MARIJUANA HAS MEDICAL BENEFITS

To the Editor:

I'm 70 years old. I'm a hardcore alcoholic (sober for 35 years). I
have used heroin, coke and many other drugs. When I first began using
pot as a medicine, it was very frightening, not of using the pot but
the fear of being arrested.

Even though at that time most of my friends and family thought I was
just trading one drug (booze) for the other (marijuana), I knew that
the proper use of the drug was of great benefit to me.

I can already hear the protests from those who think pot is wicked and
unlawful. What I have to say to them is, "Wake up, folks." It is neither.

The government of Canada will supply pot to me or anyone else who
"qualifies" to get permission from a doctor and the government. Of
course, there is a mountain of paper to climb, and sometimes the
government creates more paper mountains for us, even when you think
you have gotten to the top of one.

Those of us who are not able to afford it or do not know the ways of
getting results are continuously - well, for two-and-a-half years -
being stalled by our mistakes. We do not know what to do or how to get
through the maze.

My wife is a lung cancer survivor. In 1993, she had half of one lung
removed. The cancer was due to two packs of legal cigarettes a day,
which she quit. She also drank a lot of legal booze, which she stopped.

Even though her operation was a success, she was still dying and went
down to 60 pounds in the hospital. When I saw her in the hospital and
asked her what she wanted, she told me she wanted a pot joint. I told
this to the doctor and was quickly told, definitely, no. I then asked
her if she wanted to go home and she said yes. I signed her out of the
hospital against the doctor's orders, took her home, rolled one up for
her, said, "Screw them, you do not have to die," and lit it up for
her.

In two months, she had gained 40 pounds and was back to her normal
100-pound weight. She is small, but tough.

Since then, we have been using pot nearly every day. There has been no
cancer return and after three years, the other doctors said she was
cancer free.

It has cost me all the money I get to buy pot off the street. But what
would you do if a medicine that could save your loved one's life was
not legal, but available? Are you going to tell your loved one you
cannot let them use this medicine when anyone can get it anytime they
have the cash?

Well you do that. I won't, my dear wife gets more beautiful as the
years go by and my eyesight is still pretty good. Oh, by the way, I
buy locally so the money we spend is here in town, and the pot is
better and less expensive than that supplied by the government.

If there are those who doubt what I say, I am giving my phone number
to the newspaper. My wife is still not able to let the public know she
is a pot smoker. If you wish to speak on this issue, call the
newspaper and give them your number and I will be only too glad to
speak on the benefits of pot.

Thank you, Lord, for the marijuana plant.

Jim Kennedy

Creston