Since the bottom line here is terrible physical pain, let's start with someone who has spent most of her life in that condition. There are millions like her. Patricia C. is 47 and lives in California. At the age of 12 she developed scoliosis, and sixteen years later her doctors told her she had the neck and spine of an 80-year-old. By the time she was 30 she was on a painkiller called Darvocet, which in turn yielded to a stronger one, Tramadol. A car crash in 1998 left her with additional spinal trauma and a brain injury. Her whole life revolved around pain. She had no appetite, was sunk in depression and prayed to God to release her from her torment.

It's not as though medical marijuana shifted Patricia to a bed of roses. "A lot of the time," she said in a recent deposition, "I have to take far more medicine for my body, for the pain, the nausea and muscle spasms, than my brain can handle. I wake up every night in pain. I get up every morning in pain." But, she says, "today I am in relatively good spirits, primarily because of my daily use of medical marijuana, which I find an absolute godsend. I can use it daily. It isn't addictive and it isn't detrimental to my health."

Patricia holds card number 34 in her local cannabis buyers' club. She was one of the earliest beneficiaries of the Compassionate Use Act, passed in 1996 by the body politic of California. But on January 21 in US District Court in San Francisco, the competing desires of California and the federal government are scheduled to meet before a jury, in a clash that could plunge Patricia and millions of others in chronic pain back into the agonies they once endured. It could also send a legendary figure, Ed Rosenthal, to prison for twenty years.

Subscriber Login

User Name

Password

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.