There are some days when Sherri Levesque just can’t get out of bed. The pain is just too much. But at the same time, she can’t just stay in bed, either.
The 47-year-old mother of six was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that has caused chronic and painful inflammation throughout her body, eight years ago. But she knows what will help her. She calls it her “morning medicine,” and it works like a charm. … Subscribe or log in to read more
There are some days when Sherri Levesque just can’t get out of bed. The pain is just too much. But at the same time, she can’t just stay in bed, either.
The 47-year-old mother of six was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that has caused chronic and painful inflammation throughout her body, eight years ago. But she knows what will help her. She calls it her “morning medicine,” and it works like a charm.
Unfortunately for her, the rest of us call it marijuana, and it’s still illegal in New Hampshire.
“It reduces the inflammation in my body that is slowly killing me,” said Levesque, a lifelong Nashua resident. “I don’t even like to smoke pot. I’m after the oil. But if I’m on my porch taking my morning medicine and a cop comes by, I can be arrested.”
Levesque is one of hundreds of patients with chronic illnesses still waiting for government regulators to give the go-ahead for medical marijuana dispensaries to open in the state. The state Legislature approved a bill legalizing medical marijuana in June 2013, and patients are growing impatient while officials are still drafting rules for the dispensaries and to govern which patients would qualify to use medical cannabis.
In the meantime, prospective patients still can’t get ID cards that, when the dispensaries open, would allow them to get medical marijuana because of an opinion issued by the state attorney general in June recommending against the practice. Patients say the ID cards would protect them from arrest while they wait for the dispensaries to open.
“We only want what the law provides for: legal protection from arrests. That’s it,” Levesque said. “It just seems like there’s no way this is going to happen in any kind of time frame to help. What is taking so long when we already have so many other state models?”
Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, called New Hampshire’s law “incredibly restrictive” and said proponents have been discouraged by the rules that have been established in the wake of the law’s passage, particularly the $80,000 annual licensing fees dispensary operators will have to pay the state. That, combined with the limited number of conditions covered by the law, will make it difficult for dispensary owners to stay in business.
“It’s questionable to me who the heck is going to pay $80,000 to go into this business if we’re only going to have 500-1,000 patients,” Simon said. “It’s beginning to look like a losing proposition.”
Prevention advocates have cautioned against relaxing rules around marijuana. Those advocates and many in law enforcement fear the potential for teens experimenting with marijuana to move on to more dangerous drugs.
That’s why the drug is one of the focuses of the Partnership for Drug Free New Hampshire’s statewide prevention campaign focused on teenagers. It may not be as dangerous as heroin and other drugs, but the rate at which it’s used by teenagers in the state is higher than in most states.
In fact, 10 percent of those ages 12-17 in New Hampshire who took the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey said they had smoked marijuana in the last month, compared with about 7 percent nationally.
And many don’t think their parents would disapprove. Fewer than 70 percent of New Hampshire teenagers said their parents would feel it’s “very wrong” for them to smoke marijuana, compared with nearly 90 percent nationally.
Levesque said she still just wants to be able to function in the morning and to not have to resort to taking opioid painkillers such as oxycodone or Percocet.
“When you get up in the morning and you can’t use your hands, you don’t have a choice,” she said. “You have to pop an OxyContin. Which is worse? I’m not hurting anyone.”
Joseph G. Cote can be reached
at 594-6415 or jcote@nashua
telegraph.com. Also, follow Cote
on Twitter (@Telegraph_JoeC).
Nashua patient: Slow arrival of medical cannabis makes her painful disease harder to bear
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