Hello, My name is P ---. I am now 51 years old and suffer from 6 herniated disks on my spinal cord, muscle shakes and tremors, and chronic pain that ranges from very mild on some good days to so severe I cannot speak ... My main complaint, EVEN OVER THE PAIN, is exhaustion and extreme sleep problems. The severe stage has been with me about nine years since my last of two operations. Further operations will not be possible.

Recently I took a trip to Amsterdam where I smoked small quantities of several varieties of smoke. The pain relief was absolutely astounding (I don't understand how this can be). My nausea (from pain) was controlled, I WAS ABLE TO ASSOCIATE, MEET AND TALK TO PEOPLE in a normal relaxed and SPONTANEOUS MODE, which other wise would be difficult or impossible. (Without the pot, talking can vibrate my thoracic discs and cause pain that will make me nauseous.) I felt a relaxed sexual drive that I had not felt in years.

I smoked small amounts for relief, my goal was relief, not getting stoned. It took very little. I smoked only in the evening and pushed my self during the day with much walking and even renting a bicycle, because I knew I could get relief that evening. I was able to sleep 70 to 90% and have some relaxing dreams. I swear that the pot effects went mainly to the pain sites first and my head was clear, unless I smoked a little more. The Indica was a POWERFUL muscle relaxant and pain killer. The Sativa was equally a pain killer and added the benefit of a happier well being effect. My muscle cramps and stiffness were alleviated to the point where I was trying to "show off" how well, normal, and even macho I could walk. The relief made my eyes water on several occasions with happiness.

I was a daily user for over 20 years, but never smoked while I worked (and certainly not while driving, although I only got my license at age 42). I will not pretend I have ever had any medical reason for using marijuana, unless depression is considered a reason; I did it simply because I enjoyed it. Even so, for the last five years I have smoked very little, only on rare occasions in fact (heh, maybe because I'm less depressed?). So much for that "addiction" theory, I just stopped one day and that was it, no climbing walls, just stopped cold for 18 months and never went back to being a daily user. I smoked the equivalent of a few joints (a Christmas present for god's sake, I wouldn't spend my meager unemployment funds on weed when there is rent to be paid) several weeks before I heard I might get this job and have to take a test, and did not realize how long it stays in your system. I also have used ibuprofen on a near-daily basis for over a decade (doctor's recomendation). I don't deny the test was correct, but I will never know if I flunked because of what I did on my own time while completely unemployed or because I regularly take an over-the-counter med.

To literally be condemned by this company for the rest of my life because of one bored weekend in almost a year is beyond belief. I feel this whole drug-test-without-cause thing can easily be equated with this scenario: The police come to your house and tell you they are going to search everything you own. You ask them why, they say they search everyone's house because there might be evidence of something illegal going on. You ask them to produce a warrant, they tell you they don't need one and if you refuse they will arrest you. My body was searched with neither cause nor warrant. If I had refused, I would not have been allowed to work for this company.

When I learned that someone can binge drink every night for years on end and and pass such a test, I felt sick about it, considering all the violent drunken behavior I have been an unfortunate witness to over my lifetime. There is something terribly wrong with a system that condones alcohol and demonizes marijuana in this fashion.

It's not often one gets to tell one's story with marijuana.

In my 20's and 30's I lived in a rural area where I was able to grow all that I needed to last me for a year at a time. During that time I was employed as a carpenter. I built my own house, raised most of my own food. parented 2 children, cut and split my own fire wood and repaired my own vehicles. I never had any formal training in any one of these endeavors....I just pick things up quickly with little instruction.

I could not have done any of this if I did not have access to pot. I have fibromyalgia: a chronic pain condition that includes poor sleep or even complete lack of sleep. As long as I have pot I can sleep. Just knowing that gave me greater confidence in tackling problems, both physical and mental. Also I know from first hand experience that Cannabis sativa and indica greatly alleviate the nausea and chills brought on from interferon injections used to treat hepatitis c. If it had not been for my being able to procure this herb while I was under treatment for "hep c", I might not have been able to tolerate the eighteen months of self injection.

There seems to be a knee jerk mean spiritedness in the AMA and FDA when they express the idea that they can find a lab made substitute that has all the same qualities of pot but won't get you high. It seems like it is more important for them to assert their power than their compassion.

Hello, My name is .... I have been smoking Marijuana for about 2 years now. I am 18 and I have Bi-polar Disorder. I found out about my Manic Depression when I was 16. I was cutting myself, not eating, sleeping, or generally being a normal happy 16 yr old. It culminated in my throwing myself in front of a full size van. In the hospital I was given 15 different pills for depression, anti-psychotics, sleeping, and eating. I was still depressed, underweight, and deprived of sleep.

