medical use advocate/patient denied medical marijuana commits suicide

[macro]

Wow this really pisses me off:

Missoulian: Medical marijuana advocate kills herself

Medical marijuana advocate kills herself
By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian


Robin Prosser, a Missoula woman who struggled for a quarter century to live with the pain of an immunosuppressive disorder, tried years ago to kill herself. Last week, she tried again. This time, she succeeded.

After her earlier attempt failed, Prosser wound up in even more trouble after investigating police found marijuana in her home. She used the marijuana to help cope with pain.

That marijuana charge was eventually dropped in an agreement with the city of Missoula, and Prosser had reason to rejoice in 2004 when Montanans passed a law allowing medical use of the drug.
She was a high-profile campaigner for the Montana Medical Marijuana Act, and like others, she was dismayed when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that drug agents could still arrest sick people using marijuana, even in states that legalized its use.

The ruling came to haunt Prosser in late March, when DEA agents seized less than a half ounce of marijuana sent to her by her registered caregiver in Flathead County.

At the time, the DEA special agent in charge of the Rocky Mountain Field Division said federal agents were â??protecting people from their own state lawsâ?� by seizing such shipments.

â??I feel immensely let down,â?� Prosser would write a few months later, in a guest opinion for the Billings Gazette published July 28. â??I have no safety, no protection, no help just to survive in a little less pain. I can't even get a job due to my medical marijuana use - can't pass a drug test.â?�

Federal prosecutors declined to charge Prosser, but fear spread through the system of marijuana distribution set up in the wake of the medical marijuana act. Friends said Prosser turned to other sources for marijuana, but found problems nearly everywhere she turned.

â??Most recently, she had found some people who said they could get her what she needed, but it didn't go well,â?� said her friend Jane Byard.

Without the relief that marijuana delivered to her, Robin Prosser killed herself at home last week. She was 50.

Prosser suffered from an autoimmune disease that gave her allergic and dangerous reactions to most pharmaceutical painkillers. So she turned to marijuana. When that was no longer available she had no where else to turn.

â??She just said she couldn't take it all anymore,â?� Byard said.

In her guest opinion, Prosser wrote that: â??I'm 50 years old, low-income and sick. I spend most days in my apartment in bed, with no air conditioning, unable to go outside because I can't tolerate the sun.â?�

Beset by financial problems, troubled by depression, unable to find a reliable source of pain relief, she took her own life three months after the piece was published.

â??Give me liberty or give me death,â?� she wrote in July. â??Maybe the next campaign ought to be for assisted-suicide laws in our state. If they will not allow me to live in peace, and a little less pain, would they help me to die, humanely?â?�

Before being disabled by her disease, Prosser was a concert pianist and a systems analyst. After the disease hit her, she became a tireless advocate for legalized use of marijuana in medical situations.

â??She had so many difficulties, but she was a wonderful person,â?� Byard said. â??She was kind and funny and just as smart as a whip. She was a very good friend to me, and it's a very sad story what happened to her.â?�

Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or by

e-mail at [email protected]

------
..*just noticed* reporter "Michael Moore"?
lol what a drama queen (yes, queen)

--edit-- upon further investigation, I now realize this probably belongs better in the Current Events forum, please move it for me mods? Thanks!

macro Reviewed by macro on 10-28-2007. medical use advocate/patient denied medical marijuana commits suicide Wow this really pisses me off: Missoulian: Medical marijuana advocate kills herself ------ ..*just noticed* reporter "Michael Moore"? lol what a drama queen (yes, queen) Rating: 5

[Nailhead]

I read this too and it is definitely sad that somebody is in so much pain it drives them to suicide. Somebody needs to send this to John McCain and Mitt Romney, and anybody else that claims marijuana is not medically beneficial or someone who supports the drug war. Marijuana harms people my ass!

[killerweed420]

Yep and all of this is a fallout from the great drug war.

[Markass]

just because she was in so much pain...and a flower could relieve her pain, but the DEA denied it to her...what fucking assholes...this is a shitty country

[Storm Crow]

Over at Cannabisnews.com.

cannabisnews.com: Prosser Commits Suicide

cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Advocate Kills Herself

People GET MAD! Robin was a sweet and lovely lady who was murdered!

"I don't see how they can deny me a thing that saves my life," she said. "I can't eat without it."

Jeff Sweetin, DEA special agent in charge of the Rocky Mountain Field Division â??Believe me, if marijuana were safe, it would be legal. Weâ??re kind of protecting people from their own state laws.â?�

Robin was "protected" to death!

[qdavid]

OMG. Tragic. Fuckin' government murdering bastards. Sorry about the language. I'm pretty upset.

[13Lack]

Sigh....this is really ridiculous...people shouldn't have to suffer because they can't get access to something that truly helps them.

â??Believe me, if marijuana were safe, it would be legal. Weâ??re kind of protecting people from their own state laws.â?�

And what the hell is wrong with that DEA agent? Is alcohol safe? Are cigarettes safe? No. Neither of those things help people in pain either. America needs to wake up and smell the coffee because I'm tired of hearing of people dying in pain because the government takes away the lovely plant that we call marijuana that helps more people than it hurts.

[PHATTY LUMPKINS]

Fuck.. BULLSHIT.. It is NOTHING but a drug war.. IT SHOULD BE METH ! ! ! ! ! FUCKING IDIOTS ! ! ! OVER LESS THAN A HALF OUNCE.. MY FUCKING GOD.. YOU KNOW WHAT.. MR. DEA .. they give our 12 year olds birth control, Global Warming.. METH is tearing apart lives into shreds.. cigarettes... that you cant even fucking vaporize.. people need to get a grip.. EVERYTHING IS OVERINDULGED in the US.. F>U>C>K>..! SOOO TIRED OF OUR GOVERNMENT STICKING THEIR NOSE IN WHERE IT DONT BELONG! ! !
Yes, its legal.. we can have 6 plants.. can we? I thought we were protected under the 420 bill for caregivers.. along with the 215. THIS IS NUTS.
DAM right it pisses me off! Alcohol.. MAN MADE.. gateway DRUG>> H>E>L>L>O>
Fucking feds will do and murder whoever they want.. always have always will.:wtf:

[cm8883]

I just wonder how many others suffer in silence, or their lives have ended for the same reason, but no one is aware of the real reason

[BathingApes]

This is sickening..

The problem lies solely with education. People seem to think that marijuana will be legalised soon, I have no idea why they say that, maybe its just because theyre tired of being criminalised. The truth is that it will be a LONG battle to get marijuana legalised. The problem is with education; if we educated the youth TRUTHFULLY and properly, then noone would oppose it. The only reason there are people saying it is bad for you is because they have been told that all their lives by their parents, teachers, and government. If we stop the supply of misinformation to the people then we are free to believe what we want without being biased towards either side. I don't think that most of the public who are against marijuana are evil, I really don't, because these people have been told their entire lives that marijuana is bad for you and it will lead to schizophrenia or the use of harder drugs. Of course, we know that this is all bullshit, but we have to remember not everyone is open-minded enough to even consider changing their opinion on something which they have considered fact for decades.

Compared to when I was a teen, kids now, with the internet and stuff it's easier for them to search for their own information. Most of the older generation are against marijuana, I'm not saying they all are, but definitely a higher percentage than the middle aged or the youth. I can only see marijuana being decriminalized or legalized if either Ron Paul or someone else pro-Legal comes into power, or if there are significant changes to the way state and federal law work together.