At age 52, McMahon has outlived the typical life span of most people diagnosed with the disease from which he suffers — Nail Patella Syndrome. NPS is a hereditary neurological disorder that attacks internal organs and the immune system and is usually characterized by some deformity of fingernails — hence the common name. Eight percent of those with NPS are severely affected, and of those, most never live past age 40. McMahon is an exception. His father died at age 40, his sister at age 44. Both had NPS. His mother also carries the disease but is only mildly affected, with arthriticlike pain.
In 1978, the National Institute on Drug Abuse began supplying marijuana to patients accepted to the IND program upon application by their physicians. Acceptance of new patients was halted in 1992, but NIDA continued to supply marijuana to those already receiving it. As of 2002, McMahon was one of seven people remaining in the program and participated in the Missoula Chronic Clinical Cannabis Use Study that concluded that cannabis can be a “safe and effective medicine” against certain chronic conditions. McMahon gets treatment for severe muscle spasms and nausea caused by his condition, and smoking marijuana has succeeded in alleviating his symptoms much more effectively than chemical medications.
In recent years, due to the slow abandonment of medical-marijuana research and the increasing politicization of the drug laws, the number of federally permitted users has dwindled nearly to zero. Many research programs were discontinued during the Eighties “Just Say No” campaign led by first lady Nancy Reagan, and under the Clinton administration the incarceration of marijuana users and small-time drug users greatly accelerated
Yet throughout the same period, public sentiment and even state and local laws have grown increasingly tolerant of marijuana use, especially for medical purposes. In 1988, Drug Enforcement Agency administrative law judge Francis Young concluded that “marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” Since 1996, 14 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, Rhode Island, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont) have legalized state medical-marijuana programs — with a consequent backlash from the federal government. According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, when the Bush administration took office federal drug enforcement officials acted against more than 35 medicinal-marijuana patients, cooperatives, and providers in California alone.
Since 1991, George McMahon has smoked 10 marijuana cigarettes every day (a quarter ounce in all) to relieve pain and nausea, and to help him sleep. Accordingly, the U.S. government provides McMahon with seven and a half ounces per month. (These are rough estimates, since the marijuana supplied by the government is of poor quality, and McMahon estimates that in cleaning it, he loses about 25%.) Since he first gained access to the Investigational New Drug program in Iowa, he must make the long drive from Tyler to Iowa every three or four months for a new supply of pot, which is actually grown at the University of Mississippi under the supervision of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The cost to the government of growing the marijuana is negligible, so McMahon is not charged for his share.
Before he began smoking marijuana, McMahon was taking nearly 20 different medications — a total of 51 pills daily. The cost, as well as the numerous side effects, was too much for him to bear. “All those pills damaged my stomach and made it nearly impossible to eat, as I was continually nauseated. Now I only take one medication. It’s all I need.”
McMahon explains how the marijuana works for him. Each morning, most of the pain he suffers subsides after he smokes his first joint upon awaking. Throughout the day, he smokes when he feels the need to relieve his recurring pains caused by his weak, brittle bones. Smoking before meals, he says, restores his fragile appetite.
In 1997, the doctor monitoring McMahon’s condition wrote, “I do feel that [McMahon] continues to benefit from marijuana and hope that we can continue providing [him] with marijuana medication.” Asked recently about his overall state of health, McMahon replied, “I am alive, with some quality of life. I do not ask what my doctor thinks. I am not interested in any treatment or drug. So my health is what it is, today — how long I will live, no one knows. As long as I smoke MJ I am fairly comfortable.”
McMahon has followed his routine with the aid of his wife, Margaret. “Margaret is my other half,” he says. “Without her, I wouldn’t have made it this long. She takes care of me when I cannot take care of myself.” In the years since McMahon began using medicinal marijuana, George and Margaret have traveled the country to discuss the issue with college students, professors, and medical associations, and he has also testified at congressional hearings. Recently, he testified in a lawsuit that reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — the court ruled that in moving to revoke a physician’s license for recommending medical marijuana, the federal government had violated the First Amendment.
In the early Nineties, in honor of his personal campaign promoting the availability of medical marijuana for all patients who need it, McMahon was awarded a certificate of heroism from the president’s Drug Awareness Program. The certificate was signed by Nancy Reagan.
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George McMahon of Tyler is one of seven people in the United States currently granted federal permission to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, under the “Compassionate Investigational New Drug” (IND) program of the Federal Drug Administration. 
