The following letter was sent from a medical marijuana patient in Australia to that nation's minister for the Department of Health and Ageing, Hon Nicola Roxon (MP).  The patient, David Nentwig, suffers from Cataplexy, a serious sleep disorder related to Narcolepsy but featuring seizure-like episodes of muscle weakness or paralysis which are generally triggered by strong emotions. The use of marijuana appears to substantially reduce Mr. Nentwig's episodes of Cataplexy.

 Cataplexy
By David Nentwig

Mr. D. Nentwig,
61, Bailey Ave,
COFFS HARBOUR  NSW  2450 

17^th March, 2008

Dear Ms Roxon,

      I am writing to you about a much maligned issue in Australia, and parts of the world, and how this issue affects me on a very personal, and individual, level. My name is David Nentwig and I am a chronic sufferer of an ‘orphan’ seizure disorder called Cataplexy.

      Ever since I was 3 years old, I have had some form of seizure disorder. At this age I suffered from a major Grand Mal seizure after having an accident. From this age onwards I started suffering from occasional grand mal as well as frequent petit mal seizures and occasional severe, violent night terrors. As I got older, they became more frequent and more prolific. By the age of 9, they were fairly frequent on a daily basis and I started suffering with shock seizures, from even very light impacts to any part of my body,  extremes in weather and emotional disturbances.

      The name Cataplexy was not put to my disorder until I was 20 years old (I‘m now 28 at time of writing).  However from the age of nine,  I was also experiencing what I now know was full cataplectic seizures, also called ‘drop seizures.  The word ‘Cataplexy’ comes from the Greek word ‘Kata’ meaning ‘down’, and ‘plexis’ meaning ‘a stroke or seizure’. Wikepedia defines cataplectic manifestation as ‘a muscular weakness which may range from a barely perceptible slackening of the facial muscles, to the dropping of the jaw or head, weakness at the knees or a total collapse. Usually the speech is slurred, vision is impaired (double vision, inability to focus) but hearing and awareness remain normal. These attacks are triggered by strong emotions such as exhilaration, anger, fear, surprise, orgasm, awe, embarrassment and laughter’. (end of definition).

      Even though just this description sounds horrendous enough, allow me to put into detail exactly what I go through, and have gone through, for nearly all of my life. (There is a reason for me explaining this in full, so please bear with me).

      I have personally, on a regular basis, experienced the shock seizures, the emotionally charged seizures, change of weather/temperature seizures, the ‘drop’ attacks seizures combined with ‘rag doll’ syndrome. These alone are frightening enough, but my form of Cataplexy also includes Day and Night time paralysis (sometimes partial, sometimes full), hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations occurring usually when either drifting off to sleep or waking up (although I have had them even in waking hours, ever since I was nine years old. A very frightening experience for a nine year old, and I still find it just as frightening and disturbing to my quality of life, today, at 28 years old).

      When I have a seizure, it starts with numbing, tingling and coldness, that moves through my body, slowly numbing and weakening my entire body, while I smell and taste what can only be defined as ‘cold, chlorinated pool water’. My lips, tongue, neck and jaw go numb and I start slurring my speech. The numbing then goes around the back of the ears, up the back of my head and works its way to the front. At this point I am either collapsed on the floor, paralysed, or slumped against a wall trying to hold my body up. Through this understanding, I have learned the art of body collapse, and I can usually make it to the ground before I fall and hit my head or do myself some other injury, although with shock seizures this is not the case as my head spins, my body goes ice cold, the blood drains from my face and I drop like a bag of potatoes.

    While I am in the seizure, I can hear everything around me and I can still feel, but I cannot react. I have trouble opening my eyes, I see red, I have trouble breathing and when I finally come out of the seizure I am covered in sweat, my arms and face have drool on them, I occasionally lose bladder and bowel control (mostly bladder) and I shake and shiver with ice cold sweat that feels like icicles on my skin. Welcome to my private horror. A horror that 2,000 Australians are diagnosed with each year - hence it being an ‘orphan’ disease and one that gets misdiagnosed on a regular basis, and its awareness dismissed and discarded in favour of the more prevalent disorders and diseases.

