Today's NY Times Op-Ed page has a heart-rending and courageous plea from New York Supreme Court Judge Gustin L. Reichbach: A Judge's Plea For Medical Marijuana.
Judge Reichbach is suffering from Pancreatic Cancer, and has survived for three and a half years -- three years longer than doctors predicted. Judge Reichbach describes his ordeal in excruciating detail:
Nausea and pain are constant companions. One struggles to eat enough to stave off the dramatic weight loss that is part of this disease. Eating, one of the great pleasures of life, has now become a daily battle, with each forkful a small victory. Every drug prescribed to treat one problem leads to one or two more drugs to offset its side effects. Pain medication leads to loss of appetite and constipation. Anti-nausea medication raises glucose levels, a serious problem for me with my pancreas so compromised. Sleep, which might bring respite from the miseries of the day, becomes increasingly elusive.
Marijuana is the only drug that relieves his symptoms and enables him to eat or sleep. Of course, stating that is admitting that he has broken the law, and as he writes, "Given my position as a sitting judge still hearing cases, well-meaning friends question the wisdom of my coming out on this issue." But this courageous judge wants to give voice to those who do not have his platform:
Because criminalizing an effective medical technique affects the fair administration of justice, I feel obliged to speak out as both a judge and a cancer patient suffering with a fatal disease.
He urges the New York State Legislature to finally legalize medical marijuana, writing that it is "barbaric" to deny him and his fellow cancer patients the one drug that lessens their suffering.
I support Judge Reichbach as a lawyer, a New Yorker and someone who strongly agrees with him that the laws against medical marijuana are barbaric.