Marijuana: Good Medicine

I am a cancer survivor who has firsthand knowledge of a treatment option that should be freely available but is not: marijuana.

Although I grew up in the decade that made marijuana famous, I never smoked it. I never smoked anything; I didn’t even know how to use a lighter. But when I underwent chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, and the prescribed anti-nausea medications didn’t work, and my doctor refused to prescribe marinol (the pills with the active ingredient from marijuana), I resorted to the herb. A young man had to teach me what to do. Friends had to risk legal repercussions to provide me with it.

I never smoked enough to get high--smoking was an exhausting challenge in itself. But I got enough in me so I could force myself to drink liquids. Before marijuana, I’d become dangerously dehydrated. I would use enough so that I could finally sleep a few hours. Previously, I’d been awake nonstop and so miserable I wished I’d just die. Unlike with the doctor’s pharmaceuticals, there were no side effects--like dopey drowsiness, constipation or depression.

Recently, a friend contacted me because a friend of hers also needed the kind of help this herb can give, and her doctor also refused to prescribe marinol. I am very angry that we must risk police action and jail time to bring some relief to suffering. I am very angry that the doctors are so afraid to even prescribe nonsmokable versions. I would have preferred the pills or suppositories to smoking, myself.

Every useful substance can be used for harm. But prejudice, a tremendous fear and lack of big profits for corporations has us by the throat when it comes to this humble servant from God’s pharmacy. Let us have mercy: Marijuana isn’t just for potheads. It is good medicine.