WRITER SAYS MARIJUANA HELPED HIS BROTHER

To The Editor:

Do we really get to vote on a medical marijuana question in
November?

I think it should be legalized but I know that will not happen for a
long time. I would fight very hard to legalize it for people with
medial problems. Here's why: My brother passed away this last June
from leukemia. He had it for 18 months and he smoked pot. After his
first round of chemo, he lost a lot of weight and he had about six
weeks at home before he went back in for more chemo.

At the hospital, the nurse checked his weight because the mixture of
chemo administered to a patient goes by his or her weight, and my
brother had gained 30 pounds while being home thanks to smoking pot.

You need to gain weight because you lose so much during chemo. If he
hadn't smoked pot, he would not have gained as much and he would have
been very fragile before the next round. Chemo takes such a toll on
the body that he would have gotten much sicker without the weight gain.

Family and friends illegally bought pot for him -- myself included. We
know it's illegal to buy but we were helping my brother, but even if I
got caught, I would have done it again and again for my brother.

I respect the laws but not this one! I would buy for anyone who needed
it to get them through chemo. I've seen first hand how much it helped
my brother.

His doctors knew he smoked pot. They told him that if it was legal
they would tell their patients to smoke it.

Power to the people who are trying to get this law to pass! If I can
help in any way I will.

Michele R. Peloquin

ACTON