Pot Helped Doctor Fight Cancer

March 28, 2001 -- When Dan Shapiro was diagnosed with Hodgkins' disease in 1987, he called a friend who had also battled cancer.

His friend's advice, Shapiro says, came in a six-word package: "Cancer is grim, man, get weed."

Shapiro, who was 20 at the time, immediately announced to his parents that he was going to buy marijuana to help him cope with the pain and nausea he knew was in store from his treatments.

They were shocked and dismayed. "My parents were vehemently against drugs," he says.

But his mother gave him $40 for his purchase, and was even more shocked and dismayed when she saw the small patch of marijuana her son brought home.

"She said, 'where's the rest of it?'" Shapiro says.

His mother, an avid gardener, decided to look past the law — the family lived in Connecticut, which had no medicinal marijuana law — as well as her objections to drug use and help her son get a more affordable stash. She took the seeds and grew the marijuana herself, in her own garden.

Shapiro, who's been in remission for nine years, said the marijuana helped him stay functional despite the notoriously-debilitating chemotherapy. He wrote about his experiences in his recent book Mom's Marijuana (Harmony, 2000).

An 'Absurd' Ban

Now, Shapiro works as a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Arizona Cancer Center and says he can't understand the logic of those who oppose the medicinal use of marijuana.

"To us, it's absurd, given the available medicines that physicians have in their arsenals that are far more biologically addictive, such as morphine, Valium, and Percocet," he said.

Those who oppose the medicinal use of marijuana often point to its reputation as a "gateway" drug, meaning users will get hooked on drug use and move onto more serious and harmful drugs.

Advocates of medicinal marijuana say the drug provides a much-needed therapy for patients suffering from cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraines and other illnesses.

The National Institute of Medicine recently agreed that marijuana can be helpful for people with AIDS or undergoing chemotherapy, in part because the drug helps ease anxiety, stimulate appetite, relieve pain and calm nausea and vomiting.

Medical officials also warn that smoking marijuana can cause respiratory disease and throat and lung irritation. The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Collective recommends patients use water pipes or vaporizers instead of smoking joints.