      Regarding the sleep paralysis & night terrors - drifting off to sleep I usually experience either a floating or sinking feeling combined with bed spins. When I get to sleep, I go straight into REM sleep and I experience sometimes up to 8 hours+ of night terrors which wake me up through the night, then I go back to sleep and straight back into the terror. When I wake up from these terrors, I am completely burned out and exhausted as if I’ve been running a marathon for the entire night. On many an occasion I have bounced out of my sleep, been completely wide awake, and been able to see that same terror with (to coin ‘Froddo’ from ‘Lord of the Rings’) ‘my waking eyes’. This can take up to an hour to wear off. On many an occasion, I have woken up and been either completely or partially paralysed, and in the partial sense I have had to drag myself, literally, out of my bed, pull myself along the floor and up onto my lounge chair.

      When it comes to complete paralysis, I have to wait for it to wear off (anywhere between five minutes and an hour). This includes waking up on the floor after I have been thrown out of bed after a particularly violent night terror. The word ‘terror’ and ‘terrorism’ are defined as ‘putting people in perpetual fear and dread for their life and/or quality of it’. Cataplexy is my personal terrorist, but it is not the only one.

      Over the years I have had seizures in the bath, the shower, on the toilet, in the swimming pool/local swimming hole/sea; while riding a push-bike, while working, while at play (ie kicking a ball around with my friends and lightly banging my toe, then going straight into a shock wave  seizure for about 10 minutes - in which I did lose bladder control, which my friends found highly amusing, but I did not and neither did my mother); while waiting in line at Centrelink (I am on a Disability pension) and other public places.

     Altogether, Cataplexy -as well as my arthritic disorder and my food and chemical allergies/ sensitivities - have been highly detrimental to my quality of life. I cannot get a licence, a job, I cannot ride a pushbike, I have been made a recluse in my own home, I can’t travel, etc. This disorder has taken me prisoner. But, it is not only the disorders that have taken me prisoner, the Policies to do with choice of medicine that benefits me, the individual sufferer, have also taken me as a hostage and prisoner.

      At the age of twelve, the doctor who I was under at the time, suggested I be put on a prescription medication to ‘help’ me. It did not help me, in fact it hindered me and caused more detriment to my quality of life and to my mother. Let me explain, the particular medication I was on caused me to be depressed, morose, basically a zombie and I considered (even at this early age) committing suicide…but, as we all know, suicide is not the answer. Thankfully, I had a mother (my care-giver) who saw what was happening to me and took me off the medication, (plus I changed my diet which helped in the respect of certain foods being a catalyst in setting off certain seizures), but the main thing was that the depression and zombie syndrome were no longer a factor, although cataplexy still occasionally sends me into bouts of depression. I’d say that anybody would be depressed after going through this much, for want of a better term, ‘hell on earth’.

      Due to ‘being different’ I suffered horrendous bullying at school, which led me to leave school at 14. From there, I went and did a bricklaying course but didn’t finish it due to my disorder. I also did ‘Work for the Dole’ and some Land Conservation and Restoration courses, also which were greatly hindered by my seizure disorder, which ended up getting so bad that after a particular nasty seizure, in which I came close to cracking my head open, the boss helped me into the car and dropped me off at home and suggested I didn’t go back.

       At this time I started consuming the drug ethanol (which no-one told me could set off seizures, I found out the hard way) to try and cope with the cards I had been dealt. After giving up the drug ethanol, some of my friends offered me some recreational Cannabis, which helped me cope with the chaos that my life was in at that time. However, I started to notice that when I consumed particular strains of Cannabis (in particular Indica/Kush strains that contain CBD as well as THC) I did not have nearly as many seizures. My night terrors were pretty much non-existent as I would go to sleep and wake up without having dreamed. I also noticed that I either did not wake up paralysed, or if I did, it wore off pretty much straight away and I would get out of bed without feeling exhausted and burned out.

      I tried telling this to my mother, who didn’t believe me and accused me of using it as an excuse. We had many an argument. (This same argument is wielded constantly by the pro-legal anti-illicit collective against sufferers who benefit from natural, non-chemicalize, non-extracted cannabis as medicine).

      The way I proved it to her and to myself was by giving up Cannabis for months at a time on a few occasions through the years, and ALWAYS my seizures, my night terrors and my paralysis etc. came back with a vengeance. After the last ‘test’ my mother and I decided to do some serious study and correlated study and research on Cannabis as a medicine, to do with seizure disorders. Here is a brief summary of what we found. (We have been doing this vital study for 5 years now).

