologies to Miss Blair. So back to the bony butt bimbo, do her facts come from some alternative dimension they certainly don't come from the facts as the rest of the world understands them. Is it possible that Ann Coulter is really Dick Cheney's evil love child? If so, who in the world was this woman's mother? I really think that skinny fanny Annie must be worried about Sen. Edwards because she sure seems to save her most hateful rhetoric for him. But I mean really she's like what forty-five and she wears her hair like Goldie from "A Little Tea with Goldie." Let's face it we all know how in love the right used too be with Britney Spears, Ann is Britney with half a brain (OK a few grains of a brain). Well that's all I can come up with for now. Please feel free to add on.

John's Story

2007-06-20T07:39:00.000-05:00

I invite everyone to go to my blog archives. Look in May and scroll down to "You too can write your legislatures". This is the story of a young man, only 28 years old and he will live the rest of his life with a debilitating disease. Like so many I know he is just asking for compassion. Unfortunately, I have kept forgetting to publish it. I originally was waiting for permission but that was not the problem. The problem is I am forgetful. Please read John's story. According to Henry I. Miller on the Sunday Times Op-ed page, New York and New Jersey appear to be next to start the fight for medical cannabis. Just for the record, everyone that fought for it in Maryland will be back when again the Maryland General Assembly meets.

A Great Day For American Law

2007-06-15T14:13:00.000-05:00

I have been champing at the bit ever since my computer was fried by a thunder storm nearly two weeks ago. Tuesday June 5th was a great day for law in this country, and finally I get to put in my two cents worth. To refresh every one's memory, this was the day the Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to jail, A military court threw out two Gitmo cases, and a New York appeals judge told the FCC that America already has a life, and they should get one too. On this one day we saw that despite all the efforts of the Bush Administration, America is still a nation governed by our laws.

First up Lewis "Scooter" Libby is going to jail. That's no longer news but it has been reinforced by yesterday's ruling that not only is Scooter going to ClubFed, he's going sooner rather than later. In sentencing Mr. Libby, the trial judge, Judge Walton made sure that Libby understood that his position in government meant that he had an even greater responsibility to obey our laws. Mr Libby to date has decided that he is going to fall on his sword for Vice-President Cheney. It all reminds me of Aaron Sorkin's movie The American President. Specifically, the scene where Michael J. Fox's character reminds everyone in the room that "It's always the guy in my job that ends up doing eighteen months at Danbury minimum security prison." Something tells me that Libby and Cheney are not big fans of Aaron Sorkin. After all he is the writer that gave us "You can't handle the truth!" Scooter, don't bend over in the shower.

Second court case on June fifth was the military court that refused to go along with the Bush Administration on the matter of detainees at Gitmo. Two judges of a three judge panel ruled in the cases of Salim Hamdan and Omar Ahmed Kadr, that they can not be tried under Bush's Military Commissions Act (MCA). The administrations position was that the law intended to give the MCA jurisdiction over the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Unfortunately for the government the law specifically left out the suspected terrorist held in Cuba. You see nearly everyone in Gitmo is classified as enemy combatant. This is important because the MCA specifically states that it shall not have jurisdiction over lawful combatants. The government seems to believe that the spirit of the law includes that which it specifically bans. Most important in this case is that we made a terrible mistake when we imprisoned thousands of Japanese Americans during the second world war. This military court has said not again. We are a nation of laws and if we don't follow them, then the terrorists have won. An idea that has been out there ever since we passed the Patriot Act. In case anyone has forgotten it is the Military Commissions Act that decided that "habeas corpus" was something that was getting in their way, but then they seem to feel that way about most of our Constitution. There are a great many prisoners in Gitmo that deserve to spend the rest of their lives in jail. But unless we follow our Constitution and try them under Federal Law we are no better than all of the countries who have tried our citizens under their corrupt court systems. Gary Powers comes to mind, he was tried for spying in the U.S.S.R. and we had a hissy-fit because of it. So I was quite happy when a military court told King George and Prince Dick that they must have confused America with Napoleon's France.

Lastly, and this is my personal favorite, a New York Appeals Judge has ruled the the FCC is living in the 1950's not the 21st century. This is a case to decide whether or not the FCC can fine everyone in the broadcast chain for airing profanity. Basically the defense's position is that when broadcasting live the FCC can't fine anyone if someone curses on live TV. A topic for debate maybe, but the government's position was anytime someone says the "S" word they are speaking about bowel movements. Also, anytime someone says the "F" word they are speaking about unlawful carnal knowledge. Now most everyone knows that that is a pretty absurd idea. But what I really loved about this was that to make their point the court cited President Bush telling P.M. Blair that "they need to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit" (I don't delete expletives). Who can forget the famous encounter between V.P. Cheney and Senator Leahy when our beloved Vice President told the Senator to "go fuck yourself." More importantly though was the absurdity of the government's position. Ever since Country Joe stood in front of a half a million hippies yelling "Whats that spell", people on the left have known that if you want to push a conservatives button, use the word fuck in a sentence. Years ago myself and a group of thespians allowed our college to censor us. We were performing Kurt Vonnegut's hilarious play "Happy Birthday Wanda June". In it a character comments on how things have changed since being lost for seven years. Looseleaf Harper says "I used to be scared shitless to say fuck or shit in public. Now every where you go its fuck and shit, fuck and shit, boy!" Now at least one court has recognized that just because you don't like a particular word, government has only a limited right to censor. Punctuating our sentences with profanity does not even begin to rise to the level of shouting fire in a crowded theatre.

Cindy, Say It Ain't So

2007-05-30T09:40:00.000-05:00

Over the Memorial Day holiday, we heard that the leader of the anti-war movement, Cindy Sheehan, has thrown up her hands in disgust. Ms. Sheehan was perfectly willing to put herself out there, only to be the brunt of vicious remarks by the neo-cons on both TV and radio. However, all those straws couldn't break her back. The Dem's were the ones who threw the last straw on her back. They did so by going home for the Memorial Day holiday and facing their electorate without sending another war funding bill with troop withdraw deadlines attached. They should have done so even though President Bush would inevitably veto it. They didn't have the nerve to go home and say I did what you asked. I stood up to our president because he still is not hearing you but I have. Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi need to gather their troops together and tell them if you expect to be re-elected, you need to stick to your guns. If you do so, your party will be there to help protect your seats.

I was truly upset that Ms. Sheehan decided to announce her desire to walk away from a movement that she kicked started with Camp Casey. Her actions did exactly what a non-violent, anti-war movement needed to do to bring attention to the plight of parents all over this nation whose son's and daughter's are coming home with severe injuries or worse, in a body bag. Can you imagine Tom Hayden or Abbey Hoffman walking away from the peace movement that they lead? That Ms. Sheehan is upset or even feels that somehow she was betrayed by our congressional leaders, is very understandable. I couldn't imagine leaving my family at home while I crisscross the nation speaking out against the war. Heck, that's why I am writing a blog rather than camping out in Lafayette Park across the street from the Whitehouse. I wish I could remember who to credit with the quote "Say it ain't so." That was exactly what I thought when I heard that Cindy's frustration was going to cost the anti-war movement an extremely relevant leader. In the end, Hayden and Hoffman were middle class kids who didn't want to go to Viet Nam. However, when Ron Kovic joined the fight against that war, the anti-war movement had someone that people couldn't just ignore. Ron Kovic knew exactly what others were asking their children and brothers to do. Cindy Sheehan has that kind of credibility. So here is what I am going to do. I am going to e-mail Cindy Sheehan directly and urge her to re-consider. All she can do is say no. I understand that she must weigh out the cost to her and her family versus the support of those entrusted to lead this nation out of Iraq. I may come to the same conclusion were I in her place. So please join me in writing letters of support and thanks to Cindy Sheehan at campcaseymom@yahoo.com

You too can write your legislatures

2007-05-23T08:24:00.000-05:00

This is a letter from John to one of his legislators. He tells his story best. Thing is an essay I have had this on my lists of post for months. So I apologize to John for the delay.:
Hello-

First and foremost, thanks to each of you for your efforts to serve and
protect the citizens of Maryland.

I recently heard about the Compassionate Use Act (HB 1040 and SB 757) that
is being considered by both houses of legislature and I feel compelled to
urge each of you to support this important piece of legislation.

I am 28 years old and otherwise healthy except for a debilitating disease
called ulcerative colitis (UC). This disease is characterized by the onset
of ulcers in the intestinal tract. I was diagnosed two years ago after a
severe bout with abdominal pain, chronic loose bowels, anemia, and loss of
appetite.

