Sunday, October 5, 2014

IN PRAISE OF W.A.M.M.


  When I was diagnosed with bladder cancer I did not make a secret of it, but was nevertheless amazed how quickly the illegal market got my address, and now the SPAM for Viagra, etc., increased by the power of ten.
   Then, last summer, when I had just started with the HDR Brachy therapy I received an email that said something like: “We have everything you need. Just let us know...” Just before I pressed the SPAM button I realized the email came from Valerie at W.A.M.M., (Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana) in Santa Cruz. Of course it was cannabis and not Viagra. I have a lot of friends in Santa Cruz, and Valerie was in the loose internet-group around Robert Anton Wilson. And I also remember, early this century when we heard that the Feds had descended on W.A.M.M.'s house, behaved like insecure cops behave, aggressive, and destructive.
  But the Feds did not know they were dealing with a group of people with ethics – when they wanted to leave they found the one street leading out was blocked by friends from Santa Cruz. The Feds finally had to call the local cops to escort them out!
   That is what I remembered about W.A.M.M.!
   Maybe half a year later my HDR Brachy therapy had killed the muscle invasive cancer, but as it happens with bladder cancer – a new carcinoma in situ was already there, ready to grow. A course of BCG should take care of that, but didn't. Then the standard procedure is a radical cystectomy, but the muscle invasive cancer had been beaten back, and I was not going to lose my bladder now.
   During the course of events I had written two emails to W.A.M.M., expressing my interest in their products, but no answer.
    I asked my ueber-psychedelic friend of thirty years – Dave J. Brown what to do. He instantly    responded and told me to call them on the phone: “they get so much email, that they are always behind...”
   And so it was! Next I had Valerie on the phone. She sounded like her email: “What do you need?” So she worked out a dose – according to my body-weight and constitution.
   Since I have smoked cannabis most of the time in my life, the psychedelic effects are very familiar, and I did not have a problem ramping up to the desired dose.
   I told Valerie that after ten years of cancer, and living of social security, I was broke -- like really broke! All she said was: “Just get healthy, don't worry about the money, you can pay when you're cured.”
   I was absolutely thrilled – because a full treatment could get very expensive for somebody with no income.
   Of course any type of regular cancer therapy costs ultimately more, and I hope to be able to pay them back, once I'm again able to make a living.
   I also started a series of fractal paintings dedicated to W.A.M.M. : Receptor sites, cannabis oil distribution, tanks full of cannabis oil – I paint what I see! (See recent blogs.)
   Maybe some medical marijuana store chain would like to sell these -- definitely therapeutic -- paintings and prints. They work with most wallpapers, and probably all hallucinatory styles!
    W.A.M.M. On the other hand has been inaugurated in the “Halls of Intergalactic Fame” by me personally. (On some faraway planet...)
   In a month I will have the next cystoscopy and we will see if the oil worked. Of course – with cancer it is like – never over! But it can be beaten back. 
   And we probably need a lot more W.A.M.M.s then!
   Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

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