A month after leaving the hospital I met a guy named .... He gave me my first joint. I smoked all day with him. It was the best time of my life. For once I was hungry, happy and tired. I never felt so good. The next day, I did it again, and I kept doing it. I slowly stopped taking my pills. Now I am proud to say I do not take a single pill. I smoke a joint when I feel like I need to do something bad to myself again. It makes me feel good.

I have cultivated great friendships with this plant and I think it is one of the greatest gifts that god has given us.

Hi my name is ... and I've been busted for marijuana. I went to Wheelock College in 1996. There I was one of the very few men in the schools population. My GPA was 3.5 and I was one of the even fewer men in the theater club. My first year went well and I decided to return. My second year also started well until the day I decided that it was ok for my friend to smoke a bit of weed in my dorm room. I smoke too so I let him use one of my pipes. He did his thing and put the metal bowl in between 2 wooden pipes on my windowsill.

The smell of the weed sifted through my floor and eventually I was confronted my resident assistant, when she talked to me I was given my first warning (EVERYONE GETS 3). No more than 10 minutes later there was a knock on my door and the resident director let himself in my room. He pointed to the pipes and said "Give me THAT pipe" so I gave him the metal pipe, and left the wooden ones on the sill. He said nothing about them. A report was written and he left.

One month later I received a letter that told me I had a meeting with the school board. The meeting was in March, although the incident happened in October. In March the meeting went ok, I told them what happened the listened and told me to leave at the end.

In the middle of April, one month before the end of the year, I received another letter that the dean wanted a word with me. I went to her office, she sat me down and gave me a letter to read in front of her. The letter informed me that I had 3 days to leave the school property. The dean exchanged no words with me. I wrote a letter to the school president informing her that I had no money, family or home to go to. If I wasn't in school than I would live in the streets. My return letter said that I would have to deal with that.

Hello I'm a 22 yr. old female with severe panic disorder. Although it is not life threatening it is a interference to everyday activities. Marijuana helps me to be centered and over rides my anxieties. I do not suggest this for everyone but if it can help just a small number of the population I believe it's worth legalizing.

Legalize It !!!

Hello, I am a 21 year old who resides in the state of Connecticut. One of the worst states in my opinion, but all of my family is here. Two years ago I was diagnosed with Lyme disease after a camping trip in a local wooded area. My doctor prescribed me the usual meds for this disease, doxycycline 100mg.

I took them and successfully they killed the disease in my system... or so they thought. For the past two years, I have suffered with chronic pain and swelling of my joints because of arthritic like attacks that I will have for the rest of my life.

I have lost a lot to this disease. I get up every morning to my boyfriend having to feed me pain killers and help me out of bed. I hurt so badly that most of the time I don't get out of bed and I just cry myself to sleep. The doctors say that I am fine because they can't find the active disease in my system but I have lived nonstop in pain since I was diagnosed and my whole life I have been exceptionally healthy.

A year ago I started smoking 'street' marijuana just to see if it would help, and indeed there was less stiffness and I actually felt a little free of this disease. Since then I have lost any kind of connection to the street and had to start growing my own in hidden locations,

My friend tends and harvests the plants for me since I cannot endure long walks of hikes anymore. Personally, I am now scared that if he were to get caught that I would lose my friend and any means of my wellness. No doctor will prescribe me any of the medicinal marijuana and I do not want to travel elsewhere to achieve it.

I support NORML and am seeking local chapters to maybe join up with and try to make a difference for my sake as well as every one else who uses the 'drug' medicinally or recreationally(only being that without the local smokers I would not have had any access to it) I hope that this government straightens out their policies and start helping the people not hurting them...

I thought this was our country! Why don't we have any say?

Sincerely, xxx

Hello Friends,

I am 39 years old and have fibromyalgia/myofascial pain syndrome. I, along with everyone else in the 70's, experimented and enjoyed smoking for many years.

After a long hiatus, I started again purely for recreation. I began to realize that my migraine headaches would get better faster if I smoked when I had one, and a friend I knew said she had gotten a great relief from smoking.

Now I have a chronic pain syndrome that has left me disabled. My husband is a pharmacist, and he totally supports my usage for medical reasons. The smoke is my only salvation at times because I am limited in the amount of rx meds (pain killers) I can take. I feel the smoke is much safer and definitely gives me the apathy to survive when the pain won't subside.

I am in a real bind now because my "connection" has been disconnected. I've tried to grow my own, but I need it so badly sometimes that I over-prune the plants and they never grow to maturity.