Thanks to the intervention of a great doctor, I am now somewhat relieved of
symptoms due to a cocktail of 9 pills of 3 different types of medication taken
orally twice a day. However, the side effects of these pills greatly affect
my quality of life in other ways. I have developed insomnia, acid reflux,
and gained 30 pounds. One of the medications is a steroid which damages the
bones, joints, and cartilage over the long run. I will be living with this
disease and these medications for the rest of my life.

I researched alternative medicines that are used and prescribed in the US,
UK, and Canada. One particular alternative that other UC suffers have
turned to is Cannabis. There are natural receptors in the intestines that
bind with the chemicals in Cannabis to relieve pain and symptoms of UC.

However, my gastroenterologist can not prescribe any cannabis-derived
medication because none has been allowed in the US for my condition because
of politics. Myself, like many other UC sufferers turn to the old-fashion
method of ingesting the cannabis-chemicals: smoking cannabis.

This also presents a problem because of the legal status of cannabis.
Myself and others are forced to seek underground sources of this illegal
substance and make monetary transactions that could be taxed to benefit the
state. Fortunately, Maryland has begun to become more compassionate about
citizens such as myself that have chronic disease pain and their need for
this important alternative medicinal substance.

I plead you to intervene on the behalf of myself and my fellow patients who
could take one step further out of the shadows with your support of this
legislation.

Again, I thank you for your attention and action on this important matter.

Regards,

John

Especially since this legislation failed to even get out of committee, we must all continue to write our Senators, both of them, and your Congressman. More importantly write members of your state legislatures. This is wear the most change can take place. In the history of America the written words has always been a strong force for change.

Peace
Casey

Let the Debating Begin

2007-04-26T12:39:00.000-05:00

Tonight MSNBC is hosting the first debate between the Democratic candidates for President. While my friend DeeAnna has done a great job at keeping us informed about various polls (especially those that show Obama's rise), it is important that we turn off "Access Hollywood" and "Survivor" and participate in the process of electing our next president.

While debates have generated many memorable moments, that is not why we should watch them. The key to a successful democracy is the participation of an educated electorate. From the blogosphere to TV to good old fashioned newspapers, there are many ways to learn about the candidates. Debates give everyone to see what they're buying. From Nixon sweating to Bush looking at his watch debates have a way of tripping candidates up. The other thing is the questioners, who will ever forget the question to Dukakis about would he favor the death penalty if his wife Kitty had been the victim rape and or murder. We still can't have a compassionate discussion about the death penalty.

I hear that Senator Clinton has found her Arkansas Draw. Sen. Obama is as skillful an orator as President Clinton. This should be good. Through the Internet I have seen all of the candidates speak. Senator Edwards is an experienced attorney. He knows how to craft an argument and very adapt at revising his planned remarks based on what has already been said. In other words he his quick on his feet. I wonder what I forefathers would think of presidential debates involving so many candidates so far in advance of the elections. (Same post different title)

Partnership for Treatment Not Jail

2007-04-24T09:18:00.000-05:00

This week the Partnership for Treatment Not Jail met for the second time as a group. We got together to discuss our successes and failures from the 2007 legislative session here in Maryland. Well actually we spent more time discussing our successes. Unfortunately it is not as much success as we would have liked. One bill that had some measure of success was HB 992. While it started out as a bill to reduce Mandatory Minimum for non-violent drug offenders, it was pretty much gutted. In the end HB 992 became a Parole Reform Law. While as a group, we support reform of parole laws if it means that more non-violent drug offenders who weren't previously eligible for parole, would now be eligible. We would have preferred our original bill.

Our success to pass a new Medical Marijuana Law was even more limited. While we felt we had successful committee hearings in both houses of the legislature. The bill however was never voted on in committee. The Chair of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Delegates, Joseph Vallario refused to schedule a committee vote on the bill. Then in a classic move the Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee refused to schedule a vote on their version of Maryland's Compassionate Use Act until the House of Delegates had voted on their bill. Sadly, even though we know we had the votes to receive a favorable report in the House Judiciary Committee and though no specific whip count was done for the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee we have felt that there too it would have made it out of that committee. Trust me the Senators and Delegates that support this legislation are not going anywhere and neither am I.

Early in the session there was a move to increase "school zones" fortunately it went nowhere. This was in thanks to the "Call to Action" and the letters, e-mails, and phone calls it generated. In Annapolis they actually wanted the whole city to be a "Drug Free Zone". This is fortunate because "School Zones" simply don't work. In fact, it is still true that if you want to buy drugs do like Kevin Spacey's character Lester Burnham, in "American Beauty" - ask the high school kid next door.

The last remark is possibly over the top. The point being we have passed a slew of additional laws to "help" enforce all the other drug laws. So quoting my new favorite bumper sticker "Drugs Are Bad, The Drug War Is Worse".

We need to wake up America and show them that while it feels good to support our antiquated drug laws, it is a tremendous waste of our tax dollars. Dollars that are now counted in the trillions as they circle the bowl. From law enforcement officers to judges, from everyday citizens to clergy are asking the same question "If alcohol prohibition was an unequivocal failure, why then do we think the drug prohibition will suddenly go from a failed policy to a successful one."

Bad Things Happen to Good People

2007-04-18T11:10:00.000-05:00

Over the last 48 hours I have listened to expert and layman alike criticize the officials at Virginia Tech. It seems that these people think that law enforcement and college administrators should have consulted their crystal ball, thereby stopping this tragedy at the dorm where it all began. This is just wrong. I followed this story while it unfolded. When the second more deadly attack began the police thought they had the suspect in custody.

So if the suspect is in custody why do people think there should have been a warning given about a school shooter on the loose. There wasn't because the police thought they had already caught the criminal. Right now eight schools in my county are in lock down. There is no information available about why this is happening. So why not lock down all of my county - because they are already acting with an abundance of caution. There was a shooting somewhere in the neighborhood of those eight schools. So they locked down the schools in the area. This is reasonable because they don't have any suspects in custody. Just the opposite of the Virginia Tech situation.

Why is it that one part of our culture is all for screaming the sky is falling every time something like this happens. I've heard people speaking out on both sides of gun control. The worst idea is concealed carry permits. Some think the solution to Monday's tragedy is to have students pulling out their guns and have a running gun battle all over the campus. Yea that's a good idea - instead of one crazed gunman lets have a full fledged firefight involving people whose only firearm training is hunting unarmed woodland creatures.

I have shed my share of tears over this just as I have in the past. I will say it again and again the answer to guns in our society is to strengthen our gun laws. For starters every firearm must be registered. Some say this is the first step to unarming the citizenry. If things like this keep happening maybe that's not a bad idea. It works in other countries.

Gun makers should also be held accountable. We have a very good idea as to how many legal owned guns are out there. Then why is it that gun sales are so much greater than the number of legal guns. People who want to own guns need to step up and put forth real workable gun regulation. This argument that gun ownership is protected by the second amendment is archaic. Our forefathers couldn't even foresee the repeating revolver or rifle much less the 15 shot clip in a 9mm handgun. But they did foresee one thing - the right of gun ownership should be well regulated. Does anybody believe that guns are well regulated. I don't. I believe that all firearms should be registered and the owner is partly if not wholly responsible for any crimes committed with that gun. The days of guns being lost and end up killing an innocent person should be over - today. The need for closing down unregulated gun shows is - today. The need for full background checks with significant waiting periods is - today.

Now for the really bad news - even if all of this were law of the land it is highly possible that Cho Seung-Hui would still have been able to get a gun. We look for solutions but in the end if someone wants to kill thirty people they will find a way. Gun control will only help stop shooting crimes. The truth is if he was determined to go down in history as the most prolific spree killer he would have done so with a knife, a machete, or even a pile of fertilizer doused with kerosene would have got the job done. Just because Bad Things Happen to Good People doesn't mean we should enable them by making it so easy to get a gun.

Sine Die or wait'll next year

2007-04-09T08:34:00.000-05:00

I grew up a big baseball fan. One of my favorite old baseball stories is about the fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Year after year the Dodgers lost the World Series to those damn Yankees. But with faith and hope Dodgers fans always said the same thing "Wait'll next year". So as I awake this morning of Sine Die, the Latin term that represents the end of another legislative session, I too say 'wait'll next year".

This year I took an active part in getting two bills or one law passed through Maryland's General Assembly. The bills collectively called Maryland's Compassionate Use Act are often referred to as the Medical Marijuana Law. Both are bogged down in committee, a fate many laws endure, before getting to become law.

I am an adrenaline junky of sorts. I really got charged up as I prepared to testify before committees of both houses of the General Assembly. I have been interviewed a few times, so that was exciting and I still have at least one more interview to do later this week. After the Senate hearing I felt very good about these bills at least getting a vote in committee. Alas, that was not to be. Instead there was an "after you - no after you" strategy in place. The Senate committee wouldn't schedule a vote till after the House committee had voted or issued a report as they say. So this allowed the Chairman Vallario to kill the bill just by not putting it on the vote schedule.

