Medical Marijuana: Wisconsin bill puts human face on political hot potato
Weak-kneed politicians fearful of offending conservative constituents have let medical marijuana bills die in committee in the Wisconsin Legislature since 1996.
On Sept. 18 medical marijuana advocates will introduce a new bill they hope makes it beyond the Assembly health committee. This time they have put a human face on the bill by calling it the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act.
"That is a great idea because Jacki has been a leader for the cause in your state," said George McMahon,an Iowa man who has been smoking Uncle Sam's marijuana since 1990. He is one of seven Americans who receive 300 government joints every month under the Federal Drug Administration's Compassionate Investigational Drug program.
McMahon, who suffers from Nail Patella Syndrome, a rare genetic condition, met Jacki Rickert of Mondovi, Wis., in 1997, when Jacki traveled 210 miles by wheelchair from her home to the state Capital to deliver a message to legislators on the need for medical marijuana for people like herself.
"She is a true hero," McMahon said.
Rickert, who suffers from the wasting Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, was also approved for the federal cannabis program, but just as the first President Bush shut the program down to new participants in 1992.
"I was down to 68 pounds. My daughter said I looked like I'd just come from a concentration camp," Rickert said.
She had lost her appetite and was too weak to move herself.
"I had to be carried from room to room," she said.
Then someone suggested marijuana.
"My appetite returned. I gained strength back," she said.
She had an understanding doctor who saw her health improve with marijuana after every sanctioned pharmaceutical had failed. He helped her fill out the barrage of paperwork required for entry into the federal canabis program. But when that resource dried up because the feds figured it was sending the wrong message, Jacki, like thousands of others suffering from chronic pain and wasting diseases, turned to black market marijuana.
"I don't like being a criminal," she said, "but marijuana, this simple herb that grows anywhere, really does help me have a better quality of life. With marijuana, I take half the (legal) morphine that I used to take."
McMahon will join Rickert and other state medical marijuana advocates on Sept. 18 in Madison to meet with Rep. Frank Boyle (D-Superior), who will introduce the Jacki Rickert Act.
"It's about time state lawmakers listen to the voters of the state, 80% of whom have said they believe medical marijuana should be available to the chronically ill," Boyle said. "I'm hoping by giving it a face -- the face of Jacki Rickert -- that legislators will see this bill for what it is and vote rather than let it die in committee."
Stay tuned!
ABDUCTED! Alien abduction sites are shrines to true believers
Long before ?X-Files? creator Chris Carter was a glimmer in his parents? eyes, alien abduction stories were reported around the world.
A recent poll in Psychology Today says more than 3 million Americans claim to have been abducted.
With all those supposed abductions, it?s strange that only a few have entered alien abduction lore. Among UFO enthusiasts, the places where these famous abductions took place are holy shrines to be visited with the hope of contact.
GROVETON, NEW HAMPSHIRE: Betty and Barney Hill were driving south of Groveton on Sept. 19, 1961, when they were taken aboard a spaceship and examined. Betty, a white social worker, became a UFO celebrity, while Barney, a black postal worker, seemed not to enjoy the limelight. James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons portrayed the couple in the 1975 TV movie "The UFO Incident." www.ufocasebook.com.
SOUTH ASHBURNHAM, MASS.: Devout Christian Betty Andreasson, her eight children and her parents were visited by aliens on the night of Jan. 25, 1967. While her family was put in suspended animation, Betty was taken to a small craft that met up with a mothership, where Betty underwent the standard alien abduction physical. Betty?s daughter Becky maintains a website celebrating the event at www.beckyandreasson.
PASCAGOULA, MISS.: Co-workers Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker were fishing the Pascagoula River on Oct. 11, 1973, when a large, football-shaped craft appeared. The men were floated into the craft, where physical exams were performed before they were returned to the pier. Hickson wrote a book about the encounter in 1983, "UFO Contact at Pascagoula."
SNOWFLAKE, ARIZ.: Travis Walton was in a brush-clearing crew in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake on Nov. 5, 1975 when he disappeared, showing up five days later, but thinking only a few hours had passed. In 1978 Walton wrote about the abduction in "The Walton Experience," which became the 1993 movie "Fire in the Sky." www.traviswalton.com.
THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE, LOWER MANHATTAN: New York UFO-ologist Budd Hopkins reported on the Nov. 1989 UFO sightings and abductions in his book "Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions." Linda Cortile-Napolitano claimed she was abducted, and Hopkins found witnesses who apparently saw a UFO over the woman?s building, including Javier Perez de Cuellar, then Secretary General of the United Nations. Hopkins? maintains an abduction Web site at www.intrudersfoundation.org.
ELMWOOD, WIS.: On April 22, 1976, relief policeman George Wheeler spotted an orange glow at the top of a hill. Thinking it was a fire, he drove to the location, where he saw a craft hovering about 100 feet off the ground. The craft emitted a bluish light and his patrol car died. A passing farmer found a disoriented Wheeler in his disabled car. He spent three days in the hospital, where doctors could find nothing wrong, but he returned for a longer stay, complaining of headaches and nightmares. Sightings continued, which led the town to claim the title of UFO Capital of Wisconsin, celebrated the last weekend of July with UFO Days. www.w-files.com
a reader on October 2, 2007
Amen. And well said.