Mae Nutt, being first duly sworn, states as follows:

1. My name is Mae Nutt. I was born June 28, 1921. My husband is Arnold Nutt, who was born Dec. 21, 1919. We reside in Beaverton, Mich.

2. We were married on June 13, 1953. We had three children: Keith Earl, who was born Dec. 21, 1955; Dana, who was born June 4, 1958; and Marc, who was born Oct. 3, 1959.

3. In July, 1963, shortly after his fifth birthday, Dana complained he couldn't breathe, and then he passed out. He was rushed to our local hospital, then taken to the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

4. My husband and I were told Dana had Ewings Sarcoma. Emergency surgery was performed the following day, July 3, 1963. During the surgery, doctors removed a 1-pound tumor which was at-tached to one of Dana's ribs. The rib was also removed.

5. Dana remained hospitalized for nearly a month. Then he came home. For the next three years, Dana received chemotherapy and radiation treat-ments. He was often hospitalized at the Henry Ford Hospital for additional treatments.

6. The chemotherapy treatments made Dana very ill. When the cancer spread to his brain, he began receiving radiation treatments. These made him violently angry and difficult to manage. The therapy also made Dana listless and destroyed his appetite and, eventually, his personality.

7. Despite the powerful therapies which caused these severe adverse effects, the cancer continued to spread and began affecting other organs. In July, and in December 1964, additional surgical proce-dures were performed on Dana. During these procedures, portions of his lungs were removed.

8. For the remainder of Dana's life, he remained seriously ill.

9. Dana died Jan. 5, 1967.

10. Dana's protracted illness drained our financial resources. The emotional strain was extremely difficult on us and our other children.

11. In the spring of 1978, our eldest son Keith, who was living in Columbus, Ohio, phoned home to tell us that he had testicular cancer.

12. On April 19, 1978, we were in Columbus dur-ing Keith's first operation. During the operation, the diseased testicle was removed. After a biopsy, which found the tissue to be malignant, the sur-geons removed a large number of lymph nodes between Keith's pelvic bone and breast bone in an effort to remove all of the cancer.

13. Keith was a very independent young man and he decided to remain in Columbus following his recovery from surgery. He made a determined effort to resume a normal life. He also discussed possible anti-cancer therapies with his physicians in Columbus. The doctors felt they had removed all of the cancer and thought no extensive che-motherapy or radiation treatments were warranted. However, Keith was unable to maintain his energy and in the fall of 1978, he returned home to live with us.

14. After returning home, Keith made a determined effort to remain active and vital. He quickly found a new job and started working. All appeared to be going well.

15. On the evening of Jan. 1, 1979, after a wonder-ful holiday season, Keith told us that his other testicle was hard and enlarged. He thought it might be cancerous.

16. The next morning we accompanied Keith to a urologist in Midland, the nearest large commu-nity.

17. After a brief examination, the doctor told us Keith's condition was serious and he needed an-other operation immediately. Keith was hospital-ized later that day.

18. During the operation, surgeons removed Keith's remaining testicle.

19. Following the operation, our son was seen by an internist. He explained the cancer was spread-ing and told us Keith would require extensive chemotherapy treatments.

20. As soon as his surgical wounds healed, Keith was placed on a new, highly toxic form of chemo-therapy called Cisplatin.

21. Keith's chemotherapy began in February 1979. The treatments made him extremely ill. After re-ceiving his injections, he would vomit violently for 8-10 hours. Then he would become profoundly nauseated to the point he could neither bear to look at nor smell food.

22. In an attempt to curb Keith's nausea and vom-iting, Compazine and other anti-emetic drugs were prescribed. These drugs did not provide any no-ticeable relief.

23. This combination of intense vomiting and debilitating nausea quickly took a toll on our son. Unable to eat or to keep down any food he managed to swallow, Keith rapidly began to lose weight. In less than two months, our son lost at least 30 pounds.

24. Keith's vomiting was so violent it became a heaving retch. Because he could not eat, he began to vomit bile. When there was nothing to vomit, he would simply retch and convulse. It was horrible for us to watch our child suffer such anguish.

25. My husband and I were alarmed by the inten-sity of Keith's vomiting and by his sudden, dra-matic loss of weight. We felt Keith's weight loss to be an indication of just how rapidly he was being overwhelmed by his cancer and by the chemo-therapy he was receiving to combat it. Together, the disease and treatment were a deadly combi-nation.