Now I'm not a legislative virgin. I have learned many lessons this year the least of which is - DON'T wait'll next year. Keep the pressure on all year round. So I now have a new list of correspondents to keep in touch with - I call them the Maryland General Assembly. Join me in a writing campaign over the next nine months. It doesn't matter if they are your Senator or Delegate or not. What matters to politicians is one of two things - first do you have any money to contribute. Well that's not me - second do you vote. That's me and probably you too. That is where our power lies. So use it. Write your representatives whether your state is looking down the path towards medicinal marijuana or not. This is how the ball gets rolling and like a snowball that keeps growing as it rolls downhill, bills become laws when voting against a bill is more detrimental to their career than voting in favor of a bill.

When I joined this fight there was eleven states that had Medical Marijuana legislation in place. Now there are twelve thanks to the good people of New Mexico. Next year it could be your state or mine. Whether by e-mail or snail mail - write your Senator both state and Federal, write your Representatives local or national and let them know how you feel. Don't follow my example. Don' wait until you need the protection to call on your legislators to protect your rights. You and I and everyone one around you have the right to medicine that is both safe and effective. For many chronic pain sufferers that is marijuana. As I listened to my opposition's point of view, it seemed to be summed up this way. If it is not FDA approved than it is not safe for you to use. We all know that the FDA is not perfect when it comes to approving drugs as safe. We also know that cannabis is quite benign in that it is not addictive nor does it represent an overdose danger. Nearly every prescription medicine I take warns about drowsiness and using machinery. I can live with this warning for medical cannabis too. I don't want to drive or operate machinery; I just want to go up and down the stairs without my constant companion - pain. If this sounds like you, than you are already at the computer - start writing. Oh by the way - Go Orioles

Is this what we want for our vets?

2007-03-29T11:18:00.000-05:00

I would like to share with you the reality of living in a state, Washington, that supposedly has a medical marijuana law. The law is only as good as the doctors that will prescribe cannabis for pain and I believe that the risks for physicians are very high so they won’t even consider cannabis for pain.

I am a disabled Viet Nam veteran who knows the benefit of pain management using cannabis but like my pain doctor says the legal ramifications are very high so we won’t go there. I have been under the care of a pain doctor for many years for Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and we have discussed the use of cannabis for pain management but my pain doctor is aware of the problems that he will face if he attempted to prescribe cannabis as an alternative to the oxycontin & oxycodone that I take on a daily basis. He is not about to risk his career & his ability to practice medicine so my pain might be more manageable. Can’t say as I blame him.

I admire what DPA is trying to accomplish but from my own real life experiences changing the law to allow for medical cannabis is a pipe dream. I don’t know of a single physician who would risk their career to help the suffering of a single patient while there are prescription alternatives. I wish the reality was different but when you live in a country where the weaker members of society are viewed as a burden just passing laws won’t suffice.

I hate it when someone tells me that this is the greatest country in the world because the greatest country in the world would never allow an insurance company to dictate to a physician what medication his patient should receive.

Allen Brooks
USMC Retired

Casey's Comment: I appreciate where Allen is coming from about the risks that doctor's fear when it comes to medical cannabis. I am told that doctor's need not worry about discussing the medical use of cannabis. Doctor's are free to discuss the medical properties of marijuana with their patients. The Supreme Court has upheld that any conversation about medical marijuana is protected under patient/doctor confidentiality, as well as free speech. Prescribing marijuana is not an option at this point. It is however, why this site exists - to make cannabis prescriptible without interference from the state and federal government.

Clyde's Tale not Clydesdale

2007-03-29T10:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the play on words Clyde. But since drunk drivers are at the heart of your story I couldn't resist.

Hello Casey and all the people that come to read about marijuana used as a pain medicine. My personal experiences with this drug are numerous. It helps me with my humongous pain that I am always in because of a motorcycle accident which involved me and a car full of drunken college kids.

Before this accident, I led an active life, working at a well known plant which makes engine bearings, had a girlfriend or two as well as enjoyed every moment of life until this time. The college driver, of the car, came to the helicoptor before it lifted off the school ground where it was directed to land for lack of a better place in this rural part of Southwestern Va, he told me "man I am sorry, if there is anything I can do , let me know". As you can imagine I was not in the best of moods at that moment, so I let him have a load of expletives that would make a sailor blush then off we went to the Roanokle Memorial hospital where I was sewn back together.

My mother stayed with me night and day for my whole visit , which turned out to be 6 months in the hosipital and rehab combined. What a lovely woman she is. Now on to the main stay of all this rambling.

Before the accident, sure I had used marijuana for recreational purposes but not to any great degree, just when someone took out a joint or bowl and offered I'd have a few tokes and listen to music or something to relax, but I found out that marijuana also is a wonderful help for pain. You see I have had both lower legs totally crushed, both bones, my upper right femur as well as my pelvis seperated 2-2 1/2 inches. I just thought I knew what pain was from my job and getting my hands mangled, but was and is a very different pain. It is a constant sort of pain, not really a "make you fall to your knees" type thing, but a constant nagging pain that if I were to get into certain positions I'd fall flat of my face. All my nerves from my waist down are basically ruined. I can feel, OH GOD can I feel, but not like I used to.

Doctors around this area are not into giving marijuana as a medicine, if they have even heard of it being used as such. Personally I find it very soothing as it takes away the pain or at least makes it bearable so I can go about a "normal" existence, if you could call it that. My wife is 10000% anti-drug so I can't even tell her about my usage and how it helps me with the pain. Sure hope that in the future that a medical marijuana law is passed that would let patients alone to handle pain the best way they can.
Maybe even get it legalized for certain illnesses even if it is not totally legalized.

Just look what happened to me , after some kids went out and had a bit too much of a legal substance. Tax it like alcohol, make the rules for driving under the influence of it as bad or worse than alchohol. Kill prohibition of it for all times. The prohibition of alcohol didn't last, but the so called war on drugs remains strong. I hope this is what you were loooking for nad use it if you want. All statements are true and unbiased.

Thank you kindly,
Clyde Null, Jr.

An Anonymous Tale

2007-03-29T09:51:00.000-05:00

Another tale of pain and relief, sadly one that has to be anonymously told. This is why changing our laws about medical marijuana is so difficult. The people who need to be heard most are afraid to come forward. Here's a brief story about a condition I had to have defined by the author.

In the mid 1990's, after I fractured my foot, I was diagnosed at Johns Hopkins Hospital here in Baltimore with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD). I thought I was misdiagnosed and since I didn't seem to have the severe pain that goes with this condition I put it in the back of my mind and went about my business which included using marijuana recreationally. In 2006, after moving in with my daughter and grand-daughter, I stopped using marijuana as it became very inconvenient. Not long after that ( a month or two) I started to get severe pain, initially in my long ago injured foot. Out of idle curiosity I went to the RSD website. I was dumbfounded when I read at the web-site that marijuana was being tested experimentally as a treatment for RSD pain. I started to use marijuana again and my pain lessened. Additionally, a doctor friend of mine gave me a prescription for marinol, which I used for several months without any pain relief. Of course you can't call my experience a scientific study, but I'm convinced smoking marijuana was a benefit.

For more information about Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy you can visit http://rsd.org

Marylanders We Need Your Help

2007-03-16T13:17:00.001-05:00

Please contact Chairman Joseph Vallario of the House of Delegates' Judiciary Committee and urge him to schedule a vote on House Bill 1040 (HB 1040). His phone numbers are 410-841-3488 or 301-858-3488.

Nearly two weeks ago I appeared before the Maryland House of Delegates' Judiciary Committee. Unfortunately, as of yet, Chairman Vallario has not scheduled a vote on House Bill 1040. This is an important piece of legislation for many Marylanders. HB 1040 along with the coinciding Senate bill SB 757 seeks to provide protection to Marylanders who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. For myself I choose to sometimes augment or replace harsh opiates to relieve pain caused by Post Polio Syndrome with marijuana. For those who want more information I am posting below my written testimony submitted to the committee. The vote on this bill is going to be close, but it deserves a vote nonetheless.

Testimony In Favor Of House Bill 1040

2007-03-16T13:03:00.000-05:00

Good afternoon Delegates and invited guests. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today.

My Name is Barry (last name deleted). I have post polio syndrome. I’m here to ask you to support Maryland’s Compassionate Use Act House Bill 1040.

Many of you here today know of the polio epidemics of the 1940’s & ‘50s. I was born on Aug. 16, 1953. On or about April 1 1955 the vaccine developed by Jonas Salk was approved for distribution.
On May 16, 1955 I developed a high fever, by early that evening I had lost my ability to walk. My story is not unique. There were braces and physical therapy, but on the other side there was recovery. By 1957 I had become a polio survivor. Notice I said survivor and not victim. Polio victims died, the rest of us endured but in the end we survived.

