MEDICAL CANNABIS

The April 24 article "Pot profession has no room for hippies" gave no
details of the multitude of cannabis' medical applications. Duke
doctors have told me there is no drug as effective for treating
nausea, yet they are legally forbidden even to recommend it to their
patients in misery. Harvard researchers found THC to reduce tumor
growth in lung cancer by 50 percent. Madrid scientists found chemicals
in cannabis to promote death of brain cancer cells.

Studies show its promise to treat breast and colorectal cancer. Who
knows what cancer cures would have been discovered years ago had
people not been frozen in a 1930s prohibitionist mentality in which
cannabis is defined not by its chemical makeup but by the stereotype
of people who used it. We all need to ask our representatives to stop
needless suffering and open wide the door for research and medical
application of cannabis.

Catherine Lyle, Raleigh