Smoking pot to ease the pain
"I will fight as long as I draw a breath of air"
6:25 p.m. Friday, August 17, 2007
Bill Webster is 73 years old. He's sick, and he in constant pain, but the one thing he feels could help relieve that pain is out of reach.
“I'm a cancer patient. I've got Multiple Sclerosis and several ailments to which I feel marijuana would help me. If it was legal,” said Bill Webster.
But it's not legal. So Webster doesn't try it.
“I'm scared to use it,” he explained.
We asked him if he was angry over the laws that keep him from using marijuana to relieve his pain.
His response was, “Yes. Yes I'm angry because of the way it is. Bitter or disappointed. Whatever you want to call it. Yes.”
And it's people like Webster that Former Attorney General Bob Stephan is thinking of as he leads an effort to legalize medical marijuana in Kansas.
"People who are terminally ill with cancer and undergoing treatment should not suffer alone- nor should they be denied access to any medical remedy,” Stephen said.
As Stephen spoke to a crowd in the Kansas statehouse, Webster listened. Like Webster, Stephen has also battled cancer.
"After my first chemotherapy I was a basket case with a terrible feeling of nausea- nausea that only comes with chemotherapy,” Stephen explained.
"It just seemed incomprehensible to me that there should be such suffering and any drug including marijuana should be available to assist the patient,” Stephen added.
Twelve states have legalized medical marijuana in some form. In other states, like Kansas, Stephan says they smoke it anyway.
"People are smoking marijuana because they are in such dire need and suffering so much that they have to take the chance to use it,” Stephen said.
Stephan says he never smoked marijuana, but the option should be there for those who are suffering, and scared.
It’s an option Bill Webster still fights for, but thinks it will come too late to help him.
“If we get to be better through the use of marijuana, let's go with it,” Webster added.
Stephen is moving forward, and he hopes to have a bill drafted in the next legislative session.
Comments
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Aug. 17, 2007 at 7:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)Rusty_Bontrager (anonymous)
I believe that if a drug can ease the pain of our sick and elderly neighbors, that drug should be avaliable to them. A lot of our vetrans suffer from many medical issues that this could help relieve their pain. My wife also has many medical issues, this could be an option for her now or in the future if it is legalized. Some people say that criminals that are on death row are treated unfairly, what about the members our community that have an illness that they have no control over. This country says that we are more civilized than others, yet there is very little done for sick and elderly. Yes there is medical care, but costs are so high that most elderly can not afford to get the proper care that they need and deserve. Remember that these people helped to make this country what it is today and they do not deserve the treatment that they are being given. In closing, we should do everything we can to help each other. If we don't, how long can we call ourselves civilized.
Aug. 21, 2007 at 11:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)mr_nobody (anonymous)
This is a really good website for information about both sides of the medical marijuana debate: http://www.medicalmarijuanaprocon.org/
Aug. 22, 2007 at 3:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)GIJOE (anonymous)
nope, keep it illegal. it is not going to happen in this state. move to the state that they have legallized it if you want it that bad. only bad things lead from using marijuana. i deal with it everyday and i give no tolerence to people who use it!
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