74-year-old nuke-testing veteran fights for MedMJ in Michigan
KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN — The atomic explosions off remote islands in the South Pacific seemed to turn night into day.
They also turned Martin Chilcutt into a marijuana user.
Chilcutt said the drug has helped him to ease the pain he says dates back to his exposure to radiation during a 1956 U.S. government project testing nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.
A state ballot proposal could allow voters in November to decide whether Chilcutt’s measures to self-medicate should be legal in Michigan.
The 74-year-old former intelligence officer with the U.S. Naval Air Force has used other medications to help him with his physical and
psychological problems, but marijuana helps “so much better,” he said.“Sometimes I just want to die,” Chilcutt said. “You can only take intense pain for so long before you’ll do anything to escape it.”
He never intended to put his health at risk.
While part of the testing project, Chilcutt remembers, he donned large goggles and turned his back to protect his eyes as the bombs exploded in the early-morning darkness.
There was no protection, though, from the heavy doses of radiation that spewed from the explosions and reached Chilcutt.
He has battled skin cancer three times, including basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of cancer, with about a million new cases reported in the United States each year. He has been in remission for the past 10 years.
Michigan will be voting on their medical marijuana initiative in November. Should it be passed, Michigan will become the thirteenth medical marijuana state and the first such state in the midwest.
Tags: Michigan
