Pubdate: Sun, 08 May 2011
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2011 The Billings Gazette
Contact: http://billingsgazette.com/app/contact/?contact=letter
Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author: Jolie Riojas

MARIJUANA HAS HELPED WITH MS SYMPTOMS

There has been a lot of opinions on the topic of medical marijuana,
counselors claiming they can tell what's wrong with people just by
looking at them, grandmas content with prescribed drugs for "aches and
pains." There is only one opinion I care about, my doctor's! Mike
Milburn, James Knox, Steve Zabawa, Cherrie Brady and countless others
are not doctors!

I live with a debilitating disease that has no cure. I successfully
use cannabis to treat both symptoms of multiple sclerosis and side
effects caused by prescribed drugs used to modify to disease
progression. Senate Bill 423 will make it impossible for me to obtain
my medicine. I will be forced back on prescribed drugs that either
don't work or cause even more unwanted side effects. Most likely I
will become homebound as a result from these narcotic pain medications
and muscle relaxers.

It's hard to be productive as a wife and mother when one is being
forced to be bedbound! I have tried prescribed drugs and suffered from
them. That is the reason I sought out alternative medicine. To my
surprise it has worked and given me hope for the future living with a
disease like MS. That is something I don't take for granted!

Since I have been going to a storefront caregiver, I have had constant
and safe access that has given me the ability to treat my condition
with success! There is an awful lot of judgment toward the medical
marijuana community. If you don't know what you are talking about,
keep it to yourself. Your body, your medicine -- my body, my medicine!

Jolie Riojas

Billings
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.