'I'D SMOKE IF IT WAS LEGAL'

Joy Lowry wonders if she is better off smoking marijuana for pain relief
instead of taking a cocktail of prescription medication.

A DARWIN woman said she would smoke marijuana for health purposes if it
was legalised in Australia.

Joy Lowry, 50, injured her knee 31 years ago and still suffers chronic
pain despite having six operations to try to fix it.

Every day she takes a cocktail of prescription medicine to give her some
relief, but said that she would consider marijuana if it was legal. "The
fact that it is illegal is the only thing stopping me from trying it," she
said.

Mrs Lowry said she had never tried illegal drugs, and that it was her
strict career in the Navy that had discouraged her trying it as an option
for pain relief.

"Both my husband and I were in the Navy so if we got found out we would
have lost our jobs, and my son-in-law is a policeman and I'd hate to put
him in an awkward position," she said.

Mrs Lowry said it was only because the Department of Veteran Affairs paid
for her medication that she could afford it.

"The morphine I've just come off cost $135 a month, and my new one is
$190. We wouldn't be able to keep our house if we had to pay for all the
medication ourselves.

"It costs so much, marijuana would be cheaper," she said.

It was not just financial costs but fear of what her medication was doing
to her body Mrs Lowry said would persuade her to give marijuana a go. "I'm
worried about kidney damage, liver damage and the brain gets very addled.
I've got two young grandkids. They're everything I live for so I want to
be healthy for them," she said.

Cancer Council NT chief executive Helen Smith said while she did not
condone smoking marijuana, that other forms of it might be OK - under
strict medical supervision.

"If it was done under medical guidance and was legal and in another form
other than smoking, then perhaps I might support it. If something is going
to ease the pain of someone who is terminal then maybe. But I do think
there are better ways of pain management," she said.