DAWN SHURMAITIS<\/p>\n
He couldn’t stand to watch his mother suffer.<\/p>\n
So he turned the law-abiding housewife into an illegal drug user.<\/p>\n
He did it out of love, and desperation.<\/p>\n
The drugs prescribed by his mother’s doctor did little to relieve the pain
\ncaused by her cancer, which transformed the once-robust miner’s wife into a
\nbedridden skeleton.<\/p>\n
The son, who’d lived with his mother all his life in a small house by the
\nSusquehanna, begged the doctor for something more, anything to quiet the
\nmoans coming from the darkened bedroom.<\/p>\n
The doctor took him aside. Try marijuana, he said. Smoke it with your mom
\nat bedtime. Maybe it’ll help.<\/p>\n
But, he cautioned his patient’s distressed son, you didn’t hear it from me.<\/p>\n
The 65-year-old woman strongly believed in law and order, in right and
\nwrong. She was more likely to laugh at Martin and Lewis than Cheech and
\nChong. But on the advice of a trusted doctor, she broke the law on a
\nnightly basis, sharing a joint with her son.<\/p>\n
Afterward, she slept. Two months later, she died.<\/p>\n
Her son has no regrets.<\/p>\n
“One joint and she was out, she slept,” he says. “It worked beautifully.”<\/p>\n
Marijuana as medicine? Dope as drug?<\/p>\n
When Kingston dentist Harold Weltman testified last month he’d been growing
\nmarijuana in his basement to research its effect on Alzheimer’s, diabetes
\nand gum disease, the unique defense drew laughs and titters from courtroom
\nobservers.<\/p>\n
The jury didn’t buy it either.<\/p>\n
It found Weltman, 61, and his wife, Mary, guilty of growing marijuana. The
\ncouple, who is appealing their conviction, faces 10 years in jail and the
\nloss of their home under the drug forfeiture law. Weltman also could lose
\nhis dental license.<\/p>\n
While Weltman’s defense appeared ludicrous to some, others — including
\nphysicians — say marijuana is being used medically, not by long-haired
\nhippies to cop a high but by seriously ill patients to relieve suffering.<\/p>\n
Long used by cancer victims to combat the nausea caused by chemotherapy,
\nthe drug is increasingly lauded by AIDS sufferers as a cheaper alternative
\nto other, more expensive drugs.<\/p>\n
Marijuana’s medical value has been debated for years, by government
\nofficials, doctors and users. Often compared to cocaine and morphine —
\nillegal on the streets, available from doctors — marijuana was until March
\nprescribed to a small pool of patients in the U.S. whose doctors convinced
\nthe federal government the weed was vital to their physical well-being.<\/p>\n
Area doctors, however, say there’s enough legal medicine available to make
\nit unnecessary to decriminalize marijuana for medical use. Still, marijuana
\ncontinues to be cited by some local people who say they use it to relieve a
\nvariety of ills.<\/p>\n
Weltman’s wife said she made tea from it to drink during painful menstrual
\ncramps. One sickly, homebound Kingston Township man buys it from his maid
\nto smoke at night as a sedative. A Back Mountain senior citizen arrested 15
\nyears ago by police for possession claimed he used the pot to relieve the
\narthritis that crippled his fingers.<\/p>\n
It’s not listed in the Physicians’ Desk Reference, but patients nonetheless
\ncontinue to ask area doctors about marijuana as medicine.<\/p>\n
“No question,” says Dr. Thomas Sharkey, a Kingston eye doctor who treats
\nglaucoma. “It (marijuana) lowers the intraocular pressure in the eye. It’s
\na well-known fact. It does do it. Patients ask about it all the time.”<\/p>\n
But, says Sharkey, he does not recommend patients use the illegal substance
\nbecause of the effectiveness of legal alternatives.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think (decriminalization) is that critical,” he says. “It’s not
\nlike we could save eyes we couldn’t otherwise save.”<\/p>\n
Man-made paranoia<\/p>\n
He’s 35 years old and he’s dying from AIDS.<\/p>\n
To help him cope, his doctor prescribed Marinol, which features
\ntetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.<\/p>\n
In effect, Marinol is man-made pot, a pill manufactured since 1985 at the
\nbehest of the government.<\/p>\n
But this AIDS patient says Marinol is far too potent and much too expensive
\n— a daily dose costs approximately $30-$35. According to the Physicians
\nDesk Reference, it can produce both physical and psychological dependence.<\/p>\n
