We lost contact many years ago; about the time that I became sick and my youngest was born. When I last saw her, she was a single mother working very hard to care for her family. She had a good job, her own apartment and was considering going back to school.
In the time that we were apart she developed a mass array of medical conditions, including a bulging disc in her back and numerous women's problems. She has gained quite a bit of weight and she is very depressed all the time. Because of her medical problems, she can no longer work. Social Security has denied her disability income, despite that she payed into for over 10 years. She has been forced to live in her mother's home, who shares many of the same genetic medical conditions. She has two young children, no source of income, and is constantly in pain. She takes doses of narcotics multiple times throughout the day, and is high on these drugs a majority of the time.
She has smoked marijuana many times through out her life, and smokes as often as possible now. I used to tell her it was very bad for her, especially when she was pregnant; and she would tell me I was wrong. When I told her that pot saved my life she gave me an "I told you so" look. But because of prohibition, the laws in our state, and her lack of income or financial support, she does not have the quantity and quality that is required to treat her medical conditions.
I had been blessed by the bud gods with a wonderful source of some extremely nice "medical quality" herb. So, I went to smoke with her and share my good fortune. We were sitting in her room and I noticed a bag of pill bottles hanging on the wall. She had been collecting them for a project that her chapter is doing, and I offered to take them to one of our other contacts for her. She agreed and I took them off the wall. There was close to 50 bottles in the bag. The bottles were for everything from pain relievers, to anti-inflammatory, anti-epileptic (for migraines) and antidepressants. I asked her when she had started collecting the bottles. When she told me, I got very sad. She had collected them all in only 2 months!
It reminded me so much of the situation I was in not too long ago. Without the help of Cannabis I never would have been able to change things. I was very lucky to have sources and income to provide at least a small amount of Cannabis each day, otherwise I would probably still be in the same situation. Every condition she has can be treated with Cannabis; and if she could afford the medicine, she too could turn her life around.
There are so many people whose lives are exactly like that. They just try to make it through each pain filled day. Going through bottle after bottle of pills, filling their bodies with toxic chemicals just for the tiny chance of not being stuck in bed the entire day.
It is for people who are in those situations, that I do what I do. People in situations like what I was in, and the one that my dear friend is currently in. It is for those people that I fight to re-legalize Cannabis. They are the reason I am so passionate about trying to get the population to understand.
These people are our mothers and fathers; grandmothers and grandfathers... our sons and daughters. We need to help them to find the ability to have some sense of a normal life, not fill them with pills and then call them junkies. Or throw them in jail and label them as criminals. We need to release this medicine and bring these people back to life.
With Cannabis, we can.
It's time to LEGALIZE.
Thank you so much for speaking out and only peoples like you can change the system. I use cannabis to ease my pain for decade. I am building a blog about food with cannabis. I sell it in dispensary for peoples who are 65 to 82 years old they don't enjoy smoking but love the relieve of pain. Only if we stay together with can win the 2012 election. Thank you so much for your blog big inspiration. If you are interested to check my blog www.ganjafinecuisine.com. I am building a better one but this one work now.
ReplyDelete