A FATHER'S TALE

As a cannabis activist having zero tolerance for cannabis prohibition, John
Lasker's story ("Pot RX," 11/19) is quite an eye-opener. It is regrettable
to hear educated people support caging sick humans for using a plant.

My experience with Marinol is really my dead son's experience. With
leukemia, chemo, surgeries, spinal taps and all its implications, he just
vomited it up, only to be billed highly for what was known to not stay in
the gut long enough to possibly be effective. He should have been allowed
smoke or vapor of pure cannabis plant material, that works much quicker,
that he couldn't vomit. Instead he was allowed to self administer morphine
every six minutes for pain.

It seems the more the U.S. government fights to exterminate cannabis (which
I know of biblically as kaneh bosm), the more cancer rates increase; indeed
when my son died, stats indicated that 1 out of 4 U.S. citizens will
directly confront cancer, and today that number has risen to 1 out of
3. Since every American family will have to confront cancer and cannabis
helps, citizens should consider directly requesting that Congress
reschedule cannabis from schedule one (in the same category as heroin), to
schedule two.

A sequel story might investigate and report what is known about the ability
of cannabis/THC, to shrink cancerous tumors; the ability of cannabis to
stop some viral forms of leukemia from forming; and how the government has
known this since 1974.

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado