Channel 3000: Hundreds March For Marijuana On
Library Mall
Glaucoma Patient Says Marijuana Saved Her Sight
UPDATED: 11:38 a.m. CDT October 7, 2002
MADISON, Wis. -- Hundreds of people showed up on Library Mall for the 31st Annual Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival Sunday afternoon.
Organizers were registering voters while educating them on the uses of cannabis, and this year many of the speakers focused on medicinal use.
"The DEA-owned administrative law judge ruled that it's one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man," said Gary Storck, communication director for the organization, Is My Medicine Legal Yet? "He ruled this back in 1988, and they chose to ignore that evidence."
One of the speakers talked firsthand about how marijuana helped her in her battle against glaucoma.
Elvy Musikka is one of seven surviving patients who receive 300 marijuana cigarettes every month from the federal government.
She started her battle to get more patients the drug after the program was terminated in 1992.
Musikka says that without marijuana, she believes she would be blind today.
"It has been a godsend that has maintained my sight for 26 years," Musikka said. "I lost my better eye to conventional treatment and surgeries. (I was) hoping to find a legal answer -- for some of us, there isn't one."
Organizers urged festival goers to contact their local congressional representatives about the issue.
Copyright 2002 by Channel
3000. |
