Man With MS Finds Relief With Medical Marijuana
Joe | Jun 26, 2010 | Comments 3
Since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the age of 14, Matt Young has watched all his hopes and dreams disappear. For half his life this former security officer who busted kids for smoking pot has been searching for something, anything to relieve his symptoms. Ironically all he could find that helped was marijuana.
The 28-year-old has tried every drug suggested to him by doctors in three provinces, but he said marijuana, which he only tried once or twice in high school, is the only drug that stops his spasms and lets him eat and sleep at night.
“Marijuana still doesn’t eliminate the problems, but it reduces them so I can get out of bed and play with my boy,” Young said, referring to his seven-year-old stepson.
Now one of the over 4,000 Canadians who can legally possess marijuana, Matt has a government-issued card that allows him to medicate.
“I wish it could have been something else that helped me,” Young said, sitting beside his childhood friend and now partner, Tina Mauro, in their home north of Saskatoon. “But I’ve tried everything else.”
But it’s not easy to get a medical marijuana province in Saskatchewan where Matt lives.
Earlier this year, the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws blasted the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan for deterring doctors from prescribing pot. Health Canada counts 59 Saskatchewan doctors who support medical marijuana.
Young had a difficult time finding a Saskatchewan doctor to prescribe marijuana before Health Canada sent him his licence.
“A lot of damage has been done to our lives,” Young said. “If somebody reads this, maybe it’ll provide them a glimmer of hope.”
Matt once dreamed of being a Calgary Police Officer, but soon his MS reduced his dreams to just trying to find some relief. He found that marijuana provided that relief, but upon moving to Saskatchewan he realized he couldn’t find a doctor to prescribe it for him.
Young pleaded with his doctors to write him a prescription for marijuana. He’s not a man to mingle with drug dealers and Health Canada sells pot at half the price of its street value.
In January, frustrated and depressed with refusals from doctors, Young set out to kill himself. He overdosed on prescription pills at his home while his family was away.
“When I walked in the door, he stopped breathing,” Mauro said. Their son was screaming for Young to wake up while Mauro called paramedics. Young was taken to Shellbrook Hospital before a transfer to Saskatoon where he spent several days in a coma.
“The doctors didn’t think he was going to make it,” Mauro said. “He was in a coma on a Monday and on Tuesday I walked into the hospital room and he turned over and looked at me and we both started crying.”
There are people like Matt all over North America who suffer on a daily basis, either because medical marijuana is illegal, or because it’s so hard to get that they lose hope. But many seem not to care. They would rather all marijuana be illegal to satisfy some moral code they’ve built up in there head, at the expense of sick and often dying people.
The shame they should feel is tremendous.
Filed Under: Exclusive Web Content • Medical Marijuana Patient Profiles
I am glad the person has found relief and that his suicide attempt did not work. The 3 month delays at Health Canada to process the paper work is unreasonable, dangerous and lastly- just plain lazy. They only have about 5000 applications to go through. Hire me. I would get to them right away. Why has our government hired incompetent people to do this very important work? I do not want to piss any government workers off, but I can not see any logical reason other than they are lazy and incompetent. They should be fired and new people put in right away. On the other hand some people think this is a deliberate delay and the workers can do the job well, but Dictator Harper has some religious reason for purposely harming Canadian citizens. What else can you call it? Exactly how many people have been hired to do this job?
A great big and heartfelt thank you to all the well wishers out there. Matt and I hope this article has created some sense of hope for others who are holding on by only a thin thread too. Just know that there is light at the end of that tunnel of life… Next step… fight for the liberation treatment in Canada!
I am pleased you were able to find relief and gratified for bringing the issue forward in your blog. I am hopeful I too will find a doctor in SK that that understands when there are no other prescribed drugs possible ……
oh wait. That’s common sense