Newsgroups: rec.drugs.cannabis From: [bc 616] at [scn.org] (Darral Good) Subject: A NURSE FOR LEGAIZATION Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 21:37:08 GMT Registered Nurse Contacts NORML In An Appeal To Save The Life Of Her Patient August 4, 1995, Phoenix, AZ: In an attempt to stimulate national attention and awareness to the plight of her patient, Richard G. Martinez, neuro-rehabilitation nurse and Martinez's legal guardian, Constance Theis, has contacted NORML with a story of unparalleled injustice. After having been shot through the left eye in 1991, Richard Martinez was left with an excruciatingly painful nerve disorder known as trigeminal neuralgia. In addition, many fragments from the bullet could not be removed during surgery and still remain lodged in Martinez's brain. The presence of these fragments induces cognitive deficits and seizure disorders and also gives rise to frequent bouts of intense nausea and severe depression. To help alleviate Martinez's daily pain, he was granted a legal prescription for Marinol -- a federally approved THC synthetic drug. The Marinol, however, ended up being far too expensive ($636.00 per month) for Martinez to afford on his social security disability-based income. As a result, Martinez turned to the next logical substitute, natural cannabis. Martinez was turned in to authorities for possessing marijuana by a relative in exchange for a small financial reward. He now sits in Durango County Jail in Phoenix, Arizona, where he is forced to sleep on a dirty floor and is p revented from taking his proper medication. While in jail, Martinez has suffered numerous staph infections in the eye socket and ear. Staph infections put tremendous pressure on the heart and, if left untreated, can be fatal. The tremendous swelling from these infections is causing green pus to flow from Martinez's right nostril. In addition, Martinez's serious infections are destroying valuable tissue and bone in his face. This deterioration has gotten so extreme that Martinez now believes that his eye may actually be "rotting." Martinez is also experiencing critically high blood pressure and is now at risk of suffering a stroke. This occurrence is a natural physical result of untreated pain and infection. The threat of a severe stroke -- in addition to his constant fevers, infections, tissue deterioration, and ear aches -- makes Martinez's incarceration highly life threatening. According to the reports of three separate physicians, Martinez's head wound seriously damaged his right frontal lobe and has rendered him mentally incompetent. Therefore, he can not legally stand trial. The state, however, wants Martinez to appear in court regardless. Consequently, psychologists at the Durango County Jail are working round the clock to have Martinez declared mentally competent. Ms. Theis maintains that this process can last as long a seven or eight months -- a time frame that she believes Martinez will not survive. The bitter irony is that the state is trying to legally rehabilitate a man with braln damage solely for the purpose of throwing him back in jail. All this because Martinez was trying to alleviate daily pain, nausea, and seizures with the only effective therapeutic agent he could financially afford -- marijuana. Constance Theis maintains that her patient's life is in danger every additional day he stays in the Durango County Jail. She can be contacted at the following numbers: (602) 790-1595 (home) or (602) 325-1300 EXT 4435 (work). http://www.norml.org/ NORML's home page. End The Drug War. -- "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one strand within it. Anything we do to the web we do to ourselves all things are bound together all things connect." CHIEF SEATTLE.