Says the AIDS patient, a New York City AIDS activist who did not want his
\nname used: “If I take a pill I really go psychotic for 12 hours. I can’t
\nleave my house, or even cross the street to buy a piece of fruit. I get too
\nparanoid.”<\/p>\n
So instead, every few months, he shells out $50 to buy a 1\/5 ounce of
\nmarijuana from a street dealer in New York City. One of two hits from a
\njoint make him feel better, he says, but not psychotic.<\/p>\n
Local doctors who prescribe Marinol agree the drug is not for everyone. But
\nnone advocates marijuana, although they’ve heard of the practice.<\/p>\n
In 1991 Harvard University’s JFK School of Government found 44 percent of
\nsurveyed national leading cancer specialists tell their patients privately
\nto use marijuana. Up to 80 percent of those doctors felt marijuana should
\nbe available by prescription.<\/p>\n
Critics of the study say it’s biased because only those doctors predisposed
\nto approving marijuana as medicine would answer the survey.<\/p>\n
Dr. Paul Roda, director of medical education at Hazleton General Hospital,
\nsays the two to three older patients of his who’ve used Marinol found it
\n“totally useless” because the drug made them “unpleasantly confused instead
\nof pleasantly high.”<\/p>\n
Based on his experiences at a large East Coast hospital in the late 1970s,
\nRoda says nearly identical results occurred in cancer patients who smoked
\nmarijuana.<\/p>\n
Back then, doctors allowed some patients suffering from leukemia to smoke
\nmarijuana behind closed doors at the hospital. Roda found younger patients
\nliked the marijuana and didn’t mind the hallucinatory side effects, but
\nthat older patients were bothered by the euphoric feeling.<\/p>\n
“We told patients we didn’t want to know about it,” Roda says. “It was a
\ncommon practice back then in medical school hospitals that dealt with
\nyounger cancer patients.<\/p>\n
“It seemed to help them. They still vomited but they didn’t complain about
\nit as much.”<\/p>\n
The doctor says he still occasionally gets a query from a younger patient
\nabout the use of marijuana.<\/p>\n
“I do not recommend the recreational use of marijuana,” says Roda. “But
\nback when I was a resident trainee it seemed to work for them.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Bruce Saidman, medical director of Hospice Saint John in Wilkes-Barre,
\nsays he recommends Marinol to the few patients who ask him about marijuana.<\/p>\n
“With marijuana I always worry about the carcinogenic effect of smoking on
\nthe lungs. You’re exposing your lungs to tar and nicotine,” Saidman says.
\n“I’m not enthused as an oncologist. As long as I have a pill to prescribe,
\nno.”<\/p>\n
A few years back, Dr. Karen Cooper, a medical oncologist in Kingston,
\npersonally knew someone who went through chemotherapy at a major cancer
\ncenter. The woman didn’t respond to any other medication to combat the
\nnausea and after discussing using marijuana with her doctors was advised to
\ntry it “if she’d gotten to the last straw and nothing else worked.”<\/p>\n
While Cooper herself doesn’t advocate the use of marijuana, she can
\nunderstand why some patients may use it as an alternative to the more
\nexpensive Marinol.<\/p>\n
Many AIDS sufferers frustrated by the government’s seemingly lax attitude
\ntoward finding a cure for AIDS have turned to an underground of treatment,
\ntherapy and unorthodox drugs.<\/p>\n
Marijuana is one such option.<\/p>\n
Lisa Jansen-Rees, a case manager for the Wyoming Valley AIDS Council, says
\nthe board governing the council “doesn’t promote the use of marijuana but
\nrealizes the urgent need for treatment that’s exceeded what the medical
\ncommunity can offer.<\/p>\n
“People with AIDS have been self medicating themselves since the beginning
\nin response to a non-moving government.”<\/p>\n
Courts don’t buy it<\/p>\n
No matter how sick they are, no matter how strong their argument, few
\naccused drug users have won court cases by using a marijuana-as-medicine
\ndefense.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 24, a judge in Santa Cruz refused to dismiss marijuana cultivation
\ncharges filed against a 40-year-old woman who claimed she used the weed as
\na medicine.<\/p>\n
Her attorney based his defense on medical necessity and called a California
\ndoctor to testify the marijuana helped ease seizures the woman suffered
