75A - PH - MEDICAL MARIJUANA - PROHIBIT

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On the wall is a mural of a s~.mny Oakland park, full of relaxed people in various stages of illness. They appear positively pain-free. The night I begin writing this article, I turn my head and the old ear pain shoots back. It's mild at first, then heavier. The pain isn't really inside the ear, but rather right where my ear hits my head. It hurts when I push on it and when 1 move. 1 decide it's time to take my medicine. l don't really get high anymore. Back when I did, I never experimented with pot's medical potential. 1 dig out a pipe and get to work. The f rst thing I do is underestimate how strong it is. I take two big hits, then sort of wally around, then take tyro more. The high is always indistinguishable from the ritual in the first three minutes, so it's a while before 1 know what's what. I sit and begin writing. 1 get up and look for something. I find. incense in a drawer and light that. I sit and. write some more. The pot is strong. My head is light, or heavy. I get up and put the incense out. A piece rolls behind the couch, still burning, and the house almost burns down. 1 find the piece. I sit down to write again and then remember to see if my ear hurts. It does. But not as much. I think. Does marijuana just make you too stoned to evaluate pain? This would be dumb. I consider Ellis. It's hard to conclude anything about him, for he's as ambiguous as every other element of the medical marijuana question. In a city of either conservative or craven doctors, he's taking a chance. Those who take chances to improve the lives of the sick and dying are heroic. But at the same time, it wasn't just the sick and dying in that waiting room. Ellis, like many medical marijuana advocates, is breathless on the subject. He perceives an injustice perpetrated by the medical establishment and by the federal government. If he`s occasionally quixotic on the issue -- the executive director of the California Medical Board can't imagine what Ellis is tilting at -- one can infer that he's either dramatic or tired of seeing people in pain. Finally, what will happen to a doctor in a tiny office who flouts federal law on the back page of the San Francisco Bay Guardian? Is he in danger? "I don't know," Jones from the OCBC had said. "Is a bug that flies into the light in danger?" Because he's working with other information, or because he's blinded by the light, Ellis himself isn't scared. "They'd be crazy if they bothered me," he'd told me, before getting off the phone to see another patient. (Source htt~//drugandhealthinfo org/pa~e02.php?ID=6) Another Doctor found through Internet research; NCit'1'}~fJ S[~~t,,~1 fJ.' weftrae5s Counsrri~nr ~ ~i,7e~na~rye A.fen~•-i^a fi:~Ii~~rrria E,icerrs6 ~A~31476 your Appointment There are four things yuu should bring with you; 1) Any paperwork regarding your condition, including doctor reports, treatment notes, and paperwork with your diagnosis. The doctor is here to give you a second opinion. Any health history paperwork helps the doctor understand what your primary diagnosis is. Our doctors are here to provide you with a second opinion, therefore you must have seen a physician recently for the condition you use marijuana to treat in order to be evahiated. 37 75A-46