Her 17-year-old son regarded like he was dying.
Angie Calhoun might hardly bear to look at her solely little one, Austin Calhoun, go from lively and pleased to bedridden and depressing, as he started experiencing focal seizures, extreme joint ache, and continual nausea and vomiting.
The debilitating medical situations took their toll, as Austin, unable to maintain any meals down, quickly misplaced 40 kilos from his adolescent body. Because the ache progressed, weakening his physique and spirit, Austin’s well being deteriorated to the purpose the place he now not wished to maneuver.
“He had stopped enjoying tennis,” Angie mentioned. “He didn’t really feel like going out with buddies anymore. That was one factor the place my husband and I had been like, ‘One thing is admittedly improper with Austin.’ He’s not going out, and he was a kind of who loved going out. He’s a social butterfly. However it simply stopped, and he simply felt so dangerous that he laid on the sofa or within the mattress and slept, and slept, and slept.”
Along with sports activities and buddies, Austin, who turns 26 this month, additionally loved being outdoor looking and fishing. However these actions got here to a halt too, as did his education.
Throughout his senior 12 months of highschool, Austin mentioned he attended possibly 4 days of courses.
“It was sort of heartbreaking simply having to put there within the mattress and name buddies on the cellphone, as a result of that was probably the most interplay I might have,” he mentioned. “You realize, they’d come see me infrequently, nevertheless it’s not like I might get out and we’d go do stuff like we used to. It’s simply sort of a kind of conditions the place it was like being alive however not alive on the identical time, the place you simply sort of lived in existence.”
Seek for a Resolution
In the course of the subsequent 18 months, Angie and Brad Calhoun drove their son to Texas, to Louisiana and throughout their dwelling state of Mississippi to go to greater than 20 medical doctors in hopes of an correct prognosis and drugs that will assist. With Austin typically too weak to stroll, Angie mentioned she generally needed to push him into the medical doctors’ places of work in a wheelchair.
Finally, a health care provider in Dallas led the Calhouns to have Austin examined for Lyme illness, the commonest vector-borne illness within the U.S., based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s transmitted to people by way of the chew of contaminated blacklegged ticks. If left untreated, an infection can unfold to joints, the guts, and the nervous system.
Austin’s official prognosis was that he contracted Lyme illness, which the Calhouns mentioned grew to become continual Lyme illness.
Along with his different situations, Austin started having accelerated heart-rate points and it felt like the whole lot in his physique was malfunctioning, he mentioned.
“I used to be a fairly lively child,” Austin mentioned. “I wished to exit with my buddies. However if you’re mainly bedridden as a result of the Lyme illness is attacking your nervous system, after which all of the pharmaceutical medicines they put you on have you ever so out of it to the purpose the place you may’t depart your mattress for 20 hours on finish, I imply, it’s a kind of conditions [where you ask], ‘Ought to a toddler ever have to do that?’ And the reply is completely not—not that many medicines at one time.”
After a wholesome first 16 years of his life, Austin was prescribed 17 pharmaceutical medicines in an try to show his world right-side up once more. These prescriptions ranged from Reglan, which may deal with gastroesophageal reflux illness (GERD), nausea, and vomiting attributable to chemotherapy, to Pulmicort, which may also help management and stop signs attributable to bronchial asthma. The Lyme illness had attacked Austin’s autonomic nervous system, affecting his respiratory.
As well as, Austin was placed on three anti-seizure medicines concurrently, but he would nonetheless expertise break-through seizures, Angie mentioned.
“So, each time we went to see a health care provider, or he went to the hospital, and I’m sitting there, like, ‘Aren’t these too many medicines? He’s on 17 prescriptions,’” Angie mentioned. “And so they’re like, ‘Nicely, it’s a lot. However we have to take this, and we have to take these.’ And I can’t think about anyone on this world saying that it’s OK for a 17-year-old to take 17 prescriptions at one time, and a number of instances every day. We had been simply not snug with that. And he wasn’t both.”
Angie mentioned she recalled strolling into Austin’s bed room one morning to provide him his medicines, and, as she paused at his bedside, she checked out him mendacity there and thought to herself, “My son seems to be like a skeleton with a sheet over his physique.”
Angie wished to remove her son’s ache and struggling. She mentioned she was prepared to do something to get his well being again. She requested God to remove Austin’s agony and put it onto herself.
A New Starting
After performing some analysis, the Calhouns determined to attempt hashish as an avenue to deal with Austin’s medical situations.
“We knew it had helped with seizures, we knew that it had helped chemo sufferers with nausea and vomiting, and, most medicines, they weren’t working for Austin,” Angie mentioned. “And the unwanted effects had been horrifying for my husband and me each. So, Austin, he was prepared to attempt something as a result of he was depressing.