      Dr. William B. O’Shaugnessy, 1839, “In Cannabis (Indica), the medical profession has gained an anti-convulsive remedy of the greatest value”.

     Dr. J. Russell Reynolds, March 22^nd 1890, The Lancet), “There are many cases of so-called epilepsy in adults, but which in my opinion, are the result of organic disease of a gross character in the nervous centres, in which India hemp (Indica/Kush) is the most useful agent with which I am acquainted”.

      He also stated, “When pure and administered carefully (not corrupted, not contaminated, not manipulated  and not made toxic through added poisons) Cannabis is one of the most valuable medicines we possess”. (Remembering, of course, that the value to the sufferer has nothing to do with the value of a drug cartel’s wallet, or the wallets of those involved).

      World News Report, 1971, - Dr. Todd Mikurya, “Cannabis is probably the most potent anti-epileptic known to medicine, today”.

      Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School, “Epilepsy is a disorder which has been treated by Cannabis for centuries“.(If not Millennia)  “About 25% of people in the U.S. who have various forms of epilepsy (seizure disorders), don’t get good relief from conventional medicines. Many of them do get relief from one of the oldest anti-epileptic medicines, Cannabis”.

      Science Service, 1999, “Clinical and anecdotal evidence also points to the effectiveness of Cannabis as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of a variety of spastic conditions, such as Multiple Sclerosis, Paraplegia, Epilepsy and Quadriplegia. Animal studies and carefully controlled human studies support cannabis’ ability to suppress convulsions”.

     Dr. Lorna Cartwright, Pharmacology Lecturer, Sydney University, “I think Cannabis should be allowed to be used for conditions in which it has been shown to have effect, such as for Glaucoma, for children having chemotherapy, and for epilepsy. I always feel that if something is good, even for a small percentage of patients, it should be allowed to be used”.

      In the U.S. Dispensary List of Medicine from 1852 onwards, (before it was banned for purely Political and monetary reasons…what else could it be?), Cannabis was listed as being, “Beneficial in the treatment of neuralgia, gout, tetanus, hydrophobia (rabies), cholera, CONVULSIONS, chorea, depression and insanity”.

      Note: Although excessive THC bombardment has been proven to set off, or exacerbate, psychological disorders, CBD mixed with THC and the other 58 main cannabinoids has been beneficially applied to help fix these disorders and to stop them from being set off.

      To help prove this, on Dec. 1^st 2005 The Australian newspaper stated, “Australian researchers believe Cannabis, a drug believed to increase the risk of psychosis (through excessive THC bombardment, without the CBD to balance it) may also be able to revers psychotic behaviour.

      Scientists at Monash University in Melbourne say they have ‘found’ (Note: It wasn’t lost to begin with, it was just dismissed) a chemical compound in Cannabis, Cannabidiol (the same one they are now stating can help Alzheimers sufferers….we knew both these things  years before they decided to tell anyone, and we wrote to various people about it e.g. Politicians, Doctors, Researchers, Professors and Drug Bodies) that reverses drug induced behavioural disturbances in mice.

      Lenora Long, researcher from Monash, stated, “The interesting thing is that you have these two compounds in the Cannabis plant that produces opposing effects. One is liable to produce psychotic symptoms (rarely), while the other may be protective against psychosis”.(…..This news would not be good for the campaigners who are addicted to Cannabis persecution and creating Cannabis clinics. We wouldn’t need Cannabis clinics if those ‘in the know’ would actually tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, about Cannabis).

      Lenora Long continued, “Cannabidiol may also help alleviate the symptoms of epilepsy and also pain associated with inflammatory disorders such as multiple sclerosis”.

      Note: For well over a century Cannabis Indica, which contains a balance of CBD and THC, has been known as a neuro-protective, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, analgesis, anodyne, anti-convulsant, anti-spasmodic and anti-epileptic etc. CBD and THC have been known about for decades now when it comes to one balancing out the other, but the truth has been suppressed.

      There are many more statements and quotes from those in the know about how Cannabis can work for seizure disorders, for arthritic disorders, for allergy disorders, etc. but that would take a book. So, here are the statements from those that you would either know or have heard of, in this Great Southland of ours.

