To all of you who think like Guy W. Farmer (editorial column Sunday Oct. 15) that the medical marijuana initiative is a "fraud and a hoax" and is about "legalizing drugs," I hope you never have to comfort and care for someone you love who is suffering and dying from a horrible disease.
My husband died a painful and ugly death from pancreatic cancer. He was 54 years old. The only relief he got was from smoking marijuana. The drugs the doctors prescribe knock you out or make you sicker (read the side effect warnings on the prescription anti-nausea drugs). Smoking small amounts of marijuana every day eased him through months of radiation and chemotherapy, made him more comfortable so he could sleep and made him hungry so he would eat.
It is not a "scam." It's about compassion and common sense! Thank God for free thinking, open minded California where we lived then. The doctors encouraged it and the hospitals allowed it. He lived 18 months after his cancer was discovered, a long time for that form of the disease.
Who is it that's against medical marijuana use? Maybe the huge drug companies that don't want the suffering to get relief from weeds? Or the big tobacco companies that want the only thing smoked to be their cigarettes? To have marijuana use be a felony in Nevada is so hypocritical, since prostitution, gambling, alcohol and smoking are all encouraged.
So, Mr. Farmer, be careful what you write and believe if you haven't been there.
In the spirit of our "live and let live" state, remember that marijuana plants are weeds and should be given to the terminally ill.
DIANA NERING
Carson City
