“My abdomen, which might be hard as a rock from a spasm will relax.” John Kelly has a spinal cord injury that has paralysed him from the shoulders down. He experiences chronic muscle pain and spasms, but that seems to go away, he says, when he smokes marijuana.
Kelly is joined by an ever-increasing number in the USA and throughout the rest of the world who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. His case is similar to that of a woman from Western Massachusetts, who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease, who says it prevents her from having brain aneurysms.
“Even the dudes at Yale University School of Medicine and Pathology said that because [of] the pot I was smoking [it] didn’t allow mind to burst, [sic]” said Marcy Duda of Ware.
They’re all in support of legislation bill that would legalise marijuana for medical purposes in Massachusetts. Nevertheless, some professionals fear the legislation, which allows users to possess up to 24 marijuana plants, will lead to carelessness.
“I think the liberalisation of the use of marijuana may send a strong message especially to young people who experiment with it,” said Dr. Leonard Morse, who opposes the medical marijuana bill. “It is a gateway drug and it is addictive.”
Senator Stanley Rosenberg, who is sponsoring the bill, assures critics that if it passes, medical marijuana will be tightly regulated.
“We are not going to be California. We are not going to be Amsterdam,” said Rosenberg. “We’re going to be like Rhode Island and Maine, a very tightly controlled system and only under the orders and direction of doctors and with the oversight and regulation of the Department of Public Health.”
In Massachusetts possessing an ounce (28.35g) or less of marijuana is a civil violation that carries a $100 fine. Possessing more than an ounce could lead to jail time.
Presently DC and 16 states in the country have legalised medical marijuana.
