codeyletter

Governor Richard Codey

Trenton, New Jersey

Dear Governor Codey,

I’ve been a registered nurse since 1964, and a certified psychiatric nurse for 25 years. But I write to you today not as an experienced health-care professional, but simply as the mother of three sons, one of whom lives now only in the hearts of the people who loved him. At just 28 years old, my son Sean died in June 2004 after a three-year struggle with stomach cancer.

There is no way to fully express the intensity of grief borne by a parent who has lost a child. It is an unnatural event, and it shakes one to the core. I’ve been able to go on only with the love of Sean’s father, my remaining children and my sweet baby granddaughter. As hard as the loss of Sean has been for all of us, there is a speck of comfort in knowing that it was just bad luck. No one could have prevented it. I know because we got him the very best treatment, surrounded him with love and support and tried everything humanly possible to keep Sean with us.

The physical and emotional pain his cancer caused was not intentional. Cancer doesn’t know what it does to people. Only human beings can understand how their actions affect others’ lives. When those actions result in needless harm, people have a solemn obligation to change their ways.

Governor Codey, I am writing to you to ask that you change the way the people in our state government treat sick and dying New Jerseyans who need medical marijuana.

Sean was a good boy, good looking, smart and funny, a talented musician and engaged to a beautiful young woman I looked forward to knowing as my daughter in law. He was never arrested or accused, never hurt anyone or stole anything. He got good grades and had many, many friends. He was an artist and the light of my life. As his body was ravaged by both the disease and the grueling series of chemotherapy sessions, Sean became a medical marijuana patient.

He did so not because a friend suggested it or because he thought it would be fun, but because his doctors recommended it after every other legal prescription drug failed to stop his nausea and increase his appetite. Many of the prescription drugs he tried were very dangerous and left him zoned-out and barely able to get out of bed. Marijuana allowed him to function, and without the risk of a fatal overdose (which is just not possible with marijuana).

As the disease progressed and began to hurt more, Sean noticed that the marijuana he was using to keep from starving also helped him endure the razor-sharp shooting pains that became more and more frequent. Another benefit was that, in the midst of dying young, marijuana gave him an occasional brief window of time to forget about the cancer and just laugh a little. Those moments are precious to me now.

Without question, marijuana prolonged Sean’s life and provided comfort when there was precious little to be had elsewhere. If we didn’t have this Godsend medicine, I honestly don’t know what we would have done.

It wasn’t all wonderful, though. In the middle of struggling desperately to keep my boy alive and feeling OK, we lived in constant terror that the police would kick our door in, arrest the lot of us and seize our home. It was a risk I was willing to take, but the anguish and guilt this risk caused Sean was just another facet of his pain. Sadder still, this pain was not the result of a mindless disease, but of the outdated laws, rooted in ignorance, that turn good people into criminals for using a safe, effective herbal medicine to promote health or even save their own lives. While I have made peace with cancer, I cannot accord with a government that would willfully terrorize my family, or any other that winds up in such a terrible predicament. There is no justification whatsoever for this.

Governor Codey, I could go on about my professional experience, about how many doctors and nurses have confided in me that they’ve recommended marijuana to people suffering with cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, chronic pain and AIDS, and have seen it work. But I don’t need to tell you the scientific facts about this drug. They’re out there in plain sight, and have been for some time. I can only tell you what it’s like for a mother to watch her boy suffer needlessly, and die so very young. I can only ask that you change the law to make this medicine available to those who need it, so no other family will have their overwhelming sorrow compounded by needless terror.

Please, please support S2200, the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

Sincerely,

Gerri McGrath

Robinsville, NJ






		Governor Richard Codey Trenton, New Jersey Dear Governor Codey, I’ve been a registered nurse since 1964, and a certified psychiatric nurse for 25 years. But I write to you today not as an experienced health-care professional, but simply as the mother of three sons, one of whom lives now only in the hearts of the people who loved him. At just 28 years old, my son Sean died in June 2004 after a three-year struggle with stomach cancer. There is no way to fully express the intensity of grief borne by a parent who has lost a child. It is an unnatural event, and it shakes one to the core. I’ve been able to go on only with the love of Sean’s father, my remaining children and my sweet baby granddaughter. As hard as the loss of Sean has been for all of us, there is a speck of comfort in knowing that it was just bad luck. No one could have prevented it. I know because we got him the very best treatment, surrounded him with love and support and tried everything humanly possible to keep Sean with us. The physical and emotional pain his cancer caused was not intentional. Cancer doesn’t know what it does to people. Only human beings can understand how their actions affect others’ lives. When those actions result in needless harm, people have a solemn obligation to change their ways. Governor Codey, I am writing to you to ask that you change the way the people in our state government treat sick and dying New Jerseyans who need medical marijuana. Sean was a good boy, good looking, smart and funny, a talented musician and engaged to a beautiful young woman I looked forward to knowing as my daughter in law. He was never arrested or accused, never hurt anyone or stole anything. He got good grades and had many, many friends. He was an artist and the light of my life. As his body was ravaged by both the disease and the grueling series of chemotherapy sessions, Sean became a medical marijuana patient. He did so not because a friend suggested it or because he thought it would be fun, but because his doctors recommended it after every other legal prescription drug failed to stop his nausea and increase his appetite. Many of the prescription drugs he tried were very dangerous and left him zoned-out and barely able to get out of bed. Marijuana allowed him to function, and without the risk of a fatal overdose (which is just not possible with marijuana). As the disease progressed and began to hurt more, Sean noticed that the marijuana he was using to keep from starving also helped him endure the razor-sharp shooting pains that became more and more frequent. Another benefit was that, in the midst of dying young, marijuana gave him an occasional brief window of time to forget about the cancer and just laugh a little. Those moments are precious to me now. Without question, marijuana prolonged Sean’s life and provided comfort when there was precious little to be had elsewhere. If we didn’t have this Godsend medicine, I honestly don’t know what we would have done. It wasn’t all wonderful, though. In the middle of struggling desperately to keep my boy alive and feeling OK, we lived in constant terror that the police would kick our door in, arrest the lot of us and seize our home. It was a risk I was willing to take, but the anguish and guilt this risk caused Sean was just another facet of his pain. Sadder still, this pain was not the result of a mindless disease, but of the outdated laws, rooted in ignorance, that turn good people into criminals for using a safe, effective herbal medicine to promote health or even save their own lives. While I have made peace with cancer, I cannot accord with a government that would willfully terrorize my family, or any other that winds up in such a terrible predicament. There is no justification whatsoever for this. Governor Codey, I could go on about my professional experience, about how many doctors and nurses have confided in me that they’ve recommended marijuana to people suffering with cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, chronic pain and AIDS, and have seen it work. But I don’t need to tell you the scientific facts about this drug. They’re out there in plain sight, and have been for some time. I can only tell you what it’s like for a mother to watch her boy suffer needlessly, and die so very young. I can only ask that you change the law to make this medicine available to those who need it, so no other family will have their overwhelming sorrow compounded by needless terror. Please, please support S2200, the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. Sincerely, Gerri McGrath Robinsville, NJ