Medical Marijuana For MS Patients
Barbara's eyesight had improved and she was out of her wheelchair and able to drive a vehicle. 
Both Ladd and Barbara live in Iowa. Both have been ill for decades. Years ago, Ladd found out that the US government was giving medical cannabis to certain patients for their illnesses through the Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program. He has multiple sclerosis (MS) and he found through personal experimentation that his symptoms improved and the disease was put in a remission-like state when he used cannabis regularly.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic neurological disorder that results from patches of destruction of the myelin sheath surrounding the nerve axons in the brain and spinal cord. Typical symptoms include visual loss, fatigue and weakness, spasticity, sensory impairment (burning or pricking feelings), speech difficulties and bladder problems. Symptoms of the disease vary depending on where the demyelination takes place — it's like an electric wire that is missing its insulation and the electrical path short circuits. Onset is usually between the ages of 20-40 and it affects more women than men. MS can present with several types of progression, but in general the patient becomes more debilitated as the damage continues.
Ladd told his new friend and fellow MS patient Barbara about the use of cannabis for MS and the IND program. Ladd's physician put his paperwork in first, but Barbara's family had better political connections than Ladd and she began receiving cannabis in August of 1991.
When my wife and I first met her, Barbara was in a wheel chair due to muscle weakness and spasticity and was legally blind; hallmarks of MS. I watched for a weekend as she fought her way through each day, a constant companion and care giver needed. She had been using government cannabis for just a few months.
We returned to her home for a visit about three years later. Barbara met us at the door and insisted before we made ourselves at home, that we ride in her new RV. We rode, she drove! Her eyesight had improved and she was out of her wheelchair and able to drive a vehicle of some size. The change was cannabis. Her dose of federal cannabis is 8 cured ounces per month. She smokes it from joints she rolls after taking the government cannabis she is issued, some as much as ten years old, ripping apart the pre-rolled joints containing stems and seeds and re-hydrating it for 24 hours to make it palatable to smoke.
By the time Barbara began receiving her federal cannabis, Ladd's IND application had been approved, but he never received any medicine from the federal government. Ladd is alive and suffering as his disease progresses. Barbara is alive and doing well.
As one of the few surviving IND patients, Barbara was a participant in the Missoula Study conducted in 2001. Four living federal cannabis patients were examined in great detail for three days at St. Patrick's hospital in Missoula, MT. Barbara showed no negative health effects from chronic cannabis use.
If you have MS and do not use cannabis you will never again do what you used to do—which is how Ladd lives. If you use cannabis like Barbara your life will be better. If you have MS how does your non cannabis future look to you?
Al Byrne for Patients Out of Time
