TY - BOOK AU - Chapkis,W. AU - Webb,Richard J. TI - Dying to get high: marijuana as medicine SN - 0814716660 AV - RM666.C266 C53 2008 U1 - 615.32345 22 PY - 2008///] CY - New York PB - New York University Press KW - Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana KW - Marijuana KW - Therapeutic use KW - United States KW - Cannabis KW - Cannabinoids KW - Materia medica, Vegetable KW - Chronic Disease KW - drug therapy KW - Marijuana Smoking KW - legislation & jurisprudence N1 - Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-244) and index; Shamans and snake oil salesmen -- Set and setting -- The greening of modern medicine -- "Potheads scamming the system" -- Cannabis and consciousness -- Mother's milk and the Muffin Man -- Love grows here -- Lessons in endurance and impermanence N2 - Marijuana as medicine has been a politically charged topic in this country for more than three decades. Despite overwhelming public support and growing scientific evidence of its therapeutic effects (relief of the nausea caused by chemotherapy for cancer and AIDS, control over seizures or spasticity caused by epilepsy or MS, and relief from chronic and acute pain, to name a few), the drug remains illegal under federal law. In Dying to Get High, noted sociologist Wendy Chapkis and Richard J. Webb investigate one community of seriously-ill patients fighting the federal government for the right to use physician-recommended marijuana. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) is a unique patient-caregiver cooperative providing marijuana free of charge to mostly terminally ill members. For a brief period in 2004, it even operated the only legal non-governmental medical marijuana garden in the country, protected by the federal courts against the DEA. Using as their stage this fascinating profile of one remarkable organization, Chapkis and Webb tackle the broader, complex history of medical marijuana in America. Through compelling interviews with patients, public officials, law enforcement officers and physicians, Chapkis and Webb ask what distinguishes a legitimate patient from an illegitimate pothead, good drugs from bad, medicinal effects from just getting high. Dying to Get High combines abstract argument and the messier terrain of how people actually live, suffer and die, and offers a moving account of what is at stake in ongoing debates over the legalization of medical marijuana.--From the publisher UR - http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0833/2008007095-b.html ER -