      Dr. McDonald Christie, Head of Pharmacology, Univ. of Sydney, “Several overseas studies have shown that Cannabis can alleviate nausea and stimulate appetite”. (Note: Two side effects of Cataplexy are nausea and hunger suppression. I can go for days without feeling hungry and I have to force myself to eat, otherwise mum has to constantly nag me to eat). “This yields enormous quality of life benefits for some individuals (…..and it’s the individual sufferer that matters…..) who suffer from diseases or disease treatments that produce impaired appetite or nausea”.

     Dr. David Hadorn M.D, NZ, “A society that can handle codeine over the counter can learn to live with cannabis”.

      Ex Premier of NSW, Bob Carr, Hansard 20^th May 2003. Under the Headline of ‘With a sensible mixture of compassion and commonsense’,

“Medical Cannabis is something practical we can do to reduce the sum of misery in the world. As legislators, we should be able to rise to this challenge. The complexity of an issue does not provide a license to walk away while ordinary people suffer and acquire criminal records simply for treating their illness and relieving their suffering in the only way that works for them. With a sensible mixture of compassion and common sense, we can make a medical cannabis regime work in this State, as it works in other jurisdictions around the world”.

      Talking about compassion,  Prime Minister, Mr. Kevin Rudd, once stated, “Compassion is not a dirty word….it’s time we rehabilitated compassion into the national political vocabulary of this great Nation of ours”.

      Compassion may not be a dirty word, but combine the most politically hated name Cannabis with the word compassion and it becomes classed as the most filthy, disgusting and phobic word in Australia, but Cannabis compassion is of great benefit to sufferers who gain compassionate benefit from medicinal cannabis application in its NATURAL form, untampered with.

(NOTE: Most sufferers who benefit from medical cannabis do not want tablets, tinctures, suppositories, or injections of something that was originally -and naturally still is - safe and non-toxic with a 40,000:1 LD50 for the natural plant and 10,000+-1 for THC alone).

      Sarah Price - The Sun Herald (19^th Dec. 2004)

    “After suffering from bone cancer for 5 years, and having two bone marrow stem cell transplants, Edward, 55, decided to try Cannabis after hearing how it could ease pain. Edward, who lives in regional NSW, and asked for his surname not to be revealed, said, “I got a much better sleep and felt better in my stomach”.  Since then, he uses it at night to help him bear the disease for which he has refused the latest round of chemotherapy because he says his body “just would not take any more”. - “I was hesitant to do it, but when you’re sick in the belly from the morphine, there’s nothing else”, he said.

      Mr (John) Della Bosca said, ‘The Government has a responsibility to look to other solutions (like medical cannabis) to help patients suffering from those conditions, as soon  as possible’.”

      Please understand the word responsibility in this statement, Ms Roxon. Please understand that this neglect of care when it comes to health is a violation of sufferers’ rights. If Panadol (a drug known to kill) can be pushed on the public with the words, “Panadol, it’s MY choice”, then why are sufferers denied their choice of medicine that benefits them and not just the cartel or body that wants to deal it? At the moment, sufferers are forced to live in fear and are forced to go out and mix with the criminal element (created by Prohibition) just so they can acquire their vital medicine of choice.

     During our Medical Cannabis Awareness Camapign, a lot of sufferers were coming up to us and asking if we knew where they could either acquire medical cannabis or the seeds to grow the natural race that provides their medicine, that at the moment has a genocide policy against it. (Note: Genocide means ‘to murder a genus’ and Cannabis is a living, breathing, fornicating and procreating genus, before it is food, medicine, recreational or spiritual agent).

      The ages of the people that were coming up to us, were from 18 to 80+. A lot of them had stories/testimonies about how prescriptions had failed them miserably and how medical cannabis had benefited more than the quantity of different medications that they used to consume before they switched to medical cannabis.  One man (50’s) stated that he used to take 84 tablets a week, then he changed to Cannabis and needed none of those to control his different disorders, and he has improved his quality of life greatly.

      A challenge was issued years ago (1999) by Dr. Kerryn Phelps, former AMA President, who stated, “Cannabis was sometimes the only thing that helped people deal with the pain…..”, (a nasty side of cataplexy is muscle cramping and severe aching, something that Cannabis helps brilliantly with, as well as for the pain and inflammation of arthritis)…….

