ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Former talk show host Montel Williams urged lawmakers on Monday to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland, saying the drug is the only thing that alleviates neuropathic pain he has suffered for years because of multiple sclerosis.
The 54-year-old Baltimore native was flanked by lawmakers from both parties who support the legislation.
"Marijuana may not work for everyone, but what it has done for me is it's given me my life back," Williams said, his voice wavering as he tearfully spoke about his condition at a news conference.
Williams, a Baltimore native and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy blocks from the Maryland State House, said he has been living with neuropathic pain in his lower extremities, face and side for 10 years. Opiates, he said, don't work for him anymore.
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4 comments:
People who are fortunate not to live in pain probably have no idea what it's like.
I take opiates to relieve pain, trouble is I have to take more and more because of the tolerance the body builds up against them.
I have to go to a special pain management doctor because that's the law when you are prescribed such amounts.
And if I run out before my next refill date, I have to suffer more until I can get some more.
I have never tried pot as a pain reliever or anything else for that matter. But if it works, what's the big deal?
Surgery is my next step. If that doesn't work maybe I will try pot. I always have my last option hidden in my drawer.
People with terminal illness or chronic pain should be able to take whatever they want without fear of prosecution. President Carter once said of people being arrested for marijuana possession that the punishment for a crime should not be more harmful than the crime itself. I agree. I'd like to see more emphasis on cocaine, heroin, murders, robberies, etc... by our local and state police.
An adult getting high and watching Comedy Central while chowing down on some Oreo cookies isn't a criminal, just a loser- at worse.
I have suffered from lower back pain for forty years. It has disabled me from work, cost me many thousands of dollars in medical costs when my back acts up. Narcotics are not effective any more. My back sent me to the emergency room recently. They gave me a intraveinous cocktail of delaudid and valium to releive the pain. It helped for about two minutes. I got up off the gurney and had to move around because just laying there was killing me. The attending nurse and doctor couldn't believe I was up and about after that cocktail, but like I said narcotics do not work any more. I see my doctor and don't even ask for pain releivers, knowing they don't work. My body has developed such a tolerance to narcotics over the past forty years that any thing differnt must be better than the same old same old.
6:43 PM
I feel your pain, literally.
Medical 'professionals' are so jaded by addicts seeking drugs to get high the the one's of us who actually need them are treated as fakers and drug seekers.
I think we all understand their dilemma of trying to screen addicts from people who actually have a need for relief.
But when you have MRI's, x-rays, and medical history of pain, why is there such difficulty in obtaining something to improve your quality of life?
Actual doctors are not so much of the problem as their staff of 'nurses' I have found.
They have what we want and need and they know it. From personal experience I believe some nurses want you to kiss their butt and thank them for doing their job, which by the way is what the doctor has ordered in the first place.
I understand their caution in giving out narcotics to addicts and people who would sell them but at the same time, they should have the ability of determining the ones who actually need the drugs and as tolerances grow, the need for more doses and stronger meds.
They seem not to understand the impact on bona fide patients that their uncaring and unsympathetic words and actions cause. Or they simply do not care.
I am so mad and upset by the actions of a nurse at a pain management office that I have decided that if the operation that I may get to rid myself of this constant pain does not succeed, I will just simply suffer the rest of my life rather than jump through the hoops of this power tripping nurse and others like her. Or just blow my brains out.
We are real people with real needs and do not need to be treated like second class citizens on top of living with chronic pain 24/7.
Thanks for letting me vent.
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