BIKING ACCIDENT RESULTING IN BACK PAIN -- Before my accident, I rode in the top six percent of cyclists in the world. All the crazy mountain bike videos you see, that was me. On September 26, 2001, I was riding my mountain bike on one of my favorite trails. I had one of those "one in a million" accidents which ended with me landing on my head and shattering C5 - C7 vertebra of my spine. I became a tetraplegic, basically no voluntary movement from the nipples down.

I'm sure you have seen spasms that are common with spinal cord injuries. Mine can be extremely violent, even flipping me out of my wheelchair or dragging me off of the bed or couch. I did my rehab work at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta Georgia and it was there that the director of outpatient services, Dr. ___, told me "the best medicine for spasms I can't prescribe. It's marijuana." You see, by the time I was an outpatient my spasms were already so bad that I was prescribed over 300 mg of Baclofen and they were pushing me to have surgery to implant a "pump" that would dump Baclofen directly on my spinal cord.

Since then I have been able to test the effect of marijuana against my spasms and I can tell you that marijuana is much, much more effective ____ .... quit taking the Baclofen if I use the ___. It even makes it possible to sleep through the night, something I cannot do just using the Baclofen with a Valium kicker.

I get around very well for someone with such a high break. I was quite successful in the computer and imaging business and had just started my own business doing installation and troubleshooting of computer networks for small businesses. I lost everything except my truck and boat, ended up living with mom who was able to wrestle all my bills down and keep me from going bankrupt. So now I'm a 40-year-old man living at home with mom. Thank you so much for assisting the medical use community. It is only through active, involved persons that we can ever hope to open the minds of lawmakers. May 2004

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