The people who survived polio have many different stories because we all had varying degrees of recovery. In my case I had a long period without braces. However, when I was about nine years old. I had to go back in to a leg brace. After a year in a brace and the ever-present physical therapy I believed again that I was done with the effects of poliomyelitis.

I wasn’t. By the time I was sixteen the pain started. During my junior year of high school I was told that I had osteoarthritis in both of my knees. By the time I was in college I had been told that I had to give up all sports. You see my recovery was excellent. Unfortunately that was a double edge sword. My years of little league baseball and CYO soccer had taken a toll that I was totally unprepared for.

Over the next twenty-five plus years the minor arthritis pain had become severe joint pain that had me going to doctors seeking answers for why I hurt so badly. The when I was forty-five the answer came. You see what we didn’t know back in the fifties was just how much damage the virus had done to our nervous systems.
In 1998 I learned the truth about my pain, which by then was affecting my knees and my spine. After a vacation I found that just walking from the War Memorial Plaza up to the Mitchell Courthouse on Lexington Street was extremely difficult. I was experiencing what some describe as a “crash”. In a matter of weeks my pain increased and my legs grew ever more weak.

It was then that I was finally referred to a physiatrist. Most here know physiatrists as spine and sports medicine doctors. Even though an orthopedic surgeon had suspected it three years prior, it wasn’t until August of 1998 that I learned that I indeed had Post Polio Syndrome, also known as PPS. It took from 1970 when I was first diagnosed with arthritis till 1998 to find out the cause of my pain.
It took about a month for me to reach the conclusion that my doctors were right. I had to stop working. But finally I had a diagnosis and was being treated. I began a journey of coping with PPS. Back are my braces but along with them something else. My wheelchair is new. I have to use it if I am physically pushing myself. Tomorrow I will pay the price for having come here today. The price of trying to go to the mall, or a ballgame, or anywhere that requires more than a little bit of walking, is pain and fatigue. Fatigue is combated with rest pain requires something more. Which is what has brought me here today.

Currently I take a cocktail of four drugs. They are Neurontin, Vicodin, Flexeril and Arthrotec. Each deals with specific cause of pain. Sadly, they don’t always do the job. This is where the bill we are discussing today comes in.

When I had first met my wife I was a chef. Most nights my wife would meet me at work. She would routinely comment on how I didn’t know which leg to limp on. Back then I only had over the counter medicines to treat my pain. Excedrin’s combination of acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine was what I took most often. The thing was that instead of taking two at a time I needed six. But even after taking all of that I still could not walk without extreme pain.

Now it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a baby boomer like myself was familiar with marijuana. Like many of my generation I had begun using marijuana recreationally. Unlike others, that was not the only reason I continued using marijuana. It was around this time that my wife began to notice something. She began to notice that on nights that I used marijuana, shortly thereafter I was obviously in less pain than before. That was back in 1982.

Fast forward 16 years and the problem that was so painful in 1982 had now become debilitating. But one thing hadn’t changed – marijuana still had a strong pain relief component. By itself it is not enough but then neither is my cocktail of four prescription medicines either.

Thus is my dilemma. Do I continue to suffer in silence or do I take the bull by the horns and come before you to admit that I sometimes break the law. I am fifty-three years old. For over thirty-seven years I have dealt daily with pain. Despite all that medicine can offer including such things as cortisone injections and radio frequency treatments, it is still marijuana, that provides that last little bit of relief. Many that are engaged in this debate will point out the temptation to abuse cannabis. The way I view this is that every medicine I take has the potential for abuse. Notably, sportscaster Keith Mills problems with painkillers first came to light when he was charged with attempting to obtain Vicodin by calling in a prescription to a Glen Burnie pharmacy. This was prior to his more publicized arrest for burglarizing his neighbor to obtain OxyContin.

I am not aware of Mr. Mills’ medical history or what led him to obtain more medicine than prescribed. I do know this; I have had the same prescription for Hydrocodone since before July of 1994. I know because I just confirmed this with CVS yesterday. Prior to that my records are with Medicine Shoppe.

The point I am making is that not everyone who goes into a pain management situation will abuse his or her medicines. Personally I have chosen to forego OxyContin even though it was offered. The reason being is, if I take that everyday what will I take when I fall. Falling it is not an if, but a when. So in the meantime what do I do.

I take a calculated risk. I risk being arrested for possession of a small quantity of marijuana against the hours of relief that it will provide me.

In 2003 this legislature came to the decision that there be compassion when evaluating a patients use of marijuana. Today I come before you to ask that you go that last small step and remove state sanctions for the medicinal use of cannabis.

To date eleven states have compassionate use statutes. That is over twenty percent of the states having reached the conclusion that marijuana does have some medicinal benefits. Besides Maryland, New Mexico is also debating this issue. New Mexico’s bill passed in their Senate by a vote of 34-7. That bill now goes to their House.
I ask the members of the House Judiciary Committee to issue a favorable report for House Bill 1040, thus allowing Maryland to take the next step towards joining California and ten other states that have compassionate use legislation.

Maryland Senate Testimony

2007-03-15T12:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the second hearing on Maryland's Compassionate Use Act bills. I want to thank the Senate sponsor Senator Lisa Gladden. I want to say this publicly that when I approached the podium there was such a look of support on Senator Gladden's face I couldn't help but feel more confident. The Senators on the Judicial Proceedings Committee were extremely respectful as they asked very insightful questions. At no point did I feel that any particular senator had already made up his or her mind. I am a novice at being a political activist so I am not an expert at reading between the lines when being questioned by delegates and senators.

Other things of note from yesterday's hearings. The Judicial Proceedings Committee was also holding hearings on Maryland's version of "Jessica's Law". Notably Marc Klaas was there to testify in favor of this important legislation. I mention Mr. Klaas' appearance because as I left the podium he reached his hand out and offered me words of support. This meant a lot too me because Marc Klaas is known as a person who, after suffering immeasurable loss, has traveled the nation speaking out for justice and compassion. Several of his supporters also went out of their way to offer me encouragement. If you live in Maryland contact your representative and let them know that you want them to support both Maryland's Compassionate Use Act (HB 1040 and SB 757) and the "Jessica's Law" legislation (sorry I don't know these bill numbers).

In my opinion, the oppositions main point was that if its not FDA approved, then a person doesn't have any rights to medicine that has a proven track record of providing relief. When I hear this I have to remind those who hold this position that it was a FDA approved Cox2-Inhibitor drug that was the cause of my stroke. Furthermore, there have been several well know instances where FDA had to pull drugs they had previously approved from the shelves due to adverse side effects.

Lastly an opponent of the Medical Marijuana legislation who will remain nameless, apparently told a capital police officer (that's not their official name but you get my point) that I was outside smoking marijuana. She apparently thought that I was like Irv Rosenfeld and had a permit to smoke cannabis. So you can imagine my surprise when the officer approached me asking to see my permit. Naturally I was confused by his question, I mean why should I need a permit to smoke my menthol light cigarette in the designated smoking area. It appears that after making a minor disturbance during the hearing itself this person went on to make a scene at the security post. This was after coming out and accusing Don Murphy another supporter of compassionate use legislation of being paid by George Soros. When I asked them if they had any compassion for my situation the answer was an emphatic no.

From Rev. Matthew W. Pittaway

2007-03-15T12:12:00.000-05:00

I want everyone to know that I slept on this one not one but two nights before deciding to post this story. As you read Rev. Pittaway's story there will be an image evoked that could be disturbing. So I want to point out two things. First a child with breathing problems routinely receives nebulized albuterol, a very potent medicine. Second, my own daughter was born with over twenty different heart defects. Thanks to the skills of a cutting edge surgeon she is finishing up her second year of college, having made the Dean's List last semester. Two of her aunts were born with the same condition, and did not survive. We would have done anything we could to save her life. So as you read the following story remember the issue we are advocating is primarily about compassion.

Hi Casey,
I hope you and yours are well today.
In 1995 our youngest son Justin was born
with a severe heart deformity. He received a
heart transplant when he was only 4 weeks
old.
He did OK for a while but when he was 6
he had kidney failure. I found out from
doctors it was due to harsh pharmaceutical
medicines he was prescribed, and I was told
there was no known alternative.
Justin's problems were: poor appetite,
weight loss (wasting syndrome) asthma and
pain. He usually had to suffer with much of
his pain because the only thing doctor's
prescribe are opiates that could only be
given for short periods of time, then he had
to be weaned off.
When Justin was 8 the doctors told me he
was only going to live for maybe a year or 2
more and there was nothing medicine could
do. I prayed for answers and began doing
research at hospitals, medical schools and
online.
Soon I found a plethora of options
never mentioned by doctors, 1 being medical
marijuana, which I was told about by one of
our local police officers!
I was shocked and appalled when I found
out how much just giving Justin good
quality vitamins and minerals would have
done, had any doctors told me about that. I
spoke vehemently to doctors about this and
finally one did prescribe Justin some
Flintstone children's vitamins; way too little
too late.
By the time Justin passed away at the age
of 10 I had thoroughly researched medical
cannabis and found it could have saved our
son's life if only....If only it was legal, if only
the research was available to doctors; if only.