“And after hashish received into his system, Austin hasn’t needed to take any of these medicines. He’s [pharmaceutical] medication-free. Is that incredible?”
Roughly seven years after discovering reduction, medical hashish stays Austin’s one and solely avenue to deal with his lifelong illness.
Whereas he’s not 100% effectively 100% of the time, as he nonetheless has flare-ups from his Lyme illness, Austin is now not glued to his mattress. He’s now not throwing up a dozen instances a day. His continual ache is now not unmanageable. And his seizures are below management.
“Not one of the medicines had labored,” Austin mentioned of the 17 prescribed drugs. “And once I lastly received to attempt hashish, I imply, it was nearly an on the spot reduction, feeling like myself once more. As the times simply stored going and I stored on [using cannabis], I ended up feeling like my earlier self. I’d nonetheless get some aches and pains, however I wasn’t compelled to put within the mattress for 20 hours due to all of the pharmaceutical medicines.”
The issue?
It’s 2022, and medical hashish nonetheless isn’t authorized within the state of Mississippi, even after voters passed Initiative 65 to legalize it with a greater than two-thirds majority within the November 2020 election. In Could 2021, the Mississippi Supreme Courtroom struck down the voter-approved poll measure, ruling it unconstitutional on an outdated signature-gathering technicality.
RELATED: Mississippi Supreme Court Overturns Voter-Approved Ballot Initiative for Medical Cannabis
Whereas fewer than 20 states had legalized medical hashish when Austin first received sick in 2013, Mississippi is now simply one among 11 states remaining with out industrial medical hashish use and the place private cultivation is outlawed.
16 Hours Away
With the dearth of entry to medical hashish in Mississippi, Austin made the choice to maneuver to Colorado, a state with a authorized and controlled medical hashish program, in 2015. He was 19 on the time.
Google Maps
Whereas Puckett, Miss., a village of roughly 350 individuals about 30 miles southeast of Jackson, was the place Austin referred to as dwelling, {the teenager} relocated to a “homey little city” close to Pueblo, Colo., a metropolis of over 100,000 folks that was a 16-hour-plus automobile journey away.
Austin mentioned the transfer was one of many hardest issues he’s ever needed to do.
“The individuals in Colorado are nice, however for a southerner to go over to that proper there, it’s sort of a tradition shock,” he mentioned. “My mother and pop would come and see me every time they may. However it was positively extraordinarily robust to be that far-off. If I’ve a medical emergency, my of us must purchase a aircraft ticket simply to come back on the market and examine on me. I imply, I felt extraordinarily responsible over all that.”
The earlier 12 months—in January 2014—Colorado grew to become the primary U.S. state to launch adult-use hashish gross sales. Earlier than Austin went by way of the method of turning into a resident and acquiring his medical hashish card, his mother mentioned she visited an adult-use dispensary for him.
“It was actually an eye-opener, and it simply made my coronary heart leap with pleasure to see that Austin gave the impression to be like his pleased self once more,” Angie mentioned. “Like, we might exit to dinner, and he might maintain it down. And that simply had not occurred in so lengthy. And I’m sort of getting emotional, however when your little one vomits, generally 12 instances a day, the whole lot he eats, he was so malnourished.”
Austin figured attending school could be pathway to satisfy individuals, however when he began feeling effectively once more, he finally started working at Yeti Farms, a Colorado-based, sun-grown hashish farm. There, Austin discovered the extraction aspect of the enterprise, in addition to the harvesting and rising aspect of the commerce. He mentioned studying below founder and proprietor Shawn Honaker was mainly his school expertise.
However Austin nonetheless remained looking forward to Mississippi to legalize medical hashish so he might transfer again dwelling and be together with his household and buddies, he mentioned.
Initiative 65
In 2017, Mississippi state Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from the northwest nook of the state, related with a constituent who had simply misplaced his spouse to most cancers.
Mississippi State Senate
“She had issue consuming and stuff, and so he ended up going to a different state to search out hashish and bringing it again for his spouse, so she might eat and get by way of her regular days,” mentioned Blackwell, who responded by introducing a medical hashish invoice within the Mississippi Legislature.
“There was not a lot dialogue,” he mentioned of his 2017 proposal. “Actually, there was no dialogue. I recall no urge for food from the Legislature to take up something [on medical cannabis].”
It wasn’t till Mississippians for Compassionate Care submitted roughly 106,000 signatures to put Initiative 65 on the November 2020 poll—and had these signatures certified by the secretary of state’s workplace—that medical hashish talks heated up, Blackwell mentioned. Actually, state legislators launched a competing measure, Different 65A, to seem on the identical poll.