26. Keith was suffering terribly. His treatments were wearing him down. At one point, he approached me and said he did not want to become like his deceased brother, Dana — so sick he could not take care of himself, completely incapacitated and a burden on the rest of the family. He told me when things got that bad, he wanted to be able kill himself, in order to escape his misery. Then Keith made me promise when there was no more hope, I would help him end his life.

27. One evening, while reading the newspaper, I read an article about a cancer patient who had received a brown bag of marijuana on his door-step. The article noted there was medical evidence which showed smoking marijuana helped to re-duce the severe nausea and vomiting caused by many anti-cancer therapies.

28. At first I laughed at the story. It seemed un-likely that marijuana would just suddenly appear on someone's doorstep. The idea marijuana had medical benefit was a new one to my husband and me. Later, however, we told Keith what we had read. We were desperate.

29. Keith told us that while he was in the hospital in Columbus he had met other cancer patients who were receiving chemotherapy. These patients told him about smoking marijuana to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy. According to Keith, these other cancer patients said marijuana really helped reduce the vomiting.

30. As a parent, I was strongly opposed to mari-juana and other illegal drugs. My husband and I made sure our sons knew exactly how we felt We told them we never wanted them to use such drugs for any reason. We do not doubt our sons may have tried smoking marijuana at one time or an-other while growing up, but we are also sure our sons had no drug problems and no illusions about our stern opposition to drug use.

31. It was hard to believe an illegal drug could be of any help. We thought the government would know if marijuana had medical value and, if so, would make it legally available to patients by prescription. We made a few calls. One of the people we contacted was our State Representative, Robert Young. We asked Representative Young if there was any way we could legally obtain marijuana so our son Keith could try it and see if it helped.

32. I was surprised when Representative Young told me a bill to legalize marijuana for the treatment of glaucoma and cancer was scheduled to come before the Michigan legislature. Representative Young also gave me the name and phone number of Mr. Roger Winthrop, a man who was working with a number of Representatives and Senators to help enact the Michigan "Marijuana as Medicine" leg-islation.

33. I then contacted Mr. Wirothrop. He provided my husband and I with informa-tion on marijuana and on the drug's medical use, including its anti-emetic effects relative to cancer chemotherapy treatments. We learned phy-sicians and patients in a number of states had already succeeded in passing state laws to make marijuana available to seriously ill patients like Keith.

34. Shortly after my husband and I read these materials, Keith had to be hospitalized for another round of chemotherapy and observation. As always, the chemotherapy made him dreadfully sick.

35. We could not stand by and watch our son suf-fer. After a short discussion, we decided we had to get some marijuana for Keith. My husband and I are an older couple and we did not have the slight-est idea where to find marijuana. In desperation, we contacted a close friend, an ordained Presby-terian minister. He worked with a number of local youth groups and we thought he might have some contacts. He listened quietly while we explained our problem and asked for his help.

36. Several days later, at 10:30 p.m., this minister showed up at our door. He told us he had managed to obtain some marijuana. It was the first time we had ever seen mari-juana.

37. The next day we took the marijuana to Keith in the hospital. After Keith smoked the marijuana, there was a dramatic improvement in his nausea.

38. Before smoking mari-juana, Keith would vomit and retch for at least eight hours following his chemotherapy injection. Then he would vomit less frequently but would become overwhelm-ingly nauseated and unable to eat. This inability to eat would continue until the beginning of his next chemotherapy session, when he again would start to vomit. The process would repeat itself.

39. Marijuana broke this cycle. After Keith smoked marijuana, his vomiting abruptly stopped. It was amazing to see. None of the anti-emetic drugs prescribed by the doctors had been effective. Now, with just a few puffs of marijuana, Keith was no longer vomiting. It was a sudden, abrupt change.

40. Marijuana also put an end to Keith's nausea. When he smoked marijuana, he was constantly hungry and could eat. He actually began to put on weight. His mental outlook also underwent a startling improvement.

41. Prior to smoking marijuana, Keith would go to his chemotherapy, come home and rush upstairs. He would shut himself in his bedroom and stuff towels under the door to keep out the smell of dinner cooking. He would not join us for dinner and would remain in his room or the bathroom vomiting for the rest of the evening. The cancer and chemotherapy made Keith act like a wounded animal — timid and retiring. He would stay in his room and vomit. He would have intense hot and cold flashes, his joints became swollen and painful, his hair fell out and he felt sick all over. The anti-cancer drugs were so toxic Keith could pull off large pieces of skin where the chemotherapy injec-tions had been given.

