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"Cancer patient prosecuted for marijuana use"

The Associated Press, May 29, 1997

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) A cancer patient who used marijuana to manage intense
pain has been placed on probation for growing the plant in his basement.

Prosecutors also sought to seize Norm Major's home because it was used in
the plantgrowing operation, but they agreed to accept $22,500 instead.

In addition, a judge on Wednesday ordered Major's wife Pat to serve
probation for marijuana possession. The couple also must pay a $1,000 fine.

The Majors said they harvested marijuana from their three dozen plants to
replace the morphinebased pain killers they said had ruled their lives
since Major was disabled in an industrial accident 31 years ago.

Now the couple, who have three children and eight grandchildren, feel
they've been abused by the legal system and worry what their friends will think.

Norm Major is a former member of the board of governors of the Elks Club,
and Pat Major works with the Altar Society at St. Peter's Catholic Church.

"We're just going to have to take a good, deep breath and hope to God that
our friends understand," Norm Major said.

Unlike California and Washington state, Oregon makes no distinction between
medical use of pot and dealers who grow it to get high and make money, Lane
County District Attorney Doug Harcleroad said.

He said prosecutors might have given more consideration to the couple in the
civil forfeiture case had they clearly indicated the marijuana was for
purely personal use.

However, police said Norm Major admitted he'd sold some marijuana, and his
garden yielded more than would be consumed by a single user. The Majors deny
selling any marijuana and said the investigation left them distrustful of
police and prosecutors.

Norm Major now takes a prescription codeinebased painkilling drug to help
control his pain.

He was a 32yearold boilermaker working on a two storyhigh scaffold near
Oakland, Ore., in April 1966 when the scaffolding fell, throwing him to the
ground on his hands and knees. He would have been fine, but the scaffold
then fell across his lower back.

Two years later, a recurring tumor developed in the injured area. In 1972,
the cancer spread to a lung that has since been removed. In 1989, he was
unconscious for three weeks in intensive care. He received the Catholic
sacrament of last rites but recovered.

The cancer kept coming back. In 1993, he had surgery for a brain tumor that
left him weak with strokelike symptoms on his left side.

Court and medical records indicate he has undergone more than 80 surgeries
while building up tolerances for legally prescribed drugs. At one time, he
required 600milligram doses of morphine every three to four hours.

"I couldn't get out of bed because I was so drugged," he said, displaying
deep 2inch scars on both arms where infections developed from
intramuscular injections of painkilling drugs. "I was more dead than
alive. I took tons of stuff just to go to sleep."

Pat Major felt her life slipping away too. "I had no life, either," she
said. "It was all driven by Norman and the drugs."

Eight years ago, several of Major's doctors suggested he try marijuana. They
were prepared to testify if the Majors' case went to trial, defense attorney
Dan Koenig said.

"We have a situation in this state where doctors can prescribe cocaine,
methamphetamine, morphine and other drugs that are far more powerful than
marijuana," Koenig said.