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echo: altmed
to: JANE KELLEY
from: ALEX VASAUSKAS
date: 1997-07-13 08:49:00
subject: Marijuana as medi [09/28

 >>> Part 9 of 28...
the Federal Government, which would not make the substance available for  
any other purpose other than conducting a research program.  The act was  
passed by an overwhelming majority in the lower house of the legislature  
and unanimously in the Senate.  In January 1983 an evaluation of the  
program, which by then had 44 evaluable marijuana smoking patient- 
participants, accepted marijuana smoking as being an effective anti- 
emetic agent. 
         24.  In Boston, Massachusetts in 1977 a nurse in a hospital  
suggested to a chemotherapy patient, suffering greatly from the therapy  
and at the point of refusing further treatment, that smoking marijuana  
might help relieve his nausea and vomiting.  The patient's doctor, when  
asked about it later, stated that many of his younger patients were  
smoking marijuana.  Those who did so seemed to have less trouble with  
nausea and vomiting.  The patient in question obtained some marijuana and  
smoked it, in the hospital, immediately before his next chemotherapy  
treatment.  Doctors, nurses, and orderlies coming into the room as he  
finished smoking realized what the patient had been doing.  None of them 
                                  - 18 - 
made any comment.  The marijuana was completely successful with this  
patient, who accepted it as effective in controlling his nausea and  
vomiting.  Instead of being sick for weeks following chemotherapy, and  
having trouble going to work, as had been the case, the patient was ready  
to return to work 48 hours after that chemotherapy treatment.  The  
patient thereafter always smoked marijuana, in the hospital, before 
chemotherapy.  The doctors were aware of it, openly approved of it and  
encouraged him to continue.  The patient resumed eating regular meals and  
regained lost eight, his mood improved markedly, he became more active  
and outgoing and began doing things together with his wife that he had  
not done since beginning chemotherapy. 
         25.  During the remaining two years of this patient's life,  
before his cancer ended it, he came to know other cancer patients who  
were smoking marijuana to relieve the adverse effects of their  
chemotherapy.  Most of these patients had learned about using marijuana  
medically from their doctors who, having accepted its effectiveness,  
subtly encouraged them to use it. 
         26.  A Boston psychiatrist and professor, who travels about the  
country, has found a minor conspiracy to break the law among oncologists  
and nurses in every oncology center he has visited to let patients smoke  
marijuana before and during cancer chemotherapy.  He has talked with  
dozens of these health care oncologists who encourage their patients to  
do this and who regard this as an accepted medical usage of marijuana.   
He has known nurses who have obtained marijuana for patients unable to  
obtain it for themselves. 
         27.  A cancer patient residing in Beaverton, Michigan smoked  
marijuana medicinally in the nearby hospital where he was undergoing  
chemotherapy from early 1979 until he died of his cancer in October of  
that year.  He smoked it in 
                                  - 19 - 
his hospital room after his parents made arrangements with the hospital 
for him to do so.  Smoking marijuana controlled his post-chemotherapy  
nausea and vomiting, enabled him to eat regular-meals again with his  
family, and he became outgoing and talkative.  His parents accepted his  
marijuana smoking as effective and helpful.  Two clergymen, among others,  
brought marijuana to this patient's home.  Many people at the hospital  
supported the patient's marijuana therapy, none doubted its helpfulness  
or discouraged it.  This patient was asked for help by other patients.   
He taught some who lived nearby how to form the marijuana cigarettes and  
properly inhale the smoke to obtain relief from nausea and vomiting.   
When an article about this patient's smoking marijuana appeared in a  
local newspaper, he and his family heard from many other cancer patients  
who were doing the same.  Most of them made an effort to inform their  
doctors.  Most Physicians who knew their patients smoked marijuana  
medicinally approved, accepting marijuana's therapeutic helpfulness in  
reducing nausea and vomiting. 
         28.  In October 1979 the Michigan legislature enacted  
legislation whose underlying purpose was to make marijuana available  
therapeutically for cancer patients and others.  The State Senate passed  
the bill 29-5, the House of Representatives 100-0.  In March 1982 the  
Michigan legislature passed a resolution asking the Federal Congress to  
try to alter Federal policies which prevent physicians from prescribing  
marijuana for legitimate medical applications and prohibit its use in  
medical treatments. 
         29.  In Denver, Colorado a teenage cancer patient has been  
smoking marijuana to control nausea and vomiting since 1986.  He has done  
this in his hospital room both before and after chemotherapy.  His doctor  
and hospital staff know he does this.  The doctor has stated that he  
would prescribe marijuana for 
                                  - 20 - 
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