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Hestevan Hennessy is one of the many very real people who ALSO have the “right to try” medicinal cannabis, and not only to try, but the simple, clear right to have safe, legal access to the medications which we know help ease their lot and improve the quality of their lives.
Meanwhile, Governor Gary Herbert, because Utah government, including your administration, has repeatedly refused to act, patients like Hestevan can only dream of joining the millions of “successful anecdotes” (also known as patients) lucky enough to live in the over half of the states where people have these rights….
“Hestevan lives his life in a wheelchair, unable to communicate and in constant pain.
And those are the good days.
Now and then, the 23-year-old — who suffers from cerebral palsy — has his sciatic nerve flare up, sending shockwaves through his body, causing him to cry out and convulse.
His body rejects pain medications and he screams in agony until he vomits them up through his feeding tube. Ibuprofen can help, but after a day or two it shreds his stomach lining and blood flows out of his stomach and into the tubes.
All his mother, Desiree Hennessy, can do when the pain comes is try to soothe her son.
Cannabis has helped other patients coping with CP, and Hestevan’s doctors all say it could work for him, too. But his father, a firefighter, fears he could lose his job if they try. Or worse, says Desiree, the state could take him away and, in his fragile condition, it could be a death sentence.
‘It’s so infuriating to me. I’m not asking for access from [his doctors]. I’m begging politicians. I’m begging politicians to let me medicate my son,’ she said. ‘It’s so hard to wrap my brain around’.
‘Gov. Herbert didn’t take a stand against medical cannabis, he took a stand against patients who need medication, and he knows that’.”
Much more in the article – including a prediction that implacable foes like the Utah Medical Association and the Sutherland Institute are only staring to gear up and gang up to fight with sick people….
“The conservative Sutherland Institute and the Utah Medical Association joined Herbert’s criticism in what is likely just a taste of the coordinated attack we’ll see on medical cannabis efforts.”
Please keep commenting, reacting and if so moved, sharing our posts as widely as you wish. Every voter is going to matter to every Hestevan out there…
#MMJ #Anecdotes #UTpol #UTgov #UMA #PatientsBeforePolitics #TRUCE
See full article – Gehrke: Gov. Herbert, meet Hestevan, who lives in excruciating pain because Utah denies him medical cannabis
