Sue Vorenberg | The New Mexican
9/6/2008 - 9/7/08
Relaxing in her backyard, surrounded by friends, the 63-year-old woman who, by all accounts, shouldn't still be alive, lit up her pipe of marijuana, inhaled and then smiled at everyone.
Last fall, the woman, an AIDS sufferer called "Lisa" in this story because she fears problems with the federal government, had dropped to 75 pounds and was nearing kidney failure. And nobody, including her, thought she'd make it through the winter, she said.
"When I don't have marijuana, the nausea becomes completely unbearable," Lisa said. "I can't take a chance on that. If I vomit, because of my condition, it leads to very serious health problems."
Her health last fall had gone downhill because she couldn't get a decent supply of the drug the state has legally permitted her to take to reduce pain, keep food down and help her sleep, she said.
Complications and medications Lisa has to take for AIDS have eaten away about half of her jaw, leave her in constant pain and make her nauseous. And the only thing that helps is marijuana — specifically the canniboids in marijuana and not tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, she said.
But now, with the help of a local medical marijuana supplier who is providing her with the drug illegally, Lisa is back to 95 pounds, feels better than she has in the past year and is ready to fight for other New Mexicans who need help, she said. "The government has no right to stop medical marijuana," Lisa said. "There are cancer patients that need this desperately, all sorts of people suffering, and they can't have it right now."
Lisa, who before her illness was a nurse, is one of 182 patients, including 42 in Santa Fe, with state certification to inhale or eat the drug as part of New Mexico's medical cannabis program, which started July 1, 2007.
But while the number of enrolled patients has grown significantly in the past year, the state still has not approved any growers or distributors for medical cannabis, which has left patients basically on their own to find a supply.
And that's what almost killed her, Lisa said.
When Lisa's friend from Washington, who used to provide her with medical-grade marijuana, died last summer, she was left with the unpleasant options of trying to grow her own with her notorious brown thumb or going underground to try to find marijuana of unknown quality from a drug dealer.
And without a reliable source for her medication, Lisa's health and her weight started to rapidly go downhill. "It's been hell," Lisa said.
Just when things were at their worst, though, Lisa found "Ted," a New Mexico grower who also doesn't want his real name used because he fears problems with the state and federal government.
And with Ted's help, Lisa has a new source of medical marijuana that is high quality and reliable. "If it weren't for (Ted) and his work, I would not be alive," Lisa said. "If he had obeyed the laws, I would be dead."
Ted has been working to get approval from the state to be an official producer of medical marijuana. But every time he works through one set of obstacles, more regulations appear causing more setbacks, he said.
"They're dragging their feet," Ted said. "The state wants to have no federal ramifications from setting up a system, but they just can't do that right now."
So far, the state hasn't approved any producers, said Deborah Busemeyer, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health. "There is no distribution system," she said.
The department, which is mandated by state law to set up a system, is in a difficult position because any method will violate federal drug laws.
But efforts are moving forward, and officials are taking public comment on possible solutions anyway, she said.
The next meeting to discuss some of those options is Monday, when the department will take comments and review rules on how patients register for identification cards and how growers will be licensed, Busemeyer said.
"We've been working really hard to make sure we have strong rules that are viable for our patients," she said.
But as that effort continues, patients who have state approval to use the drug are suffering without a supply. So Ted works with them, underground. He's helping eight of them around the state so far, he said. "It's going to be a long time to get this up and running, and these people need help," Ted said.
Under the temporary provisions that the medical cannabis program operates by, patients can grow four mature plants and 12 seedlings at any given time. And they can have up to 6 ounces of marijuana in their possession, Busemeyer said.
But new proposed rules would force patients to apply for a separate license to grow marijuana, even after they're medically approved.
Distributors, as well, would face a long series of hurdles to be approved. They must set up a nonprofit that can grow no more than 95 plants and seedlings. They must create a series of educational products to tell patients how to use their product safely. They must provide proof of security and a distribution method as well as create a board that includes a doctor or nurse and medical marijuana patients. And that's only part of the criteria, Busemeyer said.
"The law required us to set this up, but it doesn't really tell us how to do that," Busemeyer said. "I think these ideas speak to some of the concerns about who's growing and who's allowed to grow."
Attorney General Gary King said some of the new licensing ideas might be more strict, but they also get the state generally off the hook with the feds by putting the legal burden on the users and sellers.
