George McMahon has never been labeled healthy. He is no stranger to hospitals and medication. Although he has been diagnosed with an enigmatic condition known as Nail Patella Syndrome, doctors have been unable to narrow down exactly what makes him sick. Despite trying several traditional treatments, nothing ever seemed to help.

Nothing, that is, until he discovered medical marijuana.

“Cannabis is not a drug,” says McMahon, co-author of his recently released autobiography, “Prescription Pot.”

McMahon is one of only seven people from the United States who can legally smoke medical marijuana in all 50 states. For the 53-year-old former resident of Iowa, this will be a lifetime of treatment.

Before he was introduced to marijuana, McMahon was experiencing increasingly serious health problems. As he got older, the pain, nausea and spasms became stronger and more frequent. Doctors, unable to find a definitive problem, thought he had a mental disorder and prescribed depressants. Within an hour of taking the prescriptions, McMahon would start having convulsions.

Life would change for a chronically ill McMahon when he was hospitalized in Iowa City.

“During that time, I had been getting progressively sicker and they couldn’t do anything,” McMahon says. “They said I should make my last-minute departure arrangements.”

McMahon lost 57 pounds and stopped sleeping. He wasn’t ready to die, but he didn’t know what else could be done for him. While in the hospital, someone came into his room and offered an exchange. The man had a friend down the hall who desperately wanted a tobacco cigarette. Knowing McMahon had a drawer full, he offered an exchange of a marijuana cigarette. McMahon agreed, shut his door and lit up.

“Fifteen minutes after that I was asking for food,” McMahon says. “Within 10 days I was walking out the hospital.”

After checking out of the hospital, McMahon went back home to his normal life — no marijuana, but a great deal of pain and discomfort. One day, a few of his friends showed up with five pounds of homegrown marijuana.

“I lit it up and said ‘Holy cow, I feel so much better,'” McMahon says.

McMahon realized he had finally found a medication that he says eased the pain of his condition, but it took two years for him to find a doctor who would prescribe cannabis as medication. When he found one, it took two more years to fill out the necessary paperwork.

The amount of paperwork and verification was large then and continues to consume a large amount of his time today. McMahon says it takes a crew of five people working an eight hour shift to keep up with his paperwork each month.

When McMahon’s mother became too elderly and sick to live alone, he and his wife moved to Texas to live with her. Moving to Texas meant McMahon would have to drive to Iowa to a federally licensed pharmacy every four months to refill his prescription.

“It’s expensive,” McMahon says. “I’ve burned up so many cars.”

McMahon and his wife make the long drive together every four months.

“My medication didn’t come once,” McMahon says. “I had to go back [to Texas] and wait two weeks.”

The couple, married for 32 years, makes the best of the drive by stopping along the way to talk to people about his situation. The couple have a son and two daughters. McMahon says he wishes one of his daughters, who faces health problems similar to his own, could experience the relief he has from using prescription marijuana.

“I am angry that my own daughter can’t get these treatments,” McMahon says.

Coming from Iowa himself, McMahon says he is especially interested in meeting fellow Iowans.

“Everywhere you go, you find different kinds of people,” McMahon says. “They’re all out there.”

Despite living in a unique situation and meeting many interesting people on his regular road trips, McMahon says he doesn’t feel different from the average citizen.

“I’m pretty ‘Iowa-y,’ even in Texas,” McMahon says. “I think I’m pretty much the next-door-neighbor kind of guy. I grew up in Iowa — how can I get around that?”

Born in Algona, McMahon is a true small-town Iowan at heart. He does not wish to release the name of the town he grew up in, since he is planning to return to Iowa someday and doesn’t want to create a legal hassle upon return.

“We’re coming back to live,” McMahon says. “My mother’s here in Texas. She’s elderly so I couldn’t leave her alone. [But] we’re willing to buy a split house or a duplex with her.”

“Prescription Pot,” his book co-written by Christopher Largen, is scheduled for release Sept. 20. McMahon says the process of finding an author who could tell his story was a long and difficult one.

“I wanted the right person to really say what I wanted,” McMahon says. “It took me 11 years to find him.”

The book focuses on a trip to the University of Mississippi, where a government marijuana farm is located. Along the way, McMahon stopped to talk and teach anyone who wanted to listen. He says he just wants people to know as much as they can about the legalization of medical marijuana.

He says even though he has had run-ins with an occasional zealous police officer, most people are supportive of him and his message. With hope for a brighter future, McMahon continues to travel the country, talking about his past.

“I want people to know how important these things are to me,” he says. “All I do is tell the truth. That’s all anyone can do.”