The Final Four

A “Where Are They Now”on this country’s original MMJ patients

Many a patient will tell you that the government has been against cannabis from day one, but this has not necessarily been the case. Ask the four people left in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program (CIND), a government-run program established in the ’70s (not surprisingly, the program was prompted by a lawsuit) that gives its patients cannabis grown at the University of Mississippi.

Don’t try to apply to the program now—after a huge wave of incoming patients during the AIDS epidemic, the program was closed to new applicants by the first Bush Administration (not surprised). However, four patients remain and still receive the tins, containing 300 joints taken at a rate of 10 a day. Here’s a look at the last recipients of government-sponsored cannabis.

Name: George McMahon

Time in the program: 23 years.

Original condition: Lifelong pain, spasms and nausea, resultant of nail-patella syndrome. “The more [regular doctors] treated me, the worse I got,” McMahon says.

How you got into the program: “An employee at the University of Iowa said I was dying and told me to go home. I went home to my wife and she was reading an article about [MMJ patient] Elvy Musikka and that’s how my quest started.”

Condition today: “My health continues to deteriorate, but my quality of life does not . . . It’s improved marvelously.” McMahon has been an advocate and has traveled, speaking to people and politicians about cannabis. “I’ve been out on the road; been all over the world, talked to people I’d never be able to talk to under different circumstances. It did marvelous things for my world.” McMahon currently resides in Humboldt, Iowa with his wife of 43 years. He has three kids and seven grandchildren.

Your opinion on current MMJ issues and rights: “If not for the treatment, I would have been dead 23 years ago.” McMahon has seen “the pendulum swing” over the past 20 years and believes that young people need to keep fighting for legalization.

Name: Barbara May Douglass

Original condition: Multiple sclerosis and glaucoma.

Time in the program: 22 years.

How you got into the program: “It came down to the point of ‘something must work,’ and marijuana did.”  Douglass knew George McMahon as an acquaintance, and he helped her get into the program. “George would just take care of things . . . [he] was always there for me with the marijuana thing. We have marijuana in common.”

Condition today: Douglass is legally blind and crippled. “I get by,” she says. “I’m still here. Time just speaks for itself. I’m 90 pounds. I’m a rowdy little person. It could be a lot worse, that’s the way I see it.” She worked as a men’s clothier in a family business for some time, but is now content to do “absolutely nothing. I’m so good at that. I’ve been doing nothing for years!” She currently lives in Storm Lake, Iowa, running Camp Barbara for Christians and Muslims.

Your opinion on current MMJ issues and rights: “Everybody knows that little Barbie Douglass wouldn’t be smoking pot if wasn’t good for her . . . I believe that they should make the marijuana available for patients. If you’ve got something wrong with you and the joint helps? Ay-yi-yi, just go with it!”

Name: Elvy Musikka

Original condition: Cataracts, glaucoma.

Time in the program: 25 years.

How you got into the program: “My doctor said if I didn’t start smoking marijuana I would go blind. Of course, I needed a strong drink and a pack of cigarettes to think about what I was going to do next. ”

Condition today: Musikka is very active, and currently spends her time between Sacramento and Florida speaking about medical cannabis. When it comes to her glaucoma, “Marijuana is the only thing that works for me. I know too many people like myself who have tried and cannot go through the approved procedures.

What have you been up to? Musikka is a vocal advocate, speaking wherever she is needed and asked for. “It’s all within the scope of my reality. It’s definitely an interesting life, it’s taken me to every state in this country, and allowed me establish a medical defense in the state of Florida. ”

Your opinion on current MMJ issues and rights: Concerning the state of MMJ in Florida, “It’s really needed here. I know so many people here who are tired of being adults and told not to put something in their body that is totally harmless and needed for everyday use.” Musikka considers the fight for MMJ use a modern day prohibition, and hopes to see it end soon.

Name: Irvin Rosenfeld

Original condition: Exostosis and “bone tumors at the end of most of the bones on my body.”

Time in the program: 30 years.

How you got into the program: Rosenfeld had been conducting his own research on the benefits of MMJ until he met Robert Randall, who had been working on the CIND program with the feds. “He was able to accomplish . . . a supposedly compassionate use. That was the definition but that wasn’t how it was going to work. So we turned it around into a compassionate care program and then our work began!” Rosenfeld was the second person to be added into the program.

Condition today: “I am a very healthy disabled person.”

What have you been up to? Irvin wrote a book in 2010 entitled My Medicine, which detailed his medical history, his discovery of cannabis’ medicinal properties, the history of the MMJ struggle in America, and his work with legal and medical programs to get the CIND running.

Your opinion on current MMJ issues and rights: “If didn’t have the medicine I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in. I wouldn’t be a stockbroker, I wouldn’t be working. I’d be most likely on disability and I’d likely be hung out! And I’m wondering, how many people in this country are in that situation because they don’t have the right medicine? If they had the right medicine like I do, they could be a productive member of society instead of a drain on society.”