I was a right wing conservative minister for
25 years and would never have supported
any laws to make pot legal, but when my son
died because he couldn't get it I saw my
error, repented and changed my doctrine. It
is not that hard to change your mind; I only
wish I had known about medical cannabis
when Justin was 2 or 3, he would be alive
today, or minimally he would have had a
much more happy healthy 10 years.

Now I am a political activist and all I say is
this: Let doctor's decide, not pharmaceutical
corporations paying millions to lobby politicians. We
the People regulated ALL drugs (heroin, coca
and cannabis included) for decades with no
problems before prohibition; we need to take
ALL drugs out of the hands of criminals and
put them back into the hands of pharmacists
and doctors; not just the drugs big
corporations produce in labs, but the ones
we the people can grow and use freely
ourselves. This was the wish of Thomas
Jefferson, George Washington, and anyone
who seeks the truth.

Sincerely,
Rev. Matthew W. Pittaway
www.MySpace.com/MatthewPittaway

Testifying Before Md's House of Delegates

2007-03-08T13:18:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was a big day for me. I appeared before Maryland's House of Delegates Judicial Committee. There is video of me before the hearing but the quality is, in my opinion, poor so I won't include the link. I was quite pleased at the delegates' response. I spoke to a few afterwards and I am confident that HB 1040 will receive a favorable report. That is Maryland legislative speak for passing in committee and being sent to the full House of Delegates for a Vote.

Elizabeth Coe a former reporter for Capital-Gazette Communications, Inc. did have a story printed about my support of medical marijuana published on what sadly was her last day there. I will continue to keep in touch with Elizabeth as she plans to continue her journalism career, only in Northern Virginia. You can read her story here: http://www.hometownglenburnie.com/vault/cgi-bin/gazette/view/2007G/03/03-11.HTM.

Next week on Wednesday I will again testify in favor of the Maryland Compassionate Use Act. This time it is titled SB 757 and the hearings begin at 1:00pm. Well it is time to do "house stuff", I'll post again soon. Remember you can send me your stories to caseyscannabisdream@verizon.net.

Steph's Story

2007-03-07T15:56:00.000-05:00

I think what is most important about Steph's story is that it shows you don't have to be middle age too find yourself wanting for a better way to treat pain. It is rare that a person should go through life without ever getting injured or ill. So in her own words here is Steph's story:

Medical marijuana is one of those issues that I hope you never have to worry about. Until I needed it, I know I didn't. No one deserves to become sick or injured. But, unfortunately, some people do. If you can put some time into changing medical cannabis laws now, than maybe it will not be an issue when you or a loved one needs it.
In 2000, I sustained a severe neck injury that left me with lack of mobility in my neck, neurological spasms, and severe chronic pain. I had to take 3200 mg of Ibuprofen a day, painkillers and muscle relaxants to deal with the injury, but after about a year I started having problems with my stomach and kidneys as a result of the medications’ side effects. Six months later, my doctor put me on diuretics and warned me that I might have to start dialysis. I was 24 and terrified.

One day in my doctor's examining room, my doctor shut the door behind him and asked, "Do you smoke marijuana?" I told him, "No" He then he asked, "Do you know anyone that does?" He told me that he did not know very much about medical marijuana, but he had had a few patients with similar conditions who were able to cut their medication intake in half by using marijuana. He said he did not want to put me on dialysis, and if I could find some, I should try it.

This was the first time that I had ever really thought about marijuana as medicine. I think I had about the same amount of information that most Americans have about the subject. I was in favor of it in principle but did not know much about the state law. I thought medical marijuana was only for people with AIDS or cancer. My support came more from the opinion that people who are dying should not go to jail for using marijuana, than from actual knowledge about marijuana as medicine. But now I was facing my own medical crisis, and the choice between dialysis and marijuana seemed an easy one to make, regardless of the law.

Then came the hard part: access. I called everyone I knew and went through an embarrassing line of questioning: " Do you smoke pot? Do you know anyone that does?" Just like any peer group in the US, I was able to find a few casual users who were able to help me obtain some marijuana to try. I immediately discovered that my doctor was right. It worked. It worked well. Not only was I able to cut my pain medication in half (eventually cut down to 1/5) and save my stomach and kidneys, but medical marijuana also did something I could not have imagined. It gave me my life back. Instead of having foggy days clouded with opiate narcotics and muscle relaxants, I was able to think and act as I had before my injury forced me to take all those other medications. I soon found that it helped with more than just the pain I suffered. When I could take marijuana regularly, I had less problem with the muscle spasms in my neck and back that were slowly pulling my skull and jaw apart, and the side effects were so much less severe than the other drugs I was prescribed.

At first it was not hard to get, but the amount I needed was exhausting everyone's supply. So I had to be passed on to the dealer's source. This was absolutely frustrating. I had an experience once were I waited in a Walgreen's parking lot for over 2 hours. When the person finally showed up, I somehow spooked him into thinking I was a cop or some kind of narc. Crying, I begged and pleaded with him not to leave without giving me the marijuana. I was in pain, frustrated and I did not know where to turn.

Luckily, soon after that I got a call from a good friend in the San Francisco Bay Area who told me about the medical marijuana dispensaries there. I traveled up for a visit, and in the first moments in the dispensary I knew I would have to move. At my first visit, I found out more about marijuana as medicine than the first 5 months of experimenting. I was surprised to find how many different delivery systems for marijuana were available: cookies, tinctures, vaporizers, salves, etc. As soon as possible, I moved to be closer to the dispensaries.

A few months after arriving in the Bay Area, my real education about medical marijuana began. I was there when the feds came to arrest the celebrity cultivation expert Ed Rosenthal and shut the medical marijuana dispensary he was supplying. I couldn't believe the head of the DEA came to San Francisco to announce the raids, and that he was proud of keeping medicine from desperately sick and injured people like me.

I started looking at federal law and policies and was horrified to find that while there had been a program for seriously sick Americans to gain access to government-grown marijuana, they had stopped accepting patients into the program because they were worried it sent the wrong message.

I read the Shaffer Report, one of many comprehensive government studies of marijuana that recommended all criminal penalties be removed, and found that my elected officials were ignoring the recommendations of experts.

I discovered that citizens had petitioned the DEA to make marijuana available as medicine, but the government stalled for years before holding hearings. When they did, the chief administrative law judge in charge ruled that marijuana was one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man and ordered the DEA to make it available by prescription. But the DEA found a way to evade his order.

I learned that California was not the only state to pass a law permitting the medical use of marijuana, and the vast majority of my fellow citizens thought people like me should be able to legally access the medicine their doctor's recommended.

I was, and am, outraged to find that so many patients were suffering nationwide, and that the Bush Administration is doing everything in their power to make it worse. I decided I had to do something about it, not just for me, but also for the millions of other Americans for whom marijuana is a critical medicine. So together with a few other committed patients, I started Americans for Safe Access to try and ensure safe, legal access to cannabis for all who are helped by it.

Steph Sherer
Executive Director and Founder
Americans for Safe Access
www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org

A Story From D.Tree

2007-02-26T13:08:00.000-05:00

Hey Barry,
Wanted to share my personal medical marijuana story with you: When I was in college my best friend Neil was diagnosed with serious Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Neil was a very active and healthy young person and you would have never expected him to come down with cancer, but that is the story with so many people... it strikes unexpectedly.

Needless to say, the first thing they did was a round of tests - some of which were destructive to his inner organs. Over the next year, Neil was subjected to round after round of Chemotherapy and Radiation Treatments.

It's hard to say which of the treatments was worse. I stuck with my friend through it all, and watched him lose his hair and become emaciated from lack of appetite and inability to eat. Finally, we sought out the Cannabis Buyers Club (CBC) in San Francisco - the first medical marijuana club I had ever heard of.

My friend was unable to to go there himself because the radiation and chemo left him bed-ridden. The few times he tried to leave his home he literally passed out from dizziness and nausea. Bystanders would call ambulances for him and take him back to the hospital where the doctors would give him pills that were supposed to "help." Turns out the pills made him sicker, and that was when he could even get them down. The treatments had left him almost incapable of eating or even swallowing anything.

