OCTOBER 16, 2009

COURTESY OF DRAKE UNIVERSITYMaya Angelou, a well known speaker and civil rights activists spoke about courage at the Drake Knapp Center on Oct. 8.

Allow Iowans to alleviate pain with medical marijuanaHere’s the scene I expect-

ed at a hearing about the legal-ization of medical marijuana at the University of Iowa: a room of college students with dread-locks, who want pot legalized not for medicinal purposes but so that they can keep getting high on their dorm couches without the fear of arrest.

But at a hearing orga-nized by the Iowa Board of Pharmacy on the subject on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the university, the atmosphere couldn’t have been more dif-ferent.

Those who took the podi-um were people like Lisa Jackson, a middle-aged moth-er of four from Crawfordsville, who has searing pain con-stantly because of fibromyal-gia, and Jimmy Morrison, the media director of a Muscatine church who suffers from bipo-lar disorder.

They are anything but young stoners. They are mothers, businesspeople and Iowans looking for a way to make ease their suffering.

There was one man at the hearing with the dreadlocks and a marijuana leaf T-shirt, but even he isn’t what he seemed.

Anthony Harden, 33, of Tipton, has suffered from Cystic Fibrosis since birth.

Before his U of I doctor prescribed him medical mari-juana in 2006, he struggled to breathe and wasn’t eating enough.

“Its effects have helped me maintained a healthy weight and a good attitude,” Harden said of marijuana. “For me, it’s just been a gift.”

But Jackson, Morrison and Harden can’t legally buy marijuana here in Iowa. At least not yet.

The hearings came about after a Polk County judge on April 24 ruled the Iowa Board of Pharmacy must examine whether marijuana has been incorrectly classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance after the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a lawsuit challenging the categorization. The one in Iowa City was the third of four and after the last hearing on Nov. 4 in Council Bluffs, the board will make a classifica-tion recommendation to the Iowa Legislature.

That recommendation will not change the law, however. Legislators are the ones who

have that power. But some Iowans like Carl

Olsen, co-founder of Iowans for Medical Marijuana, are hoping that a recommendation is all they need to start the legalization wheels rolling.

Said Olsen, “Marijuana has medical uses we haven’t even thought of.”

It is because of its medici-nal uses that 13 states have decriminalized the drug and why the majority of those in attendance at the hearing stood at the podium and pleaded out for help.

“I am a good mother, a good wife and a good per-son,” Lisa Jackson, of Crawfordsville, said from the stage of a large lecture hall to about 20 people and seven Board of Pharmacy members. “I should be allowed to con-tinue functioning as one with-out the risk of going to jail to do so.”

Jackson is a mother of

four with a kind face. You wouldn’t know she smokes weed constantly. She says she has to in order to ward off the pain that has gripped her for the last seven years.

The pain began after her hysterectomy. She was diag-nosed with fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes constant, widespread pain.

She is sensitive to light and even the slightest touch hurts.

The pain grew so unbear-able she would occasionally overdose on her prescribed medication. So two years ago, she turned to marijuana.

“That throbbing, the burn-ing sensations, the aches, the cramps, it’s just less,” Jackson said.

But there’s a better reason why she uses the drug.

“I’m not in bed, I’m not on a sofa, I’m not feeling sorry for myself,” she said, and added that she is honest with her fam-ily about using it.

But opponents of legaliza-tion like Jennifer Husman say those benefits aren’t enough.

Husmann, a grant coor-dinator for Area Substance Abuse Council in Mt. Vernon and the only person to speak out against the legalization in a three-hour stretch of the hear-ing, said legalizing marijuana will make it too easy for kids to obtain.

“All too often, kids get their hands on cigarettes or alcohol, legal drugs for

adults,” Husmann testified. “We shouldn’t let the same thing happen with marijuana.”

Her comments were met with jeers from the crowd—and for good reason.

The bottom line is this: if pot is the one thing that can most effectively ease Jackson’s pain and the nausea of chemotherapy and a host of other ills, why isn’t it legal?

Not only might it be the most effective treatment, but even doctors say it is safer than some pills.

“I am able to prescribe dozens of medications with potent and dangerous side effects much more adverse than marijuana,” said Deborah LeBeau, a Dubuque doctor, who supports the legalization.

State lawmakers should not only be listening to the cries for help from their fel-low Iowans, but they should also do something about it.

Jackson should be allowed to live without fear she will be thrown in jail just for trying to ease her suffering. Jimmy Morrison should be allowed to treat his bipolar disorder without the risk of getting beaten and robbed in an alley again.

These aren’t stoners look-ing for an easier way to get high. These are mothers, busi-nesspeople and Iowans asking for help. And as their neigh-bors and friends, it is our duty to do what we can to make their pain a little easier to bear.

Molly Hottle COLUMNIST

Courtney TownsendSTAFF WRITER

Angelou speaks to crowded house

Drake University hosted Maya Angelou at the Knapp Center on October 8, with standing room only.

Angelou is known as a poet, historian, actress, author, playwright, director, civil-rights activist and producer.

Born as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, she left to grow up in rural Arkansas after her parent’s divorce. Growing up was hard for Angelou during times of segregation. But now Maya Angelou speaks about her past and all of her life experiences and people come to listen.

“She’s really a gal who speaks even for the president and is outstanding in every single way. I have heard her in person several times before through Smart Talk at Hoyt Sherman and Vets Auditorium,” Anne Driscoll, audience member, said.

“She’s going to speak about courage or integrity and I’m looking forward to hear her speak about either,” Warren Taylor, audience member, said.

Angelou was escorted on

stage and began to speak. “I stopped flying, I had

become quite well known; I looked just like Maya Angelou,” she opened up with laughter. “When I say I’m glad to be here, I mean it,” she said about her 17-hour bus ride to Des Moines.

I’m about to talk to you about rainbows in the skies she said, “Let me talk to you about my rainbows.”

She discussed growing up in Arkansas with her aunt and uncle. Her Uncle Willy teaching her multiplication and meeting others that her uncle had touched throughout his life.

She then went on to recite song for her uncle and explained how he was a “rainbow” in her life.

Angelou expressed the tragedies in her childhood such as the rape that caused her to become mute. She went on to explain that after she was raped she had reported the incident and the man that attacked her ended up dead.

Angelou said she believed from then on if she could speak and man could end up dead she should keep her mouth closed.

“I thought my voice had

killed a man and if I spoke my voice might just kill anybody, so it was better not to speak,” she said.

It was 6 years before she spoke again.

According to the Drake University website she has lectured all over the world and written a critically acclaimed memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” among other books, music, poetry and screenplays. She is fluent in five languages, which include Arabic, French and Spanish.

Angelou has three Grammys and has received nominations for the National Book Award, the Tony Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. She is now currently a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

A top accomplishment for Angelou was delivering the inaugural poem at Bill Clinton’s first swearing in ceremony. She was only the second poet to read at an inau-guration and she was also asked to read a poem at the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

“We have the possibility each of us have the chance

to be a rainbow in someone else’s life even if they may not look like us,” she said. “I couldn’t have done without the rainbows in my life you see?”

“I’m looking at my rain-bows, I look at people who didn’t even know they were

shining. You think I’m brag-ging but I had [a lot] of rain-bows in my cards,” she said.

Granville Williams, audi-ence member, said, “It was moving, it brought back mem-ories of when I was young-er; it was inspirational. She spoke to everyone I feel.”