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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