Hardin suffers from Hepatitis C, a disease that is destroying his liver, and uses a wheelchair. He said smoking marijuana helped him cope with the intense nausea and rapid weight loss the disease has caused. Finally, doctors told me to go to Europe and try marijuana. He did just that, in November 1997, visiting the Netherlands, where a doctor prescribed one to two grams of marijuana per day. Also in the audience was Joyce Nalepka of America Cares, a parents' anti-drug group based in Maryland that has criticized efforts to legalize marijuana for medical use.
Kids interpret things differently than adults.
The report contained some surprising findings. It concluded that, despite popular belief, marijuana was not useful in treating glaucoma. In addition, the study found that there was little evidence for marijuana's potential in treating movement disorders like Parkinson's disease or Huntington's disease, but that it was effective in combating the muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis. But doctors are often afraid to write prescriptions because the Federal Government has threatened to prosecute them, and patients often have difficulty obtaining the drug, in part because the Government has moved to shut the marijuana buyers' clubs that had been distributing it. In the District of Columbia the November ballot contained a proposal to legalize medical marijuana, but Congress prevented the vote from being counted.