Nelson County Times, Thursday June 17, 2004
Vol. 130 - No. 22/16 pages
www.nelsoncountytimes.com
Media General Newspapers Editor
Nelson County Times
Amherst, VA
Rep. Goode and medical marijuana
The Virginia Nurses Association (VNA) represents about
85,000 nurses in the Commonwealth.
Nurses rank second, to firefighters, as the most respected
profession in the US.
It is with pleasure, he said, to be your luncheon
speaker. Virgil Goode stood before the 2003 annual meeting
of the VNA at the Ramada Inn of Lynchburg on October
18, 2003 and spoke on the methods of contacting elected
officials. He then took questions.
The last question from the audience was more of an
invitation for Goode to attend an educational event
co-sponsored by Patients Out of Time and the University
of Virginia School of Medicine, which would present
state of the art research on the therapeutic value of
cannabis/marijuana. Nurse Mary Lynn Mathre invited him
to attend so that he would have knowledge on the subject
in order to make an informed decision on legislation
regarding the medical use of cannabis.
This conference was supported by the VNA. He stated
(incorrectly) that there once was a law in Virginia
about medical cannabis (its still there) and that the
whole idea was doubtful because a doctor in California
had written thousands of prescriptions for medical marijuana.
The nurse asking the question is one of the most knowledgeable
nurses in the country, certainly in Virginia, on the
topic of therapeutic cannabis and she knew right away
that Representative Goode knew nothing about the subject.
She invited him to The Third National Clinical Conference
on Cannabis Therapeutics to be held in May 2004.
He said either he or his agent would be there. As
he had advised in his speech, a personal signed letter
was sent to him along with the conference brochure.
It reminded him of his promise to attend and restated
the invitation. In addition to our US Congressman Goode,
we sent a brochure to every representative and senator
in the Commonwealth. The brochure indicated boldly that
the Virginia Nurses Association, the University of Virginia
Schools of Medicine,
Nursing and Law and the national non-profit, Patients
Out of Time, were presenting this conference.
We were there, where was Goode?
He was with the rest of our elected representatives,
someplace else. There were Representatives in attendance
from other states; a leader of the Virginia Nurses Association;
the American Nurses Association sent their Director
of Ethics; the nursing associations of Connecticut,
Maryland, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, North
Carolina, and Illinois sent representatives as their
emissaries; producers from the Montel Williams show
came; more from the NY Medical Society; from the offices
of a US Congressman from Florida; a Colorado state official;
but nobody
elected by Virginians showed up.
These no-showshave commissioned and we pay for the
annual Quality of Life in Virginia Survey. Each year
that survey conducted by the Center for Survey Research
at Virginia Tech, (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University,
Blacksburg, VA), has demonstrated that 75% of the adults
in this state believe that physicians should be allowed
to prescribe medical marijuana to their patients.
The patients our organization represents abhor ignorance
about therapeutic cannabis.
At this moment in time in Virginia there is not a
single elected official in this state who has the current
scientific knowledge to make a reasoned judgment about
therapeutic cannabis. Not one.
At the very least a moratorium should be implemented
immediately on the persecution and prosecution of cannabis
patients until those that represent us obtain the education
necessary to reach the level of understanding that
three quarters of their constituents have taken the
interest and time to acquire.
Al Byrne, Lcdr., USN, (ret)
Mary Lynn Mathre, RN
Co-founders, Patients Out of Time
1472 Fish Pond Rd.
Howardsville, VA 24562
(434) 263-4484, (434) 263-6753 fax
al@medicalcannabis.com
www.medicalcannabis.com
