PATIENTS: Be in a viral video, help others patients everywhere
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TCCC Editor's Comments
ASA is making our first viral video! We want Texas patients to be in it! Send us and ASA a picture of yourself holding a sign that reads "I am a patient" and they will use it for the movie! Not a Patient? You can participate too. We want to highlight how incredibly diverse our movement is - how patients cross race, gender, class and age lines. We hope to show that we're not criminals but everyday members of every community in this country. .
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Poll: Texas is still for Medical Marijuana
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TCCC Editor's Comments
In 2004 a poll was done that showed majority support for medical marijuana. Now almost six years later our support is holding in a larger survey with different question wording. Adding up all the support for reforms of marijuana laws + those just for medical marijuana, we have 69% support in this new poll. We are the only legislative solution that has a clear majority. This is why we can win. This is why we need to speak out now. Patients can't wait for another 10%... we have the sustained numbers now.
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Safe Access in 2011
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Dallas Peace Center
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Please forward to someone you love
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Help Texas Patients &
Families achieve safe
access in 2011!
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Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care
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"True compassion is universal in scope. It is accompanied by a feeling of responsibility. It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act."
The Dalai Lama
Message From the Director
Write Your TX Rep - We're Here!
We've been quite busy here at the TCCC and have several meetings scheduled across the state. This month we will be in Houston, please note the meeting locations and times. The first meeting is for representatives, their staff and professionals. Other meetings have been scheduled in Austin, Fort Worth and in the west Texas town of Midland. Want to organize your area? We can travel to your town to help set up a meeting and get your community engaged.
Behind the scenes we are working with patients and beginning the process of helping them write to and meet with their legislators. As we do this patients are encouraged to...
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Statement of compassion s
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Churches | Mosques | Temples
Civic Orgs | Law Enforcement
Attorneys | Palliative Caregivers
Physicians | Nurses | Legislators
Please lend your support! Sign our
Statement of Compassion
Texas patients and families need your leadership,
please sign today!
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| Do you have a story about medical cannabis? |
Your personal story can be a powerful inspiration to others. Write an encouraging article/story about your experiences with medical marijuana or about your local efforts working for safe access, we just may include it in a future issue! We'll use first name only, unless you give us permission to use your full name.
Please send you stories to
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Message From the Director t
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WRITE YOUR TX STATE REP -- WE'RE HERE!
We've been quite busy here at the TCCC and have several meetings scheduled across the state. This month we will be in Houston, please note the meeting locations and times. The first meeting is for representatives, their staff and professionals. Other meetings have been scheduled in Austin, Fort Worth and in the west Texas town of Midland. Want to organize your area? We can travel to your town to help set up a meeting and get your community engaged.
Behind the scenes we are working with patients and beginning the process of helping them write to and meet with their legislators. As we do this patients are encouraged to bring along family members and others from their community who support them, such as other caregivers or their religious leader.
While working on the issue of medical marijuana we have come to realize the broader scope of our actions. Beyond just advocating for patients, we are also working for their families, caregivers, doctors and communities. Each person has their role in this work; we need patients and veterans with stories, families and caregivers telling their part, ministers advocating for parishioners, and community members expressing concerns and hopes for patients in this state. Others who can write or speak from a unique perspective about this issue include medical professionals, law enforcement, lawyers, and parents.
As we travel around the state, we need your help in inviting legislators to our meetings. We have a presentation that lays out the components of a good medical marijuana bill, and will present our proposed legislation, which is still a work in progress. We have been listening to feedback from legislators and community leaders as we move forward in this.
For this month, please write to these representatives and senators to request they attend our presentation in Houston on June 22, 2010, at the Looscan Neighborhood Public Library's meeting room.
A sample letter is included; but, we ask that you remember your unique viewpoint and make this the heart of your letter. We will soon have sample letters available for patients, family, and community to use, but adding your story is both important and powerful. You could make the difference in getting a legislative meeting, which could change the course of this bill in the upcoming session.
If you live in Houston, please invite your local representative (Find out who represents you here)
TX Representatives
Zerwas, John
Cohen, Ellen
Coleman, Garnet F.
Vo, Hubert
Bohac, Dwayne
Elkins, Gary
Thompson, Senfronia
Dutton Jr., Harold V.
Hernandez, Ana E.
Legler, Ken
Alvarado, Carol
Edwards, Al
Farrar, Jessica
Woolley, Beverly
Hochberg, Scott
Turner, Sylvester
Walle, Armando
TX Senators:
John Whitmire
Robert Nichols
Rodney Ellis
Mario Gallegos, Jr.
Dan Patrick
Joan Huffman
Mike Jackson
Glenn Hegar
Help Texas patients pass safe access in 2011.
Sincerely,
Stephen Betzen, director
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Patient Spotlight
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Paralyzed Kountze man pushes for medical marijuana bill
A 1985 diving accident at Village Creek left then-Kountze High School junior Chris Cain paralyzed.
Now 39, Cain said he treats muscle spasms associated with the accident with marijuana.
Prescription drugs, according to the Kountze resident, caused him to feel zombie-like, or set his heart to racing.
"The doctors have put me on sedatives and different drugs. And for a couple years, I couldn't work, I couldn't
think and couldn't function because of these pills," Cain said Monday, while seated before a trio of glowing computer screens he uses to connect to clients of his home-based Web site consulting service.