“…and intractable nausea of diseases such as leukaemia, lymphoma and certain AIDS related conditions and their treatment. Yet such people faced arrest and prosecution for using an ‘illegal’ drug……..(Note: The words ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ are not reasons, they are prejudices. They do not take into account the individual, they only target the collective. This is a crime in itself. These words also have nothing to do with the Criterias of Harm, Efficacy, Potency and Reliability)……

       Kerryn Phelps continued, “The bottom line is we are talking about people who, on COMPASSIONATE grounds need a medical treatment…..I would challenge any Politician to look any person in the eye who has intolerable symptoms….. (defined in my story…my eyes are still open and waiting for someone to look me in the eye - when my eyes aren‘t weighed shut from a cataplectic attack, that is)…..and say WE KNOW THERE IS SOMETHING THAT MIGHT WORK FOR YOU, BUT WE ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT LEGAL”.

      I, David Nentwig, on behalf of myself and the other sufferers in this country (and many of them are just as badly off, if not worse, than myself) put this challenge to the Health Dept, Politicians, the Prime Minister, Legislators, and anyone else who stands in the way of a vital medication and a person’s individual choice. I (we) ask, will you take up this challenge? Will you show us the compassion that P.M. Rudd was talking about? Will you show us the respect that we deserve?

      Ms Roxon, when talking about fairness, justice, equality etc. to do with the Howard Government, here is your personal statement. “The Howard Government has a growing tendency to down-grade the rights and needs of individuals. Although they are still, in name, the Liberal party, Mr. Howard has abandoned the liberal party’s traditional attachment to the rights of individuals…….(Is the Labour.Rudd Government going to be any different when it comes to the rights and needs of individuals?)……When human rights is just a catch-all phrase to cover the basic chance all Australians should have to a fair go, equal treatment and full opportunity in life.  There is no doubt about it - the Howard Government has little respect for human rights and no regard for the desire of all Australians - of whatever background, religion or ethnicity - to want to participate fully in our community. This is not an abstract issue, it has a very real impact and it is dividing our country”.

      Note: This division of human rights, freedoms, choices, culture etc. can easily be defined as “a policy of social segregation upon individual and collective coverings, defined by differential and/or preferential treatment”, better known as apartheid discrimination.  The word ‘discriminate’ comes from an Aryan word meaning ‘to divide and separate’.  This is what the Un-civil war on use and choice has done to this country. They call it a War on Drugs, but in reality it’s a War waged by people on drugs (albeit buzzword legal) against other people on drugs, including those who gain true benefit from their drug/herb/medication of choice.

      You continued, Ms Roxon, to state, “The last nine years has shown us what it is like, we have experienced first hand what it is like to have a Government that is openly hostile to human rights. In the past, Australians have felt (…..not all Australians…..) with some good reason that fundamental rights were so embedded in the Australian way of life, that they did not need specific protection - our Politicians could be trusted not to go too far.  The Howard Government has tried, but not yet succeeded, to extinguish the traditions of human rights in Australia”.  (…note: The right of individual choice of medicine affects all humans equally, making it a human right, and Cannabis traditions, culture and the race itself have been violated and forcefully almost extinguished by all parties of Government……)

      You continued, “Australia’s proud history of protecting rights and freedoms has not been extinguished - but it must be tendered to survive”.

      We know….Cannabis culture has been persecuted on par with religious culture, sexuality culture, ethnic culture, music culture, being a single mother, and many other persecuted forms of culture, belief, freedoms and lifestyle.  The word ‘freedom’ means, ‘to have free dominion over things that are individual to oneself‘, and to deny though force this free dominion has a very simple definition in all culture and dictionary/encyclopedic definitions. It’s called ‘slavery’.

      “We have always had a vibrant democracy and have stood behind the development of International rights, conventions and institutions”. (…except when it comes to Cannabis culture, then those words get changed - democracy becomes dictatorship, International rights becomes International slavery and conventions and institutions become prisons and forced rehabilitation centres).

       “But more fundamentally, if there is one defining Australian value, it is the belief in a ’FAIR GO’. And what is a fair go other than a down to earth description of a bunch of ideas we call justice and human rights”.

      Note: A Fair Go can be easily defined as a ’just, equal, balanced journey through life for every individual’….and didn’t Prime Minister Rudd state, “We are not going to throw the Fair Go out the back window”. Did he not state about free dominion, “Australians should not be kow-towing to anybody when it comes to freedom in this country”. And didn’t he recently state, “We are there to extend a helping hand to those in need”. 

