Pubdate: Sun, 11 Dec 2011 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2011 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html Website: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 CHOICE OF MARIJUANA EMPOWERED DYING CANCER PATIENT Tammy is still amazed at all the people who arrived at her Edmonton doorstep, trying to sell seaweed, Goji juices or miracle cures after they discovered her son had cancer. "People become very desperate," said Tammy, using a pseudonym to maintain her family's anonymity. "Cancer patients are absolutely helpless. - They are at the mercy of the treatments." Her son was diagnosed in his teens with a rare cancer that first showed itself in aching joints, eventually spreading to his lungs. Over several years, Neil (also a pseudonym) received aggressive chemotherapy and accompanying medicines for nausea and pain. But the side-effects were brutal: insomnia, anxiety triggered by pharmaceuticals and thoughts of death, lack of appetite and sores from his tongue down into his digestive system. To swallow his own saliva, he needed potent pain medication. When Neil told his doctor he wanted to try medical marijuana to deal with the side-effects, the doctor acknowledged his need. "Frankly, I think the attitude was, 'It's not going to hurt,' so they signed off," Tammy said. For patients, she said, "the right balance of medication that allows you to maintain some control over and quality in your life is vital to patient well-being." For Neil, that control meant staying alert and having conversations over dinner instead of dozing off due to drugs. The last thing he wanted was to get stoned. After receiving federal government approval, Neil's family tried to grow marijuana. When that failed, Neil turned to his own source for cannabis, which he converted to vapour to ease the impact on his diseased lungs. The drug improved his appetite, reduced his pain and anxiety and helped offset his "chemo brain" so he could focus, Tammy said. Neil hoped marijuana could shrink his lung tumours as it had in one study at Harvard University. "He may well have slowed the growth of those tumours," Tammy said. She will never know. Neil died last year. "I'm not sure health care and governments in general have invested any significant amount (of funding) into marijuana as a drug that can provide benefits," Tammy said. Neil's choice empowered him, she said. "I think it was important to him because he was choosing a medication, a type of relief he needed. "Patients need information. There needs to be knowledge readily available so that patients may find that there are options." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.