Pubdate: Fri, 01 Jun 2001
Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2001 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/195
Author: Lee Eisenstein
Section: Letters to the Editor
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n966/a06.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (medicinal cannabis clippings)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA DOES INDEED SAVE LIVES

I'd like make a correction to J.R. Labbe's generally excellent commentary, 
"Let's have rational discussion," regarding marijuana policy.

Labbe is mistaken when she states that "Medical marijuana isn't going to 
save anyone's life." Marijuana-like drugs eradicated some brain cancers in 
rats and helped other animals live longer, according to a study published 
in the March issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Consider the case of adrenal cancer survivor Steve Kubby. According to Dr. 
Vincent DeQuattro, a University of Southern California professor and world 
authority on adrenal cancer, Kubby's blood shows lethal levels of 
adrenaline. Everyone who has ever had Kubby's disease has died within a few 
years. Thanks to medical marijuana, he is now entering his 23rd year of 
survival, something DeQuattro considers a "medical miracle." DeQuattro has 
written that the patient could suffer a heart attack or stroke if deprived 
of marijuana and that no other form of therapy is available.

Best-selling author and cancer and AIDS survivor Peter McWilliams kept his 
viral levels and severe nausea in check by using medical marijuana. A 
federal judge ordered him to stop using it. He complied and was found two 
weeks later dead in his bathroom. He had choked to death on his own vomit.

Marijuana eases suffering and extends lives. Marijuana prohibition kills.

Lee Eisenstein
Watsonville, Calif.
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