Twenty-nine-year-old Silas River Bennet was wasting away on medication that was ineffective in relieving his cancer symptoms. Marijuana worked, and for that his mother Lorraine, is forever grateful. She recalled how horrific it was to watch her child suffer, and to have to help them face the end of his life. But she also said it would have been more horrific had he not had something to alleviate some of his symptoms.
You can find Lorraine’s story and others posted on the website of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, where they shared their experiences in short videos before the November vote on medical marijuana. They all wanted to express how marijuana had helped them or their loved ones survive or cope with back pain, ALS, and multiple sclerosis.
Their stories helped motivate 63 percent of Massachusetts’s voters to decide in favor of medical marijuana. The law went into effect a year ago. There will be 35 dispensaries, but the roll out has been deliberate. Massachusetts’ health department officials have paid close attention to mistakes already made in other states. With a great amount of public input, they’ve shaped rules and regulations for the law. Non-profit applicants for dispensaries have to prove financial stability, have a solid delivery model, and most importantly have support from local communities.
Legal medical access will be a relief for sufferers like Eric McCoy whose video chronicled how marijuana helped reduce the muscle spasms from his multiple sclerosis. Seventeen years of marijuana use has allowed him to stand up from his wheelchair for shot periods of time.
But, ironically legal access could still be restricted if some communities are successful in keeping out marijuana dispensaries. Last March, Massarchusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley ruled that communities may not ban dispensaries, but they could pass limited moratoriums to allow time for cities and towns to craft local regulations.
Early on, Springfield and Westfield sought a moratorium while other communities’ adapted regulations. The one-two punch of zoning restrictions and moratoriums have forced potential licensees to look elsewhere.
This week the Department of Public Health will names the locations of the 35 dispensaries. The “not in my back yard” tactics have led nearly one third of the state’s communities to approve moratoriums. So, a legally approved drug, desperately needed by many, may remain, out of reach.
This may satisfy those who oppose marijuana’s use as a medicine, but a short-lived triumph cannot slow the inevitable.
