FruityBud
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Ten years ago this month, Oregonians passed a statewide measure allowing people with certain ailments to legally use marijuana.
Today, we hear from a handful of the 1,050 medical marijuana patients in the tri-county area about the stigma that goes along with it, and how it's helped their pain.
All the names in this story have been changed unless otherwise specified to protect the safety and identity of the patient.
50-year-old Mark was ranked sixth in the U.S. for paraglide racing. The Bend engineer would travel all over the world for his hobby, jumping off cliffs, gliding through the air to each checkpoint and being timed.
Until three years ago, when he was in Mexico.
"I was there training for a competition, and it was the day before the contest," he recalled recently.
Mark took off, but a gust of wind knocked him upside down and back toward the rocks. He landed wrong, breaking his C-7 vertebrae, leaving him no use of his legs, and in extreme pain.
"With prescription drugs, the side effects are pretty strong. I mean, you're sleepy all the time, you feel dopey all the time, and I just absolutely had no energy whatsoever," he said.
Mark says he smoked marijuana recreationally before the accident, but it wasn't until after he was hurt when a friend gave him what's called a tincture of the drug, or pot blended up with alcohol that sets for several weeks, that he started realizing the benefits of it as a medicine.
"It seemed like it made me feel better," Mark recalled. "It was a liquid form that I put drops in my coffee every morning, seemed like I felt better through the day."
Soon after, he tried to get a medical marijuana card. Oregon has 20,500 patients who must renew their card yearly. The process is lengthy but candidates must be suffering from specific ailments like HIV/AIDS, cancer, seizures, Alzheimer's or severe pain to be considered.
Mark says while his Bend doctor was positive he was a good candidate and would reap the benefits, she wouldn't give him the okay for fear it would ruin her reputation in the medical community.
Finally, Mark went to see a doctor in Portland who signed off on it, he was accepted and can now legally use and possess the drug.
He says the tincture keeps his muscles from tightening without getting him high. It's a good method to use during the day to both keep the pain at a minimum and so he can function and work.
He says his physical therapist has seen the progress. Now, Mark has gotten rid of most of his prescription pain pills in favor of the otherwise-illegal drug.
"So this is the bag I get off my grower," he said as he showed NewsChannel 21 his bag of dried marijuana. "It's nothing but trimmings and cuttings when they manufacture the marijuana."
At night, when he says the pain is most severe, he either smokes it or uses a vaporizer, a machine that heats up the marijuana and turns it into a clear vapor you inhale, all without the tar or smoke effects, but will bring the high feeling.
But unless you know Mark personally, you wouldn't know about this part of his life Like most cardholders, it's all a secret.
"I'm pretty open with it to the folks I associate with. But I don't go advertising it because there is a stigma attached to it. But the folks I deal with, you know I don't have an issue talking about it."
One weekend each month in Bend, Central Oregon cardholders get together with a Portland group called MAMA, Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse.
MAMA helps new patients connect with legal growers. They meet with a physician to make sure everything is going okay, they swap stories of success and yes, they smoke it and eat it.
MAMA director and medical marijuana patient Daniel Chandler said, "Patients realizing other patients are entering this program at a slower pace or don't have the same access they have, come together, whether it's bring food to share or bring cannabis plants to share. It's that sense of community that's so unique to Oregon."
One of those patients at the meeting is Monte Mathews. A year ago, doctors said walking would be impossible for him. Now he's moving around slowly.
He's the only medical marijuana patient who allowed NewsChannel 21 to show his face and use his real name. His story is amazing.
Living in Eugene at the time, Mathews was helping his neighbor put things away in the garage during a storm, when a 130-foot Douglas fir fell on him.
"Smashed my back in eight different places, broke my femur, broke all my ribs on the right side of my body, punctured a lung," Mathews recalled.
Mathews remembers nothing of the incident, only the doctors who told him he would always be in severe pain and never walk again.
"I will make a full recovery, there's a lot of basketball to be played," he recalled saying, laughing. He just became a medical marijuana cardholder two months ago, but is visiting MAMA on this night, looking for someone to grow it for him so he doesn't have to worry about it.
Oregon law prohibits the exchange of money for the medicine. So for Monte Mathews, getting rid of those astronomically high priced pain killers was reason enough for him to make the switch.
"I can sleep much better. My pain is much better. A lot of physical things, I don't have as many muscle cramps," he said.
What do you think of when you hear medical marijuana patient? For many it's someone who's a "pothead" and just got lucky with the card to smoke it legally - A tie-dyed, T-shirt-wearing hippie.
At this get-together there were all kinds. Men, women, young, old, conservative, liberal - and then there was this woman, Laura. Middle to upper class, sharp dresser, and well educated, she smashes all negative stereotypes of a cardholder and she knows it. That's why she doesn't tell anybody she uses it for cancer.
"It is in this day and age, 2008, a part of my life that I can't be honest with people about," said Laura. "If it can get to a point where people know it's their neighbors and people they work with that are just like they are, are taking and using something that's good for them and really helps and keeps them from having to take pharmaceutical drugs, I think slowly it will change."
