Pubdate: Thu, 19 Apr 2001
Source: Providence Journal, The (RI)
Copyright: 2001 The Providence Journal Company
Contact:  http://www.projo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/352
Author: Mary Ellen Higgins

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

I read recently that Rhode Island's House Committee on Health, Education 
and Welfare voted against a bill to allow cancer patients to use marijuana 
to ease their pain and help them to keep their food down ("All these 
bills," news, April 4).

I've seen the pain of cancer first-hand, and I think the House has not 
acted in the best interests of the people. My aunt died of lung cancer last 
summer, and I lived with her for nearly three months before her death. Her 
illness was made more painful by her difficulty digesting her food. She had 
a poor appetite and often threw up the little food that she could eat. One 
of her few pleasures was sitting at the family dinner table but sometimes 
she could not eat with us because of her upset stomach.

Since her death, I've read that marijuana use helps cancer patients to keep 
up their appetites and to digest their food. I believe my aunt suffered 
unnecessarily because of laws that prevented her from gaining access to 
marijuana. Once a drug becomes legally available, people become aware of 
its usefulness. The people of Rhode Island and other states deserve better 
for their loved ones.

MARY ELLEN HIGGINS

Wakefield
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