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.