DON'T MAKE ME A CRIMINAL

by

Michael Oliver

Sometime this spring, Rhode Island legislators will decide whether to let our state's medical marijuana law expire June 30 or to make it permanent. I'm one of over 240 registered patients who are hoping they will make this wonderful program permanent.

I don't want to have to become a criminal for simply trying to live a normal life.

About three years ago, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which causes severe inflammation of the digestive tract. There is a lot that medicine hasn't figured out about Crohn's, but it is believed to be an auto-immune disease -- that is, my immune system is attacking my own body. And the battlefield is my intestines.

One of the things I must deal with is muscle spasms throughout my digestive system. These can be very painful at times, and have simply become part of my daily life. Crohn's also causes my body to not absorb the proper nutrients I need from food.

I take a plethora of pills daily, three of which are very powerful and suppress the damaging actions of my immune system. I also receive an I.V. infusion treatment every 6 weeks. This takes about three and one half hours and is also a very powerful drug, made in part from mouse cells. And all of these drugs have side effects.

These treatments have slowed the progress of my disease, but they are not cures. I will have to take them for the rest of my life.

And what they don't do is control my daily symptoms, the misery inflicted on me each day by this raging battle going on in my intestines. That's where marijuana helps.

At times I've taken prescription painkillers for some of these symptoms, but they do not work very well. They take too long to work, and it is too hard to control the dose.

Medical marijuana, on the other hand, gives me complete control. The relief is nearly instantaneous, and I can use just the amount I need and no more.

The marijuana stops my muscle spasms, relieves my pain and stimulates my appetite. It has given me the ability to control my symptoms, go to my job  in a dental laboratory, and be a good father to my two kids. Medical marijuana has given me back my life.

I'm involved in a patient group, and have been learning new and better ways of using my medicine, including techniques like cooking with marijuana and use of vaporizers, that let me avoid smoking much of the time. As a registered patient, I am permitted to grow my own medicine and do not have to buy it from drug dealers.

But all of this could come to an end if our legislators don't extend Rhode Island's medical marijuana law. If they fail to act, on July 1 I will be faced with a choice: Go back to a life of constant suffering or be a criminal, risking arrest, jail, and maybe even losing my kids.

All I want is to have a reasonably normal life, be a productive member of my community and a good dad to my kids. Thanks to wise and humane action by our legislature, I can do that now. I hope our legislators make the medical marijuana law permanent so that I can continue.

 ------

Michael Oliver lives in Barrington.