By Scott Stowell

Ely photographer K.K. Forss is using words rather than a camera to offer a picture of what his life is like without medical marijuana.

Forss traveled to the State Capitol to testify in support of medical marijuana legislation at a Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Medical marijuana use has been a political issue in Minnesota since the mid-nineties. The bill is currently being sponsored in the House by Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia). A five member bipartisan group is pushing it in the Senate.

Last year, though the legislation passed in the Senate, it did not make it through the House by the end of the session.

Among the arguments against the bill, opponents say it will muddle enforcement of current drug laws. Medical privacy laws will make maintaining law enforcement databases impossible. The definition of caregivers who can legally transport the substance would become vague. Children who live in the homes of patients using the drug would have easier access to it.

But Forss said he tried to show another side of the story at the hearing. He began by telling the committee about his life before using marijuana to ease severe chronic pain.

In May 2004, he went to the Twin Cities to meet with the publisher of a book of his photographs. The next morning, he said he woke to the worst pain in his life. He had surgery that day for a ruptured disk in his neck that also permanently damaged his spinal cord.

He had experienced a rare genetic condition that would not allow the condition to repair. Eight months later he had another surgery in which doctors tried to rebuild the damaged parts. It was the next in string of surgeries.

“This has been almost five years of hell. I’ve got more surgeries coming up, at least two,” he said.

Forss said the more his arm moves the worse the pain becomes. But he still needs to move it somewhat or it will “die off.”

The “blur of medications” he is taking compounds the problem.

As an overview, Forss said he can’t sleep more than an hour at a time with the pain, so he takes two muscle relaxants throughout the day. One is methadone, a drug sometimes prescribed for heroin addicts. He also wears fentanyl patches that last 72 hours for extreme pain management. Every three months he receives spinal cord injections.

Constipation and vomiting are among the side effects. When he becomes hot in summer, he loses 25-30 pounds as a result. In winter, he gains it back. The vomiting also makes his arm spasms worse.

Some of the medications affect his heart, so he takes further prescriptions to slow his heart rate and treat heartburn. An increase in blood pressure and cholesterol are part of the mix, too.

In addition, the heavy medication has caused the teeth on the sides of his lower jaw to completely crumble.

Forss has tried a variety of alternative treatments. These include two surgeries at the Mayo Clinic for further opinions, electric stimulation, ultrasound, chiropractic treatment, aromatherapy, cortisone shots, counseling for depression and pain management, acupuncture, and acupuncture with electric current, which he said was horrible and doesn’t recommend.

When he travels he said he feels every seam in the road. But going to the hearing was important.

“You have to believe you’ll get your life back at some point,” he said. “I don’t really have much quality of life any more.”

However, he said marijuana helps reverse the snowball effect of the medications he’s currently taking and creates a different snowball effect in a good direction.

He can sleep six to seven hours a night without heavy sleeping medications. When he sleeps without moving, the muscle spasms ease.

Along with reducing pain, the marijuana cuts down on his need for other medications. He said that’s easier on his heart, and less costly for him and taxpayers. His medications are paid for through the Medical Assistance Program because he’s listed as completely disabled.

As for protecting children from access to medical marijuana, Forss said the patients who would be placed in the program already secure the medications they have around their homes.

“It would be less harmful for [a child] to ingest the marijuana than any of those meds,” he said. “If they took a handful of any of my meds, they’d be dead.”

Another part of his motivation for supporting medical marijuana derives from societal perspectives.

He said the issue is often seen as a Democrat versus Republican debate. However, he labels himself as a Republican Christian.

“I’m frustrated to death with the way the Christian community sees the word ‘marijuana’ and immediately turns away,” he said.

Forss noted that marijuana has historically been used around the world for medical purposes for centuries. The Minnesota Nurses Association, Minnesota Public Health Association, Minnesota Senior Federation and the American College of Physicians are among its current supporters.

“The whole thing about the medical marijuana bill is to let doctors make the decisions again,” Forss said. “We trust them to open our bodies up, trust them to give us radiation or chemotherapy. I don’t understand why we can’t trust them with [marijuana].”

Forss’ testimony on Wednesday was one of several from medical marijuana patients. They appear to have had an effect. The House committee took the first step toward final legislation, voting 9-6 in support of medical marijuana bill.