Every once in a while, a person has a chance to make a difference in the larger world.  Sometimes, the chance comes at personal expense, but the person’s will to make a difference transcends self-interest.  Most people choose to cover themselves rather than risk it. Only the truly brave take the chance.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach is a very brave man.

In a New York Times op-ed, Gus Reichbach has done what few would even consider.  He not only told the truth, but told the truth that exposed him to a huge potential problem.  You see, Gus Reichbach sits as a criminal term judge. And Gus Reichbach smokes dope.

He doesn’t toke for fun or relaxation, but for relief from the pain and nausea from pancreatic cancer. 

THREE and a half years ago, on my 62nd birthday, doctors discovered a mass on my pancreas. It turned out to be Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I was told I would be dead in four to six months. Today I am in that rare coterie of people who have survived this long with the disease. But I did not foresee that after having dedicated myself for 40 years to a life of the law, including more than two decades as a New York State judge, my quest for ameliorative and palliative care would lead me to marijuana.

While the federal government persist in midnight showings of Reefer Madness and keeping marijuana on schedule I, for drugs with no use that isn’t evil, Justice Reichbach can’t afford to indulge in the fantasy of the drug war.  Cancer is real, as is the suffering that goes with it. No kind words from Gil Kerlikowske will stop the pain.  Indeed, they would be more likely to induce nausea than ameliorate it.

When used for medicinal purposes, there is no rational reason why marijuana is any different than any other drug.  Throw your back out and you’re in agony. The doc writes a script and you feel better.  Until the feds put an end to that as well.  Can it be abused?  Of course, like anything else, including power.  Does that mean it’s ineffective for those who need it.  Clearly no.  The toss-up is whether it’s better to make cancer patients endure the suffering or offer the only medicine that provides palliative care. 

In the heat of war, there are always victims.  In the War on Drugs, cancer sufferers like Justice Reichbach is called collateral damage. 

So rather than suffer for the cause of politics, Gus Reichbach has chosen to address his pain and nausea.  It is unlawful in New York to possess marijuana, regardless of how worthy and justifiable the reason.  For a man who sits on a bench in a robe and metes out punishment, doing something unlawful isn’t generally considered a good thing. 

This must have weighed heavily on a judge, as well it should have.  While there are excellent arguments for the legalization of medical marijuana, many a criminal defendant can offer a sympathetic rationale for breaking the law.  Yet they are prosecuted, convicted and sentenced, because they have broken the law.  Nobody is individually entitled to chose to ignore the law because they have what they feel to be a reason. 

And that “nobody” includes a sitting Supreme Court Justice.

Gus Reichbach knows this.

Given my position as a sitting judge still hearing cases, well-meaning friends question the wisdom of my coming out on this issue. But I recognize that fellow cancer sufferers may be unable, for a host of reasons, to give voice to our plight. It is another heartbreaking aporia in the world of cancer that the one drug that gives relief without deleterious side effects remains classified as a narcotic with no medicinal value.

Because criminalizing an effective medical technique affects the fair administration of justice, I feel obliged to speak out as both a judge and a cancer patient suffering with a fatal disease. I implore the governor and the Legislature of New York, always considered a leader among states, to join the forward and humane thinking of 16 other states and pass the medical marijuana bill this year. Medical science has not yet found a cure, but it is barbaric to deny us access to one substance that has proved to ameliorate our suffering.

You will note that he doesn’t speak to the inherent conflict of being a law-breaker and judge, which is the message he’s sending to Albany.  Meet your criminal, Governor Cuomo.

How many legislators, governors, presidents, didn’t smoke dope?  Every one is as much a criminal as the kid snatched off the street during a sweep of an uptown block. They just didn’t get caught because cops didn’t roust kids at Harvard or Yale, which somehow makes them different. 

Gus Reichbach offers his reason for breaking the law, and it’s a damn fine one.  But he is still breaking the law, because the law accepts no reason.  The former (or current) pot-smokers in Albany perpetuate a law that they themselves violated, because they got away with it and can’t be touched.

No doubt Justice Reichbach is facing his own mortality, and doesn’t want to leave this earth with work undone. He has chosen to sacrifice himself on the alter of integrity to make a point that could change the course of suffering for such a ubiquitous disease and such pervasive suffering. 

It should come as no surprise that Justice Reichbach has long been one of the best and boldest judges on the bench, That is the sort of person who would take a risk like this, to sacrifice himself for the welfare of others.  Let any politician in Albany, Washington or any other place where self-important people meet under marble domes say they’re a better person than Gus Reichbach. 

Update:  On July 14, 2012, the Honorable Gustin Lewis Reichbach, 65, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Kings County, died.  May he rest in peace.