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Paul's Testimonial

RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC-HEPATITIS C-- Patient Story Series: Recovering Alcoholic Says Marijuana Less Risky Than Pharmaceuticals. Big City, Arkansas: Paul is a 48 year old male with history of alcoholism, in recovery for the last nine years. Says that as a 17 yr-old in the Army at Ft. Hood, he received cans of beer for ten cents delivered each day to the barracks. "They encouraged it," he says. "Year after year, I used alcohol. People could see [the situation]. When I quit drinking alcohol, I didn't have anything - no house, no money. Now, my son is going to college, we own a house, dump trucks, six tractors - we have a quarter million in assets with our company. We are well known for the quality of our work - the whole time I gained all this I've been smoking marijuana."

"When I was drinking I tried everything because I didn't have any sense. I even used heroin. It took me nine months to get off heroin." Paul suffered a brain aneurism January 1998 and after emergency surgery, doctors put him on seizure pills, blood pressure medicine, and merpergan for pain. " I can't take those pills," he says. "I've still got a filled prescription of merpergan - eight pills sitting there in the bottle - I can't take those pills, they make you drunk. It's just like being on alcohol. I started smoking marijuana after brain surgery 3-4 joints per day. I use it to control anger, blood pressure, and all that. It took the place of all those prescriptions and didn't make me drunk."

In 2002, Paul learned that he was positive for Hepatitis C, which he believes he contracted while on heroin. He's been under treatment for six months, Rebitol pills every 12 hours, and a shot every Friday night of PegIntron. "It made me lose 28 pounds - you can't hardly eat, it ruins your taste buds, my hair fell out. I'd have to quit this Hep C treatment it makes you feel so bad except for the marijuana - it keeps up my appetite. I told the VA hospital doctor about that and he said I needed to go see a psychiatrist for smoking marijuana. I went down to the nurses station at the mental health clinic and told her what the doctor said. She asked which doctor I thought was the craziest. I told her I believed in Jesus - who put it [marijuana] here? Jesus didn't make alcohol."

"If the American people knew the truth about this, they wouldn't [support marijuana prohibition]. Why is it that they think alcohol is so great? But you can't make anybody stop using it. Anybody that drinks will never see, no matter how many rehabs - they won't succeed until they see for themselves that they need to quit. I don't care if they go to prison, no matter what a judge says - they have to be in charge of themselves."

"Marijuana helps me like a medicine. I couldn't take the other medicines because they make me drunk just like alcohol. Why is it illegal for something that could help people?"

"Doctors will recommend it but they're afraid. I had a neurologist tell me that he wished he could write a prescription for me. If it was legal, it would be used. Even illegal, it is being used." Interview January 2003