Judge Gustin Reichbach of Brooklyn has written an extraordinary op-ed in the New York Times where he admits to breaking the law by using marijuana to relieve his suffering from Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. New York does not allow such use of marijuana and the Obama Administration has been cracking down with raids and arrests over the use of medical marijuana. Reichbach details how, with cancer treatment, “Nausea and pain are constant companions. ” As a result, “I did not foresee that after having dedicated myself for 40 years to a life of the law, including more than two decades as a New York State judge, my quest for ameliorative and palliative care would lead me to marijuana.” But his admits that he came to rely on the drug and has added his voice to thousands who defend the use of medical marijuana. He is a justice of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.
Cancer patients have long said that marijuana was the only drug that relieved the worst symptoms of cancer treatments. My wife has told me that her mother took medical marijuana as she was dying from breast cancer and said that the drug had a significant impact on reducing her pain and discomfort.
Reichbach writes:
“Inhaled marijuana is the only medicine that gives me some relief from nausea, stimulates my appetite, and makes it easier to fall asleep. The oral synthetic substitute, Marinol, prescribed by my doctors, was useless. Rather than watch the agony of my suffering, friends have chosen, at some personal risk, to provide the substance. I find a few puffs of marijuana before dinner gives me ammunition in the battle to eat. A few more puffs at bedtime permits desperately needed sleep.”
His account is an important attention to the thousands of other medical marijuana users in this country. Obama’s prosecution of suppliers of medical marijuana and pressure on states that have decriminalized the use of the drug is nothing short of shameful. He has shocked many by his aggressive campaign against those states and his Administration’s expansion of medical marijuana prosecutions. Efforts to stop the raids by Obama Administration have been made in Congress but the Administration has successfully opposed such moves. While once promising to stop the raids and reduce prosecutions, the Administration has reversed course and is now conducting an all-out efforts against medical marijuana. Obama has been described as ” to the right of Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Ronald Reagan and even George W. Bush on this issue.” Even Rick Perry defended the right of the states to allow medical marijuana.
Judge Reichbach’s account should be reading for every member of Congress, particularly his insistence that “[t]his is not a law-and-order issue; it is a medical and a human rights issue.”
I find it bizarre that so much effort has been expended against people using marijuana to relieve their pain. We have no problem loading them up with far more powerful drugs like morphine but prosecute them for using marijuana. When you have cancer, like Judge Reichbach and say that it helps you, I am inclined to be happy that it brings you relief. Thousands of sick people have stated that it brings them relief and yet the Obama Administration continues to waste resources and money to try to cut off their ability to use the drug. Now that is the definition of “Reefer Madness.”
As for Judge Gustin Reichbach, there will likely be calls for his removal from the bench as an admitted drug user and presumptive criminal. How do you think the bar should react? It would seem that there is a basis for prosecutors to ask for his recusal on drug cases. Would you agree that he should recuse himself from all drugs or just marijuana case or no cases?
Here is his background:
Reichbach received his B.A. degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1967 and his J.D. degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1970.[1]
Legal careerReichbach began his career in 1972 as private practice lawyer in New York. He worked in this capacity until 1990 and also practiced law in California from 1974 to 1976. From 1972 to 1974, he was also an instructor at Brooklyn College and, in 1974 and 1975, he served as Counsel to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board. His judicial career began in 1991 when he joined the New York City Civil Court of Kings County. He was then elected to the Supreme Court in 1999. Additionally, he served in 2003 as an International Judge for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo and was a Permanent Member of the Kosovo Supreme Court in 2004.
Source: New York Times as first seen on ABA Journal.
Frank told me the warden at San Quentin used to make a lot of money off Frank and other musicians in his band in the prison. That is why they kept him for so long. Imagine what his career could have been if he had not had to go to prison and work for the warden for free for so long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPTXRyWM1xQ&feature=player_embedded#!
I should say the house was also FULL of flowers since I was running my friends flower business while she was in Germany. Brimming with fresh cut flowers at certain times of the week. It was heaven.
yes, that one summer I listened to Frank improvise for 3 hours each afternoon for a couple of months. He worked very hard, obviously the drug taking did not affect his motivation. At this time he was on methadone, but he smoked a joint each day, too.
Then with a cool mountain breeze flowing through the house during his practices, it is such a wonderful memory.
Completely different. Only one song here by him.
Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpK3SpENOfQ&feature=related
Frank and Grace Kelly (female sax) She opens and he does a riffy be-bop (?) inspired thing. You tell me what it is.
Live. He’s planted in chair so he can’t leave the mike.
7+ minutes. the second one is a duet.
All these very pretty young girls in town were after Frank, he wasn’t interested. It was strange. But he and I stayed home that summer watching the summer Olympics. I was his chauffeur of sorts since he didn’t drive. It was the year Marion Jones swept the card & won all those races…he loved that the most.
Frank eventually settled down with his masseuse and they were very happy.
