== Forwarded Message Follows =========================================
From: "Carl E. Olsen" 
Subject: Lawyers battle over man's medicinal marijuana use - January
24, 1997
http://www.commonlink.com/~olsen/MEDICAL/HELMERS/courier1.html
The Waterloo / Cedar Falls Courier
Friday, January 24, 1996, Page 1
E-mail: wcfcourier@aol.com
Fax: 319-291-2069
Lawyers battle over man's
medicinal marijuana use
   + Judge to decide fate of man who smoked medicinal pot.
                             By ELIZABETH BLOOM
                            Courier Staff Writer
                                  Waterloo
   A probation revocation hearing for a convicted drug offender turned into
an extended -- and sometimes heated -- debate Thursday over the use of
marijuana for medicinal purposes.
   The center of Thursday's stormy session in Black Hawk County District
Court was Allen Helmers, who readily admits he uses marijuana despite being
ordered to stop as part of his probation for a 1995 drug offense.
   Helmers, 48, claims he needs the drug to control pain caused by
fibromyalgia, back problems and injuries suffered when his motorcycle was
struck by a drunken driver in 1994.
   "I got the point where I couldn't function," said Helmers, who brought
along a large bucket filled with bottles of prescription painkillers he had
tried.  He also had at least 14 people, many of whom deal with chronic pain,
in the audience to back his claims.
   "A lot of times, I wish instead of sentencing me ... they'd just have
taken me behind the barn and shot me," Helmers said.  "There's really no
hope for this (fibromyalgia) disease."
   Athorities, however, contend Helmers has a 30-year history of marijuana
use that pre-dates his accidents and injuries.
   Tony Janney, of the Black Hawk County Attorney's Office, even hinted
Helmers might be fabricating his claims of pain to justify continuing to
smoke marijuana.
   "He is a long-term marijuana user, he is probably addicted to it ... he
doesn't really need it," Janney said.
   While Helmers could go to prison for the violation, both Janney and the
judge agreed that wouldn't be productive.  What the County Attorney's Office
has suggested is Helmers be placed in the violator's program, where he could
be treated for drug addiction.
   The bottom line, Janney added, is marijuana is not approved for medical
use in Iowa, so Helmers violated his probation.
   "The bottom line," replied Helmers's attorney, Thomas Frerichs, "is there
is no (other) pain medication for this guy."
   Helmers was arrested in February 1995 during a drug raid on his home;
police had information he was dealing methamphetamines, but instead found
about three ounces of marijuana.  He later pleaded guilty to possession of
marijuana and failure to have an Iowa drug tax stamp.
   He received two five-year prison sentences on both counts, but the prison
time was suspended in favor of probation.  One condition: Helmers agreed not
to use illegal drugs.
   Helmers told Judge Jon Fister he admitted at the time he would be unable
to comply with that part of his probation.  Other forms of pain treatment
have been unsuccessful, he said, and he's allergic to opiate-based drugs
like morphine that are commonly used to treat severe, chronic pain.
   His probation officer, Patrick Weber, testified Thursday Helmers is a
model probationer who never failed to be on time, much less miss a meeting.
But he had to report the violation when Helmers tested positive for
marijuana use in August and October 1995.
   Janney questioned why Helmers hadn't sought to get marinol, a legal
marijuana pill.  Helmers and Frerichs responded that marinol is restricted
to patients with AIDS or cancer, and could not be prescribed for
fibromyalgia.
   An area physician who specializes in pain treatment and control, Dr. W.D.
Verduyn, testified he would prescibe marijuana for Helmers if it was within
his power.
   "Marijuana seems to have some (painkilling) abilities ...," Verduyn
testified.  "Many of my patients with severe pain report to me that they
have pain control when they smoke marijuana."
   Before the hearing, Fister suggested Helmers' case be shifted from the
jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections, by modifying the terms of his
probation.  If the County Attorney's Office wanted to pursue the matter
further, it could then do so in criminal court.
   "It's a mistake to involve DCS in medical-legal problems if they don't
have the expertise," Fister said.
   But Janney argued that would be tantamount to giving Helmers free license
to smoke the drug.
   "First and foremost, marijuana is contraband," said Janney. "What the
court is proposing is that the defendant be able to use an illegal
substance."
   Fister denied that was his intent.
   "It just seems to me a probation revocation is the wrong venue to deal
with this matter," he said.  "This is a cutting-edge kind of problem, and it
seems to me ... court is the right place to thrash it out."
   Fister is expected to render a decision at a later date. He indicated
Thursday he is leaning toward placing Helmers in a violators program, with a
staff member who also has fibromyalgia to help him find alternatives to cope
with his pain.
   Frerichs, however, argued his client has already demonstrated other
treatments and medications won't work, and that placing him in the program
would force Helmers to needlessly endure pain.
   "Isn't it cruel and inhumane to tell this person, 'We know marinol's not
available to you, and other pain medications aren't working, but you'll just
have to live with it?'" asked Frerichs.
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*  Carl E. Olsen                *  carl@commonlink.net                *
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