Marijuana: It's a Schedule 1 controlled substance, in police language. It's illegal on all levels, according to the federal government. Yet all these patients say they couldn't function without it day to day.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/6z7z73
Today, we hear from a handful of the 1,050 medical marijuana patients in the tri-county area about the stigma that goes along with it, and how it's helped their pain.
All the names in this story have been changed unless otherwise specified to protect the safety and identity of the patient.
50-year-old Mark was ranked sixth in the U.S. for paraglide racing. The Bend engineer would travel all over the world for his hobby, jumping off cliffs, gliding through the air to each checkpoint and being timed.
Until three years ago, when he was in Mexico.
"I was there training for a competition, and it was the day before the contest," he recalled recently.
Mark took off, but a gust of wind knocked him upside down and back toward the rocks. He landed wrong, breaking his C-7 vertebrae, leaving him no use of his legs, and in extreme pain.
"With prescription drugs, the side effects are pretty strong. I mean, you're sleepy all the time, you feel dopey all the time, and I just absolutely had no energy whatsoever," he said.
Mark says he smoked marijuana recreationally before the accident, but it wasn't until after he was hurt when a friend gave him what's called a tincture of the drug, or pot blended up with alcohol that sets for several weeks, that he started realizing the benefits of it as a medicine.
"It seemed like it made me feel better," Mark recalled. "It was a liquid form that I put drops in my coffee every morning, seemed like I felt better through the day."
Soon after, he tried to get a medical marijuana card. Oregon has 20,500 patients who must renew their card yearly. The process is lengthy but candidates must be suffering from specific ailments like HIV/AIDS, cancer, seizures, Alzheimer's or severe pain to be considered.
Mark says while his Bend doctor was positive he was a good candidate and would reap the benefits, she wouldn't give him the okay for fear it would ruin her reputation in the medical community.
Finally, Mark went to see a doctor in Portland who signed off on it, he was accepted and can now legally use and possess the drug.
He says the tincture keeps his muscles from tightening without getting him high. It's a good method to use during the day to both keep the pain at a minimum and so he can function and work.
He says his physical therapist has seen the progress. Now, Mark has gotten rid of most of his prescription pain pills in favor of the otherwise-illegal drug.
"So this is the bag I get off my grower," he said as he showed NewsChannel 21 his bag of dried marijuana. "It's nothing but trimmings and cuttings when they manufacture the marijuana."
At night, when he says the pain is most severe, he either smokes it or uses a vaporizer, a machine that heats up the marijuana and turns it into a clear vapor you inhale, all without the tar or smoke effects, but will bring the high feeling.
But unless you know Mark personally, you wouldn't know about this part of his life Like most cardholders, it's all a secret.
"I'm pretty open with it to the folks I associate with. But I don't go advertising it because there is a stigma attached to it. But the folks I deal with, you know I don't have an issue talking about it."
One weekend each month in Bend, Central Oregon cardholders get together with a Portland group called MAMA, Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse.
MAMA helps new patients connect with legal growers. They meet with a physician to make sure everything is going okay, they swap stories of success and yes, they smoke it and eat it.
MAMA director and medical marijuana patient Daniel Chandler said, "Patients realizing other patients are entering this program at a slower pace or don't have the same access they have, come together, whether it's bring food to share or bring cannabis plants to share. It's that sense of community that's so unique to Oregon."
One of those patients at the meeting is Monte Mathews. A year ago, doctors said walking would be impossible for him. Now he's moving around slowly.
He's the only medical marijuana patient who allowed NewsChannel 21 to show his face and use his real name. His story is amazing.
Living in Eugene at the time, Mathews was helping his neighbor put things away in the garage during a storm, when a 130-foot Douglas fir fell on him.
"Smashed my back in eight different places, broke my femur, broke all my ribs on the right side of my body, punctured a lung," Mathews recalled.
Mathews remembers nothing of the incident, only the doctors who told him he would always be in severe pain and never walk again.
"I will make a full recovery, there's a lot of basketball to be played," he recalled saying, laughing. He just became a medical marijuana cardholder two months ago, but is visiting MAMA on this night, looking for someone to grow it for him so he doesn't have to worry about it.
Oregon law prohibits the exchange of money for the medicine. So for Monte Mathews, getting rid of those astronomically high priced pain killers was reason enough for him to make the switch.
"I can sleep much better. My pain is much better. A lot of physical things, I don't have as many muscle cramps," he said.
What do you think of when you hear medical marijuana patient? For many it's someone who's a "pothead" and just got lucky with the card to smoke it legally - A tie-dyed, T-shirt-wearing hippie.
At this get-together there were all kinds. Men, women, young, old, conservative, liberal - and then there was this woman, Laura. Middle to upper class, sharp dresser, and well educated, she smashes all negative stereotypes of a cardholder and she knows it. That's why she doesn't tell anybody she uses it for cancer.
"It is in this day and age, 2008, a part of my life that I can't be honest with people about," said Laura. "If it can get to a point where people know it's their neighbors and people they work with that are just like they are, are taking and using something that's good for them and really helps and keeps them from having to take pharmaceutical drugs, I think slowly it will change."
Marijuana: It's a Schedule 1 controlled substance, in police language. It's illegal on all levels, according to the federal government. Yet all these patients say they couldn't function without it day to day.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/6z7z73
