by Matt Kibbe
His adherence to outdated dogma threatens to deny relief to those
Americans who need it most.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is actively lobbying Congress to overturn
existing law prohibiting federal interference in state
medical-marijuana policy. As someone who believes in strong
constitutional limits on federal power and the rights of patients to
choose, I am deeply disappointed.
And as a cancer survivor who wanted
the choice for myself, I wonder: Does Sessions have any idea what it’s
like?
In 2001, I was diagnosed with stage-four cancer. My doctor found a large
tumor in my abdomen, and his initial diagnosis read like a death
sentence. My wife and I quickly wrote a living will and accessed our
finances in the hope that she could keep our home if I died. After many
hours of surgery, biopsy results revealed that my cancer could be
treated with a toxic cocktail of chemotherapy drugs, including cisplatin
and etoposide. My death sentence turned into a chance to beat this
disease. Finally, I thought to myself, my stubbornness might be put to
good use, weaponized against the cancer in what would be a long slog
through many months of chemotherapy.
Most people know about the hair loss and nausea that accompany most
cancer treatments. Loss of appetite is common, too. I lost over 45
pounds during treatment, until I looked a little bit like Keith Richards
on a bad day, if he were bald. But that was the least of my problems.
My white-blood-cell count plummeted, exposing my immune system to
endless external threats. I was anemic because my red blood cells were
also ravaged by the constant drip of toxins into my veins. I would
inject shots into my belly to restore some of the cells in my bone
marrow, creating the unforgettable sensation that my bones were
exploding. My kidneys were also ravaged by the treatment, which proved
particularly problematic for me because my massive tumor had already
destroyed one of them.
I still deal with the extensive nerve damage in
my hands and feet. Overall, my experience with chemo was like the worst
hangover you can imagine multiplied by five, every day without any
relief for months on end.
I lived in the District of Columbia, which had legalized medical
cannabis in 1998.
I wanted to try it, to help manage the side effects of
chemo. I had a cornucopia of expensive prescription drugs available to
treat many of the side effects, dysfunctions, and pains associated with
my cancer and its treatment. I didn’t enjoy the withdrawal from opioids
after my first surgery, so I was avoiding many of the prescription
painkillers on offer. But I quickly learned that legal medical cannabis
was not an option after all, because the Republican Congress had passed
something called the Barr Amendment, blocking implementation of a
legalization initiative passed by 69 percent of voters. I laughed out
loud at the bitter irony. I had been a senior Republican congressional
staffer during the Republican revolution of 1994, the year Bob Barr was
elected to the House. Back then, conservative Republicans were all about
federalism and constitutional limits on federal government power. We
believed that health-care choices should be made by patients and their
doctors, not by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. Or at least that’s what I
believed.
I’ve never publicly told this story before and I don’t particularly like
doing so now. I’m not a victim and I’m not looking for sympathy.
I
powered through all of the obstacles cancer threw in my way and I beat
it. I am cancer free. But I know that there are thousands of patients
going through an even more horrific version of what I went through right
now, and they want options. A new study published by the American
Cancer Society’s peer-reviewed medical journal found that an
overwhelming 74 percent of cancer patients surveyed in Seattle, where
medical cannabis is legal, wanted more information about the drug from
their doctors.
Times have changed. In many ways, my more libertarian perspective on
cannabis has taken over the Republican party since the days of the Barr
Amendment, which was repealed in 2009, with Barr himself lobbying for
the change. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, another conservative
Republican, finally managed to pass his Rohrabacher–Farr Amendment as an
add-on to the omnibus appropriations bill in December 2014, prohibiting
federal interference in state decisions on medical cannabis. President
Donald Trump himself has been unequivocal in his support for medical
cannabis, telling Fox News, “I’m in favor of it 100 percent.”
At this point, Sessions’s views on medical cannabis put him at odds
with a sizable majority of Americans and with his own boss, President
Trump. They also contradict the conservative principles he claims to
adhere to.
So why is Jeff Sessions still obsessed with rolling back existing
federal law on medical cannabis? “Good people,” he believes, “don’t
smoke marijuana.” His May 2017 letter to Congress lobbying against a
renewal of the Rohrabacher Amendment goes even further, worrying about
the “significant negative health effects” of marijuana. I can only
assume that he has never experienced the many “negative health effects”
of the treatments associated with stage-four cancer. I would love to
introduce him to some real patients and their families who find medical
cannabis not only safe and effective but life-altering:
Christine, who
uses cannabis to manage the debilitating pain of a brain tumor; Amanda,
who uses cannabis to stay mobile despite having multiple sclerosis;
Doug, whose daughter Ashley uses a cannabis-derived tincture to manage
her epilepsy, which before caused her brutal tonic-clonic seizures; and
Audra, whose 80-something-year-old grandma uses a topical cannabis cream
on her hips to give her the mobility needed to get out of bed in the
morning.
At this point, Sessions’s views on medical cannabis put him at odds with
a sizable majority of Americans and with his own boss, President Trump.
They also contradict the conservative principles he claims to adhere
to.
Republicans in Congress need to reject his legislative meddling and
ensure that the Rohrabacher amendment remains the law of the land.
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