Medical cannabis has passed both the NH house and senate, but as usual, “governor” John Lynch has promised to veto it. Please take a moment and call his office at 603-271-2121 and encourage him to sign SB 409 into law and support medical patients rights to use the medicine of their choice. Here’s a personal story from Sarah Levesque about her father:
This is my father as a medical marijuana patient. The marijuana alleviated his nausea and allowed him to eat. It eased his pain to a tolerable level and allowed him to function, instead of being in a zombie like state from being doped up on the pharmaceutical pain killers he was prescribed. The marijuana helped him sleep so his body could rest and fight his ailments. This was taken a year and a half before he died. BEFORE he was forced to give up his natural herbal medicine in the hope of receiving a necessary transplant. I was 17 years old when this picture was taken.
This picture was taken when I was 18 years old. After he was forced to give up medical marijuana. I was a teenage girl and watched my father suffer. His nausea was so bad that he was unable to eat and we watched him waste away from day to day. His pain was unbearable and made him unable to sleep soundly. Because he was unable to eat and unable to sleep his blood sugar went out of control and he slipped into diabetic comas almost weekly. As an 18 year old child I drove my father to the emergency room. I cried by his hospital bed hoping for him to wake up. I encouraged him to NOT find comfort in a natural medicine that worked for him, because I was selfish and wanted him to live. I allowed my father to suffer needlessly throughout his last year on this earth because I believed that if he could just tough it out he might live. I encouraged him to suffer while knowing there was medicine that could comfort him. No child should be forced to choose between giving up hope for their parent’s survival or their parents comfort. You want to know what a medical marijuana law would do for the children? It would renew their faith in the law. The current situation harbors a deep disrespect for the law and makes things more difficult for all those involved – not just the children, not just the patients, but for law enforcement as well. Forcing people to needlessly suffer is bad policy.
This is the last time I ever saw my father alive. The next time I saw him was in a casket at the funeral home when I was 19 years old. This is the reason why I advocate for medical marijuana. As a child I watched my father suffer needlessly. I encouraged it. I am tormented by that fact and not only does that hurt still impact my daily life, it affects all those around me. My children watch me cry and are helpless to do anything about it. There is no reason why anyone should be forced to suffer when there is a solution available. You have the ability to stop the suffering, by supporting SB 409. My father is dead and gone. SB 409 will not help him, but there are living patients right now who are suffering – that you CAN help. I hope you find it in your heart to side with compassion and do what is right. Stop forcing people to suffer.
NH’s SB 409 passed the senate 13-11 at 9:00pm Wednesday March 28, 2012. The schedule for the public hearing, the executive hearing, and the senate vote were all changed repeatedly at last minutes notice and stretched out in an attempt to make it impossible for patients and advocates to attend. The bill moves to the house, where it has a lot of support, but Governor John Lynch has “promised” to veto the bill. Gov. Lynch has been told by the State Police association and the Attorney General’s office that passing medical marijuana will make a police officer’s job more difficult. I believe that making a cops job easier should not take precedence over making a patient’s LIFE easier. I am asking if you could please keep this email going, get it to reach as many eyes as possible. We need people to call Gov. Lynch at 603-271-2121 and urge him to side with compassion and reason. Please do NOT veto SB 409, instead sign it into law.
Thank you for your time,
Sarah Levesque
