A columnist in one of our local newspapers, the Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star, recently wrote a feature story about the experience that one couple had with traveling to Colorado for medical marijuana to deal with Christy Gibson’s pain from “CRPS, a chronic pain syndrome that made her leg feel like it was plunged in ice or stuck in scalding water.”
Gibson told columnist Cindy Lange-Kubick about what happened to her when she used medical marijuana.
“I tried various strains of cannabis, in various forms,” she wrote. “And. It. Worked. It not only managed my pain, it allowed me to FUNCTION; I could manage my pain without being in a pharmaceutically induced, drugged-out zombie state.”
Because of her positive experiences with medical marijuana in Colorado, Gibson has written her state senators about LB643, a bill from Sen. Tommy Garrett that would legalize medical cannabis.
According to Lange-Kubick’s article, however, “the bill is stuck in committee.” It is helpful that Lange-Kubick wrote the article to bring additional light to one of the issues that affects real people on a daily basis: treating chronic pain through medical marijuana.
CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) is a very real diagnosis for many injured workers. It is promising to read about Gibson’s success managing her pain. Her success is a great illustration of how medical marijuana works for a very “Nebraska Nice” citizen in her struggle with chronic pain.
The firm’s lawyers represent literally hundreds of workers who are injured on the job. Chronic intractable pain such as CRPS is becoming more common, while at the same time, efforts that limit traditional pain medication are hot topics in the legislative arena nationwide.
As I wrote in a recent blog post, I would encourage the Legislature to keep moving forward on both Sen. Garrett’s priority bill and also a priority bill from Sen. Sue Crawford, LB390, that advocates for marijuana-related research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). “The pilot program would give patients who suffer from severe, untreatable or treatment-resistant epileptic seizures access to low-THC cannabidiol oil for the purpose of the study,” according to an article earlier this year in the Daily Nebraskan, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s independent student newspaper.
That way, Gibson and other Nebraska citizens in chronic pain, as well as those suffering from epileptic seizures that disrupt lives, wouldn’t have to travel great distances for well-deserved relief. Over the years, I have observed that seeing loved ones in pain rightly affects and challenges that person’s family and friends, so any steps that can be taken to alleviate this pain are positive.
I urge the legislature to act on and pass both of these bills, and I wish Gibson, and others who suffer, the best in their journey to control their pain.