Lit_Match

Patient pushing for marijuana legalization
One of only five people enrolled in a federal program that provides patients with medicinal marijuana speaks to ASU students Thursday
03.16.07|The Albany Herald|Joshua Brown

Elvy Musikka, a widely known advocate of medical marijuana use, credits pot with restoring her vision.

Musikka said Thursday during a visit to Albany State University that the drug should be used as a medical treatment for illnesses because it helps to make the body function better and, in her case, restored lost eyesight.

“My left eye was messed up by a surgery when I was 14, and I never thought I would get it back,” Musikka said. “At my last checkup, it was 20/100 (improved from 20/400), and I was totally thrilled because I never expected that as I got older, my sight would be getting better. But if you eat/ smoke marijuana, your whole system gets so much better.”

Musikka claims that prohibiting the use of marijuana by keeping it illegal is blasphemous, and hopes that Christians across the nation will urge lawmakers to make the drug lawful to use.

“To arrest a patient for using the creator’s work could not be described as anything except blatant blasphemy,” she said. “We really need an overwhelming majority of us Christians to come together and remind ourselves that we cannot kill and we cannot steal and we cannot lie. With this prohibition we are doing all of the above.”

Musikka, one of only five people enrolled in a federal program to use pot for medicinal purposes, said that she thought the doctor who prescribed the drug to her was crazy.

“I have been smoking it (medicinally) for 31 years,” Musikka said. “I never smoked until a doctor said I should smoke it or I would go blind. I questioned his sanity.”

Musikka was prescribed the drug to combat her glaucoma, she said.

On Wednesday, an appeals court ruled that a California woman could be prosecuted for breaching federal drug laws even if she uses marijuana because it is reportedly the only medicine keeping her alive.

But Musikka says that should be more impetus for U.S. residents to rise up and urge lawmakers to make the drug legal.

“That just shows that I really need every one of you to take an interest” in the fight to legalize marijuana, she said at Albany State University Thursday, where she spoke to students about the need.

Musikka helped establish a medical marijuana defense in Florida in 1988, according to a news release from Albany State University.

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Donation links to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) | MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)