Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
At all the doors she knocked on while campaigning in Lincoln's District 27, and among all the people she talked to, Sen. Anna Wishart never heard a negative comment about medical cannabis.
Her opponent in the campaign, Dick Clark, recalled district residents as he walked door-to-door bringing up to him the importance of having the drug available in the state.
"And that's me coming to the door with, 'Hey, I think your taxes are too high and they're taxing too fast and spending it too fast.'" Clark said. "Not exactly the come-on where anyone would think, 'OK this is the pro-medical marijuana legalization guy.'"
Clark, a registered Republican with libertarian leanings, and Wishart, a Democrat, had great differences then. But now that Wishart is in the Legislature, they have found a common issue to support, a bill (LB622) that would legalize medical cannabis.
When Clark heard about the bill, he sent Wishart a message via Facebook, thanking her for introducing it.
"I was showing my parents and everybody, and I was, like, 'this is the coolest thing ever,'" she said.
The bill has importance to Clark because of the positive effects of medical cannabis for his younger brother, Trevor.
He's a little nervous about telling his brother's story -- outing him as he called it -- even though Trevor lives in a state where it's legal. His hesitancy is because the drug is not legal in the eyes of the federal government, and no one is quite sure what might happen next in Washington.
Trevor Clark was diagnosed with diabetes as a child in Louisiana and Alabama. His case was severe, with his blood sugars bouncing all over the place and around 15 hospital admissions. High blood sugar damaged nerves in his body.
If that wasn't bad enough, a car wreck when he was 17 gave him multiple spine fractures, and a full body cast.
At the height of his illness and injuries, Trevor Clark spent several years in bed with intense pain, taking 11 hardcore narcotic painkillers, in addition to his diabetes medications. The drugs included opioids, such as fentanyl patches, morphine and methadone.
He was so doped, his brother said, it was hard to even engage him.
"The doctors said, 'Well, you know, we can keep this course for awhile, but in about 15 years we're probably going to be looking at liver failure for you because that's what happens with chronic opioid use,'" Dick Clark said. "For an 18-year-old kid, that's a pretty hopeless feeling."
When a doctor suggested he research herbal medicine and cannabis, even though the doctor couldn't recommend it, he finally found a way to improve his health.
His life changed quickly. He went back to school in a state where medical cannabis was legal. His health improved to the point where he eventually paddled 600 miles continuously in a canoe on an Alabama scenic river trail.
"That's not just a sort of marginal change," Dick Clark said. "That's a life change. And it's made a real difference."
He's 32 and has been off opioids for years. He now works as a product development director at a medical cannabis company in Colorado.
It's immoral to prevent patients from accessing medicine a doctor believes would work for them, Dick Clark said.
"We have to allow people to have hope in their treatment," he said.
Wishart's bill is similar to one introduced last session by former Sen. Tommy Garrett. It would allow any mixture or preparation from the cannabis plant to be administered to a qualified patient as a liquid or oil, vaporized or in solid form. Smoking it would not be legal.
Only certain medical conditions would qualify. And only a health care provider certified under the medical cannabis act could diagnose a patient for use of the drug. A patient registry would be part of the law.
The Department of Health and Human Services would have oversight, and a medical cannabis board would advise on rules and regulations.
Nine senators have signed on to the bill, including five on the Judiciary Committee where the bill will be heard. Wishart's office has met with many of last year's opponents to talk about objections and provide information.
She is glad to have Clark's support. A lot of people in the Legislature have a deep respect for him, Wishart said.
"To be able to come back together and work on an issue, that means a lot to me," she said.
The bill will also have the support of many of the families with ill children who have worked hard in the past with Garrett on his medical cannabis bill (LB643). It was filibustered on the second round of debate last session and went down when it received only 30 of 33 needed votes.
Shari Lawlor, whose daughter Brooke, 24, has severe epilepsy, continues to be a supporter of the bill. She and Josie Kranz, on the board of Nebraska Families 4 Medical Cannabis, say they will wait and watch to see how the bill does this session.
If it doesn't pass, the group must make a decision on whether to step fully into an initiative petition drive to get the issue on the statewide ballot. They speculate it could cost about $1 million.
"Why go through all that if they're going to finally come around like the other 28 states have, and give some of these people a chance at a better quality of life?" Lawlor said.
The Judiciary Committee advanced a bill (LB167) on Friday that would reclassify the drug cannabidiol, which is being researched in Nebraska for several types of epilepsy. Currently, cannabidiol in any form is a controlled substance with no approved medical use, and possession and its distribution and sale is a criminal act in Nebraska.
Cannabidiol is extracted from the Cannabis sativa plant and is distinct from the cannabinoid that is responsible for the drug-related high.
Epidiolex, the drug product used in the research, is a plant-based pharmaceutical formulation of pure cannabidiol, according to the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The research has started and UNMC is in the final stages of recruiting about 25 patients, said spokesman Tom O'Connor. Doctors say studies are accumulating data that so far have shown no major side effects from the drug.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Former Opponents Join Up To Bring Medical Cannabis To Nebraska
Author: JoAnne Young
Contact: (402) 473-7306
Photo Credit: Gwyneth Roberts
Website: Lincoln Journal Star
Her opponent in the campaign, Dick Clark, recalled district residents as he walked door-to-door bringing up to him the importance of having the drug available in the state.
