PATIENTS SAY MARIJUANA MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Despite the ruling, many patients here say marijuana is still the only
medication that seems to help them

Rick DeVries was 33 years old when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Four months of chemotherapy often left him so nauseated that the Shoreline
resident said he couldn't even keep down water or sport drinks such as
Gatorade.

In 1998, just months before Washington voters approved an initiative to
allow patients with certain conditions to smoke marijuana to relieve their
symptoms, DeVries said he was forced to take to the streets to buy $40
baggies of pot.

"I tried every pill there was," he said of the alternatives he used before
marijuana. "I could hardly swallow. I got to the point where I wouldn't eat
until I got through with the week of chemotherapy."

DeVries said smoking marijuana not only helped restore his appetite but
relaxed him enough so he sometimes could sleep through chemotherapy treatments.

"I think it definitely was the right thing to do," he said, explaining that
one pill he was prescribed during his cancer fight cost $40 each. When he
took those pills, he said, he couldn't keep them down because of severe nausea.

Following Monday's Supreme Court decision, area physicians who treat
patients allowed under state law to smoke marijuana for medical purposes
said they were unsure what effect the ruling would have in Washington.

Doctors can advise patients with certain terminal or debilitating
conditions -- such as cancer, HIV, intractable pain and glaucoma -- of the
risks and benefits of smoking marijuana to lessen the symptoms. Doctors
also are allowed to provide written documentation that the medical use of
marijuana might be beneficial.

However, physicians can't prescribe, distribute or dispense marijuana for
medical purposes.

But under federal law, it is illegal to obtain, possess or cultivate
marijuana for any purpose.

Dr. Rob Killian, a Seattle physician who helped lead the medical marijuana
effort in Washington, said no one knows how many patients are using
marijuana for medical purposes in the state.

But based upon informal conversations with physicians, it may be as many as
1,200, he said.

"We're disappointed, but it says nothing about our law," Killian said of
the high court ruling.

"Our law remains intact," he added. "Washington patients are still
protected locally from arrests and prosecution."

Dr. Jeffery Ward, an oncologist at the Puget Sound Cancer Center at Stevens
Hospital, said the effectiveness of new anti-nausea drugs means "we don't
see acute nausea very much at all any more."

For that reason, requests for medical marijuana is "not something people
ask about nearly as often as they used to."

When patients ask for it, Ward said he tells them of Marinol, a pill with
some of the active ingredients in marijuana.

"For 99 percent of patients, there's no role for medical marijuana in
cancer therapy," he said.

However, Ward said he talked with two testicular cancer patients about
using it because of their problems with severe nausea.

Dr. Will Wisbeck, medical director of the cancer institute at Providence
Everett Medical Center, said the topic doesn't come up much with patients
there.

New drugs such as Zofran and Kytril help prevent severe nausea, he said.

"Maybe four to five patients a year ask me about using marijuana," he said.
"I suspect more patients use it on their own and don't tell me about it."