PRESS RELEASE
In an effort to reach an even greater number of health
care professionals, patients, educators and citizens,
Patients Out of Time announces that George McMahan,
one of the eight patients in the United States who
receives Cannabis/marijuana from the US government
is available for personal appearances.
Over the past several years George has experienced
a noticeable improvement in his overall health and
his ability to travel. He is by no means cured of the
rare nail-patella syndrome that has affected him since
birth but the symptoms, which include constant pain,
have become bearable from his daily administration
of natural marijuana grown for him on the US government's
Cannabis farm in Mississippi. George is currently finishing
a speaking tour throughout Texas. In four-day increments
he spoke before numerous professional groups and civic
organizations, called on several members of the Texas
Senate, and was featured on radio talk shows. George
is very specific about his goal: "As long as my
government refuses to provide Cannabis as a medicine
to my daughter and granddaughter who have inherited
this dreadful disease from me I will never stop speaking
to the injustice and callousness of such a policy." George
McMahan has the courage and ability as a legal marijuana
patient to speak out openly about his marijuana use
as few other people can do without the threat of serious
legal consequences. This may be an opportunity for
your organization to hear the truth about therapeutic
Cannabis. Contact Patients Out of Time for more information.
Patients Out of Time is also pleased to add two more
groups to it's expanding list of local and national
organizations that have made the reinstitution of medical
marijuana into the National Pharmacopoeia a part of
their group's priorities. In June of 1998, the Washington
State Democratic Party at their Yakima, WA conference
included the ending of the medical Cannabis prohibition
and turning responsibility over to physicians to be
a goal of their political agenda. Also from the northwest,
the Washington Hemp Education Network issued a resolution
calling on therapeutic Cannabis to be immediately made
available to patients under a medical doctor's care.
These additions to the list of groups supporting the
end of therapeutic Cannabis prohibition are a demonstration
of the publics faith in the professional health care
community and highlight a lack of confidence that the
present prohibition policies of the US government are
in any way appropriate or of value.
Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, an expert addictions consultant
to the University of Virginia's Health System and initiator
of the American Public Health Association's positive
resolution calling for access to therapeutic Cannabis
calls the prohibition of medical Cannabis "a political
decision based on lies, greed and bigotry; not on the
needs of patients or the historical record of safety
in clinical trials and application." Ms. Mathre,
a recognized expert in Cannabis administration and
editor of the acclaimed Cannabis in Medical Practice:
A Legal, Historical and Pharmacological Overview of
the Therapeutic Use of Marijuana, also advises that, "the
Code for Nurses requires them to participate in the
profession's effort to protect the public from misinformation
and misrepresentation and no therapeutic substance
has been more misrepresented by our government than
Cannabis. The Nursing profession must lead the patient
advocacy position concerning medical Cannabis."
Please share and distribute the accompanying list
of organizations supporting the patients' right to
therapeutic Cannabis. For confirmation or copies of
individual resolutions please contact Patients Out
of Time.
2/99