"And that's me coming to the door with, 'Hey, I think your taxes are too high and they're taxing too fast and spending it too fast.'" Clark said. "Not exactly the come-on where anyone would think, 'OK this is the pro-medical marijuana legalization guy.'"
Clark, a registered Republican with libertarian leanings, and Wishart, a Democrat, had great differences then. But now that Wishart is in the Legislature, they have found a common issue to support, a bill (LB622) that would legalize medical cannabis.
When Clark heard about the bill, he sent Wishart a message via Facebook, thanking her for introducing it.
"I was showing my parents and everybody, and I was, like, 'this is the coolest thing ever,'" she said.
The bill has importance to Clark because of the positive effects of medical cannabis for his younger brother, Trevor.
He's a little nervous about telling his brother's story -- outing him as he called it -- even though Trevor lives in a state where it's legal. His hesitancy is because the drug is not legal in the eyes of the federal government, and no one is quite sure what might happen next in Washington.
Trevor Clark was diagnosed with diabetes as a child in Louisiana and Alabama. His case was severe, with his blood sugars bouncing all over the place and around 15 hospital admissions. High blood sugar damaged nerves in his body.
If that wasn't bad enough, a car wreck when he was 17 gave him multiple spine fractures, and a full body cast.
At the height of his illness and injuries, Trevor Clark spent several years in bed with intense pain, taking 11 hardcore narcotic painkillers, in addition to his diabetes medications. The drugs included opioids, such as fentanyl patches, morphine and methadone.
He was so doped, his brother said, it was hard to even engage him.
"The doctors said, 'Well, you know, we can keep this course for awhile, but in about 15 years we're probably going to be looking at liver failure for you because that's what happens with chronic opioid use,'" Dick Clark said. "For an 18-year-old kid, that's a pretty hopeless feeling."
When a doctor suggested he research herbal medicine and cannabis, even though the doctor couldn't recommend it, he finally found a way to improve his health.
His life changed quickly. He went back to school in a state where medical cannabis was legal. His health improved to the point where he eventually paddled 600 miles continuously in a canoe on an Alabama scenic river trail.
"That's not just a sort of marginal change," Dick Clark said. "That's a life change. And it's made a real difference."
He's 32 and has been off opioids for years. He now works as a product development director at a medical cannabis company in Colorado.
It's immoral to prevent patients from accessing medicine a doctor believes would work for them, Dick Clark said.
"We have to allow people to have hope in their treatment," he said.
Wishart's bill is similar to one introduced last session by former Sen. Tommy Garrett. It would allow any mixture or preparation from the cannabis plant to be administered to a qualified patient as a liquid or oil, vaporized or in solid form. Smoking it would not be legal.
Only certain medical conditions would qualify. And only a health care provider certified under the medical cannabis act could diagnose a patient for use of the drug. A patient registry would be part of the law.
The Department of Health and Human Services would have oversight, and a medical cannabis board would advise on rules and regulations.
Nine senators have signed on to the bill, including five on the Judiciary Committee where the bill will be heard. Wishart's office has met with many of last year's opponents to talk about objections and provide information.
She is glad to have Clark's support. A lot of people in the Legislature have a deep respect for him, Wishart said.
"To be able to come back together and work on an issue, that means a lot to me," she said.
The bill will also have the support of many of the families with ill children who have worked hard in the past with Garrett on his medical cannabis bill (LB643). It was filibustered on the second round of debate last session and went down when it received only 30 of 33 needed votes.
Shari Lawlor, whose daughter Brooke, 24, has severe epilepsy, continues to be a supporter of the bill. She and Josie Kranz, on the board of Nebraska Families 4 Medical Cannabis, say they will wait and watch to see how the bill does this session.
If it doesn't pass, the group must make a decision on whether to step fully into an initiative petition drive to get the issue on the statewide ballot. They speculate it could cost about $1 million.
"Why go through all that if they're going to finally come around like the other 28 states have, and give some of these people a chance at a better quality of life?" Lawlor said.
The Judiciary Committee advanced a bill (LB167) on Friday that would reclassify the drug cannabidiol, which is being researched in Nebraska for several types of epilepsy. Currently, cannabidiol in any form is a controlled substance with no approved medical use, and possession and its distribution and sale is a criminal act in Nebraska.
Cannabidiol is extracted from the Cannabis sativa plant and is distinct from the cannabinoid that is responsible for the drug-related high.
Epidiolex, the drug product used in the research, is a plant-based pharmaceutical formulation of pure cannabidiol, according to the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The research has started and UNMC is in the final stages of recruiting about 25 patients, said spokesman Tom O'Connor. Doctors say studies are accumulating data that so far have shown no major side effects from the drug.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Former Opponents Join Up To Bring Medical Cannabis To Nebraska
Author: JoAnne Young
Contact: (402) 473-7306
Photo Credit: Gwyneth Roberts
Website: Lincoln Journal Star
