By Tom Moran/ The Star-Ledger
Tony Kurdzuk/Star-Ledger – A marijuana plant
Lisa Segal wakes up every morning locked in a fetal position, her muscles in spasm from multiple sclerosis.
She’s 59 years old, and has tried everything. The only medicine that relaxes those muscles and settles her nausea is marijuana.
So when her supply runs out, she drives an hour from her Gloucester County home to Philadelphia, and walks the streets to buy pot, leaning on her cane. It scares her to death, but it’s better than spending her remaining years curled up in bed, in pain.
“These are not people I want to deal with,” she says. “I have nightmares that the police are going to come into my house and arrest me.”
The medical marijuana movement aims to end this official cruelty, and allow people like Segal to live in dignity. That was the idea, anyway, when the Legislature passed the law last year. It was supposed to be up and running by now.
But thanks to Gov. Chris Christie, this effort has gone terribly off track. So Segal still has to sneak to Philly for her fix, like a criminal.
“The way the rules are written now, I’ll have no choice but to continue doing what I’m doing,” she says.