[Sativa]

Bill Webster is 73 years old. He's sick, and he in constant pain, but the one thing he feels could help relieve that pain is out of reach.

“I'm a cancer patient. I've got Multiple Sclerosis and several ailments to which I feel marijuana would help me. If it was legal,” said Bill Webster.

But it's not legal. So Webster doesn't try it. “I'm scared to use it,” he explained.

We asked him if he was angry over the laws that keep him from using marijuana to relieve his pain.

His response was, “Yes. Yes I'm angry because of the way it is. Bitter or disappointed. Whatever you want to call it. Yes.”

And it's people like Webster that Former Attorney General Bob Stephan is thinking of as he leads an effort to legalize medical marijuana in Kansas.

"People who are terminally ill with cancer and undergoing treatment should not suffer alone- nor should they be denied access to any medical remedy,” Stephen said.

As Stephen spoke to a crowd in the Kansas statehouse, Webster listened. Like Webster, Stephen has also battled cancer.

"After my first chemotherapy I was a basket case with a terrible feeling of nausea- nausea that only comes with chemotherapy,” Stephen explained.

"It just seemed incomprehensible to me that there should be such suffering and any drug including marijuana should be available to assist the patient,” Stephen added.

Twelve states have legalized medical marijuana in some form. In other states, like Kansas, Stephan says they smoke it anyway.

"People are smoking marijuana because they are in such dire need and suffering so much that they have to take the chance to use it,” Stephen said.

Stephan says he never smoked marijuana, but the option should be there for those who are suffering, and scared.

It’s an option Bill Webster still fights for, but thinks it will come too late to help him.

“If we get to be better through the use of marijuana, let's go with it,” Webster added.

Stephen is moving forward, and he hopes to have a bill drafted in the next legislative session.


News Mod: CoZmO - http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: KTKA-TV 49 ABC News (Topeka, KS)
Author: Gena Terlizzi
Contact: KTKA 49 News Topeka - 49abcnews.com
Copyright: 2007 KTKA 49 ABC
Website: Smoking pot to ease the pain - 49abcnews.com