Every month George McMahon receives a silver tin of prescription marijuana courtesy of the federal government. He is one of five survivors in the Federal Drug Administration's Compassionate Investigational New Drug program.

"Personally, I won," said the Iowa man who has been receiving 300 free government joints every month since 1990. " I don't have anything to beef about. That's really hard to explain to somebody like Jacki (Rickert, for whom the new Wisconsin medical marijuana bill is named), who can't win."

Even though he can legally smoke marijuana for his medical condition, McMahon remains a tireless advocate for the majority who are still denied the benefits of medical marijuana. "We're not talking about legalization for everybody. We're talking about sick people who need it," he said.

McMahon suffers from Nail Patella Syndrome, which is characterized by abnormalities of the arms and legs as well as kidney disease and glaucoma. He has suffered countless broken bones over the years from the disease. He wrote about his medical troubles and how marijuana has helped in the 2003 book "Prescription Pot," in which he describes the quality and content of that monthly tin of joints he receives.

"Compared to all the patients who live in fear of arrest and pay hundreds of dollars each month to get black market medicine of questionable quality, I have it easy. I just cut open the joints, clean out the seeds and stems, moisturize the herb and re-roll the joints with my own papers," he wrote in the book.

McMahon said he smokes about 10 joints a day in place of other medications previously prescribed that only seemed to make him worse. "I was continually getting worse on legal pharmaceuticals," he said. "I haven't taken any other medicine in 18 years, maybe a few antibiotics and I might take as many as six aspirin in a year. That's it. It's amazing stuff."

And that, he says, is why he will continue to fight for everyone's right to legal medical marijuana. "As we teach people, we convert people. We've been converting enemies, people who really thought they were right. They just had to have the information," he said. "If they say they're against it morally, well, that's no reason. If they say science, we can debunk it. But if they just stand there and say no, that's even worse."

If anyone wants to know of the long-term health effects of smoking marijuana, McMahon refers them to the Missoula Chronic Clinical Cannabis Use Study conducted at the University of Montana-Missoula with the assistance of four federal prescription pot smokers who have used "a known dosage of a standardized, heat-sterilized quality-controlled supply of low-grade marijuana for 11 to 27 years."

Here are the conclusions and recommendations of that study:

Cannabis smoking, even of a crude low-grade product, provides effective symptomatic relief of pain, muscle spasms, and intraocular pressure elevations in selected patients failing other modes of treatment.

These clinical cannabis patients are able to reduce or eliminate other prescription medicines and their accompanying side effects.

Clinical cannabis provides an improved quality of life.

The side effect profile of NIDA cannabis in chronic usage suggest some mild pulmonary risks.

No malignant deterioration has been observed.

No consistent or attributable neuropsychological or neurological deterioration has been observed.

No endocrine, hematological or immunological sequelae have been observed.

Improvements in a clinical cannabis program would include a ready and consistent supply of sterilized, potent, organically grown unfertilized female flowering top material, thoroughly cleaned of extraneous, inert fibrous matter.

It is the authors' opinion that the Compassionate IND program should be reopened and extended to patients in need of clinical cannabis.

Failing that, local, state and federal laws might be amended to provide regulated and monitored clinical cannabis to suitable candidates.

And that, McMahon points out, is just one of many studies that have been conducted around the world.

"The studies going on are just mind-blowing," he said. It's not that misunderstood anymore. If they deny it now, it's knowingly doing it. There's no lack of credible information. The science has been done and pretty basically if they're not looking it up, it's willing ignorance. They're not really that ignorant. It's up in the air to see what they do."

Newshawk: Is My Medicine Legal YET? www.immly.org
Pubdate: Mon, 1 Oct 2008
Source: Scene, The (Appleton, WI)
Cover: articles, cover image http://www.mapinc.org/images/octobercover.jpg
Copyright: 2007 Moran Marketing Group
Contact: jlundstrom@new.rr.com
Website: http://scenenewspaper.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4578
Author: Jim Lundstrom
Referenced: Missoula Chronic Clinical Cannabis Use Study
http://www.medicalcannabis.com/PDF/Chronic_Cannabis.pdf