10/23/2009
Georgine DiMaria-Jay Leno Response
While I am thrilled that Mr. Leno took notice of my use of cannabis therapy, his facts about my personal usage of medical marijuana and comments about marijuana, in general, are both naive and false.
Hopefully, correcting this misinformation can be an opportunity to further advocate the strong benefit of medical marijuana and the grave importance of marijuana reform here in my home state of New Jersey.
As a life-long severe asthmatic, living with a debilitating disease and staring death in the face almost every day of my twenty-five years, I know firsthand how important finding a miracle drug can be. Finally, after years of constant suffering, I have found that miracle in marijuana, yet I am denied access to my lifesaver due to its illegality and a general lack of knowledge about marijuana as a medicinal substance. Used responsibly
in its purest form through either vaporization or ingestion, marijuana has saved my life numerous times, and has the potential to do just that for so many others.
Contrary to the implication in Mr. Leno’s “joke,” I have opposed and continue to oppose smoking in any capacity, as I am a National Spokesperson for the American Lung Association for Asthma and Tobacco Control, and I feel that smoking in any case, is negative for one’s health. The most beneficial and effective way I have found to ingest medical marijuana is through vaporization, which has served as my method of treatment.
Even though Mr. Leno’s remarks about my personal use were seriously misinformed , and while he took a tiresome shot at New Jersey’s air quality, his comments are positive in that they are yet another indication of just how mainstream medical cannabis has become. The whole reason I originally went public with my medical marijuana experience is to advocate for the compassionate use of marijuana and our rights, as patients, to be and feel healthy.
Jay utilized the provocative nature of an asthmatic using marijuana as the *crux of his joke last night, but this matter is no laughing one and has now become so much larger than just a medicinal/health issue*: it is a matter of personal autonomy and liberty.
It is a cruel tease to have breathed freely due to marijuana’s positive and scientifically well-documented bronchodilation effects, only to then have that ability stripped away from me because I do not have legal access to the medication. Hopefully the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act will pass this year in 2009 and provide us all with relief. *However, because cannabis is not legally available to me, I have not even come close to overcoming the disease and I continue to struggle with the crippling effects of asthma. Instead I use deadly steroids on a daily basis.
These drugs I pump into my body, whether orally, through injection, or inhalation, are extremely harmful. While they have absolutely no longterm positive effect on my health and breathing, I have become chemically dependent on them . They have made me even more ill than before, raising my chances of death each day I continue to take them.
However, marijuana, the drug that I know for a fact will help me breathe–a drug that has never been associated with even one overdose or death -is at the tip of my fingers yet completely out of reach. It is unfortunate that I may not survive because I have no legal access to cannabis. Even more sadly, I am just one of millions of patients being denied their miracle, and we will all continue to fight death and the destruction of our quality of life unless we end prohibition.
*In the Washington Post article by Kathleen Parker that sparked Jay Leno’s comment, we are reminded that it was women who led the movement toward ending alcohol prohibition. I believe Ms. Parker is right when suggesting that women may lead “the next revolution in personal autonomy.”
*Women can be the most powerful source in breaking the stereotypes and stigmas associated with marijuana use. This is the perfect opportunity for more women like me to break the silence and come out in support of sensible marijuana reform rather than unnecessarily hiding in fear. I believe we can and will be the driving force to end this fight and begin saving lives.
So thank you again, Mr. Leno, for taking notice and allowing me to “Stone the Stigma,” once and for all!
CONTACT: director (at) normlnj.org
Well done!