Reconcile use with Medicare

I have also sent this letter to Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Rick Larsen.

My 91-year-old wife, Alice, has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, compressed and cracked vertebrae bones. She has been suffering with pain for years. She is in an Everett rehab facility having sleepless and pain-filled nights. Powerful medication has had little or no effect to relieve her pain.

I discussed with the medical officials in this facility of trying to use medical marijuana ointment to see if that would help give Alice some temporary relief. Even our state has legitimized the use of medical marijuana. I was told that federal regulations prohibit the use of medical marijuana. The facility depends on federal funding for Medicare and other federal funding. That funding could be stopped and the doctor and nurses could lose their licenses.

I am asking our federal legislators to please initiate legislative efforts to get federal relaxation for the use of medical marijuana in chronic pain cases and for now to try to get a waiver to allow the use of medical marijuana in my wife’s severe problem.

Kal Leichtman

Everett