Elvy Musikka
Blinded by Ignorance 

Since receiving her first legal prescription in 1988, the fifty-something Elvy has tirelessly devoted herself to travelling across the US, spreading the good news about the beneficial healing effects of marijuana.

Elvy is also an accomplished singer, and often combines speech and song during her presentations. She has released a CD of her songs and music entitled "Truth and Love are One."

I interviewed Elvy in November of 1995, at the Drug Policy Foundation conference in Santa Monica, with follow-up interviews conducted over the telephone with Elvy at her various pit-stops across the USA.

To contact Elvy or to get more information on her CD, write LV's Artist Den, PO Box 6076, Hollywood, Florida 33081. Telephone (954) 981-1225.

Let's begin with your medical condition. Why do you smoke marijuana?

As a child I had congenital cataracts which required a lot of surgery. The surgery produced a great deal of scar tissue, which eventually resulted in infected tear ducts. My ducts hold too many tears against the optic nerve at the back of my eye. This can and does cause permanent blindness if allowed to continue.

In 1975 I found out that I had glaucoma because of this, and by 1976 a number of medications were being prescribed to me. They weren't of any use to me because I couldn't deal with the side-effects. Many of them gave me tremendous headaches, others closed my pupils so I was blinded without waiting for the glaucoma to do it. Some medications made me stare at the ceiling and want to do absolutely nothing. I had a job and children to raise, so that was unacceptable.

Finally a doctor who was very compassionate took matters into his own hands, and told me as a friend that if I didn't start smoking marijuana I would go blind.

Tell me about the first time you smoked marijuana. How old were you, and what did it feel like?

Well, let's see...I was thirty. It felt funny. The first time I smoked I didn't know how to inhale. I kept trying to take it all in without any air, and it went right to my throat. I thought "My goodness, I'll have cancer of the throat in no time flat!" I was paranoid because I had heard so many horrible things about marijuana.

When I did find an underground doctor, through a senior citizen who knew of him because he was treating many others in our area, he recommended that I eat brownies because I was so opposed to smoking. That worked well for four months, and I even got a raise at work.

My doctor felt that, with the kind of documentation we had, we could go to the research centre for the University of Miami and persuade them to find me legal marijuana. But they didn't want to hear about it, and instead offered a surgery that at best offered only a 30% chance of any success.

I realize now that I was never blinded by glaucoma, I was blinded by ignorance. No one in their right mind would have made the decision I made if they had known that cannabis, marijuana, is one of the safest, most therapeutically-active substances on this planet. One of the reasons that the AMA (American Medical Association) originally objected to marijuana prohibition was that they knew that it was a safe medicine for many people. It was particularly recommended for children and for older people because of its non-addictive qualities.

But I didn't know any of this, so I went on for twelve years of hell, in which I lost so much sight that depression set in. I suffered from lack of sleep, lack of appetite, and was drinking too much. It was a nightmare, a horror.

I lost my job, and then the depression was totally terrible, except for when people brought me marijuana. When they did, well, my pressures were under control. I slept at night, I found myself eating, and in fact that's when I discovered Elvy the song-writer.

Whenever I would smoke marijuana I would not see this impending day of doom as I would any other time. Usually I couldn't foresee anything but permanent blindness, because now I couldn't even afford the marijuana, which was the only thing that worked.

So, you had to buy your first supplies of marijuana yourself?

Oh, mostly people brought them and gave it to me, but I did have to buy it sometimes. At that time it was considerably less expensive than it is today. You could buy an ounce of, say, Colombian Gold in South Florida, which is where I lived, for thirty dollars. I could get other varieties for twenty or fifteen dollars, but even that was a strain on the budget of a single working mother trying to raise two children. After I had to stop working there just wasn't enough money for marijuana.

I became an experimental guinea pig for everything that was conventional and being tested. One of the drugs, called Timolal, actually did work for me for two years. The most amazing thing I discovered for myself at the time was that I didn't go through withdrawal from marijuana. I was so delighted to find a legal answer that I never went looking for marijuana, until I developed a resistance to Timolal.

