vol2 - Page 182



Page 182 Previous , Next , Original Image
Return to Index

 hospital, she was suffering from an acute _panic reaction _.
 While the patient found her experience terrifying, she suffered
 no long-term mental or physical damage as a result of this
 adverse reaction. The most effective antidote proved to be
 about four hours of simp!eg person_to_person communication.
 48. This one episode stands out in my mind because it w_
 highly unusual. The patient's distress, while real, proved to
 be short lived. There was a complete absence of any actual
 biological or mental damage to the patient. She was nots for
 examples hospitalized, but returned home as soon as she
 regained her mental balance° It is also difficult to know how
 much this woman's fear of further chemotherapy treatments
 played into what was clearly an intense anxiety attack.
 _
 Finally, this woman's adverse reaction could have been
 prevented had she =eceived marijuana by prescription and been
 able to smoke the drug within a medically-supervised setting.
 Such a setting would have helped her deal with her fears.
 Denied such a settings she was on her owl_ ands rightfully,
 terrified about using an unregulated product in an unsupervised
 setting°
 49. Marijuana is clearly not a suitable therapy for all
 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy t:eatmentso _owever_
 marijuana is a highly effectlve_ medically "safe _ drug which
 can be successfully used by many patients who need relief from
 the adverse effects caused by commonly prescribed
 chemotherapeutic drugs_




Previous , Next , Return to Index