We finally found a doctor who agreed to write him a note for the CBC, giving me permission to be his "caregiver/courier." I would make regular stops to the CBC and bring medicine to my Neil and the results were amazing. I could literally see the difference happening right in front of me: he was no longer nauseous all the time, and was able to get out of his house. The value of this feature alone cannot be underestimated for people with life-threatening illnesses.

Similarly, where he was unable to even swallow a mouthful of water, all of a sudden he had an appetite and was able to start regaining the weight he was losing during the treatments.

Finally, he was able to sleep peacefully and that was a great benefit to him. His mood was also uplifted, and I finally started to see him laugh away his depression at losing his hair and athleticism.

Through it all, I continued to be his courier and care-provider, and I must tell you I think the medicine provided by the Cannabis Buyers Club was the single most important ingredient to his recovery. If it was not for that, I'm not sure he would have made it through it all.

Thank you for the work you are doing to make this medicine available to those who need it, and to get rid of the social stigma attached to its use. It's bad enough that people with life-threatening illnesses are stigmatized, but to deny them the medicine that makes them well is an even further slap in the face to those who are ill.
Best,
D. Tree

Come Out, Come Out, Where Ever You Are

2007-02-23T12:38:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday I began a journey that is fraught with pitfalls. My local paper published a letter to the editor that I signed. So any cover of anonymity that the Internet might have provided is gone. The topic of the letter was Maryland's Compassionate Use Act (House Bill 1040 and Senate Bill 757). This morning that anonymity really took a hit, as well as my ability to benefit from that which I advocate. Today that local paper sent a reporter to interview me. I welcomed the attention that this might bring to the cause of allowing patients to choose how they want to treat chronic pain and or chronic nausea.

This argument has gone on for sometime. It is time for the opposition to look at this issue with compassion. To often those who oppose the medicinal use of cannabis do so only from the point of view that marijuana is currently a "controlled dangerous substance". The thing is, so is every other drug that is prescribed to me. If I were in possession of Vicodin, without a prescription it would be illegal. Same goes for the Flexeril I take. Either drug if the use thereof is not monitored could have serious repercussions. It is for that reason that I under go a simple blood test to check my liver functions every six months. This has been going on for years and so far, so good.

So the time has come to help patients step in to the bright lights of public discourse. The science is with you and so are many of your local politicians. More and more every year politicians choose to help those people who cope with pain and or nausea that disrupts their daily lives.

Maryland has a Compassionate Use Act already. The problem is that the General Assembly didn't take that last little step that removes legal sanctions for those who choose cannabis to ease their symptoms. This year I will step forward to say, "Please, help ease my pain." I hope you will join me.

Turning My Attention

2007-02-23T12:26:00.000-05:00

Time to turn my attention to something other than national politics. I will return my attention to who should lead this country later this year. So for now I will be concentrating on just this blog. While the blog "Casey's Dream" has been up since about Dec. 8, 2006, my readership is very low. Despite being the second or third name on the list if you use Google to find it. Now I will be working to bring attention to the cause of medical cannabis. I am working to make it legal and prescriptible without interference from the state or federal government. Please stop by and make your voice heard especially if you're a patient in need of the benefit of a Compassionate Use Law.

Peace

What Planet Is Cheney Living On?

2007-02-16T11:10:00.000-05:00

Two nights ago, like most of us on the East Coast, my little town was being buffeted by an ice storm. While waiting to see if the community college that both of my children attend would announce their closing before morning I got to reading blogs posted by my local NBC affiliate. There at the bottom of the page containing blogs from the news anchors, the weather guy, the sports guy, was a blog by of people Helen Thomas. People who follow presidential press conferences should be familiar with Helen Thomas. Ms. Thomas is commonly called "The First Lady of the Press". Her career covering the goings on at 1400 Pennsylvania Ave. goes back to President Kennedy. What I read two nights ago made my jaw drop. So I contacted Ms. Thomas and asked if I could reprint the article. The next day I was surprised to see an e-mail from Ms. Thomas giving me permission to reprint so long as proper attribution to her and Hearst Corp. was sited. So here is Helen Thomas' What Planet Is Cheney Living On?

What Planet Is Cheney Living On?
Vice President Doesn't Understand Reality
Helen Thomas, Hearst White House columnist
POSTED: 4:24 pm EST February 7, 2007

Sometimes you wonder what planet Vice President Dick Cheney is living on.
Last month, speaking of the war in Iraq, Cheney told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in a prickly interview:
"(The) bottom line is that we've had enormous successes, and we will continue to have enormous successes. It is hard. It is difficult."
Anyone keeping up with the daily news from Baghdad knows that few people in the last few months -- especially those in the military -- are bragging about big successes to quell the violence in Iraq.
Even within the White House, Cheney seems like a man lost in his own little world.
While Cheney is making upbeat assessments of the war, President George W. Bush is giving more downbeat assessments, acknowledging that the military occupation is not going as well as he had hoped.
That is why he is asking for more troops to make a last stab at stabilizing Iraq, torn by its civil war.
The vice president has been putting his head in the sand for a long time. When he first came to power as the No. 2 leader of the U.S., he was depicted as Bush's prime minister.
After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, it appeared that Cheney was running the show until White House image managers intervened to lessen the perception that Bush was somehow not calling the shots. Cheney then lowered his profile.
His experience has obviously not improved his vision. After the first Persian Gulf War ended in March 1991, Cheney -- then serving as defense secretary in the first Bush administration -- was asked on ABC-TV why Operation Desert Storm had not gone all the way to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
He replied prophetically: "I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire. Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shia government, a Kurdish government?
"Would it be secular, along the lines of the Baath party? Would it be fundamentalist Islamic?" he asked. "I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. It makes no sense at all."
So what happened to all those wise observations on the way to the U.S. invasion in 2003?
Well, a lot of things apparently occurred in Cheney's life that must have made him lose the perspective formed in his earlier days, when he started his government career as an obscure, mild chief of staff for President Gerald Ford.
Before that, he managed to avoid the Vietnam War, which he supported. Given five draft deferments, he explained to the Washington Post in a 1989 interview that "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."
During his six terms as a Wyoming congressman, starting in 1979, he touted his conservative credentials so much that he voted several times against Head Start, the federal program for poverty-stricken preschool children.
He went to the Pentagon as secretary of defense in 1989. Some officials who worked closely with him in his previous incarnations say he has changed. Former national security affairs adviser Brent Scowcroft has said he doesn't know him now.
It's probably because Cheney was one of the original neo-conservative signers of the Project for A New American Century -- a blueprint published in 1997 for the United State to dominate the Middle East politically and militarily in the aftermath of the Cold War.
Cheney has been a lightning rod for many of the ills in this administration. Early on, he built the stonewall of secrecy by refusing to identify members of his energy task force. He also is Bush's strongest backer in sidestepping the law and empowering his role as commander-in-chief.
Cheney's name has cropped up often in the perjury trial of his former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in connection with the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Despite his access to top government secrets, how many times can you be wrong?
Remember last year when Cheney said the Iraq insurgents were in their last throes of resistance? And remember earlier when Cheney knew where Saddam Hussein had stored all those non-existent nuclear weapons?
No wonder no one is listening to him any more. Time has passed him by.
(Helen Thomas can be reached at the e-mail address hthomas@hearstdc.com).

Kind of scary wouldn't you agree?

