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Dec 7, 2008-Dec 14, 2008 |
Marijuana Against Multiple Sclerosis
First Canadian granted a pot permit Alison Myrden praises therapeutic value of cannabis
By Francesco Veronesi
Originally Published: 2004-10-03
I had to take 32 pills a day, as well as a heavy dose of morphine. Imprisoned in bed by the pain, I did not have the strength to get up, to do the simplest things. Thanks to marijuana, all this is behind me. Now I get up, I move around. I'm alive again."
Alison Myrden is a courageous woman. She has to struggle every day against a terrible illness, multiple sclerosis, an incurable disease that debilitates her, conditions her life, and always accompanies her with its constant presence. "An indescribable, continuous pain, a suffering that nobody should have to bear," Alison told us from her Burlington home, "because no one could possibly deserve suffering so much."
Yet Alison is in love with life, even though life reserved her such a cruel destiny. Ever since her illness was diagnosed, Alison decided to resist, to tackle her disease and fight it tooth and nail. In 1992, due to the rapid progress of her illness, Alison was forced to leave her job. The drugs she had to take in order to control the pain were debilitating her. "We beat all paths known to medicine," continued Alison; "alongside traditional drugs I began a cure based on cocaine and heroin, under constant medical monitoring and with a regular permit by Health Canada."
These attempts, however, soon proved just as useless. "My health was declining fast. My illness was accompanied by the Tic Doloreux, a persistent pain in the face that often manifests itself in MS patients." Then, in 1995, she found marijuana. "I had smoked some cannabis when I was a kid, just out of curiousity. I would never have dreamed that eventually it would help me survive."
In the same year, Alison obtained a Health Canada permit for consuming marijuana for therapeutic purposes, the very first ever granted in Canada. "When I tried it for the first time I didn't expect too much. But 10 minutes later things had completely changed: after such a long time, I finally felt good. Pain decreased, I could move, I could smile once again."
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