42. Smoking marijuana dramatically changed all of this. Immediately before chemotherapy Keith would smoke one marijuana cigarette. Following chemotherapy he would smoke all or part of a second marijuana cigarette if he felt queasy. On good days Keith didn't have to remain in the hospital after his chemotherapy treatments. When we got home, Keith would stay in the living room and talk with his brother and father. He would join the family for dinner, where he would eat more than his share. He became outgoing and talkative. Keith became part of our family again because marijuana controlled the debilitating symptoms of his chemotherapy.

43. Once my husband and I saw the dramatic improvement in Keith's condition, we made certain all of his doctors and nurses were aware of the situation. None objected, and some clearly ap-proved.

44. We made arrangements with the hospital for Keith to smoke marijuana in his hospital room. This would save him from having to smoke in the parking lot before chemotherapy and allow him to smoke in his room after chemotherapy.

45. Even though use of marijuana is illegal, many people at the hospital supported Keith's marijuana therapy. No one at the hospital doubted marijuana was helpful and no one discouraged Keith from smoking marijuana to control the adverse effects of his anti-cancer therapies. In effect, reasonable people apparently decided the law did not match the reality of Keith's — and other patients' — needs.

46. My husband and I came to resent the fact Keith's marijuana therapy was illegal. We felt like criminals. We are honest, simple people and, we hated having to sneak around. I was uncomfortable with our closest friends, our minister, and our other son, Marc, having to risk arrest in order to provide Keith with the marijuana he so obviously needed. I also wondered about other parents who might have a child suffering from chemotherapy who might not know marijuana could help end their child's misery, or who did not know how to obtain marijuana.

47. My husband and I approached Keith and asked him if we could tell his story to the newspaper. I told him it might help other cancer patients. He agreed, on one condition: that we not give the newspaper details about the nature of his cancer or of the surgical procedures which resulted in the removal of his testes. As a young man in his twenties, Keith wanted at least this much of his life to remain private. We quickly agreed to this condition.

48. A reporter for the local paper (The Bay City Times) came to our house, listened to our story and wrote an article which appeared on March 11, 1979. The story began:
"Keith Nutt of Beaverton doesn't care who knows he uses marijuana. It is the only thing that relieves the terrible nausea that follows chemotherapy treatments for cancer, says the 23-year-old man. Right now, Keith is still able to drive to his sources of marijuana. If the time comes when Keith can't get out of the house to buy the illegal drug, his mother, Mae Nutt, 58, says, 'that's where I come in! But it shouldn't be necessary to break the law to get help for a child who is very, very ill.'"

49. On the same day this article appeared, we went to Lansing to testify before the Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearings were on a bill to legalize marijuana's medical use by Michigan glaucoma, cancer, and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

50. During our testimony, one senator asked Keith if his doctors knew he was smoking marijuana. Keith, in an effort to protect his doctors and the hospital, said his doctors did not know he was smoking marijuana.

51. Doctor Barnett Rosenberg, the inventor of the new chemotherapeutic drug Cisplatin, which Keith was taking, also testified at the hearings and spoke in favor of the legislation.

52. Following the hearings, we spoke privately with Dr. Rosenberg. He was strongly supportive and encouraged Keith to keep smoking so he could continue with his chemotherapy treatments. Dr. Rosenberg told us many of the cancer patients in his test programs smoked marijuana while receiv-ing chemotherapy.

53. Several reporters also spoke with Dr. Rosenberg. One story, which appeared after the hearings in a local newspaper, The Gladwin County Record, quoted Dr. Rosenberg at length. A por-tion of the story notes:

The Nutt family was backed up by Dr. Barnett Rosenberg, a Michigan State University biophysicist, credited with the discovery of a new platinum-based cancer treatment. Rosenberg told the commit-tee cancer treatment drugs and radiation therapy induce intense vomiting and nausea. Although the research isn't complete yet, Rosenberg said it appears marijuana is the most effective drug for eliminating the painful side effects of cancer treat-ments. Rosenberg said doctors can now treat can-cer patients with marijuana if they get federal Food and Drug Administration approval. But the pro-cess is time consuming and requires extensive re-search and study of each patient involved. Because of federal restrictions the Michigan bill may not make it easier for doctors to obtain marijuana for cancer patients, he noted. [Rosenberg] said he testified to increase public awareness of marijuana's potential [benefits] for cancer patients.

54. Following the Senate hearings, there was con-siderable publicity about Keith. We began receiv-ing phone calls from other cancer patients in Michigan and throughout the United States. Many were seeking help. Keith often spoke with these patients late into the night, sharing information and trying to help.

