High Society

The Long Road to Marijuana Legalization

By Sophie Uziel

Heather Shuker was told that her daughter, Hannah, would not live to be a teenager.

“Last year, we almost lost Hannah as a result of an overall physical and mental decline resulting from seizures and medication overload,” Shuker said.

Thanks to Pennsylvania becoming the 24th state to legalize marijuana for medical use, Hannah is turning 15 this year.

Heather and Hannah share a laugh in her bedroom. Photo courtesy of Heather Shuker

“Through various changes in Hannah’s diet, a few seizure medication alterations, clean living, a lot of prayers and the consistent use of medical cannabis, we managed to save Hannah’s life and give her quality of life back,” Shuker said. “Medical cannabis is an essential ingredient in Hannah’s recipe for life.”

Dianna Briggs of the Campaign for Compassion, has shared experience.

Her son, Ryan, suffered an anoxic episode at birth due to doctor error.

“This left him with multiple disabilities,” Briggs said. “Cerebral Palsy, Cortical Visual impairment, Intractable Epilepsy and he has a feeding tube.”

Briggs said that the seizures were the worst, and he suffered up to 400 a day. They tried everything from pharmaceuticals, nerve stimulators, even traveling out of the country for stem cell therapy -- and nothing worked, until one friend shared a story about Charlotte Figi, whose parents were successfully treating her seizures with cannabis oil.

After doing her own research, the Campaign for Compassion was formed, but Ryan’s growing severity in seizures could not wait.

“We had been warned about puberty and the chemical changes in his body, but we were not prepared for just how awful his seizures would become,” Briggs said. “My husband and I chose to illegally treat him with medical cannabis oil, a 1:1 THC-CBD ratio."

He slept peacefully for three days, which Briggs said is almost unheard of.

Briggs has been treating Ryan with cannabis oil for 3 years now, and reports that he seizures have gone to just under 50 a day.

“Ryan will never be seizure free due to his brain injury, but I never imagined we would have such low seizure numbers daily,” Briggs said. “This amazing plant has given my son a quality of life we prayed and hoped for, but never truly imagined would be possible.”

Because of this law, it means that patients with qualifying conditions – cancer, multiple sclerosis or, in both Ryan and Hannah’s case, epilepsy – can apply for a card, and Shuker says that it is very simple.

Patients can visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health, register online, set up an appointment for a background check, make an appointment with a physician approved by the state, pay $50, then wait three to five weeks – assuming you qualify for one of the “serious medical conditions” in the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Act.

A visual representation of medical marijuana. Photo courtesy of Dreamstime.

According to the official Commonwealth of Pennsylvania website, serious medical conditions that would benefit from medical marijuana include cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and even illnesses of the mind, such as PTSD.

“More than likely, the physician will not recommend a particular product or dose. You will pick the dispensary you want to go to,” Shuker explained. “I went to Cresco Yeltrah in Butler. Show them your card, and they will take you back into the consultation area where you will meet and discuss the options of product and dosing.”

A misconception that people have about medical marijuana is that patients just want to smoke a joint and get high.

Cannabis can be taken in the form of a pill, oil, topical, tincture or liquid, and most of them do not contain THC – tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient that actually gets you high – but cannabinol (CBD) which acts as a painkiller and anti-inflammatory, just to name a few.

All of this information can sound complicated, especially for a drug whose reputation is still not held in very high favor by society.

“Stereotypes die slowly,” said Patrick Nightingale of the PA Medical Cannabis Society. “For literally decades cannabis and cannabis consumers have been lampooned and, even worse, equated with hard drug addicts -- remember the ‘Just Say No’ nonsense and ‘This Is Your Brain on Drugs’ campaigns of the 1980s?”

Nightingale said that he personally knows dozens of people who benefit from the use of medical marijuana, except there is not enough product to meet the demand.

In states like California or Colorado, there is a dispensary on nearly every corner.

“That will change as more growers are ready,” Nightingale said.

As of right now, there are only two medical marijuana dispensaries in Allegheny County (with one set to open in Monroeville soon) three in Butler County, and one in Westmoreland County. This is a small victory, but the road there was difficult.

“Ideally, we would have loved for Pennsylvania to hear our pleas to legalize medical cannabis for our critically ill children immediately as we requested, but we knew that would not be the case,” Shuker said. “Pennsylvania is a very conservative state.”

It wasn’t until 2013, Shuker explained, that the Campaign for Compassion was started by mothers and fathers of children with epilepsy who fought tirelessly for the legalization of marijuana, and it was a group effort.

“We did not do this alone. We did this with seasoned medical cannabis advocates such as Patrick Nightingale that fought for years,” Shuker said. “Together people from all over PA, in a 100% grassroots efforts along with an overwhelming amount of support from our government officials throughout the state legalized medical cannabis in PA.”

Now that it is legalized medically, some, like Nightingale, would like to see it legalized recreationally.

“While cannabis is not harmless, it’s far safer than alcohol. No one has ever suffered a fatal overdose from ‘acute cannabinoid toxicity,’” Nightingale adds. “According to Rand Corp, we spend 200 - 300 million dollars annually on cannabis prohibition between cops, courts and corrections.”

He explained how Colorado, a state that has legalized marijuana for recreational use, generated $140 in tax revenue from cannabis sales. Pittsburgh has three times the population, and, as Nightingale explains, a full recreational industry will produce jobs with a minimum $500 million net benefit to the state.

“A full recreational industry will produce jobs and much needed tax revenue,” Nightingale said.

But there have been small strides in Pennsylvania. In mid-April, Pennsylvania Department of Health Secretary Rachel Levine approved the sale of marijuana in its plant form to qualifying patients.

This is important in several ways: plant-form marijuana is a less expensive option for patients and the process of “seed to dispensary” is quick enough to meet the demand.

While Pennsylvania still has quite a way to go as far as the legalization for marijuana, people like Hannah and Ryan have learned to celebrate the small victories as they come.

Sophie Uziel is a junior at Point Park University. She plans to graduate in spring 2019 with a degree in Mass Communication.