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Male Presenter: Well, the first question is a very direct question,
and that is,
"What are the compelling arguments for or against
from your point of view medical uses of marijuana?"
I'm gonna call on Susan first.
Gaskill: In 1982,
I had a blood transfusion in one of the local hospitals,
and in 1991,
shortly before Magic Johnson found out that he had,
You need a microphone?
With this voice.
[laughter]
Gaskill: Shortly before Magic Johnson found out that
he had the virus that causes AIDs,
I discovered that I had it.
And I've been very fortunate.
I've had very few complications from the virus.
about a year ago,
I also discovered that I have ulcerative colitis.
The two of these diseases do not like each other.
Ulcerative colitis limits severely what you need to eat.
And currently I'm on the cocktail which works for AIDs.
The problem with being on the cocktail that works for AIDs and colitis
is that colitis limits what you eat.
The cocktail for AIDs insists that you eat.
David passed out some of these,
I don't know if you wanna look.
This is my drug chart.
This is what I take every day.
And they're prescriptions.
And if you look at the top of the list,
there's drugs that I must take with food.
And there are drugs that I must take not having had food.
The drugs all have side effects.
The most common of which are digestive.
Either nausea or diarrhea or all sorts of wonderful things
that I would much prefer not to describe.
If I take a drug without taking the food,
I get nauseous.
If I'm nauseous I don't want to eat.
I can take the Ativan which is the very last drug there.
That will clear my nausea.
But that will put me to sleep for most of the rest of the day.
And if you look, I don't have an option.
I get up at six o'clock in the morning
and my last drugs are taken because you have to take them spaced apart,
otherwise they also cause nausea.
I smoked marijuana as a hippie.
It was great.
You know, you get ***, and wow,
and you're far out there.
I don't get *** anymore.
And in fact,
when my husband suggested
that I try marijuana for these various drugs,
I was very against it.
I was a older, respectable Sunday School teacher.
Who does not smoke marijuana!
It works.
It doesn't get me ***.
And in fact,
doctors when they look at some of the charts that I take,
I shouldn't be walking,
I should be in bed asleep right now.
Sixty milligrams of morphine and ten Vicodin pills
usually knocks people out.
Not me.
The marijuana doesn't get me high.
What it does is it allows me to eat so I can take the next pill.
And I have no,
I'm --
not sick from the diseases.
The side effects,
the nausea,
what I'm feeling,
is from the next pill.
It's how heavy duty do I wanna get to knock myself out
so I can take the next pill
so that maybe the virus will not overcome my immune system.
For me it makes no sense,
I can take the Ativan.
And nice,
I'm not nauseous.
I'm also not coherent.
There's a number of others that I can take,
same thing.
Marijuana gives me a level that allows me to function.
And frankly,
I like functioning.
Male Presenter: You also functioned within three minutes
which is good 'cause we wanna hear [inaudible] [laughter]
Gaskill: Well, I think I made my points on the legalization issue.
It's just not logical to me --
I don't want to be smoking marijuana.
I feel that as a role model here,
being a teacher,
and it's something that
I would like to do something that's legal.
I would like to feel that I don't have to sneak.
I know I can take the marijuana and smoke in the car.
I know if I'm sitting in the car and smoking the marijuana
when we're going to a restaurant
there's a risk that's a police car next to me and I'll get out.
But I don't wanna be there for so long.
[laughter]
It matters, you know.
One of the reasons that I think
that I am as healthy as I am is the support and encouragement
that I've had from this congregation in particular.
It's very hard to have a disease and to do something
that you are condemned for.
I don't know if you know this but I was very clear at the beginning,
this is how I got the virus.
Because that's the first question people ask.
"How did you get it?
What did you do wrong that caused you to get the virus?"
I'm a lucky one.
I got it from a transfusion.
People can't condemn me for that.
I think that's,
and I won't use the word,
but I think it is because --
But it matters.
It matters to people how you are perceived.
And when you say you have AIDs and somebody says
"Oh, well, ."
It matters.
And when you say --
To come here and sit and say to people who I know,
"I smoke marijuana."
It's not easy.
It wasn't an easy, you know --
Yes, it's very funny.
You know I was a hippie, I smoked when I was you know, whatever.
And I'm fortunate that it allows me to be able to do it now.
But it's not easy.
And any part of this disease that is being made not easy
helps to make people sicker.
Captioned by VideoJump, Inc.