Timolal's still somewhat effective, but I'm not taking it anymore. I'm trying a new one, but it irritates my eye and I don't know if I want to stay on it.

This went on until 1987, until I was left totally blind in the right eye. In the early 80s I had tried to take growing very seriously. I only grew a minimal amount however, because not only did I have to worry about the law, but there was a wild little boy next door to me who thought it was great to jump the fence and steal my plants. He could sell them and I couldn't turn him in because I'd be the one going to jail. He still brags to his friends that he was supplier for the neighbourhood.

The problem was that every time he stole my plants I went in for another unsuccessful surgery. It was really horrible, and finally it resulted in total blindness.

I couldn't tell if it was day or night. Close your eyes, can you tell if it's light in a room or not? I couldn't. It was like looking out of your nose or ear. I was running into every piece of furniture and every wall in that house. The readjustment period was amazing, as even the little sight I used to have had helped with equilibrium.

Was it becoming blind that led you to become more politically active?

I knew then that it was time for me to find out where there were other people in my situation, and that it was time for me to come out. My children were finally off to college, so I didn't have to dread the possibility of losing custody of them. I was ready to start doing these things, but instead I was arrested for growing, in March of 1988.

It was kind of funny, because they didn't have a search warrant. I did not make it easy for them to get one, as I had just harvested and the marijuana was in the house. But the thing was, the plant was so pretty that I just couldn't pull it out.

So I had a maybe three quarters of an ounce that I thought might grow a little more if I didn't pull the plant out of the pot. Plus another plant that was starting to bud, and 2 6-inch seedlings. That was it. I was facing 5 years in prison, or $5000 fines, or both.

How did you respond to being arrested?

I had an overnight stay in jail which was most degrading. I immediately went public when I got out of there. The first thing I did was contact every media outlet that I could thing of, and I said "Do you think this is right? I am going to be facing trial because I don't want to go blind."

By now I was aware enough to know that marijuana had not done me any harm, although I didn't know what it did to anyone else. I knew that I could certainly handle it, and that on top of having the glaucoma under control, I was a better person because I smoked marijuana.

I thought that under our constitution, this country does not have the right to demand blindness out of their citizens. We do not have the right to demand that kind of cruelty. That's barbaric!

I went to trial with the complete support of my community. The judge said that I would have had to have been insane not to do whatever I needed to do to save my sight. Coming out of that courtroom I really felt that something wonderful had happened.

There was no defense for medical marijuana in Florida, no laws to protect me. When Marinol was approved we changed our laws so that our citizens could spend all their money for pharmaceuticals, for this synthetic THC. Although it's the one ingredient in the plant that makes us high, it doesn't have the cannabinoids that work in conjunction.

I was acquitted using a defense of medical necessity. I was represented by Norman Elliott Kent from Florida, Fort Lauderdale. He also had some help with Kevin Zeese who is with the Drug Policy Foundation. Robert Randall, who was the first person who ever received medical marijuana, was also a tremendous aid in my defense.

How did you go from a verdict of not guilty to having the government send you prescription joints?

That's an interesting story, because as soon as I was arrested, Robert Randall and my doctors and attorneys had applied to the federal government for me to have it on an emergency basis.

Now this was my doctor asking this, with twelve years of documentation behind him. Yet the government totally ignored it, and in fact my doctor was even afraid that they would come after him, that it would be a serious problem for him. I'm not even going to go into that.

After I was acquitted, they still wouldn't give it to me, so I kept going. I took completely to the airwaves, and my attorney threatened to sue the federal government.

Finally, seven years ago today, on October 21st 1988, I received my first marijuana cigarettes, grown through the government at the University of Mississippi. It's a strain of Mexican origin.

It's certainly not of the quality that I grew, and consequently I have to smoke a tremendous amount of it, up to ten joints a day. But I have to say it has improved a little, it's not as bad as it used to be when I started out.

