Cancer patient hoping to change minds on medical marijuana policy
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Lake Jackson woman battling a bone-eating cancer is meeting with Texas lawmakers Thursday in an effort to legalize medical marijuana for patients with a variety of debilitating conditions.
Cherie Rineker was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2012. She said her husband and daughter encourage her to keep fighting.
"I want to be around for her not just on the couch, but as productive and as good as I can," Rineker said.
Part of her fight is advocating for people like herself to be able to use marijuana legally in Texas to help ease their pain.
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"Opiods are a big part of my medicine regimen, and as we all know, it's an epidemic, it's highly addictive, it's dangerous," Rineker said. "I just don't want to be on it. I want to be a healthy, functioning mom, and opiods often make that hard."
According to Texas law, only patients with a certain kind of epilepsy are allowed to use marijuana under a doctor's supervision. Senate Bill 269 would expand the legal use of marijuana for other conditions -- from cancer to post traumatic stress disorder.
A spokesman for the Houston Police Officers' Union said its members are split on the issue. Some officers are concerned marijuana prescriptions would end up in the wrong hands and would lead to wider, unauthorized use.
"I honestly don't think that with all the legal drugs we have out there that cannabis should be the one we're concerned about," Rineker added.
