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NY patients holding onto hope
By Hempology | June 17, 2007
Newsday, NY
14 Jun 2007
Jason Del Rey
HOPE RIDING ON NY MARIJUANA BILL
For several years, Cedarhurst resident Sherri Greene has suffered from fibromyalgia, an arthritis-related condition that causes debilitating pain throughout her arms and legs.
When the pain is at its worst, Green, 65, can’t even grip a telephone. Tired of the ineffectiveness of painkillers, Greene turned to a different kind of drug to ease her pain: marijuana.
“I took two puffs,” Greene said, “and it worked wonders.”
Greene, like others with similar medical conditions, is hoping that a bill currently before the New York State Legislature will pass and legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.
The Assembly passed a medical marijuana bill Thursday and sent it to the Senate. But Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno ( R-Brunswick ) criticized the bill as too broad and said a colleague would soon introduce a rival bill. Earlier this week, Gov. Eliot Spitzer reversed himself and said he would support legalization. However, only four working days are left before the legislature adjourns.
“If something could help someone in severe pain, why should they be denied it?” said Greene, who also has T-cell lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. “I don’t think the government has the right to make that choice.”
Dr. Robert A. Duarte, director of the Pain and Headache Treatment Center at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, said Greene is not alone. Over the past year, Duarte said, drug screenings have shown that “a significant minority” of the center’s chronic-pain patients use marijuana.
“They state that it’s helping them with pain control,” he said.
When patients test positive for marijuana, doctors inform them they can no longer prescribe drugs for them that may interact with the marijuana. They also provide counseling on drug addiction and dependency.
Duarte said that while marijuana is an illicit drug, it possesses the mechanism to activate receptors in the brain that can alleviate pain. Still, research has not yet produced “exciting numbers” regarding its medicinal value, he said.
The American Cancer Society is looking for more concrete data before considering supporting its medicinal uses, said Keith Harris, media relations director for the society’s New York metro region. “Better and more effective treatments are needed to overcome the side effects of cancer and its treatment,” he said in a statement.
But, currently, “the American Cancer Society does not advocate the use of inhaled marijuana or the legalization of marijuana.”
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