Marifuana (Medical Marijuana)- Clouds of Compassion

 Haim Aherim, December 2003

Subtitle:

Marifuana, Medical Marijuana, relieves the pain of many patients. In Holland doctors give prescriptions for it and in Canada there are "Compassion Clubs" that supply the medicine for those in need. Yet, in many Western countries Marifuana patients need to fight the authorities to get it, the process of getting the medicine is complicated, and patients who grow their own plants are arrested and put on trial. In her struggle against the American Institution, Valerie Corral managed to turn the City Hall of Santa Cruz to a Marifuana distribution spot – and she hasn't yet said the last word.

 By Dana G. Peleg
Photographs: Jean Hanamoto

 "Crimes of Compassion" is the title of the movie about the struggle of the Canadian Compassion Clubs that was recently broadcasted on Channel 8. The Compassion Clubs are organizations that supply Marifuana to patients of chronic and terminal diseases, for an affordable sum of money. The title of the movie is a pun, composed of the words "Crimes of Passion" and "Compassion Club". The word "Compassion" in its deeper (Buddhist, if you like) sense, is a key word here. It refers not only to the benefits of the medicine, but also to the patients themselves, as a people who can choose their own medicines, its dosage and its taking frequency.  The concept is based on the idea that the patient is the one who knows what's best for her or him.

Ron, a Glaucoma patient, says in the movie: "It's like a hammer hitting you in the head every four seconds. The Marijuana lowers the pressure inside the eye, and so the swelling disappears as well. When I have a glaucoma attack, I take three puffs, and the pain disappears".

Nick, a terminal AIDS patient is trying to put some weight into his body, so he'll be able to fight the infections: "I'm trying to die better", He says in acceptance. It's the only way he can take the cocktail without vomiting his soul [– this is a Hebrew expression]. Before he found out about the "Compassion Club" of Victoria, Canada, he had to go look for pot in the dark parts of town, among drug dealers, and than to pay high sums of money for it.

In the "Compassion Club" he can receive organic Marifuana, suited for his needs. We need to say here that the cannabis, whose flowers are the raw material for the Marifuana, includes 60 known ingredients that are natural medicine herbals. The most famous of those is the THC, which gives the "High" effect, and helps relieving pains for cancer patients and prevents vomiting in AIDS patients, such as Nick.

As many patients testify, the "High effect doesn't happen for them, because it all channeled to the pain relieving. But what is good for Ron, isn't necessarily good for Greg, who has MS, and suffers from uncontrolled tremors. In the movie, he shows up to the clinic on a very bad day, and asks for the strongest medicine around. He can't sign in the blank, and the clerk draws a smiley for him instead. She puts the joint in his mouth, and after a few inhales, the tremors almost stop. Greg is a member of the Compassion Club of Vancuver that enjoys the Police co-operation, unlike the Victoria club, that was raided by the Police. Recently the Canadian government had declared the intention to simplify the complicated, long process of receiving the medical approval for Marifuana consumption that sometimes takes recommendations from two different physicians. Worried about their reputation, the physicians are not  thrilled about writing recommendations. Mark Emry, the president of the Medical Marijuana Association in Canada claims that once the Compassion Clubs are a formal pharmacy, the doctors won't be so reluctant to give their recommendation. This has already happened in Holland, where the doctors are allowed to prescribe Marifuana directly to their patients who can walk into a pharmacy and purchase a high quality medicine, that was grown in the best conditions and was sterilized by Maripharm company.

Like a Weed

WAMM (Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana) is based on a different model. It was established by Valerie and Mike Corral, a married couple form Santa Cruz, California. Valerie, a tiny energetic woman whose age (51) doesn't show, got Epilepsy after a strange car accidents that happened to her when she was 20: "I was driving in a car with a friend, and above us was a plane, that flew really low, and at a certain moment, it practically picked us up above the ground, and dropped us somewhere else. It was as if he was following us".

Following the accident, Valerie suffered from seizures, sometimes 5-6 a day. The pharmaceutical drug the doctors prescribed her were addictive, but hadn't managed to prevent the seizures as a whole. Valerie: "Later on I discovered that as many as 25% of epileptics don't respond to pharmaceutical medicine"

Mike Corral, Valerie's life-and WAMM partner read in 1974 an article that claimed that Marijuana can prevent Epileptic seizures. Valerie discovered then, that many low dosages of Marifuana can prevent the seizures completely. I witnessed that myself. One day, when we were about to drive to San Francisco, when Valerie felt the "aura", that precedes the seizure. She took a few puffs, rested a little bit, and then drove two hours and a half non-stop, in full concentration, with no seizure. It's important to say here, that Valerie's Marifuana is THC-less, and therefore is not dangerous while driving.