Mississippians finally passed Initiative 65 with greater than two-thirds of voters in help of requiring the state’s Division of Well being to undertake guidelines and rules for a medical hashish program by July 1, 2021, and start issuing medical affected person playing cards and remedy heart licenses by Aug. 15, 2021.
“Austin was right here, and I simply broke down in tears I used to be so grateful,” Angie mentioned of the 2020 election outcomes. “And he was too. He was in tears. He mentioned, ‘Momma, I’m going to get to come back dwelling to a state that has the medication that I want.’”
Stumbling Reform
Six months later, six of 9 justices on the Mississippi Supreme Courtroom dominated Initiative 65 was void as a result of the state by no means up to date its initiative course of after the 2000 Census.
Chad Robertson | Adobe Inventory
The excessive courtroom’s choice was based mostly on a poll process that requires signatures from every congressional district in Mississippi to not exceed one-fifth of the full variety of signatures required for an initiative to be positioned on the poll. However after the 2000 Census, Mississippi dropped from 5 districts to 4 districts, placing the one-fifth requirement mathematically at odds with the political construction of the state’s citizens.
With different voter-approved poll measures for the reason that 2000 Census going unchallenged, Austin mentioned it was like a “kick within the abdomen” when the Supreme Courtroom struck down medical hashish legalization.
In 2011, for instance, Mississippians voted in favor of Initiative 27, which requires residents to indicate government-issued picture identification earlier than voting, and in favor of Initiative 31, which limits the usage of eminent area—the appropriate of a authorities to expropriate personal property for public use. Neither measure was challenged.
Legislative Reform
Within the eight months for the reason that Supreme Courtroom’s choice, state lawmakers have labored to revive the need of their constituents by way of drafting medical cannabis legislation, particularly Blackwell, who chairs the Senate Medicaid Committee, and Republican Rep. Lee Yancey, chairman of the Home Drug Coverage Committee.
Earlier this 12 months, Blackwell sponsored Senate Bill 2765, the Mississippi Medical Hashish Act, which included “set off language,” that means it might solely be enacted if Initiative 65 was struck down. Whereas the Senate handed that invoice, the Home killed it and the laws died when Mississippi’s 2021 legislative session ended April 1.
However Blackwell didn’t cease engaged on laws after the Legislature adjourned.
“I felt it was upon us to attempt to get a program in place as quickly as we might, as finest we might match the intent of what [Initiative] 65 was,” Blackwell mentioned. “So, we started work on that in Could [2021], and I believe in September had reached an settlement with the Home, let the governor know, who had mentioned as soon as we attain an settlement, he would name a particular session.”
Whereas Republican Gov. Tate Reeves mentioned he’d name a 2021 particular session upon Senate and Home leaders reaching an settlement with sufficient votes to move medical hashish laws, he by no means did.
After Mississippi lawmakers reached a deal, Blackwell mentioned Reeves got here again with 9 requests.
“We accommodated seven of them,” Blackwell mentioned of the governor’s requests. “Then he got here again with about 5 or seven extra. We accommodated [all but two]. After which he got here again with some extra.”
With the back-and-forth between legislative and govt branches, time ran out for a particular session.
Pushing on in 2022
When Hashish Enterprise Instances reached out to Reeves’ workplace in mid-October, asking what proposals the governor wished legislative leaders to handle within the invoice, Press Secretary Bailey Martin declined an interview alternative for the governor.
However one part Reeves has been more vocal about is lowering the proposed possession restrict of 4 ounces of smokable hashish per 30 days for medical sufferers. That’s an oz lower than the possession restrict accredited by voters in Initiative 65, however Reeves nonetheless voiced his reservations.
governorreeves.ms.gov
“The invoice permits any particular person to get 3.5 grams of marijuana per day,” Reeves wrote on social media in late December. “A easy Google search exhibits that the common joint has 0.32 grams of marijuana. Subsequently, anybody particular person can get sufficient weed to smoke 11 joints a day. Every single day.”
Simply final week, Blackwell met with Reeves and introduced the governor a 4-ounce pattern of hemp to reveal the possession restrict, to convey a way of scale.
“I believe he was shocked,” Blackwell mentioned. “I’m undecided he’s really seen product earlier than. He was actually appreciative of the data, and I consider the route we provided [him].
“He’s going to wish to get together with his individuals and actually digest what we’ve provided and if he can help that. So, we’re going to go forward and go ahead. I hope to listen to from him earlier than we transfer ahead with debate in committee and on the ground, however we’re ready to maneuver ahead.”
