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administered to them in the course of this treatment.  This nausea and 
vomiting at times becomes life threatening.  The therapy itself creates a 
tremendous strain on the body.  Some patients cannot tolerate the severe 
nausea and vomiting and discontinue treatment.  Beginning in the 1970's 
there was considerable doctor-to-doctor communication in the United  
States concerning patients known by their doctors to be surreptitiously  
using marijuana with notable success to overcome or lessen their nausea  
and vomiting. 
          2.  Young patients generally achieve better control over nausea 
and vomiting from smoking marijuana than do older patients, particularly 
when the older patient has not been provided with detailed information on 
how to smoke marijuana. 
          3.  Marijuana cigarettes in many cases are superior to  
synthetic THC capsules in reducing chemotherapy-induced nausea and  
vomiting.  Marijuana 
                                  - 10 - 
cigarettes have an important, clear advantage over synthetic THC capsules 
in that the natural marijuana is inhaled and generally takes effect more 
quickly than the synthetic capsule which is ingested and must be  
processed through the digestive system before it takes effect. 
          4.  Attempting to orally administer the synthetic THC capsule  
to a vomiting patient presents obvious problems - it is vomited right  
back up before it can have any effect. 
          5.  Many physicians, some engaged in medical practice and some 
teaching in medical schools, have accepted smoking marijuana as effective 
in controlling or reducing the severe nausea and vomiting (emesis) 
experienced by some cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. 
          6.  Such physicians include board-certified internists, 
oncologists and psychiatrists.  (Oncology is the treatment of cancer 
through the use of highly toxic chemicals, or chemotherapy.) 
          7.  Doctors who have come to accept the usefulness of marijuana 
in controlling or reducing emesis resulting from chemotherapy have dose  
so as the result of reading reports of studies and anecdotal reports in  
their professional literature, and as the result of observing patients  
and listening to reports directly from patients. 
          8.  Some cancer patients who have acknowledged to doctors that 
they smoke marijuana for emesis control have indicated in their  
discussions that, although they may have first smoked marijuana  
recreationally, they accidentally found that doing so helped reduce the  
emesis resulting from their chemotherapy.  They consistently indicated  
that they felt better and got symptomatic relief from the intense nausea  
and vomiting caused by the chemotherapy.  These patients  
                                  - 11 - 
were no longer simply getting high, but were engaged in medically  
treating their illness, albeit with an illegal substance.  Other  
chemotherapy patients began smoking marijuana to control their emesis  
only after hearing reports that the practice had proven helpful to  
others.  Such patients had not smoked marijuana recreationally. 
          9.  This successful use of marijuana has given many cancer 
chemotherapy patients a much more positive outlook on their overall 
treatment, once they were relieved of the debilitating, exhausting and 
extremely unpleasant nausea and vomiting previously resulting from their 
chemotherapy treatment. 
         10.  In about December 1977 the previously underground patient 
practice of using marijuana to control emesis burst into the public media 
in New Mexico when a young cancer patient, Lynn Pearson, began publicly  
to discuss his use of marijuana.  Mr. Pearson besought the New Mexico 
legislature to pass legislation making marijuana available legally to 
seriously ill patients whom it might help.  As a result, professionals in 
the public health sector in New Mexico more closely examined how  
marijuana might be made legally available to assist in meeting what now  
openly appeared to be a widely recognized patient need. 
         11.  In many cases doctors have found that, in addition to 
suppressing nausea and vomiting, smoking marijuana is a highly successful 
appetite stimulant.  The importance of appetite stimulation in cancer 
therapy cannot be overstated.  Patients receiving chemotherapy often lose 
tremendous amounts of weight.  They endanger their lives because they  
lose interest in food and in eating.  The resulting sharp reduction in  
weight may well affect their prognosis.  Marijuana smoking induces some  
patients to eat.  The benefits are obvious, doctors have found.  There is  
no significant loss of weight.  Some patients will gain weight. 
                                  - 12 - 
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