Wow! Shared a house! At Taos! Does your hair hang down to your toes. And don’t tell me about the Yoga teacheress.
Actually I am impressed. I visited the ski slopes over a weekend when I summered in Las Cruces. Felt totally out of place. Did not know where to hide my little tiny sportcar. Or myself either.
idealist, Frank was a live act. None of his recording do him justice, but ‘City Nights’ is a good place to start. He was impossible to mike because he walked while he played.
We shared a house one summer in Taos….
Shano,
What no old Marsist brochures among your skivvies? To think! I’ve been handcuffed at least 3 times so I’m ahead.
Thanks for mentioning Frank Morgan, will check him out. Don’t like Clinton, but one sax man said he’d be happy the day he could play an A and folks would cry.
Barking Dog,
You can sáy that about both kinds? But Malisha says y’all gladly eat excrement. Any choices there?
Because I was innocent, had a stellar record as a volunteer in my community , there were a number of houses closer to the plant than mine, the police LIED.
It does sober you to the power of the state when you are in handcuffs while strangers go through your underwear drawer.
@shano
I am surprised you did not loose your farm in forfeiture proceedings. Local law enforcement could have bought lots of para-military equipment with the proceeds from the sale of your farm.
Dogs dont like smoke of any kind.
I am sure I could find better things to do with 15 billion dollars a year than prosecute non violent marijuana smokers….
Yep, idealist, the War on Drugs ™ puts over half the population in jeopardy.
I used to be great friends with Frank Morgan, one of the greatest alto sax players of his generation. They claimed he would be the next Charlie Parker, but the drug war ruined his career.
I went to see him play in Holland after his last bust at age 70 or so for marijuana at the LA airport. He could only play in Europe after that. I just thought, leave this old man alone, for gods sake! They never did….
Shano,
Good honest no hype source. Wish there were more.
I realize the quietness here is due to job holders who need no notice from LEO.
Glad you got free, just keep inspecting. They’ll never forget you. When you’re on the satellite they gotcha.
We all could be busted anytime from a reverse pickpocket
plant.
So feel paranoid everybody. But it ain’t you, it’s just their quota they have to make. Stats equals budgets equals raises. Both kinds.
Bye y’all.
The judge claims medical efficacy for smoked Marijuana. While there are difficulties in controlling for potency when the product is smoked, it would seem that the question of medical Marijuana ought to be answered by pharmacologist through scientific study not by law enforcement.
My father who died of lung cancer was stoical and hardly, if ever, used the morphine that was prescribed to him. Not all seriously ill or terminal patients are so fierce in their independence. Not all seriously ill or terminal patients are given the palliative drugs they sometimes desperately need.
The fact that we turn away from them in their time of need in the name of law enforcement is an outrage and a stain on all of us.
Part of the outrage is that some law enforcement have successfully conflated the issue of medical marijuana and palliative care for chronic pain with recreational drug use.
idealist: I was a farmer for over 30 years. That is my interest.
Besides being raided by the police on my farm on the East coast, arrested for aerial photos of pot plants in a remote area of my farm that I knew nothing about…(why my old retired neighbors were not charged too since they had pot in their corn field I do not know)
The plants were gone at the time of the raid but it still cost me $3,000. to clear my name after the raid. The War on Drugs has many innocent casualties, I was just lucky I was able to clear my name!
Farmers need to be able to use hemp in crop rotations because it builds up topsoil. It does not need any inputs- fungicides, pesticides, herbicides. And in most places it needs no irrigation. Farmers used it for thousands of years to rehabilitate poor soils.
So, my two sides of this sad, sad story in America….
I do not have any solutions, idealist, unfortunately.
I know though, that the legalization of industrial hemp would create new industries and new jobs. Hemp is a massively useful plant, especially for non toxic alternatives to petroleum based plastics.
Someone built a car body out of hemp a few years ago, the fibers are stronger than fiberglass. The fabrics last forever. The paper made from hemp is almost toxin free compared to wood pulp. The oil is relatively clean burning besides being crammed with Omega 3s.
It is the best plant source for ethanol, no doubt about that at all. Hemp would advance all our old technology with products that are CLEANER and less toxic and biodegradable in landfills. We would not have a giant plastic vortex in the middle of the ocean if we made all these single use plastic items out of hemp instead of oil.
One day we may become so poor that we will have to legalize. that may be the solution.
Happy tree,
What were the alternatives beside THC help? Just askin’. Don’t feel challenged, just appreciated.
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Shano, don’t let me bug you, BUT:
Are you living in Christiana in Copenhagen?
Do you own a pot plantation and are speaking for your warez?
Are you instead a professor and quoting excerpts from your 101 course?
Huge scope there, speaks of unusual connections.
Suspicious me.
There’s a happy tree here today, no names.
How happy some messages can make you feel, in MANY ways.
Thanks. Hope you find a way. Feeling tempted myself to check in on myself. Do you have trouble leaving yourself behind—if that is entailed? Or can yourself follow with you, on the return journey?