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during the year 1987 were smoking marijuana medicinally. This is about 90 to 95
indiv_dua_so This number is higher than during the-previous'ten years due to-
the nature of this physician's practice which includes patients from the "tend er-
loin" area of San Francisco, many of whom are suffering from.AIOS-ceiated
; ?
.,lymphosarcomao These patignts smoke marijuana to control their nausea and
vomiting, not to _get high. _
Thai( se]f-titrate, i.e., smoke the marijuana only:
as long as needed to overcome the nausea, to prevent vomiting.
21. The State of New Mexico set up a program in 1978 to make marijuana
available to cancer patients pursuant to an act of the State legislature. The
legislature had accepted marijuana as havins medical use in treatment. It over-
whelmingly passed this legislation soas to make marijuana available for use in
therapy, not just for researcho Marijuana and synthetic THC were given to
patients, administered under medical supervision, to control or reduce emesis.
The marijuana was in the form of cigarettes obtained from the Federal govern-
ment. The program operated from 1979 until 1986, when funding for it was
terminated by the Sta_teo During those seven years about 250 cancer patients _n
New Mexico received either marijuana cigarettes .or THC. Twenty or 25 physicians
in New Mexico sought and obtained marijuana cigarettes or THC for their cancer
patients during that period. Al| of the oncologists in New Mexico_accepted
marijuana as effective for some of their patients. At _east ten hospitals were
involved in this program in New Mexico, in which cancer patients smoked their
marijuana cigarettes. The hospitals accepted this medicina_ marijuana smoking
by patients. Voluminous reports filed by the participating physicians make it
clear that marijua.na is a highly effective anti-emetic substance. It was found
in the New Mexico program to be far-superior to the-best available conventional
16
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