[420 Girl]

She is 46, a breast cancer survivor for four long years, a regular user of medical marijuana. She told me — as we were introduced by a mutual friend and she was updating the friend — a horror story too ridiculous even for an ‘Only in California’ tale. Her name is not Emily, but I’ll call her Emily to protect the innocent.

Emily has a solid career in social services with a California nonprofit. For years their funding has come partly through federal grants. This has been fine with Emily’s regular use of medical marijuana, which is legal in California and which keeps her chronic pain — a result of cancer and several other issues — under control. She smokes one joint in the morning, and four at night. (An editorial caveat here: I’ve not tried marijuana, which is wise since I’m addicted to anything that comes down the pike, so I know from nothing about dosages, etc. I’m just repeating what she explained.)

Not long ago, a new project was offered Emily’s organization and she was named as its head. Only problem? Everyone would have to take the federally-mandated drug test. Only solution? get Emily off of the weed for six weeks in order for her to pass the test. She had done that, finishing it all and passing the test and starting the project, a few months earlier. It was not fun.

“In order to get through all this,” she said, “I was prescribed a total of six different pain-relief drugs which I took every day. They were expensive, but the only way I could have made it. So for six weeks I poured six different toxins into my system at an obscene cost, both financially and physically. But hey, you do what you have to do.”

Emily is now back to growing, and smoking, her own.

California voters, thanks to a ballot issue certified yesterday by our secretary of state, will decide next November whether to legalize marijuana for any adult use. The issue is being rather hotly debated elsewhere on True/Slant and I frankly have no idea where I’ll come down when the dust settles and I read the whole business. Friends tell me it’s fine, others tell me it’s addictive, the state needs the money, who knows where legalization and regulation could lead? Neither does much to curb alcohol abuse, but then, I quit drinking years ago so it’s easy to be holy about alcohol abuse; some of us can handle the booze, some of us can’t.

But all of us need pain relief. Marijuana is a proven pain-relief drug. Why in the world it should be denied those who need it boggles this increasingly boggled mind.

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