October 5. 2011
^turila uh (Dbseruer
Page 17
Woman Proves Marijuana
Has received
government pot
for decades
(AP) — Som etim e after m id
night on a m oonlit rural Oregon
highway, a state trooper cheeking
a car he had just pulled over found
less than an ounce of pot on one
passenger: A chatty 72-year-old
woman blind in one eye.
She insisted the weed was legal
and was approved by the U.S.
governm ent.
The trooper and his supervisor
were doubtful. But after a series of
calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office,
the Drug Enforcem ent Agency
and her physician, the troopers
handed her back the card — and
her pot.
For the past three decades,
Uncle Sam has been providing a
handful of patients with some of
the h ig h e s t g ra d e m a riju a n a
around. The program grew out of
a 1976 court settlem ent that cre
ated the country's first legal pot
smoker.
Advocates for legalizing m ari
juana or treating it as a m edicine
say the program is a glaring con
tradiction in the nation's 40-year
war on drugs — m aintaining the
federal ban on pot while at the
same time supplying it.
G overnm ent officials say there
is no contradiction. The program
is no longer accepting new pa
tients, and public health authori
ties have concluded that there was
no scientific value to it, Steven
Gust of the U.S. National Institute
on Drug Abuse told The A ssoci
ated Press.
At one point, 14 people were
getting governm ent pot. Now,
there are four left.
The governm ent has only con
tinued to supply the m arijuana
"for c o m p a ssio n a te rea so n s,"
Gust said.
An Oregon woman who suffers from glaucoma holds the canister
One of the recipients is Elvy o f marijuana cigarettes that she regularly receives from the
M u sik k a , the c h a tty O re g o n federal government. (AP photo)
woman. A vocal m arijuana advo
cate, M usikka relies on the pot to that the Food and Drug A dm inis passed a m edical m arijuana law.
keep her glaucom a under control. tra tio n m u st p ro v id e R o b e rt W hat follow ed were a series of
She entered the program in 1988, Randall of W ashington, D.C. with petitions from people like Musikka
and said that her experience with marijuana because of his glaucoma to join the program.
m arijuana is proof that it works as — no other drug could effectively
President George H.W. Bush's
a m edicine.
com bat his condition. R andall adm inistration, getting tough on
They "won't acknow ledge the becam e the nation's first legal pot crim e and drugs, stopped accept
fact that I do not have even one sm oker since the drug's prohibi ing new patients in 1992.
aspirin in this house," she said, tion.
The four patients rem aining in
leaning back on her couch, glass
E v entually, the governm ent the program estim ate they have
bong cradled in her hand. "I have created its program as part o f a received a total o f 584 pounds
no pain."
com prom ise over Randall's care in from the federal governm ent over
In 1976, a federal judge ruled 1978, long before a single state the years.
All of the marijuana comes from
the U niversity o f M ississippi,
where it is grown, harvested and
stored.
The m arijuana is then sent to a
tightly controlled North Carolina
lab, where they are rolled into ciga
rettes. And every month, steel tins
are packed with a half-pound of
marijuana rolled into 300 perfectly-
wrapped joints for delivery to the
patients.
Elvy Musikka, 72, who
suffers from glaucoma,
lights a marijuana cigarette,
one o f many she regularly
receives from the U.S.
government, at her home in
Eugene. (AP photo)
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