Climbing Higher

Please forgive me if this post is a little rough in parts.  My brain is in a bit of a fog tonight, which is ironic when thinking about the planned subject. (chuckle)

I just finished reading: "Climbing Higher" by Montel Williams with Lawrence Grobel.

This is an enlightening, heart-wrenching, and hope-filled autobiography of Mr. Williams’ fight against MS.  It is also packed with information and insightful thoughts about symptom management and maintaining a healthy lifestyle in spite of the MS.  At the end, he gathered together a few doctors, asked them several very good questions, then recorded their varying answers.

I thought I’d learned a lot in my MS research thus far, but this reading taught me some things new to me as well as sparked several thoughts.  Thus, I’ll probably be writing about parts of this book in an ongoing basis throughout future posts.

The author’s perspective on medicinal marijuana isn’t the main topic, but I want to write about it first because of a news article I just read on the same subject.  In this book (copyright 2004, 2005), I learned the various uses of the plant, some history of legislation, and lots of ideas I hadn’t previously known. 

I’ve never tried marijuana or any other drug that is deemed illegal.  Yet, I empathize with those who have tried all sorts of pain medications and found that marijuana is the only thing that is effective for them.  I don’t see the problem with states legalizing it.  I don’t see a problem with scientists really investigating marijuana, debunking the myths, publicizing the truths to the public, then assisting in developing the best delivery system (pill, shot, oil on foods, etc) for the patients to gain the greatest benefit.  From reading what the author has to say on the subject, I think it merely needs to go through the same process other plants have gone through on their way to pharmacy shelves.  We need to at least be open-minded about it and do some unbiased research on our own before we think to decide for other adults what they can and cannot do with their own bodies.

As it says on page 108, 

“Most of the misinformation on marijuana, and most of the reasons people get so upset about it, are based on a mentality that existed prior to television, computers, cell phones, space shuttles and about 90 percent of everything we take for granted today.  It’s time to update that information.”

On page 111, there is reference to the white willow tree and how we can potentially do the same with marijuana:

“…we found out that it had medicinal value, that chewing the bark relieved pain.  Of course we’re not into bark-chewing these days, so what did we do?  We took that tree apart and figured out a way to synthesize the active ingredient and create a tablet – aspirin – that was more palatable than chewing on bark.  We’ve used marijuana at least as long as we have the willow tree or any of the other thousands of plants found in the forest that have medicinal value.  Why don’t we figure out a way to process it and make it like an aspirin?  If investigated and studied honestly there will be irrefutable evidence that it is a positive, powerful drug.

“One of the biggest fallacies is that marijuana will lead to harder drugs.  That’s one of the reasons why our endless war against drugs has failed: because the public is being lied to.  Marijuana is not going to make you run out and become a heroin addict.  It’s not going to destroy your brain cells.  It doesn’t impair memory or cognition.  It doesn’t interfere with our sex hormones.  It doesn’t impair our immune systems.  It is not highly addictive.  It isn’t more damaging to the lungs than tobacco.  It does have medicinal value.”

If the author isn’t to be believed on these statements, then one has a right to refuse to ingest the plant themselves.  I’m not sure we have the right to tell other adults they cannot.  As a society, we control what access children have to over-the-counter and prescription drugs.  We can do the same with marijuana.  Keeping it away from the adults who can benefit from it, though, seems strange to me.  If a trusted doctor wants to prescribe a marijuana-based medicine, it seems like having to get a prescription before you can take it is control enough.

Some links to read and ponder:

Article on marijuana advocacy at The Montel Williams MS Foundation.

10/07/13 Neuroscience News Article: TAU researchers find chemicals in marijuana could help treat MS.

“8 Myths about Marijuana” – Greg Campbell

“The Marijuana Myth: What If Everything You Think You Know About This Plant Is Wrong?” – Laurel Dewey