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 - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens