Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 Source: Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT) Copyright: 2005sMediaNews Group, Inc Contact: http://www.connpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/574 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) MAP Editor Note: Unable to determine from website what type of article this is, therefore unlabeled PATIENT DECIDED TO BYPASS MARIJUANA OPTION The question of using marijuana to treat the effects of chemotherapy remains controversial. Dan Wheeler did not use marijuana, but his reasoning is complex. Reactions to chemotherapy differ, and while Dan was nauseated, he could hold down food. Other patients constantly vomit, unable to get nutrition from the things they eat. Dan knew that if he felt bad enough marijuana was an option. People offered to get it for him. "For me, it was a personal choice. I don't think there is anything immoral about it. It's just a choice I've always made." Pausing, he continued: "I think other people should be allowed the option." He knows of a man with bone cancer and he said smoking marijuana was the only thing that would help him eat and dull the pain. "I see no reason why it can't be regulated as a prescription drug in Connecticut. People are afraid of what it means [as a step] toward legalization, but people are suffering and they don't seem to care about that. "The human factor isn't looked into nearly as much as it should be. They're not allowing people to make the choice for themselves, or if they are, they're forcing them to do it illegally. They're forcing them to endanger themselves, because you never know what it's laced with. "It takes such audacity, telling someone you don't know not only how it's best for them to live, but, in cases of terminal illnesses, how it's best for them to die & and that's suffering and pain." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth