From: [j n r] at [cinenet.net] (Jim Rosenfield)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Todd McCormick and MJ Compassion Clubs
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 95 16:28:11 GMT

      Marijuana Compassion Clubs
     By TIM WHITMIRE, Associated Press, 10-Aug-95  
     
     PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- As Todd McCormick sits in an Ohio jail, charged with 
     possessing 31 pounds of marijuana, he eagerly awaits the day when he can 
     resume giving away the drug.
     
     McCormick and his girlfriend were arrested while driving from San Diego to 
     Providence to start a "compassion club" for seriously ill people who use marijuana 
     to dull their pain. 
     
     "When I get home this time, I'm going nuts," McCormick, 25, said in a telephone 
     interview from the Correction Center of Northwest Ohio in Stryker.  "I'll have fields 
     in my front yard. ... I'm going ballistic, no holds barred. If they want to come get me, 
     put me in jail, so be it."
     
     McCormick estimates there are between 30 and 50 compassion clubs across the 
     country. The 3,200-member San Francisco Cannabis Buyer's Club is believed to be 
     the largest such group. 
     
     The clubs are organized by people who grow marijuana and then visit support 
     groups for patients with AIDS and other diseases. They offer the drug for free or 
     very cheaply.  
     
     McCormick, who runs the 20-member San Diego Compassionate Use Club, said 
     members must provide photo identification and a doctor's letter describing their 
     condition. They also must sign a statement indicating they know they are breaking 
     the law.
     
     The Drug Enforcement Administration says it is aware of compassion clubs but has 
     not targeted them for enforcement. 
     
     The Food and Drug Administration has granted marijuana prescriptions to 15 
     people suffering from cancer, AIDS, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis and 
     glaucoma. Seven have since died. 
     
     The Bush administration put a stop to medical testing and medical use of
     marijuana in 1992, saying it could harm patients who had safer alternatives. The
     Clinton administration upheld the ban last year.
     
     "Sound scientific studies supporting these claims are lacking despite
     anecdotal claims that smoked marijuana is beneficial," Assistant Health
     Secretary Philip Lee said in announcing the decision to members of Congress who
     support medical marijuana use.
     
     But McCormick says there are studies which claim marijuana can ease the pain
     of cancer and AIDS treatments, alleviate muscle spasms for people with spinal
     cord injuries and relieve the eye pressure that blinds glaucoma sufferers.
     
     He has used marijuana to ease the pain of Histiocytosis X, a cancerous
     overgrowth of the cells that normally protect people from infection. The disease
     attacks bone marrow, the blood, liver and spleen. McCormick had the first five
     vertebrae of his spine fused when he was 2 and underwent eight more operations
     over the next seven years.
     
     McCormick, who was in constant pain, first discovered marijuana while riding
     in a car with his mother as she smoked it. "I went from not wanting to do
     anything to `Can I go out and play?'" he said.
     
     He said marijuana reduced the nausea and loss of appetite caused by radiation
     treatments and chemotherapy. He continued to use it after his cancer went into
     remission because it eased the pain from his fused vertebrae and the side
     effects of radiation treatments, which stunted the growth of his left hip,
     leaving his left leg two inches shorter than the right.
     
     "(Marijuana) sets your mind at ease which sets your body at ease which allows
     your body to heal," McCormick said. "If I don't have cannabis it's too
     uncomfortable to stretch. It dulls the pain enough that I can sit and
     concentrate on movement."
     
     McCormick and Natalie Byrd were pulled over July 18 by an Ohio state trooper
     because the curtains on their van were drawn, blocking the rear view. Three days
     later, Drug Enforcement Agents raided McCormick's San Diego club, seizing
     marijuana, growing tools and signatures supporting a California ballot
     initiative to legalize marijuana.
     
     McCormick and Byrd, who were both still jailed today, could get up to 30
     years in prison if convicted of drug possession. Whether McCormick planned to
     use the marijuana for medicinal purposes makes no difference in the case,
     prosecutor William Bish said.
     
     A group called the Todd McCormick Alliance is campaigning on the Internet
     computer network and through marijuana legalization groups to raise money for
     McCormick's $150,000 bail and legal expenses. They hope the case will draw
     attention to their fight for legalized marijuana.
     
     McCormick said the risk of arrest is worth giving other sick people the
     opportunity for relief. "I'm trying to remove the criminal element," he said.
     "You shouldn't have to go on the street."
     
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