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Group lights up in favor of medical marijuana
Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse tour the state to reveal the truth about legal drugs
by Katie Wilson | Freelance Reporter |
Everyday people are destroying their bodies with perfectly legal and easily accessible drugs, says Sandee Burbank, executive director for Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse.
The worst part? They have no idea that they are doing this to themselves.
Burbank spoke at the downtown Eugene Public Library last Friday as part of a state-wide MAMA tour. The organization is on a mission to pull back the veil on what Americans are being told to put into their bodies.
"It's amazing how uneducated we are about the drugs out there," Burbank said.
MAMA advocates the Medical Marijuana Program primarily because it has seen people destroyed by pain when the medicine prescribed by doctors didn't work. Often, it made things worse.
"The more (medications) they gave me, the problem got worse," said Alice Ivany, who traveled with Burbank to share her story.
Ivany's left arm was amputated after an industrial accident in 1977. She was on a number of pain pills which made her very ill. Nothing worked. Life was further complicated by a surgery.
She began taking Tylenol and continued taking it for 10 years. As a result, she developed high blood pressure and will be on medication for that condition for the rest of her life.
Running out of options, she discussed medical marijuana, also called cannabis, with her doctor.
"I hadn't thought of it as a medication at the time," she said. "It's given me a quality of life I didn't have before."
After a life spent physically pushing his body, Jack Thomas finally came crashing down when he destroyed discs in his spine.
The doctors prescribed three daily doses of 600 milligrams of ibuprofen.
"By the time I finished that, my stomach was gone," Thomas said.
Doctors prescribed more medication to treat the new problems, but this only led to further complications until Thomas was, more often than not, flat on his back in pain.
What helped him was cannabis.
"Here is something I realized," Thomas said. "In my life, I didn't drink. I knew alcohol might kill me. I was told marijuana would kill me, so I didn't want to do that. Then they gave me meds and that almost killed me, so now I'm back to marijuana."
The worst part? They have no idea that they are doing this to themselves.
Burbank spoke at the downtown Eugene Public Library last Friday as part of a state-wide MAMA tour. The organization is on a mission to pull back the veil on what Americans are being told to put into their bodies.
"It's amazing how uneducated we are about the drugs out there," Burbank said.
MAMA advocates the Medical Marijuana Program primarily because it has seen people destroyed by pain when the medicine prescribed by doctors didn't work. Often, it made things worse.
"The more (medications) they gave me, the problem got worse," said Alice Ivany, who traveled with Burbank to share her story.
Ivany's left arm was amputated after an industrial accident in 1977. She was on a number of pain pills which made her very ill. Nothing worked. Life was further complicated by a surgery.
She began taking Tylenol and continued taking it for 10 years. As a result, she developed high blood pressure and will be on medication for that condition for the rest of her life.
Running out of options, she discussed medical marijuana, also called cannabis, with her doctor.
"I hadn't thought of it as a medication at the time," she said. "It's given me a quality of life I didn't have before."
After a life spent physically pushing his body, Jack Thomas finally came crashing down when he destroyed discs in his spine.
The doctors prescribed three daily doses of 600 milligrams of ibuprofen.
"By the time I finished that, my stomach was gone," Thomas said.
Doctors prescribed more medication to treat the new problems, but this only led to further complications until Thomas was, more often than not, flat on his back in pain.
What helped him was cannabis.
"Here is something I realized," Thomas said. "In my life, I didn't drink. I knew alcohol might kill me. I was told marijuana would kill me, so I didn't want to do that. Then they gave me meds and that almost killed me, so now I'm back to marijuana."
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