\nsince a car accident 19 years ago. Other drugs she used left her a
\nvegetable but did not ease the seizures.<\/p>\n
In early 1989 a Florida couple, Kenneth and Barbara Jenks, contracted AIDS
\nthrough a blood transfusion Kenneth, a hemophiliac, was given.<\/p>\n
The couple began smoking marijuana after they learned about it through an
\nAIDS support group they were attending. Both suffered from nausea, vomiting
\nand appetite loss caused by AIDS or the drug AZT and doctors feared Barbara
\nJenks would starve to death before the disease killed her.<\/p>\n
A year into smoking pot an informant turned the Jenks into police, who
\nraided their home and confiscated two marijuana plants they had been
\ngrowing. At their trial, the Jenks also used the defense of medical
\nnecessity, which had succeeded only three times previously in the U.S.<\/p>\n
In the end, the judge convicted the couple, although he imposed essentially
\nno punishment. Barbara Jenks has since died. Her husband has become the
\nlast surivivng AIDS patient to gain legal access to marijuana.<\/p>\n
While numerous groups continue to lobby for the decriminalization of
\nmarijuana for use as a medicine, law enforcement officers continue to
\narrest and prosecute those caught using it, whether they claim it’s an
\nantidote or not.<\/p>\n
“It’s a whole hell of a lot different to need medicine like marijuana than
\nto use crack on a street corner,” says a 45-year-old professional from
\nWilkes-Barre, a member of the Wyoming Valley AIDS Council. “You have to
\nlook at it in context.<\/p>\n
“If reducing the pain a person is experiencing means allowing them access
\nto a chemical that’s otherwise illegal what’s the harm?”<\/p>\n
Plenty, says Luzerne County District Attorney Peter Paul Olszewski, whose
\noffice prosecuted Weltman. The dentist testified he grew the marijuana not
\nfor personal use, but to use as research into possible medical benefits. He
\nclaimed his dental license gave him that right.<\/p>\n
“Historically, marijuana use has led to the use of other, harder drugs,”
\nsays Olszewski, who is opposed to the decriminalization of marijuana for
\nmedical purposes. “The use of marijuana proliferates other crimes like
\ntheft, robbery and murder.”<\/p>\n
Olszewski refused to entertain a hypothetical case that might involve the
\nprosecution of someone who used marijuana as treatment for a serious
\nillness, but allowed: “We as prosecutors would look at each case
\ndifferently and weigh the merits of each case.<\/p>\n
“I’d try to do what’s right in each case, what’s right and what’s proper.
\nMy sworn duty is to uphold the laws of the Commonwealth.”<\/p>\n
The law<\/p>\n
Not all law enforcement officials agree with Olszewski.<\/p>\n
At the urging a Kansas attorney general, who had cancer and wanted to use
\nmarijuana as a pain reliever, the National Association of Attorneys General
\nin 1983 passed a resolution favoring medical marijuana.<\/p>\n
A similar resolution was passed by The National Association of Criminal
\nDefense Lawyers.<\/p>\n
All told, 34 states — excluding Pennsylvania, which held its own hearings
\nin the mid 1970s — have over the years legislatively recognized
\nmarijuana’s medical use and made it available for medical research.<\/p>\n
“They’ve already approved morphine and cocaine — extremely powerful drugs
\n— for medical use,” says Bob Gentzel, a spokesman for state Attorney
\nGeneral Ernie Preate. “If someone could make a good case for the medical
\nuse of marijuana the FDA would approve it.<\/p>\n
“There would be nothing inconsistent about supporting the prosecution of
\nthe illegal use of marijuana and allowing possession for medical uses if a
\nvalid reason can be established.”<\/p>\n
————————————————————————
\nAll content \u00a9 TIMES LEADER and may not be republished without permission.<\/p>\n
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\nAll archives are stored on a SAVE ™ newspaper library system from
\nMediaStream Inc., a Knight Ridder company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAWN SHURMAITIS He couldn’t stand to watch his mother suffer. So he turned the law-abiding housewife into an illegal drug user. He did it out of love, and desperation. The drugs prescribed by his mother’s doctor did little to relieve the pain caused by her cancer, which transformed the once-robust miner’s wife into a bedridden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}