DARLA WHITNEY, 43, HIGHLANDS RANCH

One of the loudest arguments against medical marijuana is that it sends the
wrong message to young people.

But Tim Whitney is one young guy who was glad to hear that his mom was
smoking pot - not because it gave him license to toke up, too, but because
it gave her a fighting chance.

"If it keeps you alive," Tim told her earlier this year, "do anything it
takes."

Darla Whitney, 43, was into her first rounds of chemotherapy last February
when friends began sending her unsolicited "little gifts" - packages of
marijuana.

The legal drug that she was taking to fight breast cancer left her weak and
queasy. A few puffs, she says, restored her appetite and renewed her spunk.
Whitney's doctor approved and then she got that endorsement from her
college-age son, a guy who doesn't drink or smoke.

"I had no fears whatsoever that he would think, 'Oh, Mom is smoking
marijuana so that means I can.'"

She finished chemotherapy in July. An exam 10 days ago found her to be in
good health with little chance of a recurrence. And while Whitney isn't
smoking marijuana now, she backed Amendment 19 which sought to legalize
medical marijuana.

"It needs to be available to anybody," says Whitney, a Highlands Ranch
resident. "Some of the women I had chemotherapy with were a lot older and
may not have had an opportunity like I did.

"They don't know who to ask. But they need to be able to get some without
feeling guilty to help them through this."

Checked-by: Richard Lake