LOCAL ACTIVIST GRIEVES LOSS OF HUSBAND TO CANCER

Advocates Healthy Improvements in Diet For All Americans

Laura Kriho of Rollinsville, known in Boulder County and nationally
for her jury nullification and cannabis legalization activism, is
grieving the loss of her husband, Timothy Mark Bailes, to cancer on
May 27.

Bailes, 46, died at the International Biocare Hospital in Tijuana,
Mexico, at 4:20 p.m. on Memorial Day. A memorial and wake is scheduled
for Saturday, June 15, near Nederland.

While mourning, Kriho is contemplating a new-for her-form of activism:
advocating a healthy, cancer-preventing diet consisting mostly of
"lightly steamed vegetables and brown rice."

That was the type of fruit and vegetables diet that the IBC Hospital
in Tijuana immediately placed Bailes on when he checked in: the
nutritional regimen eliminated sugar and salt, and limited animal
proteins. The IBC doctors stopped the chemotherapy he had begun in
Colorado. As a younger man, Bailes had worked around farm chemicals,
had been a pesticide applicator and had removed asbestos as a
construction worker. He also smoked tobacco and ate processed foods,
like sugar.

"Tim smoked cigarettes his whole life, and it didn't help," Kriho
said. "But I don't think cigarettes caused his cancer. It all came
back to diet. Cancer is cancer."

Bailes' cancer began in his lungs and then metastasized throughout his
body. In Colorado, doctors recommended chemotherapy, but Kriho thinks
the highly toxic treatments shortened Bailes' already short life.

"Traditional chemotherapy destroys your immune system," Kriho said.
"You'd live longer if you didn't treat cancer in the traditional way
at all."

Bailes initially responded positively to the new diet and Laetrile
treatments, gaining weight and strength. But his lungs were producing
too many fluids and phlegm, and he succumbed to heart failure after
about a month of hospitalization.

The months-long ordeal has definitely changed Kriho: She gave up eating red
meat.

"Yeah, I went back to Chicago (after Tim's death) and had some red
meat, and got sick to my stomach," she said. "We uncovered a lot of
information in the last three or four months. Cancer thrives on sugar
and animal protein."

The only medical treatment Bailes was denied in Mexico was cannabis,
Kriho said. "Eating pot definitely helped Tim. The pot-laced cookies
were helping him to reduce phlegm."

After the 2000 election, Kriho had decided to limit her activism. Over
the past 12 years, Kriho has made local and national headlines
advocating hemp legalization, medical marijuana and jury
nullification. In 1996, she was convicted of contempt of court for
talking about jury nullification during jury deliberations in a Gilpin
County drug case; in 1999, her conviction was overturned.

"Tim's constant, unconditional support was a tremendous help that
allowed me to be an activist," Kriho added.

"Now we've got this issue-this medical freedom of choice issue," she
said. "Why should we have to run to a Third World country to get
decent medical care?"

Even in other nations where alternative medicines are used, "medical
cannabis is illegal," she complained. Before leaving for Mexico,
Bailes consulted with Boulder herbalist Brigitte Mars, obtained some
relief from acupuncture and tried supplements intended to reduce
cancer. But it was ironic that Mexico-a major supplier of marijuana to
the U.S.-denied Bailes access to the one additional treatment that
might have prolonged his life.

Stroke victim Marie Matlock of Weed, Calif., recently e-published a
cookbook titled Krafty Cannabis Eatables featuring recipes for a range
of marijuana-based foods from lasagna to mayonnaise intended for
medical marijuana patients such as Bailes. She wanted more than the
traditional brownies and cookies or smoked marijuana to alleviate her
intense pain, and developed the cookbook's recipes to make cannabis an
everyday part of her diet. Fifty cents of each book she sells at
www.1stbooks.com will go to support the medical marijuana movement in
America.

Kriho will return to work at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research after Bailes's memorial service on Saturday. She said she
hopes she can speak and make it through the memorial service without
breaking down and crying.

"Sometimes it just hits me, how alone I am. I'm sure it'll hit me when
all my friends are around."