      I challenge him to live up to these statements. The fair go, when it comes to Cannabis, has been thrown out the back window, after they tried to flush it down the toilet and it wouldn’t go.  The right of free dominion has been forced to kow-tow to Drug Lords, Politicians, and other vested interests, while sufferers are left begging for their rights. It’s not, “Please sir, can we have some more” (‘Oliver’), it’s, “Please sir, can we have some?”  Can we please be included and not persecuted for our choice?

      Premier Morris Iemma personally stated, (Christmas Message statement, Australia 2007)

   “Christmas challenges each of us to think of others…it’s about being grateful for the good things of life….Christmas is a season for the renewal of hope. We all want, and deserve, a place around the ‘Christmas table’ where each of us are loved, valued and included. Unfortunately, that is not the Christmas many enjoy….in 2008 let’s work hard to make it even better”. 

…..Meanwhile  medical cannabis, recreational cannabis and cannabis culture in general has been denied a place around the table, they have been left out in the cold, they are not loved, valued and included, and we challenge everyone to think of others equally, all year long and not just at Christmas.  We all deserve a ‘fair go‘, we all deserve a ‘fair chance in life’ and every individual deserves the right of ‘justice for all’.

      Prime Minister Gordon Brown, UK, stated, “I believe that everyone deserves a fair chance in life”. (Their definition of the Fair Go).

     President George W. Bush personally stated, “(State of Union Speech Jan. 23rd 2007) -    “In all we do, we must remember that the best health care decisions are not made by government and insurance companies, But by patients and their doctors".

     Amnesty International -  “The USA (and Australia, UK, NZ etc) was founded in the  name of democracy,  equality and individual freedom, but is failing to deliver the fundamental promise of protecting rights for ALL.     

      You continued….. “We are seeing the Howard Government’s true colours - extreme and divisive”.  (….Do you mean things like Zero Tolerance, Apartheid discrimination, bias, slander ie the Dickhead and Loser Campaign, and the unemployed, useless scum statement wielded against all cannabists whether they choose to respectfully use or disrespectfully abuse?)….. “Again, many of you have seen where the use of the criminal law against Unionists can lead us”.

      We have also seen where the wielding of the Criminal Law against Cannabists have led us. You (and others) believe in the Union, the Unionist culture, beliefs, traditions etc, in the exact same way that we believe in Cannabis, the Cannabis culture, beliefs, traditions etc. You understand exactly how people feel when they are persecuted, maligned, maliciously abused, slandered against, discriminated against and lied about, and had misinformation spread about your choice of culture and belief. You (and others) know exactly what we go through on a regular basis.

      The story of Prohibition can easily be defined as, “How a minority, by reaching majority, and seizing authority, hates and persecutes other minorities”. We are all children of Australia, we are all born under the Southern Cross, we all have equal rights even though those rights are denied by those who seek to establish their ‘reich’/kingdom over others.

      Albert Einstein once stated in 1921, “The prestige of Government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition Law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the Government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country, is closely connected with this”.

      Seeing as how Australia’s motto is, “A Fair Go for all”, isn’t it time that all Australians, all stood up for equal rights and freedoms, and stood up against apartheid discrimination policies in this country and worldwide, so we can not only state, ‘We’ve done us proud”, but we can truly be proud of singing this statement, “Australians ALL let us rejoice, for we are young and free”. And so that we can truly “Advance Australia Fair”, instead of ’Advance Australia Fair for some, while advancing Australian despair for others’.

       My personal statement has always been, “I am not a criminal, I am not invisible, I am but a patriot of this Great South Land”.  A patriot stands up for what their country (and the people in it) believe in, and this Southern Son has always stood up for the patriotic right of a Fair Go For ALL. Not some, not a few, not most, not many, but all equally.

     When we contacted our local M.P.’s on this matter we were ignored and dismissed, while they pushed their own drug taking agenda, and even put out (alongside with the Police) safe ethanol recreational party drug party packs. When we contacted our local Disability advocate, he was happy to listen to me when it came to my condition, but treated me with disdain and like a leper when he discovered I wanted to talk about Medical Cannabis and how it benefits my condition and many others.

      Cannabis does not deserve to be genocided just because some make the individual choice to abuse it. People who benefit from cannabis do not deserve to be persecuted, discriminated against and violated just because of their choice of medicine, culture and respect of one of the most beneficial herbal races on the Planet. All people hear about are the ‘crash’ cases, and we KNOW that this is done on purpose. There is no sensationalism. No ratings raising news in people who respect Cannabis. This majority gets dismissed in favour of touting the abusers, and they get called ‘users’, which is an INSULT to people who beneficially apply Cannabis for medicine, recreation, spiritual application etc.