I am smart, funny, and was a very active person. I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for the pain. I can't sleep, can't stand for more than a few minutes, and am in constant pain. The only time I ever get real relief is with the smoke. I don't even care about the high, in fact, I find it to be a bothersome side effect, but I'll take it if I can get some relief.

I find it insane that the government does not recognize this as a safe drug that is a lot safer than the legal medicine I can get. The laws definitely need to be changed. I am suffering because some beaurocrat doesn't have a clue.

Thanks for listening,

A Friend In Need

I am a medical marijuana user, I use with a Doctors recommendation, and have done so for over ten years. I had the bad luck to be arrested with a bag of pot, about a half ounce. $60.00 worth of my medicine. The arrest cost me so far about $2000.00 dollars. I do not drink, I do not smoke ciggs. I now work when I was on disability. I do the lawn for my 94 year old father. I love my wife, bring in a second paycheck to the house, and help to raise and support my daughter and grand child, and other children still living at home. My wife and I have 9 kids between us and we work and pay taxes like everyone else.

I am facing a year in jail and must go to adult probation by 04/11/01 or be found in violation. Mass kicked my probation back to CT because even though the probation officer liked me, he could not supervise a medical marijuana user. He did understand and wrote "medical use" on the paperwork.

If I go to jail, everyone in my family suffers, my Father is 94! Will he die with his only son in jail? Will I miss the first year of my grandchild's life because I am in jail? Will my wife have to hold our house and bills together with one paycheck while I serve my year?

I have been in and out of hospitals all my life, and only in the last 10 years have I had any quality to my life at all. The doctors drugged me senseless for years, to the point that I did not function. Now I work every day and take pride in what I do. Now I am a taxpayer, not a burden, and the one medicine that put my life together is now going to blow my life apart.

Because my child was with me when I was arrested, I also faced felony charges for risk of injury. The Mass D.S.S came out, and after talking to me and hearing the facts, told me they were not going to ask me to stop smoking marijuana, because it helped me to be a better parent, and that was all they cared about. They are still active in my life because I have a 13 year old daughter that is mentally ill and hospitalized in D.S.S. care. She looks forward to my visits and will miss me if I go to jail.

I have no quality to my life without marijuana, and will not stop smoking the one thing that eases my pain. I am now looking at a total knee replacement due to my joints breaking apart from the inside out. I need them both done, and ankle fusions as well, then more operations on my bottoms of my feet. I have already had 4 operations on my feet. The problem keeps coming back. My first knee replacement operation is planned for May 2. Will I get my new knee in jail. Is that where I will recover. I fail to see any justice in my situation.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope it makes a difference.

I failed a drug test ( marijuana) 2 years ago and I still haven't gotten over it. I blame my depression for it. I'm currently on antidepressants and I see a therapist regularly.

I'm amazed at how people can go to the local liquor store or bar, restaurant etc. and buy and consume one of the most deadly substances that we put into our bodies....alcohol. Yet you can consume this product and get a job, but if you smoke a joint and then one month later have to take a urine test chances are that marijuana may still be lingering in your system, because it's fat soluble. On the other hand a person can snort cocaine on Friday and take a drug test on Tuesday and there will be not traces of it in their system.

Thousands of people are being denied employment and in some cases an education if testing positive to one of the least harmful substances consumed marijuana.

When I failed my test, to a company right here in xxx, I wrote letters to the president of the company, the human resource dept., the mayor, the governor, senators, congressmen, my own representative, ( who never responds to any of my letters).

Only one person responded to my cry of disgust hurt and pain and that was Rep. Thomas Kennedy, whom in my opinion saved what little faith I had in government.

I have excellent references, and an outstanding work record, I self published my own book on domestic violence, I work full time, I have my own apartment, I have my own car, I have my own work at home business, I play record and sell my own music, I have several websites on the internet, I voted for George Bush Jr. because of his stand on education, I've been a resident at xxx for seven years and never once was late on my rent, I pay my share of taxes ( don't we all ), I think teachers and firemen should be paid very well, I read the bible and pray to God very often, I'm physically fit by means of pumping iron and bike riding,walking and rowing.......and yet I'm public enemy # 1 because I occasionally smoke herb from a plant that has so many uses, such as food, clothing, shampoos, soaps, oil, rafts, air filters, rope, shoes, hats, jewelry, paper products, sails for sail boats, medical benefits, paints, work for farmers, give the economy a boost, if decriminalized would free up law officers to do more important tasks such as going after real criminals.

Thanks so much for your time.