The quality used to be very poor. But today, if I take it apart and put it in a bag and throw a little water on it, then let it sit for about fifteen minutes before I roll, then I can get it past my throat. Otherwise it's too harsh and dry.

The results seem to be very effective. I have my glaucoma totally under control these days, and that's a very happy thought.

Let me be sure I understand. You take the pre-rolled government joints that you get in your prescription container, and you break them open, take out the pot and to let it mositen and become more palatable...

Yup!

...and then you re-roll it again afterwards. That seems pretty labour intensive.

That's right. I have to do that to make the marijuana more effective. There is the matter of efficiency as well, because if I try to smoke them as they come, what I'm going to end up with is a lot of coughing, and the thing is going to burn before I take most of it in.

They recommend that I humidify the joints, and they have all these procedures that sounded too complicated for me. I found that water in the bag works just fine.

Do you have any idea as to why they are not able to supply you with higher quality marijuana? I would imagine that within two or three blocks from where we are right now we could pick up some pot that would be a lot better than what the government gives you.

Absolutely! I don't know if the purpose is to make it ineffective, so any studies won't give results that they don't want to publish.

One of the excuses I've heard is that they've got to put all this leaf in there because the machines that they use to roll were the ones made for cigarettes and they have to have it so they can roll easily. But I don't understand why I get seeds and stems.

I have a tremendous amount of faith in the healing powers of hemp seed oil, and I'm not the only one, but it is not meant to be smoked into your lungs. Seed oils in your lungs is just not a good way to go!

Has anyone received medical marijuana after you? I know there's 8 people in America who receive it, but I'm not sure where you were on that list.

When I became a legal smoker, there were only two individuals in the United States who were receiving medical marijuana through the federal government. One of them was Robert Randall, my hero of all times, because he was the first one to go through a trial and prove that he would be blind without it.

My case was widely publicized, and one of the the places it was printed was a woman's magazine that is nationwide, and that got two people on the list with me.

One was a woman in Nebraska who had glaucoma and was going blind. She had no idea she would find relief for her glaucoma with marijuana, and we helped her get it. The other was a man in Iowa, George McMahon, who has a rare terminal illness, his bones literally deteriorate, and his pain is tremendous.

So by 1990 we'd grown to five. We all went to the 20th anniversary of the NORML organization in Washington, DC.

The list continued to grow, and I believe at one time there was 18 people on it, and they had approved 36 more. Those people had gone through all the hoops that we did, (FDA, DEA, and NIDA), and had been approved when the program was cancelled.

Why was the program cancelled?

They had a deluge of AIDS patients who found relief from their problems through cannabis, so they stopped the program in 1992. They made the statement that the AIDS patients would get high, and could then get careless and infect the rest of society. That was their official stance!

It was Judge Bonner, the ex-head of the DEA, who stopped the program. I had the opportunity to debate him on LA Today, on President's Day of 1994. The public was asked to participate. It was a one-on-one debate about medical marijuana, and I took our side to a win of 90 to 10.

How do you receive your marijuana from the government, especially while travelling?

I have to go have a checkup. I then pick up a prescription, and go to a pharmacy where they have already sent it. I have to go home every 3 months at least.

Then you receive a 3 month supply at a time? 

Yeah.

At 10 joints a day, that's about 900 joints, the size of a big cigarette each.

That's a lot of leaves there!

Is there any restriction on where you're allowed to take your medication? Can you smoke a joint in public?

When I received my medical marijuana from the government, the judge who had acquitted me was asked, "Where can Elvy smoke?" My attorney suggested wherever nicotine is permissible, and the judge agreed with him.

Do you have problems with people who don't believe you when you tell them that you're allowed to smoke marijuana and that you want to smoke it in their restaurant?

Well, I'm pretty sensitive to their problems, too, because I know what the laws are and the craziness that goes on. Usually if I want to smoke at a restaurant, as I will in a little while, I'll go in there, explain to the manager and show her my prescription. If she doesn't have a problem with that I will sit here, and if she does have a problem with it, then I'll just step right outside there and smoke it in the middle of the street. It's pretty ridiculous, that I sometimes have to do that.

