Pain squared - Westfair Communications

If you are among those who have not had a loved one suffer excruciating pain for prolonged periods ”“ or undergone the agony yourself ”“ in a way you are not quite qualified to render judgment on marijuana for medical use.
But as state Sen. Toni Boucher of Wilton reminds us, the pain can be intense for families who lose a loved one to drug addiction.
Boucher led the opposition to the medical marijuana bill in the Connecticut General Assembly, saying the law puts the state at odds with federal statute and represents a runaway train to widespread abuse.
“There have been too many classmates of my own children and family who found their son or daughter dead, oftentimes in their home just before going to another treatment facility after many more,” Boucher said. “They all started with marijuana and gradually went to other things as well, and ”¦ it”™s ruined their lives.”
Boucher warns pharmacies stocked with pot could lead to a wave of burglaries to rival that of Oxycontin, the Purdue Pharma blockbuster drug that proved addictive.
For the record, the Connecticut Pharmacy Association “cautiously” endorsed the bill, which was passed by the legislature and awaits the governor”™s signature.
Good points all. But then you have to listen to people like Lorraine Godfrey, a Connecticut resident who testified she lives with debilitating pain after multiple hip operations.
“I”™ve actually taken ”¦ Oxycontin, morphine, methadone,” Godfrey said. “I do not want to have to take opiates ”¦ You have go into some pretty seedy areas in order to even find a (marijuana) source. I”™m disabled, I”™m a single woman ”“ I”™m taking my life in my own hands every time, if I have the opportunity to purchase.
“There is such an epidemic today in our society of misuse of prescription medications, and that”™s a shame, especially when we do have a natural substance of which can help to alleviate pain,” she said. “If there is a way that we could pass this bill, and I pray that we do, then people like myself will not have to live in fear of being called a criminal or, perhaps, having something happen to us out on the street with some devious individual. Like I said, this is heartfelt. I ask you to please, please consider all of us who suffer in silence every day.”