CANCER SURVIVOR USED, ADVOCATES MARIJUANA TO EASE SUFFERING

Martin Chilcutt is a retired psychotherapist and a cancer survivor.

Both shaped his drive to legalize marijuana for medical use.

Chilcutt, 66, successfully fought cancer seven years ago, using marijuana
to ease the nausea brought on by the treatment.

"I have used it medically and I have found it to be quite effective," he
said.

As a psychotherapist in California, he saw many terminally ill patients in
great pain. He became a believer after watching their discomfort eased by
smoking marijuana, he said.

Chilcutt reasoned that if smoking worked, it should be an option.

Opponents who argue that the initiative is a foot in the door to legalize
all drugs haven't reckoned with Chilcutt. "To me that's the old War on
Drugs mentality speaking, and that's been a complete failure," he said.

"I remembered something Ghandi said," said Chilcutt. "'Make the injustice
visible."'

Chilcutt, who is retired, moved to Colorado six years ago.

He fought to get Amendment 20 on the ballot from 1996 until gaining enough
signatures for the 1998 vote, but saw it thrown off, on, off and then on
again - too late for counting - from opponent challenges.

Worn out by that effort, he left the campaign in 1998 to others while he
formulated the next step. Chilcutt is organizing a Cannabis Cooperative to
help gather and distribute the still-illegal substance to patients covered
by a medical exception.

Such cooperatives are under fire in California, where a medical marijuana
initiative passed four years ago.

"We're going to do everything legitimate and above board," Chilcutt said.

He lives in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood and devotes his retirement
time to community involvement including volunteering as a counselor with
the Colorado AIDS Project and with the senior citizen activist group Gray
Panthers.