House Bill 1040

2007-02-14T00:33:00.000-05:00

House Bill 1040 is unfortunately not a bill before the United States House of Representatives. It is a bill before another House, the Maryland House of Delegates. This session of Maryland’s General Assembly will hopefully debate House Bill 1040. HB 1040 the Maryland Compassionate Use Act seeks to change the existing "medical Marijuana" law. Former Gov. Ehrlich signed a law allowing for compassionate sentencing when the use of marijuana is deemed to be for medical purposes. The current Maryland law allows for an affirmative defense when a cancer patient makes the tough decision to treat gut wrenching nausea by using marijuana. There is one glaring inconsistency in this law. While it looks compassionately at medical marijuana use it still makes it a crime to do so. On Monday research done by Dr. Abrams was published in Neurology. Dr. Abrams study indicates that the smoking of marijuana reduces neuropathic pain and also acute pain experienced by HIV/AIDS patients. Many other people have to deal with neuropathic pain. Some of those people are like me; they have Post Polio Syndrome (PPS). The numbers of people who remember the summers scarred by terrifying outbreaks of Poliomyelitis (Polio) are dwindling. However, we are still here and we are still in pain. Pain brought on by the over use of weakened muscles, Pain caused by compressed, or herniated or even ruptured discs. Pain caused facet joint arthritis.
To manage my weakness I have been forced to stop working. To manage my pain I take a cocktail of four drugs. Within this cocktail, along with an opiate, has always been either a NSAID or a COX-2 Inhibitor, like Vioxx. I use that brand name only because it is perhaps the most recognizable. I have taken them all. Every time a new COX-2 Inhibitor came on the market my doctor would change me to the latest and best new drug. This was after years of doing the same with NSAID drugs. The real danger of these drugs is bleeding. Spontaneous bleeding in the stomach is what the warning labels say. History tells us that the spontaneous bleeding can happen anywhere in the body. When it happens in your brain it is a stroke. Some patients who were taking COX-2 Inhibitor, when they suffered a stroke actually refer too these as Vioxx strokes. I don’t even remember which COX-2 Inhibitor I was taking when I had my stroke. It doesn’t matter because after it I went to a new NSAID drug. This new drug does have more protection from ulcers. However, recent research in to NSAID drugs in general finds all have varying risks of spontaneous bleeding, mainly in the stomach.
So now comes the question for patients with chronic neuropathic pain. Am I willing to risk the side effects of drugs available to me legally or do I risk fines and even jail to alleviate my pain? Better yet would you? Would your Congressman? Would your Senator? Do you really think I’m going to answer that question in such a public forum? I will say this; I have the right not to have to even ask that question. I have the right to choose in consultation with my private physician what I am willing to risk, to relieve my pain without jail being part of the equation.

When Music and Politics Collide

2007-02-11T23:17:00.000-05:00

I grew up in a very musical household. We were the first family I knew to get a "stereo". A term most of us have dropped from our vocabulary it is so obsolete. Our first forty-five may have been Sam Cooke's "Twistin' The Night Away". If that was the case the second was Pete Seeger's anti-war anthem "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" as recorded by "The Kingston Trio". From Pete Seeger to Peter, Paul and Mary, to Bob Dylan to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young music and protest go together. More importantly when that music strikes a chord in the hearts of Americans, our leaders better listen up.

Now they’re maybe a worse singer than I, but I sing along to music my daughter puts on the radio when we are together anyway. More and more today these songs have political statements. Even better both my son and my daughter know the words to such songs as "Blowin In The Wind" and "For What Its Worth". They may not know who The Buffalo Springfield were, but they know who Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are. Their music and the music of many others from Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell to Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead fed the revolt against Viet Nam.

Tonight I watched the Grammy's. Yeah fat old hippie watching a music award show that had long ago lost it’s meaning to me. But hey, I liked The Police and wanted to see them again. Then before I can change the channel they introduced Joan Baez. She spoke of Pete Seeger and folk music and how it can still strike the right chord in all of us. After some eloquent words about Folk Music she introduced The Dixie Chicks. Now I don't anything about the Dixie Chicks except what they said about President Bush. I had heard their hit "Not Ready To Make Nice" and I liked it. Now honestly, I didn't have a clue that they were nominated for any Grammy’s much less the five they would eventually win. Anyway the Dixie Chicks come out and sing their hit "Not Ready to Make Nice". Then the first major award, Song Of The Year, nominees are announced and wouldn't you know it "Not Ready to Make Nice" is nominated. However, the bigger shock was when they won Song of the Year. So now the Grammy's have my attention. Next up for the awards given on air was Best Country Album and damn if the Dixie Chicks' album "Taking The Long Way" doesn't win. At this point I envision President Bush kicking the dog and pouring a Jack Daniels. But when "Not Ready to Make Nice" won the coveted Record of The Year award I'm sorry but I think ole Barney went right through the television.

I'm being a smart ass but there is a point to this. When we have supported our wars songs like "Over There" and "Your A Grand Old Flag" top the charts. When we don't support the current war you get Country Joe MacDonald's "What Are We Fighting For" (you know "Well it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for...) or Crosby Stills Nash and Young's "Ohio", dedicated to the four innocent students killed at Kent State. Sadly we already know where all the flowers have gone; they rest sadly and respectfully on top of flag draped coffins. So whether it's Dixie Chicks or Dylan let your voices ring out over the land.

To Smoke Or Not To Smoke

2007-02-11T17:13:00.000-05:00

That is the question, whether to suffer the slings and arrows of non-smokers who point their fingers at those who smoke as if this is the true original American sin. I have smoked since I was eleven years old and it is absolutely the dumbest thing I do each and every day. I have tried to quit but addiction or not it is a part of my personality. Like Hollywood stars or Presidents of old, you will frequently see me with a cigarette. There is something about smoking that gets our brains in to gear, just like that first cup of coffee. Both of my parents had passed before I was out of my twenties. My father's passing was without a doubt related to his smoking and obesity. On the other hand my mother had bone cancer that did eventually metastasize to her lungs where it was quickly killed with radiation. So why would I continue to smoke. Perhaps I am just stupid or perhaps a fatalist that says you have to die of something. A person I greatly respect has never smoked but has climbed to Everest's Base Camp. This weekend when the northeast is battered with the cold north winds from Canada he is climbing Mt. Washington.

So we all have our vices, those things that were once just habits. Artists and politicians and educators and people from all walks of life choose to engage in activities that put their lives at risk. How many household finances are stretched because they are trying to keep up with the Jones. How many of you out there are smoke free, yet you are 30 or 40 or even 50 pounds over weight. How many people a year under go dangerous surgery or injections or ingest unknown substances to somehow retain the appearance of youth. (Sorry but I have to put this in here. In the last eighteen months I have lost thirty-five pounds.) So do I care if Barack Obama smokes - not a lick. Do I care if care if Sen. Edwards made his money as a trial lawyer - not much. Both Senators speak to my issues. Issues like universal healthcare, fighting poverty, improving and properly funding education, and others. So I say lets keep our eye on the prize, that being winning back the Whitehouse and proving once and for all that Democrats are strong on defense, strong on making economies grow, strong on education, and strong on ethics.

Border Agents Compean and Ramos

2007-02-08T23:09:00.000-05:00

Sorry, but smuggling marijuana, hell lets let the cruise missiles fly. Wake up the Drug War is a bigger waste of money than the War in Iraq. That's just for starters - why is it that I can't find a word about the original arrest or trial of these Border Agents. Suddenly late last month Fox News, something called Christian Wire service and the Minute "Mean" are all about this alleged injustice. Should we be trying to figure out a better immigration policy, maybe? But excuse me my ancestors are Irish and the same lies were spread about them when they had their big immigration to the U.S. Oh wait one of my other searches found something. "Report concludes former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting lied, covered up...lets we what we have here

ALICIA A. CALDWELL and SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas - A federal report released Wednesday on the shooting of a suspected drug smuggler by Border Patrol agents concurs with prosecutors that the men failed to report the shooting, destroyed evidence and lied to investigators.

Wow, crooked Cops that has never happened before. This is only part of the problem with the Drug War. Too many crooks on the side of the "Good Guys" Nearly every major police force has had to prosecute their own because of crossing over the line while investigating drug transactions.

The only reason we have a major problem stemming from drug misuse is that we have given over distribution of drugs to criminals. Legalize just marijuana and see if drug related crime doesn't go down. Allow for needle exchange and increase treatment beds for people with addictions and watch it go down even farther. Drugs are a health problem and we are letting the police treat the patients. People always say drugs are a cancer on this nation. Would you go to the police if you had cancer?

