ESSAY: 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, 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.

[Sidebar: '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.']

Ruth Barnett lives in Santa Barbara