PRESS RELEASE
Patients Out of Time announces additions to the growing list of 43 professional health organizations and support groups that are demanding that patients and their care givers have immediate access to therapeutic Cannabis.
In July of 1997 the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Nurses Association voted to endorse the concept of allowing for the therapeutic use of marijuana in a variety of disease states, including AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, asthma, glaucoma, seizures, and cancer, when conventional treatments are ineffective. This action was the direct result of an educational program presented by Bryan Krumm of New Mexicans for Compassionate Use. New Mexico is the seventh state nursing association to formally acknowledge the needs of some patients to use therapeutic Cannabis to effectively manage their sickness.
The combined state nursing associations of VA, MS, CO, NY, CA, NC, and NM represent hundreds of thousands of nurses who are officially requesting the federal government to respect the needs of its sick citizens rather than the dictates of political science. The American Nurses Associations Council of Nursing Practice in May of 1996 voted to support education for RNs regarding current evidence based therapeutic uses of Cannabis and to support investigation of therapeutic efficacy of Cannabis in controlled trials. Even as our drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, continues to state publicly that no health care organization has endorsed medical marijuana the actions of these nursing organizations as well as the National Nurses Society on Addictions, the American Public Health Association, and others are busily educating their memberships about therapeutic Cannabis.
As Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, commented in a recent national magazine interview when asked about McCafferys continuous denials of these organizational positions, Its a lie. But he says it and nobody challenges him.
On June 1, 1997, the Florida Medical Association passed a resolution calling for the reopening of the Investigational New Drug program; to expedite unimpeded (FMA emphasis) research into the therapeutic potential of smokable marijuana; and that these requests be presented to the AMA. The addition to these two organizations brings the total to 43 groups of various sizes, interests and skills that are in conflict with the federal governments highest ranking propaganda official in the war on drugs/patients.
Patients Out of Time would like this press release to stimulate the press to print the true story about this nationally supported and healthcare-driven citizen action for therapeutic Cannabis.