Source: Lethbridge Herald Contact: Tuesday, 13 January 1998 MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGALIZED FOR MEDICAL, HEALING PURPOSES In response to your article of Dec.11, "Portions of marijuana law unconstitutional, judge rules", of course this herbal medicine should be available for proper and responsible use. As a long-time student and practitioner of herbal medicine and natural healing methods, I wondered why most herbal texts do not even mention marijuana/cannabis/hemp. The best and most comprehensive text in my library, School of Natural Healing, by Dr.John R.Christopher, lists it as a sleep aid, relaxant, pain killer, antispasmodic, and female corrective. Latest evidence shows it is effective for relieving the pain and spasms of MS, seizures of epilepsy, migraines, ghost-pain of amputees, chronic pain of some sorts, some depressions, premenstrual disorder, glaucoma, AIDS wasting and nausea, and cancer nausea. Queen Victoria used it, as prescribed by her physician, for PMS and migraines. The British Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine have both asked that it be made available to those who need it immediately, and patients who have been denied it have been desperate enough to get themselves arrested just to protest the status quo. (Lynn Harichy, mother, grandmother, medical student, MS sufferer in London, Ont.) No one has ever died from a pot overdose, it does not kill or harm the cells of the body. There are many ways to use it besides smoking; a chronic pain patient from Halifax says one mj brownie lasts longer and works better than several tylenol 3's. Surely it is time to adipt a rational, compassionate approach instead of allowing pot sales to line the pockets of biker-gangs who don't care whether they sell to a cancer patient or a child in the schoolyard. Recent polls show the majority of Canadians favor changing the law to allow responsible use. Regulation would put cannabis where it belongs, in the drugstore, health food store and herb garden, alongside the other herbs God gave us to use, like parsley, sage, garlic and mint. Kathy Galbraith Midwife,teacher, student of natural healing Raymond