In this issue:

1) Action: Call Senator Royce West
2) Who am I?

1) Action:

We are requesting that Senator Royce West's office introduce a companion bill in the Texas Senate. It is very important that we let him know how important it is to Texans that this type of legislation pass. If you have not done so already please call his office.

When you call use this script (or something like this script):

"Hi, My name is ____________ (if you are a constituent, say so here). I am calling to ask that Chairman West introduce a companion bill to House Bill 164 in this Senate. This bill would protect Doctors and allows medical marijuana patients to have an affirmative defense in court. Please file a companion bill in the Senate."

The Honorable Royce West

(512) 463-0123
(512) 463-0299 fax

General lobbying rule number 1: If anyone asks you what group/organization you are with please say you are calling on behalf of yourself and that this is an issue you are concerned about. The most powerful voice you can use is your own.

2) Who am I?

My name is Stephen Betzen and I am the Director of the Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care. This is a volunteer run organization, structured as a committee of the Dallas Peace Center. We work on behalf of all patients in Texas and eagerly organize with our members across Texas and in other states.

Though I never opposed medical marijuana, because I have always believed that doctors should be able to treat their patients and not the government... I did not truly believe in it 5 years ago. In fact I said some things that I regret to this day. My change in prospective came as I watched my wife slowly suffer from an unknown illness. As she lost her ability to walk, chronic neuropathic pain and spasming in her muscles became a daily problem and were getting worse. We were going through test after test to find the problem with suspicions of MS, fibromyalgia and others... all eventually ruled out. Doctors had prescribed her opiate medications to address the pain, however she stopped using them because they caused so many problems. The strong opiates and muscle relaxers prescribed were addictive and impaired her cognitive functioning, essentially making her lose touch with reality. Since she was unable to work while on these drugs, she had to stop as she owned her own speech therapy practice and had to keep it running. At this point we were in a very dark place in our lives and had lost almost all of our hope when someone who saw her suffering, an angel, placed a package on our porch containing 2 sandwich bags of marijuana and a letter explaining that she should try it to relieve her suffering.

The results were not at all like I had suspected, rather than looking/acting drugged she didn't miss one day of work and she was still able to function cognitively in order to perform her duties as a speech therapist. I continued to research it and found that medical science is reporting the same results with few side-effects. It made me angry to discover how distorted my previous views were.

I can not explain to you in words the pain of hearing the one you love most, cry every morning. I can not explain the joy of finding the medicine that worked and improved her quality of life in measurable ways. I can not explain the frustration of knowing that to treat my wife and improve her quality of life, I must break the law. I know that many of you share these experiences and fears.

The following year (2007) I joined Texans for Medical Marijuana in their efforts. Unfortunately they shut their doors that summer, and I felt that we needed to move forward. I contacted other patients, caretakers and advocates and found that they also felt the loss of this organization. So we started the Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care and started the search for a non-profit to handle our funds (I still don't know the technical term for this, I have heard so many)... not only did the Dallas Peace Center agree to handle our funds... but they took us and our mission in completely, so we are technically a committee (and this is better for us financially).

Last year my wife was diagnosed with late stage chronic Lyme Disease. As a result we have found better medical treatment to improve her condition, however the neuropothy and chronic pain is still a daily problem along with nausea. While she can walk again with hand-crutches, no medicine has worked like marijuana in relieving her symptoms while not inhibiting her abilities. We can move away from our families, away from the state that we have known our whole lives, or we can work to change the laws in this state to match the compassion felt by most Texans. We chose to stay. Thank you for joining the Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care in this effort.