[420 Girl]

Jeff Swensen did not tie down his legs late Tuesday night before climbing in bed to watch his favorite television shows. A car accident when he was 16 paralyzed him from the nipples down, which makes his legs “flop uncontrollably.” He used to worry about falling asleep in front of the screen without properly restraining them. For the past several years, however, the 27-year-old Helena man hasn’t worried as much because a regimen of smoking medical marijuana, or cannabis, prevents the spasms, reduces chronic pain in his arms and helps him sleep.

“I started out using recreationally, but then I noticed it cut back on my muscle spasms,” Swensen said. He smoked pot illegally in Minnesota, a state that makes no exceptions to harsh criminal punishments for medical use. There, Swensen self-medicated when he could, but it was difficult to maintain a steady supply of marijuana.

When his wife Jana wanted to move back to her home state of Montana three years ago, Swensen agreed. He began looking for a doctor who would recommend him for the state’s medical marijuana program so he could medicate regularly and receive full relief of his symptoms without worrying about criminal prosecution.

Though Swensen admits that initially he didn’t smoke marijuana for medical benefits, he now does so as a state-registered patient and wishes, like many other cardholders, that more people would respect the privileges the law grants to deserving, suffering individuals.

“The law’s very serious and shouldn’t be pushed or tested,” Swensen said. “These privileges could be taken away eventually if it’s abused enough.”

One Missoula man literally would not know how to live without medical marijuana if the law were unexpectedly repealed.

“At one time, I was on 22 pills a day. I wasn’t physically or mentally awake for anyone,” he said of the years following a severe beating in a high school locker room that damaged his brain and left him dysfunctional. “I slept for the first year and a half. I would wake up to eat and take my meds, that’s it.”

This article will refer to the 26-year-old man as “Smith,” since he feared his family might become victims of the stigma associated with cannabis if he were to share his name.

Smith’s brother was troubled by his sibling’s pain and the resulting suicidal thoughts, so he encouraged Smith to light up with him because he hoped it would help him relax and enjoy his company, if only briefly.

But he inadvertently found an incredible solution to Smith’s struggles. With regular use of medical-grade cannabis, Smith’s once-regular seizures subsided, his pain dissipated and blocked pathways in his brain cleared to allow him to communicate. The regained freedom gave him reason to live.

“I can feel alive,” Smith said. “I can’t express how much of a freedom it is to have this medicine. I’m now more interactive with my community and my family. I’m getting out. I can hold conversations.”

Smith pauses to grab his nearly 2-year-old son away from stacks of free postcards near a table, now fluttering to the café floor, and chuckles before he adds, “And I’m able to watch my kid get into stuff.”


The origin of Initiative 148:

Tom Daubert, who earned a master’s degree from UM in 1979, earned a reputation for transforming public opinion on underdog issues.

For example, his work with the state’s mining industry successfully convinced Montanans that they should not pass the Clean Water Initiative of 1996, which showed more than 80 percent support about a year before the final vote.

In 2004, when the national nonprofit Marijuana Policy Project asked Daubert to help write and organize the campaign for Initiative 148, he faced the challenge of convincing largely conservative Montana voters that marijuana was not a dangerous gateway drug but a safe and legitimate medical solution for some individuals with severe illnesses.

“I came of age in the ’60s, and I thought I knew marijuana,” Daubert said. “But I didn’t know any of the science until I started working on the campaign.”

Daubert said he was incredibly moved by people he met during the campaign who were forced to self-medicate with street pot or forgo the treatment because of possible criminal charges, even though they suffered daily from serious conditions such as terminal cancer, multiple sclerosis and severe chronic pain.

“Contrary to what people think, patients I know don’t get high. They get relief,” Daubert said. “This law is so precious to really sick people that it’s really important to understand it fully.”

In November 2004, voters set a national record for the highest level of public support for a state medical marijuana program when 62 percent approved the initiative, making Montana the 10th of 13 states with similar programs.

“People are becoming more open-minded,” Swensen said. “Ten years ago, we never would have seen it as it is today.”

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