Thanks 420 Magazine for posting the entire Huffington Post article by Steph Sheer,If NBC Can See the Need for Medical Marijuana, Why Can’t Obama?
What a beautifully written article! It is wonderful to see the arts expanding from portraying “pot culture” to helping educate people about what is medical marijuana (cannabis) and its efficacy as a medicine. I am so grateful that the tide is turning and that science is becoming more of a part of the conversation about cannabis. The portrayal of the cannabis experience in Parenthood is not unlike my family’s experience when my mom utilized cannabis to help her die more comfortably with lung cancer.
Here is a snippet from the article:
In the episode “One More Weekend with You,” aired November 20, Kristina Braverman’s character, played by Monica Potter, tries to stay strong for her family, but becomes violently ill after receiving chemotherapy. Her husband Adam, played by Peter Krause, finds her on the bathroom floor and panics. He cleans her up and then packs all the kids into the car to visit his musician-producer brother, the first person he could think of who might have marijuana. His brother produces some from his sock drawer and warns that it was not the same pot from when they were kids, it was “genetically engineered” (a common misunderstanding of the decades of modern breeding of the plant for human consumption).
In the next scene Kristina Braverman’s character is laying in bed smoking a joint. She is visibly better. She says it is strong and puts it out, saying “Save that f
or later.” Her husband asked if it helped, and he is visibly relieved to see her smile. She acknowledges the relief she’s found from marijuana, and says her husband will need to get “a lot more.” She settles back into her pillow and finally sleeps.
This episode reflects a situation that thousands of cancer patients and their caregivers are experiencing, but not always with the same ending. As a medical cannabis advocate I see this story play out in many ways. Many caregivers don’t have a pot-smoking brother and instead find themselves asking for marijuana from friends, family members or even their children. Over the past decades I have heard heartbreaking stories of people having no idea where to look and who to ask for this medicine.
But even for those patients who can find a supply of marijuana for their needs, many questions still arise. What if their source runs out? What if their source gets into a legal entanglement? What if there is mold or mildew on the medicine? What should they do if they live in public housing?
These experiences and these questions are what voters and legislators are trying to answer by passing laws in 18 states and the District of Columbia. These laws don’t make marijuana medicine — cannabis is a plant that has been used medicinally for thousands of years. The laws are an attempt
to reconcile the legal system with the reality of sick patients seeking effective medicine. For patients and government officials in medical cannabis states, it is now federal law that is creating the most significant hurdle.
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