Blackwell mentioned it’s not his intention to place the Legislature ready to override an govt veto, however he expects a fast committee course of on medical hashish laws resulting in a Senate flooring debate as quickly as this week.
A Affected person Alliance
Amidst the hiccups in offering entry to medical hashish for Mississippians who want it, Angie based the Mississippi Cannabis Patients Alliance (MCPA), a non-profit group, in October 2021.
Beforehand, she chaired the board of the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Affiliation (3MA), which launched in December 2020 as a bunch of affiliate members gearing to function cultivation, testing, transportation, manufacturing, extraction and retail companies in what was the state’s forthcoming hashish program.
However Angie left 3MA, extra of a commerce affiliation, to type MCPA and focus solely on advocating for and representing sufferers in want of medical hashish.
“Most of my sufferers can’t get entry,” Angie mentioned of these she advocates for below MCPA. “And a few are on medicines which can be $5,000 and $10,000 a month, which is ridiculous, you recognize, pharmaceutical medicines that price that a lot.
“They need choices for a secure, pure different to pharmaceutical medication. And if you’ve gotten to the purpose that it’s placing you out of business … we actually want to provide these sufferers choices.”
Considered one of MCPA’s founding board members is Kent McDaniel, who started his profession of public service with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics as one of many authentic brokers in 1972. He additionally served 24 years as an appointed decide on the Rankin County Courtroom, earlier than retiring in September 2021.
Regardless of by no means making an attempt hashish, McDaniel mentioned he helps legalization for medical sufferers.
courts.ms.gov
“It simply makes a lot sense from a medical analysis perspective; there’s simply an excessive amount of data on the market now in regards to the medical advantages of marijuana,” he informed Hashish Enterprise Instances. “The arguments in opposition to it, I do know all of them by coronary heart. I’ve handled them for years.”
McDaniel was first sworn in as a narcotics agent 50 years in the past this month. Again then, his notion of hashish was a bit totally different, as “the oldsters who had been actual into it had been simply nugatory. They let it take management of their lives,” he mentioned about his opinion as an undercover narcotics agent.
“Since then, I’ve discovered that’s very a lot simply an overstatement as to marijuana, notably if you line it up in opposition to what has confirmed to be medical advantages from individuals who want the reduction it gives.”
The very first hashish sale case McDaniel made undercover within the early Nineteen Seventies resulted in an offender getting 4 years within the penitentiary for an oz, he mentioned.
Since then, public perceptions and legal penalties have modified. As Mississippi cannabis laws stand as we speak, possession of 30 grams (a little bit greater than an oz) or much less is decriminalized, with first-time offenders receiving no penalty, no chance of incarceration and a max advantageous of $250.
“If you happen to observe the historical past of this, as we as a society have develop into extra enlightened, we’ve realized that this isn’t one thing to make felons out of and even to place individuals in jail for,” McDaniel mentioned, reflecting on his 24 years behind the bench.
Governor Holdup
Regardless of the altering public notion, Reeves’ gubernatorial stance doesn’t supply a lot optimism for medical legalization advocates in 2022.
Along with calling for a discount in proposed possession limits, from 4 ounces to 2 ounces per 30 days, the governor mentioned what lawmakers have crafted within the Legislature equates to a leisure hashish program and implied that approving the compromise invoice Blackwell and Yancey got here up with this previous fall would enable medical sufferers to flood the streets with hashish.
“As a dad of three daughters that I like dearly—I can’t put my title on a invoice that places that a lot marijuana on the streets of Mississippi,” Reeves wrote in late December.
As somebody with Lyme illness who depends on hashish to manage in his every day life, Austin referred to as the governor’s feedback disappointing.
“Out of all of the states I visited which have medical and even leisure marijuana, individuals are not out on the road simply smoking,” Austin mentioned. “I’d say 99.9% of people that have widespread sense will not be on the market doing it on the roads or within the streets. They’re doing it of their houses as a result of 9 instances out of 10 they don’t really feel effectively.”
Advocating for potential medical hashish sufferers in Mississippi, Austin’s mom Angie mentioned she has issues about 2 ounces per 30 days not being ample for some sufferers, which might imply they’d return to struggling or pursuing the illicit market, the place testing and certificates of research aren’t obtainable, that means sufferers don’t know precisely what they’re getting.
She additionally questioned what Reeves would do if it had been one among his three daughters who fell sick and solely discovered reduction by way of hashish.
“What would you do?” Angie mentioned. “I do know I’d stroll out in the course of the highway and go in entrance of an 18-wheeler if it meant saving my son’s life. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him. However I need all sufferers to have the ability to get medical hashish right here in Mississippi.
“That is a couple of product that helps sick individuals.”
