CAMPAIGN UPDATE– OCTOBER 9

According to recent press release Maine Citizens for Patients Rights has opened a new campaign office at 10 Exchange St. Suite #204, Portland. The office will be open from 1:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Sunday – Thursday.

HELP DETAILS!

We need volunteers to come to the office and call voters around the state to urge them to vote “Yes” on 5! We’ll provide training for callers. E-mail info@mainecommonsense.org to sign up for a phone banking shift!

We also need people to hold signs along the Franklin Arterial every day at 4:30 pm – and to organize daily or weekly “visibility” events in their own communities.

CAMPAIGN COORDINATORS NEEDED!

Would you be willing to serve as a campaign coordinator for your town or city or campus, helping to spread the word about Question 5 in your community?

If you are willing to help, please write to us TODAY at info@mainecommonsense.org Give us your name, your phone number, your mailing address, and your e-mail address so we can talk with you about how to rally your community around giving very sick people access to a medicine that can help restore their quality of life.

Every day counts. Every vote counts. Please write to us today!

MORE VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES AROUND MAINE

To win this campaign, we need your support. Please contact us if you:

  • Can hold a house party to raise funds in support of our work
  • Can distribute literature in your community
  • Can organize regular “visibility” events where people hold signs in a high traffic area.
  • Can hold a sign on election day at the polls
  • Can make 25 phone calls to your friends who support the campaign
  • Can add our banner to your website/myspace/facebook page
  • Can sign on to Twitter on election day to ensure your friends get out and vote

This ballot initiative has strong support here in the state of Maine and so the important remaining factor is whether our supporters will get out and vote. Please do your part today and get involved and guarantee a better quality of life for patients across the state.

To get involved, e-mail us at info@mainecommonsense.org

VOTE EARLY!

Not sure you can make it to the polls on election day? Then go to your City Hall or Town Office today and request an absentee ballot. Can’t make it there? You can request a ballot by mail by going to https://www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/AbsenteeBallot/index.pl and printing and mailing the form. Some cities and towns even allow you to request an absentee ballot online! So request your absentee ballot today, vote “Yes” on Question 5, and make sure your friends do too!

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR!

Did you know that more people read the “Letters to the Editor” of most newspapers than read any of the news stories? Writing a letter to the editor is a great way to build support for Question 5! A few tips:

  • Keep it short, simple, and to the point. Most newspapers only print letters under 250 words.
  • If you have a personal story about medical marijuana, tell it in your letter.
  • Don’t forget to end it with “Please vote ‘Yes’ on Question 5 on Tuesday, November 3!”
  • Look on the editorial page of your newspaper or the newspaper’s website to find the address to send your letter to.
  • Follow up with a phone call to the editorial page editor of the paper asking when your letter will appear.
  • E-mail a copy of your letter to us at info@mainecommonsense.org – and let us know when and where it appears!

SAMPLE LETTER

To the editor:

In 1999, Mainers voted overwhelmingly to allow doctors to recommend marijuana to patients suffering from devastating diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, cancer and HIV.

Studies in medical journals and the personal testimonies of patients both demonstrate marijuana’s ability to relieve debilitating pain, ease muscle spasms, quell nausea, and restore appetite to very sick people, greatly improving their quality of life.

But qualified patients in Maine still face tremendous obstacles to getting the medicine their doctors recommendation – obstacles that can prove insurmountable to some of the patients who would benefit most from marijuana.

Under current law, there is no safe and reliable way for patients to get marijuana. They must either grow their own – a daunting prospect for someone immobilized by pain and muscles spasms, and an impossible one for someone with just a few months left to live – or buy it on the black market.

Question 5, on the ballot on Tuesday, November 3, would correct this problem by setting up a system of tightly regulated non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries that would give qualified patients safe and reliable access to the medicine their doctors recommend.

Decency and compassion demand that we give sick people safe access to medicine that will ease their suffering – vote “Yes” on Question 5!

Mary Weed

Paris, ME

PLEASE DONATE TODAY!

We also need your financial support to make this campaign a success!

We run a tight ship and your donation will go a long way in helping us reach Maine voters. Patients throughout Maine are depending on you to help us pass Question 5 so they can have safe and reliable access to their medicine.

Donate TODAY by going to http://www.mainepatientsrights.org/ and clicking on the green button that says “Donate Online.”