Mrs. Kendall

2007-01-31T09:42:00.000-05:00

Let me tell you a story of a truly great woman. I don't even remember when I first met Florence P. Kendall. You see I was only twenty months old when I first met her. On May 16th, 1955 a short six weeks after the announcement of Dr. Salk's break through polio vaccine. While the nation let out a collective sigh of relief my family was being quarantined because I had been diagnosed with polio. This I believed saved me from some of the horror stories you hear about polio. Since I was not put in a polio ward where many children became even sicker, my fever broke after four or five days. About a week later I was sent to see Henry and Florence Kendall. Through physical therapy and with the use of one leg brace I began the long slow road to recovery. In a little more than a year I was able to put my leg brace where it belonged, up in the attic. Unfortunately that was not the last of it. Somewhere around 1961 or '62 my mother noticed that my walk was getting worse. I had began to stumble and fall. My pediatrician told me I had to go back to Henry and Florence for more treatment.
It was during this time that my memories of Florence Kendall begin. First it was Henry that I met with which was exciting because I knew his name from being a Baltimore Orioles fan. Mr. Kendall was the local physical therapist that worked on the various pulled muscles and strained elbows on my heroes on the Orioles. Players like Brooks Robinson (the greatest third baseman to ever play the game), pitcher Milt Pappas and catcher Gus Triandos came here to get better just like the scared eight year old who found himself facing something he didn't understand. I knew I had had polio but I thought I was done, cured, healed, all of the above, I didn't know how far from the truth that really was.
After being evaluated by Mr. Kendall I was turned over to Mrs. Kendall. So for the next year or more probably I came to see her two or three times a week. During these sessions I would have my bad leg massaged and stretched. My most vivid memories was of her making a cast for my leg. After waiting till it was hard I was cut out of the cast by cutting just the top part of the cast away. The next time I came for a physical therapy session the cast had been cured, the edges smoothed out, and it was painted Oriole orange. This was the device that I had to sleep in. You see I was supposed to wear a brace twenty four hours a day. On November 20, 1963 I was told that I no longer had to wear my brace, just keep doing my exercises. I know this because about nine years later I had to get a doctors note saying I had had polio to avoid being drafted. In that letter he stated that he last saw me on November 22, 1963 and that my recovery was nearly complete. It turns out that for once my pediatrician did not have all of the facts.
Fast forward to sometime in 2000, I was at the gym talking to one of the trainers. She was asking why I wore braces. I explained that I had been told that I had post-polio in Sept. of '98. I had joined a gym so I could get back in the pool to exercise my muscles free of gravity. As I was telling her about the whole saga of polio in the 1950's I mentioned Florence Kendall by name. To my surprise, she said "I know her, I took a class she was teaching at UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore county). Cutting to the chase I contacted the college and asked that they get a message to Mrs. Kendall. A few days later my phone ring and the voice of an elderly woman said "Barry, This is Florence Kendall."
If that wasn't enough to knock me over with a feather, what she said next was. She had already had her son in law go down to the basement and find my file. Thirty-seven years had passed and not only had she reviewed my file she offered to have me come to her home to be examined. Turns out she lived only five minutes away from me. So the following week I came to see Mrs. Kendall. She had her son-in-law set up her old exam table in the dining room of her home. After a lunch and getting caught up on what was happening, you know the, so who has passed away over the last thirty-seven years stuff she pointed me towards the powder room so I could change in to shorts for the examination. There in a beautifully appointed dining room, over looking the Cattail Creek, that feeds the Magothy River, she began her examination. Referring to a faded card she went step by step checking each limb and my spine. Explaining as she went along where I was in 1955, and where I was in 1963 and comparing it too what she was finding then.
Here I was with a woman who had just turned ninety, and soon to be named Physical Therapist of the Century by American Physical Therapy Association, as she reviewed the card and examined me, details of my case came rushing back to her. I would later learn that her memory was formidable. It was that day that some of the faith in my fellow man that had eroded over the years was restored. This feisty little white haired lady was telling me her memories of first meeting a little 21 month old boy who had suddenly lost his ability to walk. She remembered me coming back as a scared eight year old who kept stumbling and falling over his own foot. There as I broke down in tears (as I am now writing this) she held my hand and told me I was going to be alright. She explained that when she first examined me I was experiencing paralysis from just below my diaphragm. She was amazed at how much I had been able to accomplish physically over the years. I had gone on to enjoy doing gymnastics, played soccer in a CYO league, and had grown up to be chef. She even remembered how we had worked out a deal that if I promised to wear my brace always and do my exercises every night I could take off my brace while playing little league baseball.
A bond between this woman and the man the little boy had grown to be was formed that day. She accompanied me to a meeting of the post-polio support group that I was attending. There she met others whose journey's were so much harder than mine. They too knew that they had had the privilege of meeting a truly great woman, a woman of the century. Sadly, but as it should be, I came to grips with my post-polio and as I did I again lost touch with her. I improved some but that is not the way of post-polio. Now because of doing too much I am losing even that little bit of improvement. One day last year I came across her phone number. I picked up the phone hoping to hear that sweet little voice of hers, only to learn that she had passed away a few months before. As I talked to her son-in-law Charlie I promised to write to her daughter Susan. Mrs. Kendall during that last time had encouraged me to write a book about my family heritage. So I am writing these days, only it is on the blogisphere. So now all those who read this will know that Florence P. Kendall was not just a great physical therapist she was a great person.

1 2 3 4 We dont want...

2007-01-30T23:44:00.000-05:00

I wonder how many reading this know how that phrase ends. I suggested in a previous post on http://www.democrats.org/page/community/blog/barryconsidine that everyone who opposes this war watch a new documentary about John Lennon's struggle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). From the trailer I had just seen I knew that this story was important for Americans to see. The U.S. vs. John Lennon follows the story of Nixon's war against the anti-war movement and how it was linked to the attempt to deport John and Yoko because John had been busted for marijuana in England. Today's politics are so much the same and in many ways so much worse then during Nixon's presidency.
During Nixon's time there was an enemies list (see the list here http://www.nndb.com/lists/841/000048697/) that eventually made it to the media. People were shocked that a president actually kept a list of people who he thought was a threat to the nation. People like columnist Jack Anderson, journalist Daniel Schorr and actor Paul Newman were all considered to be subversives. Today that don't keep it a secret, they have Dick Cheney out there telling everyone if you oppose them then you are a traitor. The movie has G. Gordon Liddy defending that war and supporting the current administrations Iraq policy. I have reached the conclusion that many in the Republican Party still don't get it.
Too many Republicans act as if they have never even heard the words of one of the truly great Republicans

that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

No today we get "as it is that I am the decider..." We all need to wake up and tell this president and his few remaining supporters that the time has come for them to leave the stage. They are corrupt and morally bankrupt. I and others who speak out against them are the patriots. Dissent is free speech. Protest is patriotic. Freedom isn't free it is hard work and for my part I will continue to speak out and urge people to come out and protest. Dig out those old peace buttons or go to your local "head shop" and buy a new one. Go online and order an Impeach Bush bumper sticker. When you are out there in the streets remember these two phrases "Power to the People" and "1,2,3,4 we don't want your fucking war".

A few thoughts on The State Of The Union.

2007-01-29T13:40:00.000-05:00

Funny how life works. Recently I had a partially forced partially planned break from the world of politics and issues. For that reason I was not able to watch the State Of The Union speech and the Democratic response until just now. This is allowing me to view both free of the national media's spot light on these two speeches. Since I agree with Sen. Webb's assessments I will concentrate on President Bush's speech.
President Bush came before our Congress to layout his vision of the state of our nation. The Constitution requires this. He should have followed the lead of past presidents and mailed it in. Why, because what I just watched was pure rhetoric. Full of President Bush's blurred view of the nation and the world. First was his rosier view of our economy. An economy that has proven to be top loaded, meaning that he judges our economy by how much wealth is being created. The problem is, just as in President Regan's time the trickle is not there. The spout is shut off and all that the top one or two percent have earned has stayed in their bank accounts. While earning much wealth this top tier of our economy has fought the need to raise the minimum wage. Just like a balloon filled with water will burst, so will the stock market follow the housing market with it's own burst. We stand ready for another Black Tuesday for many of the same reasons. We have an over inflated real estate market and an over valued stock market. We have the top economic tier of our nation creating wealth while cutting or eliminating benefits like health insurance or company pensions. We must take care because when the markets correct, as they must, it will once again be the citizens of the middle class that will bear the brunt of such an economic down fall. Remember Joe Kennedy, Sr. didn't stand in soup lines, nor did others of wealth.
Second came President Bush's view of the world. I swear at times I feel like we have elected Joseph McCarthy president. For like McCarthy, President Bush sees enemies everywhere. While it is true America is in the gun sights of some they weren't always there. In Iraq for instance there was a terrible dictator. One that had been bottled up, placed in a box, and sealed with duct tape. It is true that in the past Saddam did many terrible things to his people. Not true was his alleged ability to do more harm to his citizens or others around the world. President Bush acted with proper action when he invaded Afghanistan. We defeated the Taliban and were on the heels of bin Laden. Then with phony intelligence we veered from that most important quest, to settle some personal score between the Bush family and Saddam Hussein. Now the American people are being asked again, as so many times before to believe him when he says if you knew what I know you would understand. Well, I do understand this; the oil and automobile companies want Iraq's oil, and they want to keep the oily needle in the arms of our citizenry. We must remember that it was Presidents Nixon and Carter that first told us we have to reduce oil consumption. President Carter had us going in the right direction. I know I was selling Oldsmobile's in 1977 and I could barley give away a car with a 350 cu. in. V-8 engine. We were moving towards smaller more efficient cars. Now nearly everyday I hear people driving Hummers complain because they "can't see those damn little cars". Well because of my handicap I drive a mini-van and I can't see around your damn Hummer. I have listen to every President since Nixon tell me how we were going to throw off the yoke of foreign oil. That never happens because at every turn the oil companies along with automobile manufacturers spend the money on lobbyists who use their influence in Congress to block initiatives that might actually work. Now my Democratic party stands ready to try again to make America's middle class strong, lets hope and pray that this time those in the top tier will give and hand up instead of the usual boot back down.