Libertarian Toker
07-22-2004, 05:24 PM
HOW THE DEA RAIDS ON CAREGIVERS AFFECTED A QUADRIPLEGIC
http://lpcolorado.blogs.com/lpcolorado/2004/06/libertarian_par_1.html
Denver, CO-Micah is a quadriplegic: a man in his mid-thirties who has many years of life ahead of him. Two weeks ago, in an example of vast inhumanity, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided the home of a "state permitted" caregiver providing medical marijuana, taking away the most effective medicine that many patients have. That story is tragic enough, but this story is about one patient: Micah Moffett.
Imagine sitting quietly in your wheelchair as your diaphragm spasms so that you can't breathe. The marijuana relaxes the diaphragm, making it easier for Micah to do what almost all of us take for granted: breathe.
Imagine that your hands always feel cold but that you can't rub them together because you don't have control of your hands. Yes, the medical marijuana makes that more bearable too.
Imagine feeling so depressed that you don't want to eat, even though your weight drops to dangerously unhealthy levels. Medical marijuana improves Micah's appetite so that he can liveā??and helping him want to live.
Just imagine any one of these things and you would instantly say that Micah Moffett deserves to inhale marijuana if it makes him feel better.
But you can't imagine it, and neither can I.
Mornings are the worst for Micah. Federally legal painkillers take time to start working, but his illegal medicine works almost instantly. Micah must also dwell on the fact that the legal painkillers will slowly
destroy his liver. It also helps with his muscle spasms, constant shoulder pain due to arthritis and the phantom pain.
Micah has an active mind that cannot help but dwell on his current situation. The medical marijuana is much more effective than the mood elevators his doctors prescribe.
With the marijuana, Micah doesn't need much of the other expensive medication; medication that makes him defecate without his knowledge. Micah's doctors are unable to find a medication that works as well as marijuana. Even though Colorado law makes medical marijuana legal (as far as Colorado is concerned) Micah's doctors won't prescribe marijuana because they are afraid of the federal DEA menace.
As a society shouldn't we support Micah's extreme need to alleviate his horrific pain? Or do we concur with the DEA that Micah's needless pain is preferable to his use of marijuana on a medical basis?
The Libertarian Party of Colorado urges your news affiliate to report on, promote and support the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment.
Last July, 152 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would deny the U.S. Department of Justice funds to raid, arrest, prosecute, and imprison medical marijuana patients and providers. The Libertarian Party of Colorado is currently working in conjunction with the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) in building grassroots support for the amendment so that a majority of U.S. representatives will vote for it this year.
"It is time to end the federal interference in state medical marijuana laws," said Richard Randall, Legislative Director for the Libertarian Party of Colorado.
"It is time to end the immoral persecution of Micah Moffett, a man who has done nothing wrong but whose unimaginable suffering is something that we, as a society, can stop."
http://lpcolorado.blogs.com/lpcolorado/2004/06/libertarian_par_1.html
Denver, CO-Micah is a quadriplegic: a man in his mid-thirties who has many years of life ahead of him. Two weeks ago, in an example of vast inhumanity, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided the home of a "state permitted" caregiver providing medical marijuana, taking away the most effective medicine that many patients have. That story is tragic enough, but this story is about one patient: Micah Moffett.
Imagine sitting quietly in your wheelchair as your diaphragm spasms so that you can't breathe. The marijuana relaxes the diaphragm, making it easier for Micah to do what almost all of us take for granted: breathe.
Imagine that your hands always feel cold but that you can't rub them together because you don't have control of your hands. Yes, the medical marijuana makes that more bearable too.
Imagine feeling so depressed that you don't want to eat, even though your weight drops to dangerously unhealthy levels. Medical marijuana improves Micah's appetite so that he can liveā??and helping him want to live.
Just imagine any one of these things and you would instantly say that Micah Moffett deserves to inhale marijuana if it makes him feel better.
But you can't imagine it, and neither can I.
Mornings are the worst for Micah. Federally legal painkillers take time to start working, but his illegal medicine works almost instantly. Micah must also dwell on the fact that the legal painkillers will slowly
destroy his liver. It also helps with his muscle spasms, constant shoulder pain due to arthritis and the phantom pain.
Micah has an active mind that cannot help but dwell on his current situation. The medical marijuana is much more effective than the mood elevators his doctors prescribe.
With the marijuana, Micah doesn't need much of the other expensive medication; medication that makes him defecate without his knowledge. Micah's doctors are unable to find a medication that works as well as marijuana. Even though Colorado law makes medical marijuana legal (as far as Colorado is concerned) Micah's doctors won't prescribe marijuana because they are afraid of the federal DEA menace.
As a society shouldn't we support Micah's extreme need to alleviate his horrific pain? Or do we concur with the DEA that Micah's needless pain is preferable to his use of marijuana on a medical basis?
The Libertarian Party of Colorado urges your news affiliate to report on, promote and support the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment.
Last July, 152 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would deny the U.S. Department of Justice funds to raid, arrest, prosecute, and imprison medical marijuana patients and providers. The Libertarian Party of Colorado is currently working in conjunction with the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) in building grassroots support for the amendment so that a majority of U.S. representatives will vote for it this year.
"It is time to end the federal interference in state medical marijuana laws," said Richard Randall, Legislative Director for the Libertarian Party of Colorado.
"It is time to end the immoral persecution of Micah Moffett, a man who has done nothing wrong but whose unimaginable suffering is something that we, as a society, can stop."