Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jun 2001
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard
Contact:  http://www.registerguard.com/
Author: Greg Harris
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n944/a02.html

MARIJUANA HAS BENEFITS

I want to inform Judy Nathan (letters, May 25) about my mother. I was there 
with her in 1991 when she had her breast removed because of cancer. I was 
there with her during the chemotherapy treatments and the radiation. I saw 
the tatoos they put on her so they could pinpoint the spot they wanted to 
irradiate. I helped her when she was sick and couldn't eat.

Even to this day, I don't know how to react to the helplessness I felt at 
not being able to help her all that much. But when my mother asked to smoke 
a little marijuana to try to get the feeling of hunger again and eat, you 
bet your life I found her some.

Here we are, 10 years later, and my mom is still a survivor. The two puffs 
she could take back then, in one way or another, helped her eat and 
survive. Was it the pot. I don't know. What I do know is that she requested 
something that she felt would help her. Isn't that the important thing 
after all, that the patient felt it would help.

Like it or not, marijuana has a very defined medical benefit to the user. 
For some reason, the plant appeared here on Earth. It was part of creation 
somehow, some way. The decriminalization of marijuana to stop filling our 
jails with marijuana possessors is a sensible and responsible thing to do. 
It is not a ploy on anyone's part for any dark, sinister secret to obtain 
the drug.

I hope that someone would help Nathan in her time of need. I hope that 
someone has the compassion to help her feel better each and every day of 
her life. That's what my mother taught me: love yourself, love other 
people, and most of all love life.

Greg Harris

Springfield
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens