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Mainers
for Medical Rights
44 Exchange Street
Suite 201
Portland, ME 04101
800.846.1039
207.780.0704
info@mainers.org
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Dr. Mike Lindey,
67
Retired Veterinarian
Freeport |
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| In his own words: |
Dr. Michael Lindey, a 67-year-old retired veterinarian who was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1995, sits with his dog Buddy at his Freeport home. Lindey used marijuana for medicinal purposes during his cancer treatment. (Jill Brady photo /Brunswick Times Record.) |
"In 1995, at the age of 63, my doctor diagnosed me with cancer of the bladder.
Until then I had been healthy and leading an active life. Suddenly, I was forced to summon a determination and a dedication unlike anything I had previously mustered. I knew that if I didn't I was probably going to die. Over the next year and a half, it seemed I lived as a terminally ill patient and nothing else. I went through four operations and two 3-month cycles of chemotherapy.
The surgeries were difficult yet manageable, but the chemotherapy was quite another thing. My treatment involved monthly visits to the hospital, during which I was intravenously given a mix of three highly toxic medications to kill the offending cancer cells. The price to be paid was something I was not prepared for.
No system or part of my body escaped the toxicity of the medication. My mind was affected first. I could not retain a thought process - days and nights were random events and my usual ability to focus left me almost completely. My interest in the world around me declined, and it felt as though I had became cut off from everyone and everything I loved.
Soon my strength ebbed to the point that I could barely hold a cup to drink. The nausea was constant. In just the first three-month cycle, I lost over forty pounds. I knew that I would not be able to survive the required second three-month cycle.
All the medications I was prescribed for the side-effects of chemotherapy were failing to help me. I was given Marinol, the pill form of marijuana, but it didn't help - I was unable to keep the pill down. I soon learned that this is the case for most people undergoing chemotherapy. So many of them don't survive.
One day my daughter found me huddled in a ball on the floor. The discomfort was overwhelming. I had hit rock bottom and was giving up. It was at that point that my friends and family came together and insisted that I try marijuana.
Marijuana was foreign to me. I had never tried it - I had no interest in it. My generation had grown up with beer and cigarettes.
I was worried that it was illegal, that I would cause my children embarrassment and that my reputation in my community could be damaged. But I was desperate and I agreed to try it.
Two puffs twice a day was all I needed but I experienced an immediate and beneficial effect. I was relieved of the nausea and, as a result, I was able to eat and retain enough food to reverse my weight loss. I was able to sleep. I was regaining my strength.
For the first time, I believed I would live through my battle with cancer. Feeling this way, my depression lifted and my interest in life returned. I began to take more of an active role in my recovery and I was even taking regular walks outside.
It goes without saying that my second three-month cycle of chemotherapy went much more easily for me than the first. I got by and went on to recovery, hopefully for the long term.
I never smoked marijuana before my cancer and haven't smoked it since. But I firmly believed that when I needed it, it saved my life.
Before I was diagnosed, the medical marijuana initiative probably wouldn't have been a high priority for me. I wouldn't have given it much thought. You just don't think about certain things until they affect you personally.
But now it saddens me that the very sick who benefit like I did are driven to feel like criminals. Or that many who could benefit never get the help that I did.
It seems as if the Generals in the 'War on Drugs' see everything in stark blacks and whites.
Opponents have even gone so far to suggest that medical marijuana patients would turn around and sell it to kids in the schoolyards. I can safely say that I have never seen a cancer patient trying to push drugs on kids. That's not what this is about. We are trying to save lives, not corrupt them.
I believe that we as a people are capable of coming together to help the very sick without encouraging drug abuse. Question 2 is a good first step in applying some common sense and compassion to our drug laws.
Question 2 will only help those among us who are very sick and in need. Doctors, not patients, will have final say on when a patient could benefit from marijuana. Marijuana will remain illegal for all others.
I feel like I have been given a gift of more time to be a father to my children and to watch my grandchildren grow. How could anyone want to take that away because of irrational fears? Please join me in supporting others who may face the same decisions as I have, by voting yes on Question 2."
-- Mike
Lindey
Freeport, Maine
October 31, 1999
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