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antiLemetic drug, COmpazine, and, clearly superior to Synthetic THC pills. More'
°
than 90% of the patients who received.marijuaNa within the New Mexico program
reported significant ortotal relief from. nauseaand vomiting. Before t_e
program began cancer patients were surreptitiously smoking marijuanain New
Mexico to lessen.lor control their emesis resulting from chemotherapy trea{ments.
°
They reported to physicians that it_was successful for this purpose° PhySicians
were aware that this was going on.
22. [n 1978 the Louisiana ]egis}ature became one of the first-State
legislatures in the nation to recognize the efficacy of marijuana in contro_l_ng
emesis by enacting legislation intended to make marijuana available by prescrip_
t_on for therapeutic use by chemotherapy patients. Th_s enactment shows that
there Was widespread acceptance in Louisiana of the therapeutic value of.mari:
juana. After a State Marijuana Prescription Review Board was established,
pursuant to that legislation, it became apparent that, because of Federal restric-
tions, marijuana could be obtained legally only for use in cumbersome, formal
research programs. Eventually a research program was entered into by the State,
utilizing synthetic THC: but without much enthusiasm, since most professionals
who had wanted to use marijuana clinica1_y, to treat patients, had neither the
time, resources nor inclination to get involved in this limited, formal study.
The originai purpose of the Louisiana legislation was frustrated by the Federal
authorities. Some patients, who had hoped to obtain marijuana for medical use
_egally after enactment of the State legislation, went outside the law and
obtained it illicitly. Some physicians in Louisiana accept marijuana as having
a distinct medical vaJue in the treatment of the nausea and vomiting associated
with certain typesof chemotherapy, treatments_
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