QUESTION 5 IN THE NEWS

http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/9237/Default.aspx

Health Practioners Divided Over Proposed Expansion of Medical Marijuana

Maine Public Broadcasting Network October 2, 2009 Reported by Susan Sharon

Next month Maine voters will consider a measure that would expand the list of illnesses and conditions covered under the state’s ten-year-old medical marijuana law. Question 5 on the ballot would also allow for the establishment of state-regulated dispensaries where medical marijuana patients could safely access the drug. Though the issue has received sparse attention and there is no organized opposition, Maine’s top law enforcement officials are against the idea. But when it comes to the medical community, the dividing lines are blurred.

Even though she’s been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and meets the criteria for medical marijuana under current Maine law, “Jane” says she never considered trying to access the drug until this year. In March, Attorney General Eric Holder announced he would not prosecute marijuana distributors unless they violate both federal and state law. Maine is one of 13 states that has legalized medicinal marijuana, but at the federal level it is still illegal.

“You’re in this kind of never-never land,” “Jane” says. “You’re allowed to have it and hopefully enjoy the effects of it but you can’t legally purchase it.”

“Jane” asked that we not use her real name and alter her voice to protect her identity. That’s because as a wheelchair-bound MS patient, she’s prescribed a range of medications that she believes make her vulnerable to theft on the black market.

Under Maine law, “Jane” and other medical marijuana patients who meet certain criteria, could grow a small amount of marijuana for their personal use. But “Jane’s” physical limitations make that virtually impossible. For recently-diagnosed cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation, there’s often not enough time to raise mature plants by the time they need it.

That’s one reason “Jane” supports Question 5. “I’ve looked at this bill and it struck me as being in some ways like the California law but not subject to the abuse. It has more restrictions and more oversight and what it would do is allow people who fit in the criteria to have a lawful way to get it and you would be assured that what you’re getting is a safe product. Right now you’re on your own.”

“Jane” says she has relied on the kindness of friends to get marijuana. But first she had to find a Maine doctor willing to treat her as a patient. There is no list. Names are shared by word of mouth. And by all accounts there are only a few.

“I don’t start with medical marijuana as the first choice for a medical condition. It’s part of a whole assessment of what can be done for a given condition,” says Dr. John Woytowicz, a family physician in Augusta who says he’s treated about 50 medical marijuana patients, including “Jane” over the past ten years.

“And I put it very frankly to the patient that I would like to explore all opportunities and this could be one of the options as well. My experience is for the appropriate patient, it can be a good option for them, and most people have been benefitted by it with the minimal amount of side effects.”

“Remarkably, the way I use it most is – I call it “funny butter on English muffins.” I just have an English muffin with this butter on it in the morning with my coffee and that’s it, and it has made a remarkable difference,” says “Jane” who says the difference includes a reduction in pain, muscle spasms, being able to sleep better and a better quality of life.

She used to have steroid injections every four to eight weeks and hated how they made her feel. But since she began using medical marijuana “Jane” says she hasn’t needed them. “I have not had a steroid injection since then, and that’s seven months without a steroid injection and steroid is terrible for your bones.”

Dr. Woytowicz says he supports the medical marijuana dispensary idea because he thinks it will give medical marijuana more legitimacy, make it easier for doctors to incorporate it in their practices and make it safer for some patients who are currently buying it on the black market.

But State Health Director Dr. Dora Anne Mills says it’s wrong to have public health agencies oversee marijuana dispensaries. “And the referendum, if passed, would conflict with current federal law. So to put a state agency in the position of dispensing a drug in an illegal way, and a harmful drug, I think would put us in a horrendous position.”

“I would advocate for limiting access to marijuana and not to regard it as a medication,” says Dr. Mark Publicker, an addiction specialist with Mercy Recovery Center in Westbrook. He says the positive and negative effects of marijuana have not been thoroughly studied.

But he says it’s clear the use of the drug is not entirely benign. “There’s no question it’s a gateway drug. It’s stimulating the same pathways as the opioids. There is literature showing that cannabis increases the risk of heroin addiction. But the other issue is, it’s keeping kids involved in the drug scene. So the kids exposed to people that are selling and smoking are far more likely to be exposed to other drugs.”

Supporters of Question 5 point out that similar arguments were made about legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes ten years ago. And they say Maine voters have already made their feelings about them clear.

But Dr. Owen Pickus, who regularly treats Aids and cancer patients, says marijuana’s acceptance has more to do with politics than medicinal value. And even though he has treated patients who use medical marijuana, he says he’s taking a neutral stance on Question 5. “I am uncomfortable prescribing medication to patients unless I know that the medication goes through an approvalprocess that the FDA is involved in. This is not the way to handle the problem.”

Pickus says he has only treated about 10 medical marijuana patients over the years. Some say the fact that there are so few doctors and patients using the drug show that it’s use is not being exploited ten years after it was first legalized in Maine.

The Valley Voice provides equal time to opposing viewpoints