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 have smoked marijuana medicinally vomit less-and eat better_than patients who do
 not smoke it. By gaining control over.their severe nausea and vom{ting these
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 patients undergo a.change of mood and flare a better mental outlook than patients
 who, using the standard anti:emetic drugs, are iu_lab]e to .gain such centre].
 ' ]5. The _vomit_ng induced by chemot-herapeutic drugs, may last up to _four
 days following the chemotherapy treatmento The vomiting can-be intense_ :pro-
 tracted and, in some instances, is unendurable. The nausea which follows such
 vomiting is also deep and prolongedo Nausea may prevent a patient from taking
 regular food or even much water for periods of weeks at a time.
 16. Nausea and vomiting of this severity degrades the quality of life
 for these patients, weakening them physically, and destroying the will to fight
 the cancer° A desire to end the chemotherapy treatment in order to escape the
 emesis can supersede the wi]1 to liveo Thus the _mesis, itself, can truly be
 considered a ]_fe-threatening consequence of many cancer treatments. Doctors
 have known such cases to occur. Doctors have known other cases where marijuana.
 smoking has enabled the patient to endure, and thus continue, chemotherapy.
 treatments with the result that the caocer has gone into remission and the
 patient has returned to a full, active satisfying lifeo
 17. in San Francisco chemotherapy patients were surreptitiously using
 marijuana to control emesis by the ear]y 1970'so _y ]976 virtually every young
 cancer patient receiving chemotherapy at the University of California _n San
 Francisco was using marijuana to control emesis with great success. The use of
 marijuana for this purpose had become generally accepted by the patients and
 increasingly by their physicians as a valid and effective form of treatment.
 This was particular3y true for!younger cancer patients, somewhat less common for
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