      As the statement wielded by Anthony Hopkins in “Armistad” states, “They know what we are, but not who we are”. They know we are Cannabis consumers, they know that we stand for Cannabis Culture, they do not know the individual, they do not make a difference between respectful use and disrespectful abuse. Meanwhile, ’they’ call ’their’ drug a ’drink’! And finally, after many years of writing about this drug (ethanol) to various Politicians, Bodies, Media etc. we are now told that Drug Action Week has a focus called, “Alcohol is a Drug….TOO!”  Goodness, has it taken people this long to find out?  Or have they just dismissed it in favour of revenue and scapegoating?

      ALL drugs, whether buzzword ’legal’/’licit’ or ’illegal’/’illicit’ can be beneficially and respectfully used, or disrespectfully abused. It is the individual’s CHOICE what they choose to do with it. Abuse is the problem, not use.  Abuse is the perversion of the course of beneficial action and application.  The word ’use’ means ’benefit’.

      ABUSE (of all subject matter) should be targeted in this country, but as long as we do not have a clear definition between use and abuse, and only work on the ‘Our drugs all good, your drugs all bad”/ “Our drugs essential for human survival, while your drugs are medicus cannabis nullius - no medical benefit whatsoever”, then this country will continue to destroy itself through abuse, causing multi-billions of dollars worth of death, damage, destruction and side effects, all preventable when the criteria of respect is applied.  The principle of respectful use is simple…..’Look again at your actions to make doubly sure that what you are truly acting on/applying is as beneficial to you and those around you, as humanly possible”.

     One of my favourite statements and one that I quoted in court (when I had to appear due to having 2 members of the cannabis race living under my roof, that I was beneficially applying to help control the vicious disorder that you read about in the first part of this letter), is “To alleviate suffering for either those who suffer all their lives, or suffer acutely, is justice. Medical cannabis is about medical necessity, not recreational frivolity. Please don’t confuse the two”.

      Everyone has a recreational drug of choice (all buzzwords aside), and this is partially why the war between legal and illegal cartels has been going on for so long. But, as the old saying goes, “If a war must be waged, one must make sure to remove the innocent, the sick and the injured from the battlefield first”.

     Ever since I discovered how beneficial Cannabis can be medicinally, I and my mother have been campaigning to raise awareness, not just about the benefits but the awareness of what can happen when the cannabis race and the fruit thereof is abused, and how to counteract that abuse…something that our Government, in its No Tolerance Crusade, have been severely lacking in. No Tolerance means no acceptance, and no acceptance of someone’s choices, human rights, freedoms, beliefs, culture etc. is a form of abuse in itself.

      Thomas Sowell stated, ‘The difference between a policy and a crusade is that a policy is judged by its results, while a crusade is judged by how good it makes its crusaders feel”.    

      John Owen Jones M.P. (UK)  - “We have tried the Prohibition route for 30 years and it obviously, patently isn’t working”.

    Paul Flynn, M.P. (UK) - "People around the world have testified in their thousands about the benefits of taking cannabis to relieve chronic pain," he said. "But because of our hang-up in this country with recreational use of the drug, we've condemned otherwise law-abiding citizens to risk jail."

      Paul Flynn, M.P. (UK)  - “The recent case of an ex-police woman forced to buy her medicinal cannabis on the streets from the dealers she once arrested illustrates the absurdity of the current laws”.

      Dr. Russell Skiba, USA, stated, “Zero Tolerance is a political response, not an educationally sound solution”.

      Report of the British Police Foundation, March 2000, “By any of the major Criteria of Harm, mortality, morbidity, toxicity, addictiveness and realtionship with crime - Cannabis is less harmful than any of the other major illicit drugs, or than alcohol and tobacco”.

      Health Dept. of Australia - “Alcohol is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug in Australia”…..yet it has taken the Government MANY years to finally admit that their favourite ‘drink’ actually is a drug, and a psychoactive one at that.

      In regards to Australia’s ‘all good’ vs ‘all bad’ drug policy to do with medicine, the Therapeutic Goods Assoc. state, “It is impossible for any medical intervention to be entirely risk free. Therefore, the benefit and the risk must be evaluated….No medicine can be made completely safe”.

