I’d like to share a letter that I sent to my Congressman, US Representative David Wu of Oregon with medicalmarijuana411.com:
Rep. Wu:
I am writing to share with you my frustration with Kaiser Permanente.
I have had a very painful medical condition since childhood. Through years of various pain management and medication attempts, I have found a way that I can handle my pain and am able to have a somewhat good quality of life: I take Vicodin during the workday, and at night I smoke legal marijuana.
Taking one or the other is not a viable option. As I am in a high-end job, I cannot smoke legal marijuana during work hours. I cannot take Vicodin continuously during the day AND night as this makes sleeping difficult and offers no relief from the upset stomach, dizziness and headaches. Without medical marijuana as an option, doctors typically would prescribe 3-5 types of drugs (with varying side effects) as a substitute to a brownie with medical marijuana in it. Does this make sense to you?
The law that is suddenly being enforced is for street drugs, not legal marijuana, and creates a Catch 22: you cannot be a legal marijuana patient for pain management without being on an opiate treatment, but you cannot be on an opiate while smoking legal marijuana. How is this done then, you ask? Patients would have to lie to their doctors, possibly providing false information, which could lead to issues within their treatment. I do not lie, nor do I want to! I should be able to tell my doctors everything and, as I’m not doing anything illegal, there should be no issue.
I feel that Kaiser Permanente is fighting the state of Oregon on legal marijuana and stepping outside of their boundaries. I would understand if I didn’t have my life together and I was using illegal drugs, but I’m not. Obama is stating that he is stopping the prosecution of legal marijuana users, so why am I being told I need to lie to be able to maintain my way of life, which is managing my pain with minimal Vicodin use and medical marijuana?
Why should I have to lie and risk missing some pertinent medical information because I could not tell my doctor that I smoke legal marijuana? This is an injustice to the good citizens that are responsible with their lives, families and medications. Why are they trying to force me to take drugs? I have opted to take many different natural remedies that help me and, because of the amount of benefits it provides by ingestion, marijuana is one of my main ingredients.
This opiate treatment policy needs to be reviewed and an addendum needs to be put in effect for medical marijuana users to separate them from the criminals using street drugs.
Thank you,
Cheryl
