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 subsidest it is often replaced by a profound nausea which
 leaves the patient unable to eat or even to be in the same room
 with someone else who is eating° Together_ nausea and vomiting
 can cause rapid weight loss and leave a patient weak and less
 able to combat his cancer_
 6. There are a number of studies in the literature
 which indicate that this nausea and vomiting is also a major
 reason patients discontinue potentially life-prolonging or
 life-saving therapies° It has been estimated that up to thirty
 percent of the cancer patients who receive chemotherapeutic
 drugs which cause severe emesis discontinue treatment. In
 effects these people are signing a death warrant.
 7. There are a number of conventionally available
 drugs, such as Compazine, which in many circumstances are
 effective anti-emetlc agents. However_ one of the great
 stumbling blocks in chemotherapy has been an absence of
 effective medical control over emesiso Compazine_ for example,
 is simply not capables in a vast majority of cases, of ade=
 quately controlling the most serious epls_odes of nausea and
 ...... vomiting which cancer patients experience_.
 8. The possibility that a new drug -_ even a drug
 o
 such as marijuana which is surrounded by considerable social
 and political debate -_ could substantially reduce or eliminate
 emesis for these patients was of significant note. _f
 marijuana could effectively reduce or eliminate emesis for
 these patients_ the patients would be more likely to continue
 their therapies°