Since 2004, Cain has advocated for legislation of marijuana for medicinal purposes in Texas. Most recently, he spoke at a May 2 rally at the capitol sponsored by the Texas Cannabis Crusade and members of the Texas chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Sonny Cribbs, a Beaumont criminal defense attorney, said he expects the Texas legislature will never join the 15 states that have to date legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Medicinal marijuana bills have died in the state legislature before and the most recent proposal, filed by Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, appears to be headed for the same fate.
The bill would establish medical necessity as a defense to marijuana possession and also prevent doctors from being punished for recommending marijuana use to treat serious conditions.
For the Texas House of Representatives to even vote on a bill, it must be scheduled for a reading by Tuesday. Naishtat's bill, however, has so far not made it out of committee.
Hardin County Sheriff Ed Cain, who is not related to Chris Cain, would like to see the bill remain there.
Marijuana, Ed Cain said, is frequently abused by adolescents who do not view it as dangerous as harder drugs like cocaine or methamphetamines.
"It's the same as any drug or alcohol," Ed Cain said, noting that like other intoxicants, marijuana can impair physical and mental capabilities and lead to the use of harder drugs.
Ed Cain said he does not believe there is any medicinal benefit to the drug and that medical necessity is an excuse.
"I just don't think it has any role whatsoever except to make you high," Ed Cain said.
Juries have tended to agree, Cribbs said, noting that in instances where he's had clients who have claimed that they possessed marijuana to treat nausea associated with cancer treatment, the defense has not been persuasive.
However, 75 percent of Texans polled by the Scripps Research Center in Abilene in 2004 indicated they believe marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes, according to the Web site for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. Nationwide, according to the ACLU, polls have found that 60 to 80 percent of people support medicinal marijuana.
Members of the Texas Medical Association have not advocated marijuana use, but the association's policy on the subject states that there is not enough peer-reviewed research to determine whether marijuana is more beneficial or harmful.
The association encourages doctors to be willing to discuss all treatment options with patients, including marijuana, but does not suggest advocating its use.
Chris Cain said he has testified as a witness in legislative committee hearings about marijuana laws and that at the time legislators seemed sympathetic.
"But, for political reasons, you always get shot down," Chris Cain said.
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| Opinion of the Month |
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FACT: Marijuana is medicinal
Originally published February 15, 2010 at 10:51 a.m., updated February 15, 2010 at 4:29 p.m. Editor;
Victoria, Texas, Advocate:
In a recent medical marijuana story published in the Victoria Advocate, reporter J.R. Ortega discussed both the pros and cons of the issue, but ended up doing far greater harm than good by printing false claims made by grossly misinformed doctors. For instance, Victoria oncologist Dr. Ahmad Qadri is quoted as saying that he "doubt[s] there are any pros" to using marijuana. Dr. Qadri, it's not theory that marijuana is medicine; it's fact, backed by 5,000 years of recorded history. Research has shown that marijuana relieves symptoms like nausea, appetite loss, muscle spasms and certain types of pain. This evidence has been acknowledged by the American College of Physicians, the American Nurses Association, and many other reputable health organizations.
Dr. Qadri goes on to say that there are prescription medications to control nausea and vomiting. One such medication is Marinol, made from THC (one of the over 80 components of marijuana), but patients who use this pill find that it commonly takes an hour or more to work, while vaporized or smoked marijuana takes effect almost instantaneously.
Furthermore, doesn't acknowledging and prescribing the THC pill prove that marijuana is medicine? Saying Marinol is medicine, but marijuana must stay illegal is like saying, "You can have a vitamin C pill, but we'll throw you in jail for eating an orange."
Qadri also says one of the benefits of using prescription pills is that "patients won't grow dependent on them like they would with marijuana."
Is this "doctor" really suggesting that marijuana is more addictive than prescription pills? Marijuana is about as addictive as caffeine and doctors are currently allowed to prescribe cocaine, morphine and methamphetamine. Can anyone, doctor or otherwise, honestly say with a straight face that marijuana is more dangerous than those prescribed substances?
The most outrageous claim is made by another "doctor," Dr. Yusuke Yahagi, a Victoria cardiothoracic surgeon. Dr. Yusuke suggests that you can overdose on marijuana, which is simply not true. You can overdose on Tylenol, countless prescription medicines and you can even OD on water, but no one has ever overdosed on marijuana.
Medical marijuana laws are not about people getting high, they're about chronically-ill patients being allowed to use the medicine that works best for them without having to fear being arrested or being thrown in jail.
Kurt A. Gardinier
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About TCCC
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About TCCC: We are an open group of compassionate Texas residents, from all walks of life, who advocate for communities, families, clinicians, and caregivers who daily care for our sick, pained, and dying, the safe access to physician recommended medical marijuana.
Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care has no other interest, nor does the organization have any opinion, stated or unstated, about any issue other than therapeutic cannabis. All educating, lobbying, communication, and any other endeavors of Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care are limited to the sole issue of Marijuana as Medicine!
TCCC is a non-profit organization and our policy does not permit endorsement of any political party or candidate.
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Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care
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P.O. Box 35269,
5910 Cedar Springs,
Dallas, Texas 75235
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Director: Stephen Betzen
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Press Inquiries: Steven Haag, M.Ed.
(800) 518-1263
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*Houston Public Library does not endorse, nor have any stated or unstated position on the work of the TCCC. TCCC is solely responsible for the content of its presentation at the Houston Public Library's public meeting room.
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