The Corrals have started growing Marijuana, and giving it to other patients as well. In August 1992 they were arrested for the first time. It was a traumatic experience, but Valerie can see the bright side of it too:  "In a way, it was good that they came here, because they could see how we lived. They could see that we are regular, ordinairy people, who use Marijuana"

The arrest gave her an insight: "I understood", says Valerie, "that in order to live my life as I want, and to choose what I want to do, I have to change the way people think". The charges against her were dropped on the basis of a Medical Necessity defense, that states that if one commits a crime, but does so to prevent a greater harm, and that is no alternative, then no crime was committed. "It's like, say, a man who steals a boat to save somebody from drowning. There was no intention to steal, only to save life", she expands.

Valerie was the first patient who got the legal right to use Marifuana. She met 5 from 6 criteria for it: "The Sixth demanded that the doctor would know of my use of Marijuana". At that time, doctors could not talk with their patients about Marifuana, let alone prescribe it. "It's absurd", she continues: " because that is the reason they dropped the charges against me. My doctor did know I used Marijuana. I told him that 18 years before. He saw I was better, and realized there was no need for pharmaceuticals".

The Law for Compassionate Use

The charges against the couple were dropped, but after a year, the police returned to their property, arrested them and took the crops. Valerie had to prove again that she was innocent. The second arrest prompted the Corrals to found WAMM and promote Prop. 215. Valerie: "We built a collective, community organization, based on donations, and we started growing organic Marifuana for people, and we have done very well.  It is important to understand", she explains the basic idea behind WAMM, "that you can't serve one need without recognizing another. It's a holistic necessity to take care of the needs of those who are suffering. This is why, when I was in the Prop 215 committee I kept insisting the part of cultivation, knowing that its' extremely important that patients could grow their own. Because otherwise we will be paying the middleman and the big growers. If a patients doesn't have access to medicine that's inexpensive, or free, then, especially if we can't cultivate our own, we'll have to buy it from the black market".

The Law for Compassionate Use (unlike commercial use, or for recreational use) that allows physicians to prescribe Marifuana, was accepted in 1996.

Today WAMM counts 250 patients. Valerie: "People are literally dying to become members of WAMM. Any time a patient dies, there is a long list of patients that want to take their place. The patients who join WAMM don't pay for their medicine, but they are committed to do anything they can. Some can work at the Cannabis garden, and grow their own medicine. The growing, the way Valerie sees it, is part of the healing process. Others do office work.  There are also caretakers in WAMM, people who assists patients who can't help themselves, people who are dying".

In that context, Valerie sees her life as a spiritual journey. "Illness has a way of awakening our true nature", says Valerie. "It can put us in touch with the essence of who we are".

In the last few years she has experienced the death of more than a hundred people, including friends and family members she has nursed. "Dealing with so much death", she explains, "its obvious that there is going to be a kind of stimulation, a kind of questioning and journey. Now Medical Marijuana and psychedelic forms of drugs that open consciousness and awareness have been instrumental in that as a use. But the illness itself, facing the difficulties that that illness brings into your life can also awaken those places. Places of hope, places of questioning. How can you not see the magic, the wonder", she says in a voice full of awe, "and the exquisite nature that accompanies that process. So it was just an obvious avenue. One soul looking at another soul. You just can’t help but see that in every being with whom you interact.  . It just unfolded in front of me as it was in our lives as we aged."

Marifuana at the City Hall

In 2000, a few month after I first interviewed Valerie, the city council of Santa Cruz reached an unanimous decision, to let any patients with a  subscription, to grow their own plant. However, that decision was against the Federal Law, that defines Marijuana as a dangerous drug, with no medical uses, and prohibits its growing, distribution, etc.

On September 5^th, 2002, early in the morning, the DEA agents broke into the Corrals home, arrested them, uprooted the blossoming plants, that were ready for harvest. That operation was conducted without coordinating with the local Sheriff's office, which is aware of WAMM's activity since its founding, and had never interfered with it.