"We actually opposed this legislation, but the Legislature passed it," King said of the medical cannabis program. "Our opposition was (based on concern) that it could run afoul of federal law."
The original plan would have made the state the grower and producer, but the Health Department's newer plan to license patients and growers seems to get around that, said King's Chief Deputy Al Lama.
"From my understanding of the way they've structured this in terms of how much is produced and how it's licensed — there's always a risk, but I think there are, in the draft regulations, some safeguards that I believe would reduce some of the problems we've seen in other states."
And no matter if a person has a license here, it does not make them immune to federal law, King emphasized.
"I think that anybody who participates in the program should be aware of the risk," King said. "The feds are going to be more aggressive about prosecuting things like this. They've told me that."
But for Lisa, the risk of prosecution is of little concern when compared to her quality of life, she said.
In her case, the drug doesn't get her high, although she admits in her youth she used to use it recreationally.
"It doesn't do much to me that way, other than helping with pain and helping me with nausea," Lisa said with a laugh. "Any patients like me, you're talking about somebody on umpteen other pain relievers and drugs. They're already on so many things, any of those recreational effects are lost in the noise."
But for her part, Lisa also tried a type of synthetic THC legally produced by drug companies to ease her symptoms. It did almost nothing except make her contemplate suicide, she said.
Something about the interaction of the chemicals within the marijuana makes it helpful, and it works better than any other medication she's tried, she said.
And Ted, who has an encyclopedic and scientific knowledge of the plant and the drug, said it doesn't surprise him that synthetic chemicals aren't very effective. "It's an interlacing of chemicals," Ted said. "It's not just one thing."
Looking at his selection of plants, grown in an undisclosed location, Ted works with 15 marijuana strains, trying to improve them for patients like Lisa through agricultural science. Each one of his strains has different properties, he said. And he grows them in organic conditions with a parental-like love.
"The plants are different colors," Ted said, noting that lighter-colored marijuana seems to be better for mental healing, glaucoma and daytime use, and darker-colored types are better as sleep aids. "They all have different flavors, effects and nuances."
To make the plants even more healthy, he sometimes sings reggae to them, he added with a laugh.
"We take extra steps with cleanliness, ensuring organic products," Ted said. "We concentrate on plants that perhaps don't produce the highest quantity of product, but they have the most beneficial effects for patients."
Eventually, Ted and Lisa hope to create a sort of underground cooperative for the state's medical marijuana patients — at least until a real distribution system is created — so others like Lisa don't have to suffer the stress of finding a distributor, they said.
In California, that sort of system exists generally above ground, so once patients become eligible, they can go to a "buyers club" to get a supply, Ted said.
But those clubs have been prosecuted recently by federal agents, King said.
Another problem in New Mexico with licensing producers is that the names of those producers will be public record, unless the Legislature takes some steps to protect them, he said. "They did that with the concealed carry act," King said. "But there hasn't been much if any discussion yet of doing that with medical marijuana."
California, though, does remain at the foreground of the fight. The state lets patients with a much larger array of diseases use medical marijuana, including people with migraines, arthritis and post traumatic stress disorder, Ted said.
New Mexico only approves patients with a handful of conditions, which are: cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy and spinal cord injuries with intractable spasticity, Busemeyer said.
Still, that list can be expanded if patients or doctors send petitions to the program's medical advisory committee, she said. "We've gotten a few petitions to expand that," Busemeyer said.
Some of those include chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, anorexia, arthritis, anxiety and hepatitis C, although no rulings have yet been made.
For King's part, he declined to comment on whether he personally supports the idea of medical marijuana or the spectrum of its possible uses. But he said he would like the federal government to take a closer look at how it's classified. "Clearly there are drugs that have a lot more activity than marijuana that a doctor can prescribe," King said. "And I'm not sure marijuana belongs where it's classified now, which is in the same group with heroin."
No matter what the state or federal government decide to say or do, though, Lisa will continue to use the drug she says is keeping her alive.
If that's taken away from her, she doesn't want to go on, she said. "I'd just quit. I'd go off my other medications, and I'd probably be dead in less than a month," she said, then paused.
"But I won't die — I'm too stubborn. I won't give them the satisfaction," she added with a cocky grin.
Contact Sue Vorenberg at svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.
If you go
What: Public hearing on the state's Medical Cannabis Program
When: 9 a.m., Monday
Where: Harold Runnels Building Auditorium, 1190 St. Francis Drive
For information: Visit nmhealth.org/marijuana.html
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Underground-relief
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