This is Viewpoints for Sunday, March 26, 2017

Dispelling the myths

As the Georgia Legislature nears hopefully passing a bill that adds conditions to Georgia’s medical cannabis law, there have been several recent inconsistent and misleading reports as to what this law has done and will do. My daughter suffers from uncontrollable seizures, and we have seen success using medical cannabis oil. This law has allowed us the opportunity to work with our doctor to determine what medicine is best for her. Contrary to what a vocal minority of opponents say, we are not trying to legally smoke pot and we are not trying to make money. We are trying to gain access to the best medicine available, backed by research, that helps our daughter’s condition. Period. Because of these inaccuracies I feel it is important to lay out what these medical cannabis laws are, and what they are not.

This is not about recreational use. Despite our opponents insistence, or complete lack of understanding, medical and recreational use of cannabis are two completely different sets of issues and arguments. We and many others, simply want medical cannabis as an option to treat our debilitating conditions. We want a safe, consistent, lab-tested product that our doctors can work with.

This is not about drug abuse. If you want to abuse marijuana, then you can easily do so today. Our children and other patients actually get more “high” and addicted to all of the current pharmaceuticals we are forced to take today. Our opponents point to studies that show teen use of marijuana “may” cause some long-term impacts to developing brains. These studies were conducted on non-sick teenagers who were smoking pot. Our children are already on four to 10 medications per day that can cause many more severe side effects.

This is about putting medical cannabis on the same playing field as every other single medication that our doctors are allowed to prescribe. The opponents say they want research showing the benefits. The research is out there, they just refuse to read it. They say they want double-blind placebo trials. Those are out there too, but in small quantities because the federal government blocks this kind of research, at the same time as asking why it’s not available. Why is medical cannabis treated so differently? As parents wanting what is best for our children, we are forced to fight for state laws to circumvent the immoral federal laws. All these state laws do is allow a patient to work with their doctor in determining if medical cannabis even works for them.

This is about the success stories we’ve already seen here in Georgia. Georgia’s current program has over 1,300 patients, over 300 registered doctors, zero instances of abuse, and over a 1,000 success stories. There’s the child with seizures, whose seizure count has been drastically reduced from 20-50 per day to an average of 1 per day. There’s the elderly churchgoer with severe pain from a damaged nerve in his face, who is now able to drive, go eat with his family, and drop two of his dangerous pharmaceuticals. There’s the autistic child, who previously had to be locked in her room because of rages and her danger to others, who can now carry on a conversation and go to a restaurant with her parents. There’s the Tourette Syndrome patient whose tics have been drastically reduced. There’s the MS patient whose spasms have decreased dramatically. There’s the teenage Crohn’s patient whose symptoms and pain have been greatly reduced, and he can now attend school again. And there’s the namesake of Georgia’s first medical cannabis bill, Haleigh, who instead of being in a hospital bed with numerous seizures, just said “Momma” for the first time. And on and on. These are real stories of real Georgians who have been given their life back – all because of medical cannabis.

We need more success stories. The only way to get them is to allow more people the ability to work with their doctors to see if medical cannabis is an option. Why would anyone want to prevent a doctor from having all the options available to them?

Unspoken reason

The front page article of the March 23 issue of The Telegraph titled “Houston population could eclipse Bibb in ‘17” contained a glaring and obvious omission.

While the individuals interviewed for the article cited various reasons for the continued decline in the Macon-Bibb County population, as well the increase in surrounding counties, the most glaring reason was omitted — the Macon-Bibb County crime rate.

That is the reason my wife and I moved from Bibb County to Monroe County and I’m convinced it is the reason countless others have done the same.

Saving our youth

Hard to figure, but it has been said that most people who turn into criminals usually start out young. The juvenile justice system is backlogged with many of these youth. Their route, in-school, out-of-school suspension, YDC and prison as they commit crimes along the way. I am a state certified instructor in anger management and have volunteered at Macon State Prison for three years.

Many of the young inmates I have spoken with have anger issues, starting from their youth. Not being an expert, it just seems to me coming from young inmates that many of our youth in the juvenile justice system have the same anger issues.

I created a class with the major concepts of anger management and how to deal with anger, especially for youth. I have submitted the lesson and my credentials to two counties juvenile justice systems. They won’t even tell me why they won’t allow me to instruct the classes in their systems. I’m certified by the state, have credits toward a masters degree in education, 24 years in the military two years active duty Army and 22 years in the Air Force Reserves and part of the time as an academic training instructor. I retired from Robins Air Force Base with a high security clearance, background checks from Georgia Department of Corrections.

I’m not saying the class is a game changer for troubled youth, but it possibly gives another positive thing from different perspectives. It might give information they have never had, and it’s free.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 9:08 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, March 26, 2017."