Pot smoking changed pain-ridden author's life

The Billings Gazette (MT) ^ | September 25, 2003 | JAMES HAGENGRUBER

[MrLeRoy]

George McMahon is not allowed to visit the field where the federal government grows his marijuana. He has stood outside the double razor-wire fence circling the plot in Mississippi, but he's not allowed inside.

"I'm not really sure that I want to see it. The thought of all of that medicine locked up, while so many people are hurting, makes me angry," McMahon writes in his recently released book, "Prescription Pot."

McMahon suffers from a debilitating genetic disorder called Nail Patella Syndrome. Since 1990, the government has supplied him with 300 tightly rolled joints each month. Only four other Americans are permitted to smoke government-grown marijuana through the FDA's Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program, McMahon said in a telephone interview Tuesday from his home near Dallas.

Marijuana has made his painful life livable, said the 54-year-old former miner and mechanic. It's now his mission to help others gain legal rights to use the drug. His book, which was released Saturday, details his fight to legalize marijuana. The 200-page book is co-written by Christopher Largen and published by New Horizon Press.

"When I had marijuana, I was better. It was a miraculous easement of symptoms," McMahon said. "I'm still not recommending everybody go out and smoke a joint, but if you do, it shouldn't be a big deal."

McMahon has been married 32 years. One of his three children, Linda, lives in Billings. She also suffers from Nail Patella Syndrome, a hereditary condition that causes a wide variety of abnormalities of the limbs, as well as kidney disease and glaucoma. Like her father, Linda McMahon now finds pain pills worthless. But she has never tried marijuana out of fear of possible legal trouble, including having her children taken away. She knows that the drug did wonders for her father.

"I was there when he got approved," she said. "It has really helped. He's a totally different person now without all the pain."

Linda McMahon said she is going to visit her doctor later this month to see if she would be a good candidate for the drug Marinol, which has an active ingredient that mimics the chemical compound produced naturally by the marijuana plant.

George McMahon occasionally smoked marijuana back in the 1960s -- illegally -- and discovered that it eased his pain, nausea and leg spasms. It wasn't until years later, when his conditioned worsened, that McMahon came to rely on the drug as a regular part of his treatment.

It was after a major kidney operation when he was lying in a hospital bed "like a gutted fish," he said. He had not eaten solid food in 30 days and had not slept well for six weeks. The doctors gave him less than a week to live. Late one night, a cancer patient down the hall traded him a marijuana joint for a cigarette. McMahon lit up in his hospital bed.

"I was hurting too much to care," he wrote.

His appetite returned and his pain lifted.

"I simply felt better. I was more alert, my pain was not as debilitating and it was easier for me to move around. The spasms I suffered, particularly in my legs, which prevented me from sleeping eased after smoking marijuana and my legs didn't dance around on their own all night," he wrote.

McMahon had taken up to 50 different pills each day. "I used to gulp pills like a candy addict munching gumdrops," he wrote. "It seemed my doctor had a pill for everything. Pills to wake up. Pills to sleep. Pills to relax muscles. Pills to relieve pain. Pills to fight infections."

After he started smoking marijuana regularly, "I haven't taken a pill since," he said. "My whole world is very natural, very nice."

In the late 1980s, McMahon learned about a government study that provided marijuana to people with certain medical conditions. McMahon was the fifth person to apply to the FDA program. His approval took two years. About 2,000 others applied, he said. Only 15 eventually were supplied with government pot before President George Bush shut down the program in 1992. Five continue to receive the marijuana.

McMahon's joints come pre-rolled and packed in a metal tin. All of it is free. The marijuana is about a quarter less potent than typical "Mexican red" bought from a street dealer. McMahon smokes about a quarter-pound each month -- this works out to about 10 joints on many days -- but he doesn't get high. The drug keeps him pain-free, lucid, relaxed and able to do daily tasks.

"I don't go numb, I don't just trip off from Cloud Nine," he said.

McMahon said he can't figure out why the drug is illegal. Alcohol has been proven to be more destructive to bodies and society, he said. Numerous studies he included at the back of his book show the drug has medical benefits.

In McMahon's opinion, the government's ban on the plant is based on a philosophy of "I don't like this so you can't do it."

Voters are increasingly fighting the federal drug laws, but McMahon said there's no certain outcome over the fight to legalize the drug.

"When you get hold of the neck of the snake it fights even harder," he said.

[MrLeRoy]

Wod_list (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/involved?group=124) ping

[aynrandfreak]

One more thing that the Canadians can learn from us.

[dead]

"I used to gulp pills like a candy addict munching gumdrops," he wrote. "It seemed my doctor had a pill for everything. Pills to wake up. Pills to sleep. Pills to relax muscles. Pills to relieve pain. Pills to fight infections."

Decriminalize pot and it’s free.

Can’t tax what’s free.

[kinghorse]

"McMahon smokes about a quarter-pound each month"

Uhh, speechless.

[TBall]

"this works out to about 10 joints on many days" Why don't they just give him the good stuff and he could have 10 puffs from one joint a day. That would probably be better for his lungs.

[MrLeRoy]

Why don't they just give him the good stuff and he could have 10 puffs from one joint a day. That would probably be better for his lungs.

The feds have a vested interest in portraying marijuana as bad medicine.

[MrLeRoy]

"McMahon smokes about a quarter-pound each month"

Uhh, speechless.

You may be, but he's not:

'he doesn't get high. The drug keeps him pain-free, lucid, relaxed and able to do daily tasks.

'"I don't go numb, I don't just trip off from Cloud Nine," he said.'

[tallhappy]

Yes. Prescription. Unlike the scam Cannabis clubs etc...

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[Hildy]

If Marijuana were the only thing to relieve pain for anyone I loved, I would get it for them and go to jail if I had to. When my Dad was dying of Cancer and nauseous and had no appetite we talked about it. He died soon after, but I would have gone down to the nearest high school and got him some without giving it a second thought.

[thinktwice]

Can’t tax what’s free.

The stuff grows like a weed, too; and they can't tax weeds.

[MrLeRoy]

Yes. Prescription. Unlike the scam Cannabis clubs etc...

Cannabis clubs etc. are the best people can do under the federal ban on prescribing marijuana. THAT'S the real scam; if five people are helped by marijuana, many more could be.

[LisaAnne]

I didn't realize that the government had a program like this. Do you know what reason Dubya gave for closing it down?

[MrLeRoy]

I think it was before Dubya's time that it stopped accepting new patients. I'll Google the program name and see what I can find out.

[headsonpikes]

Unlike the scam Cannabis clubs etc...

Okay, I'll ask. You're being ironic, right?

[tallhappy]

No.

[Old Professer]

An image of the hands of an afflicted subject:

About 1 in 50,000 people are diagnosed with this disease and 50% of their offspring will inherit the condition - the only life-threating aspect is kidney failure and the estimate on incidence ranges from 10% to 50% of those diagnosed.

From reviewing four medical sites, pain was not a major component of distress in the literature, while weak knees, hands and poorly-shaped, recessive nails were the the most common outward manifestations.

I'm not sure what Marijuana would do for the overall health and prognosis of one congenitally so affected.

[headsonpikes]

No

Thank you for your prompt response.

[kinghorse]

MJ is to the folks at Pfizer, Anheuser Busch and Phillip Morris what Kazaa is to Vivendi, Sony and EMI. Can't have that, can we?