      Note: But under any Criteria, Cannabis is still statistically safer than any medication dealt in a Pharmacy today. Proven beyond any shadow of doubt.

      Talking about medication, the drugs recommended for Cataplexy include Imipramine, Clomipramine, or Protriptyline, Effexor and Xyrem (a form of GHB known as sodium oxybate). All these drugs are proven killers and dangerous side effect causers, all these drugs are toxic. Yet, I am still denied (along with hundreds of thousands of Australians and millions around the world) my proven, safer than all the above medications, medicine of choice. Where is the justice in this? Where is the Fair Go in this? Where is the individual being put first in this? Where is the compassion in this? Where is my “Your Choice” programme/policy?

      I ask you Ms Roxon, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and others, to please do the same thing to this social segregation policy against me and my choice (and on behalf of ALL Cannabists) that your Government did to John Howard’s Work Choice Policy Collective…throw it in the bin where it belongs or shred it, or incinerate it. It has no place in the Australian Fair Go. We do not deserve to be treated like heretics, criminals and ’lesser citizens’  in our own country in the same respect that the Nazis did to the Jews, the Gypsies and yes, the disabled. They not only genocided certain collectives of the human race, but they genocided their culture and their beliefs as well. 

       I ask that you not throw this issue into the ‘too hard basket’, ‘the not politically or monetarily viable basket’, or the ‘phobia’ basket.  I only ask that you take the same consideration for our issue as you do for the issues you stand for, nothing more, nothing less.

We have much more information on this subject and we wold be pleased to discuss it with you, as at the moment, the only discussion when it comes to Cannabis is to do with either anti-cannabists or ones who want to manipulate, abuse and control this very beneficial race.

      In regards to delivery systems, Governments and other anti-Cannabis bodies always like to mention about smoking and how medicine can’t be smoked. Yet, they throw out the window, along with the fair go, the simple fact that Cannabis can be vapourised (no smoke involved, only vapour), eaten, drunk as tea, or made into butter and spread on toast, mixed into drinks and like any dried culinary herb/pot-herb, it can be crumbled over food. Yes, it can be smoked, but that’s a personal choice, just like cigarettes are.

      They also wield the words ‘pot smoker’ and ‘marihuana’ as the KKK used to wield the word ‘nigger’ when describing members of the human race of African Decent. The words ‘bulldozer’ and ‘bulldoze’ come from the vicious application of a whip wielded by the KKK against Africans, who they liked to give a ‘bulls dose’ of whipping to. In this same fashion, Governments and other vested interests are still wielding this ‘bulls dose’, as they bulldoze and eradicate the rights of true Cannabists (not abusers who don‘t care what drug they abuse), their culture and the phyto-race they have chosen to respect. Africans didn’t deserve it then, we don’t deserve it now.

      No-one deserves to be punished because someone else chose to abuse. David Koch (of ‘Sunrise’) asked the question, “Why should I pay more tax because someone else abused?” We ask the same question, ‘Why should we pay (through violation, harassment, persecution, discrimination, social segregation and hatred) through the nose ‘because someone else abused‘?

     Those who choose to blame the subject matter of choice for the problems they received from their abuse should understand this parody of the Austrian/Sound of Music anthem ‘Edelweiss’…..written about people who abuse food and then blame their obesity, their diabetes and their other poor health problems on the choice and not that they chose to abuse it.

 EVIL SLICE

       It’s time we stop blaming the subject matter for the individual choice to ABUSE that subject matter of individual choice. The subject matter is not the problem, abuse is. Abuse has a simple mandate - it can, so it does. The only way that scientists get a negative reaction from a study on Cannabis is to overload the ‘victim’ (mouse, rat, dog or human) UNTIL a negative manifestation occurs. Kind of like the ethanol drug dealing and consumption establishment ‘workers’ overloading the ‘patrons’/ethanol drug consumers, and then throwing them out on the street for the Police, the average citizens and their families to suffer the negative consequences of the abuse of the drug ethanol….which the ’workers’ helped establish.

      Thankyou for taking the time to understand this important and vital issue, that affects a large percentage of Australians (and others world wide). We appreciate your time.

      Yours with respect,

       David Nentwig

     for Medical Cannabis Awareness.

      www.freewebs.com/medcanaware