CANCER -- 32 year old male contracted cancer of the stomach. He was manager of a tire and brake business and his family thought maybe he got cancer because of the brake linings, according to his sister. "They thought it was ulcers. They kept giving him ulcer medicine but he got to where he couldn't eat. Finally when they put him in for an upper GI in August, they found cancer. They put him through surgery, they took out a tumor that was nearly blocking his esophagus. It took two-thirds of his esophagus and about one-third of his stomach.
"He started chemo - it as in his lymph system - he couldn't eat anything - a family member got him some marijuana, which he had never tried before. He didn't even drink. He was usually around 165-180 pounds - by the end he was down to 88 pounds.
"After he started using marijuana, he started gaining weight. The doctors told him he wouldn't last til December - we think that the marijuana allowed him to remain in better health because he could eat. He actually gained back some weight after he started using the marijuana.
"His doctor told him, 'You didn't hear this from me, but if you know anybody who can get you marijuana, you might want to try it.'
"He was on a bunch of medications - stuff for nausea, pain killers, plus the chemotherapy. But none of it helped him eat, except the marijuana. He smoked it until he went into a coma and died ten days later, by the next May. Feb 2003