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 were no longer simply getting high, but were engaged in medically treating their #_
 i]Ines.s, albe_ with an i_legal substance. Other chemotherapy patients began _
 smoking-marijuana to Control {heir emesis only after hearing reports that the °
 practice had proven helpful .to others. Such patients had not Smoked marijuana
 recreati onat ]y,
 9. This successful use of m_ari_uana has gi;_en many cancer_ chemotherapy
 .patients a much more positive outlook on their overall: treatment, once they were
 relieved of the debilitating, exhausting and extreme])' unpleasant nausea and
 vomiting previously resulting from their chemotherapy treatment.
 lO. In about December ]977 the previously underground patient practice
 of using marijuana to control emesis burst into the public media in New Mexico
 when a young cancer patient, Lynm Pearson, began publicly to discuss his use of
 marijuana. Mr. Pearson besought the New Mexico _egis_ature to pass legislation
 making marijuana available legally to seriously ill patients whom it might he_p.
 As a result, professionals in the public health sector in New Mexico more
 closely examined how marijuana might be made legally available to assist in
 meeting what now openly appeared to be a widely recognized patient need.
 i|. In many cases doctors have found that, in addition to suppressing
 nausea and. vomiting, smoking marijuana is a highly successful appetite stimulant.
 The importance of appetite stimulation in cancer therapy cannot be overstated.
 Pa˘ients receiving chemotherapy often lose tremendous amounts of weight. They
 endanger their lives because they lose interest in food and in eating. The
 resulting sharp reduction in weight may well affect their prognosis. Marijuana _.
 smoking induces some patients to eat. The benefits are obvious, doctors have
 found. There is no significant loss of weight. Some patCents will gain weight.
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