Imagine standing up from your last day of classes, your spine swollen and sore, your inflamed joints screaming for release. You pick up your textbook, feeling your brittle fingers break under the weight.

Such an occurrence would not surprise George McMahon, author of “Prescription Pot: A Leading Advocate’s Heroic Battle to Legalize Medical Marijuana.”

McMahon suffers from Nail Patella Syndrome, a rare condition that McMahon immediately explains in his book as “an absence or underdevelopment of fingernails or toenails; the absence or underdevelopment of kneecaps; malformation of bones, muscles and ligaments causing frequent dislocation; deformities of the elbows reducing mobility and rotation of arms and wrists; twisted legs and club feet; scoliosis or lordosis; kidney problems … and a higher rate of glaucoma.”

Hearing about such life-changing illnesses is nothing new – indeed, combining all of the uncommon conditions people suffer from would create a very common category of people.

But there’s something about McMahon that’s different, something that separates him from the rest of the sufferers.

McMahon is one of seven U.S. citizens who can smoke pot legally anywhere in the United States.

Every month, McMahon receives 300 marijuana cigarettes from the government under a little-known federal program in the Food and Drug Administration called the Compassion Investigational New Drug.

CIND was created out of a lawsuit by a man named Robert Randall, a glaucoma patient who was arrested for smoking pot to ease his glaucoma.

His defense: The medicinal effects of the THC in the marijuana alleviated his symptoms, allowing him to recover a major portion of his eyesight. The case boiled down to whether the courts had the guts to rule that man be robbed of his vision and not be allowed to smoke marijuana.

The courts ruled in his favor.

But in 1992, under the Bush administration, the CIND was closed to new recipients. The 14 already in the program were grandfathered in. Nine have succumbed to their illnesses since, but the remaining seven (McMahon does not explain the difference in numbers in his book) continue to receive marijuana from the government.

Here is where McMahon’s fight begins, as he opens his book with a road trip to the marijuana growing grounds on the University of Mississippi campus.

During his trip, McMahon details his life, inviting the reader to suffer the symptoms of NPS, endure the humiliation and pain of numerous surgeries and experience the often-debilitating side effects of legal prescription medicines that never helped the agony.ÿ

Like the nausea-inducing prescription Morphine pills, McMahon’s passionate-yet-melodramatic writing style can be difficult to swallow at times. He’s at his best when he’s telling his story, not flavoring it with overly heartfelt conversations between friends and family.

Besides, it’s McMahon’s story that makes the book so important. McMahon is no pothead hippie – he’s a middle-aged man who, despite his condition, has spent the majority of his life working in copper mines and auto shops.

He’s a man who doesn’t care about feeling high – he just cares about feeling well, and feeling well gives him the best high of all.

McMahon gives the pro-medicinal marijuana movement a face it can proudly display. He has tried the legal drugs, he has tried surgery and he has found his relief in the most unlikely of places.ÿ

Never in his book does he try to make a case to legalize marijuana for everyone.

McMahon’s fight is for those who are suffering from debilitating and terminal illnesses with symptoms that cannot be alleviated with prescription drugs. He cares passionately about this group of people.

Peppered between his life experiences, McMahon equips readers with an arsenal of facts and figures regarding marijuana and its medicinal effects, including both scholarly articles and testimonies from mostly illegal users suffering from similar conditions.

McMahon also includes appendices of professional studies of users in the CIND disproving stereotypical side effects of pot as well as a transcript of a related government hearing and more info on the CIND.

All of this further fleshes out McMahon’s fight, giving his mostly firsthand account a much-needed statistical kick in the face for those who need hard facts to sway their opinions.

McMahon could have easily lost his intended audience by taking the low road and crying out against the various “professional” doctors and law officers who have abused him.

Instead, he wisely keeps positive views of both, only citing a handful of negative experiences to emphasize his pain while still pointing out that the positive experiences with law enforcement and medical officials far outweigh the negatives.ÿ

In a time when our commercials are flooded with new “miracle drugs” promising ease of pain with only a few side effects including – but not limited to – nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, headaches, sleeplessness and liver damage, it’s refreshing to know there have been some small victories in the attempt to legalize one drug with the most common side effect being the munchies.

In a time when our government is virtually ready to begin a war with Canada for even considering lowering marijuana possession fines, it’s almost humorous to know our very same government is rolling doobies for a select few faster than Cheech and Chong.

Almost 99,000 books outsell “Prescription Pot” on Amazon.com. If the national organization of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy has any common sense, it will realize the potential of McMahon’s book and aggressively market and promote this book at every known campus across the country.

Our governmentÿis willing to dedicate billions of dollars and thousands of lives to fight valiantly for the suffering people in other countries.

It’s high time our government does something about those suffering within our own borders.