Have you ever visited Canada?

Yes, yes. I have toured America several times, and I was lucky enough to have entered Canada to visit Vancouver in the fall of 1993.

We had a very nice vehicle, and it appeared that we had money to spend. I never thought of hiding my marijuana, but I didn't declare it. I had a full month's supply because I was on tour and I couldn't very well leave it at a hotel somewhere else, it could get stolen or cause other problems. Everything went well for us and I spoke at a local university.

The next year we had financial problems, and we had a van that showed that its owners are not rich, like we're not going to have the money they want tourists to spend.

I had left most of my marijuana at an attorney's office in Seattle with documentation so he wouldn't end up in trouble, and I took strictly a two day supply, because our engagements in British Columbia were to last two days.

I was treated very poorly by the Canadian authorities, as if I were a criminal. They saw the paperwork and they saw my prescription, yet they called the cigarettes I had in my prescription bottle "drugs" and they called my bottles "paraphernalia."

It was a very terrible scene. They confiscated the van because it was carrying me and my drugs and my paraphernalia, and we were barred entry into Canada. I sincerely feel that I am owed an apology from the authorities in Canada.

I also heard that you weren't treated very well by the authorities in Gainseville at a rally last December.

I was in Gainesville because there was a motion to have marijuana laws overturned in Florida. The person who was filing the suit was trying to show the different aspects of cannabis, so he had called in Lynn Osbourne to testify about religious use, Jack Herer for historical information, and John Morgan and myself for the medical aspects.

There was a rally organized for the same time, but the city had denied the organizers a permit. So they had taken their request to the court of appeals, and had been told that it was their constitutional right to hold a rally, and that the police could only be there to protect people.

I brought my marijuana with me, both as proof of who I was, and for medicinal use. Every two hours or so I had to go outside and smoke, and as I mentioned I am allowed to smoke wherever you can smoke tobacco.

Nobody at the rally was smoking since they had been told that the police would arrest anyone who tried. People had eaten brownies beforehand, and were sitting in circles talking. The police officers who were there just walked through the people as if they weren't there. I felt that this was very rude.

When it was my turn to speak I decided to begin my speech with a song, "The War on Us." Normally I speak first and then sing later on, but I just felt like I should begin with the the song. During the instrumental break I lit one of my marijuana cigarettes, and the police stormed the stage to stop me. I didn't even see them coming since I have no vision in my right eye.

After the initial jolt came and I realized what was happening I actually smiled, because I knew that they were in the wrong. I asked them "what are you doing?"

They knew I was a legal smoker, and I had my prescription label, but they argued with me. One of the attorneys who was onstage with me had to get my paperwork from my bag. I happened to have letters from my marijuana supplier, plus a letter from my attorney. They tried to accuse me of having created these documents, but I told them "you know I'm legal, so what are you going to charge me with?"

I only had 4.5 grams on me, and I asked them if they knew that I am allowed to carry a month's supply, over 200 grams at a time? But they arrested me and took me away from the rally. They held me until 11pm, about eight hours.

I'll have to sue them now, but since the state of Florida needs a real education, it could be a good opportunity to give them one.

What do you see for the future - are you an optimist?

I am a total optimist. I feel that the only enemy we really have is ignorance, and I think that with your wonderful magazine, and with the other interviews that are being done around the country, with people speaking openly, we are fighting and defeating that ignorance.

When you have arrested 10 million of your citizens, there has got to be 10 million stories there that are screaming to be heard! As we bury the darkness of ignorance with the light of truth, there's going to be no opposition. People have a brain, they have to think for themselves.

You can't call yourself a Christian when you have no compassion for sending innocent people to jail. You can't do that and say you're following the teachings of a master, and that we should love one another.

And especially, to destroy the beautiful planet you've been given. For what? To help some greedy people who couldn't care less what happens to you?

Personally, I think marijuana is legal in the United States. It's too bad the officials haven't gotten the word yet.