"That morning was ominous", says Valerie. "I heard footsteps. I just knew it was the DEA because of the way they came in making so much noise, the early hours, without warning. I sneaked out, I looked through the window, I saw them and I sneaked down and came around to the front door and said “What are you doing in my home, get out!” They turned their guns on me and I may have been very lucky to not get shot. The agents threw her to the ground  and handcuffed her with a gun to her head. Valerie: "Now the process was long and drawn out, there was much opportunity. When I was on the ground there was a place that I seemed to retreat to and inside of me I felt completely and totally safe. Interesting but I knew and felt confident in what I am doing and the importance of that and it has never changed for me".

Valerie turned to the lead agent: "I started to talk to him about WAMM and about who we are and the mistake he was making. I said “You are going to hear me, you are going to hear what I have to say and when you leave here today, I’m going to go home with you and when you climb in bed tonight I’m going to be right there next to you and when you go to sleep, I will be inside of you until the day that you face your own suffering and your own death and you will know then what you do not now know".

Mike who was at the other house in the property,  was awakened in the same way. The Corrals seized any opportunity to talk to the agents, until they were released. "We spoke from our hearts. We spoke the truth that we know to be true, to be powerful. We spoke about our life experience and it changed (I believe) the minds of many of those men that day. Many of them did not like their job on that day. And I believe that that is extremely important. That is probably our job, to stay in our heads, in our truths, to not succumb to the concept that you are a criminal because you are being called a criminal by your Government. It was an amazing day", she relives her feelings, "…was I frightened, was it empowering, scary, was it a terrible day…all those things are true and in many other ways we found it to be an opportunity to hold alignment with the knowledge of our experience and that a great practice. It is good to practice in moments of discomfort".

Since the Corrals were released, there has been a campaign, both legal, and in the media, for returning the plants to WAMM, and  to allow growing and distributing them to the patients. As part of the struggle, the city council of Santa Cruz (where WAMM is located) allowed WAMM to distribute the medicine to the patients at the city hall itself. That became a demonstration in favor of WAMM, in the presence of the mayor and the city councilors. Valerie is convinced that WAMM will win eventually. To her, this is an opportunity to test the case in the legal system of the USA: "We are also confident that eventually congress will understand that by standing in the way of access to medicine that they are creating undue suffering and that they are responsible for that suffering".  Eventually they will see that because nobody gets out of this life alive. We have an opportunity and anytime you do something in the world to benefit another, it brings a benefit, a greater understanding and more freedom to everyone. That is justice, that is compassion and it can only be done through awareness".

 (separate box) The Situation in Israel

Patients who want to grow or to hold legally Marijuana for medical purposes, have to file a request for the committee by the Health Ministry that will include the patient's medical history and an opinion of the physician in charge, which establishes the fact that Marijuana indeed helps reliving the patient's suffering. Even so, you won't necessarily get the permission. Since July 1998 only 12 requests (out of 44) were approved, but permissions weren't always printed afterwards, according to a spokesperson for the Health Ministry, Rubie Steinberg. The main reason is that the patients don't continue with the process (in order to get the permission you need to give contact details such as ID number, address etc., and you can't print the formal permission without it). Most of the cancer patients with whom I had spoken, rather get the medicine illegally, because of the aforementioned long procedure. AIDS patients I interviewed for another article are afraid to be exposed for more people other than their physician. Moreover, those who cannot grow their medicine, have to get it on the black market, and take the risk of consumption of plants with unknown ingredients, that might be affected by bacteria or sprayed with chemicals.

But there is good news too, and those might change the whole picture. With the assistance of Boaz Wechtel, "Ale Yarok'"s (the party that works for legalization in Israel)  leader, Maripharm firm form Holland offered a donation of Marifuana for  a limited number of patients, hoping the import will continue commercially. According to Steinberg, "Sarel" firm, the main supplier of medicines and medical supply for hospitals in Israel, is in charge of the donation, and they haven't decided yet how to distribute it to the patients.

One can file the request for the special committee independently or through a lawyer. Advocate Avraham Bardugo, who has been dealing with Mariufuana for 12 years now, is ready to assist in certain cases, pro bono. His phone numbers are (in Israel): 068-519520, 03-7515848.

Additional info:

www.ale-yarok.org.il

www.wamm.org

www.maripharm.nl