55. Cancer patients and their relatives who lived close to us called and asked Keith for help and advice regarding how to smoke properly, how much to use, and how often. On several occasions Keith went on "house calls" to teach patients how to roll the cigarettes or properly inhale the smoke. This involvement with other seriously ill patients gave Keith great joy. He loved being able to help his fellow patients escape the dreadful side effects of their anti-cancer treatments.

56. One day, shortly after the hearings, we found a small brown bag of marijuana in our mailbox. There was no note, no identification, just an ounce or so of marijuana. Soon we received more mari-juana in the mail. An Episcopal priest brought marijuana to our house. He told us he wanted to put it to good use and felt we would know who might benefit from it.

57. Most of the people who sent marijuana to us did not identify themselves. As news spread through the grapevine, however, we heard from some fa-miliar folks. For example, we received a call one day from a woman who had attended elementary school with Arnold. She asked us to her home. When we arrived, she told us she had something for us and produced a cigar box filled with mari-juana. She explained that her husband, recently deceased, had smoked marijuana to help control his pain. She had no use for the marijuana but did not want to throw it away.

58. It seemed to me many cancer patients were smoking marijuana. In my experience, most pa-tients made an effort to inform their doctors. Most physicians, wanting to avoid the pitfalls of "a politi-cal issue," knew their patients were smoking mari-juana and approved. Like Dr. Rosenberg, these physicians accepted that marijuana was therapeu-tically helpful in reducing nausea and vomiting. Unlike Dr. Rosenberg, most doctors were not will-ing to say in public what they told their patients in their offices: "Get some marijuana."

59. Throughout the spring and summer of 1979, Keith continued his chemotherapy treatments and smoking marijuana. He continued to assist other patients.

60. In early October 1979, my husband and I re-turned to Lansing, Mich., for additional hearings before the House Committee on Public Health. Keith was not with us. He was back in the hospital. Despite his continuing chemotherapy treatments his cancer was spreading and growing worse.

61. We testified again. On this occasion we were joined by another family, the Negens, from Grand Rapids, Mich. The Negen family had testified at the earlier hearings before the Senate, but had not given their names. At the time of the Senate hearings their daughter, Deborah, then 21, was in remission from her leukemia. At the second hearing, however, her leukemia was no longer in remission and she was receiving chemotherapy treatments again.

62. The Reverend Negen is pastor of the very conservative Dutch Christian Reform Church in Grand Rapids. He spoke of how he had prayed for guidance and had come to realize if getting marijuana to help his daughter through the terrors of chemotherapy offended his congregation he would leave his church. He knew he was breaking the law. But his daughter was suffering. He spoke movingly about having to send his own young sons into the streets of Grand Rapids to purchase mari-juana for his daughter's use. Marijuana was, he emphasized to the committee, the only drug that provided his daughter with any relief from the debilitating side effects of her chemotherapy treatments. It was easy for us to identify with Reverend Negen's obvious distress. He was being forced to break the law in order to provide for his daughter's medical needs. In the same way, we had to break the law to meet Keith's medical needs.

63. Deborah Negen was even more eloquent as she testified about how marijuana helped her cope with the vomiting and nausea caused by her che-motherapy treatments. She pleaded with the committee for help and asked them to consider that other seriously ill people were needlessly suf-fering. We were deeply moved by this family's anguished testimony. The story was so familiar, so close to home. We knew exactly how Reverend Negen felt about having to break the law. It is not something we did lightly, but something we were compelled to do by circumstances beyond our control.

64. Following the hearings in the House, my family received even more calls from newspapers, televi-sion and radio stations asking for more information. Cancer patients continued to call us seeking help or asking how they could help get the legislation enacted. We also received more marijuana in the mail from people trying to help Keith. Keith continued to distribute the marijuana he could not use to other cancer patients. He also continued to speak with patients who called for help, but he was very weak.

65. A week later, on Oct. 10, 1979, the Michigan House voted 100-0 in favor of making marijuana
available to patients like Keith who suffered from life-or sense-threatening diseases like cancer and glaucoma.

66. On Oct. 15, 1979, the Michigan Senate con-curred with the House and voted 33-1 in favor of making marijuana medically available to Michigan cancer and glaucoma patients for use under medical supervision. The following day The Detroit Free Press' Lansing Bureau Chief, Hugh McDiarmid, wrote, "Compassion Wins In Marijuana Vote."

67. On the evening of Sunday, Oct. 21, 1979, my husband went to say goodnight to Keith. We told Keith the Michigan Marijuana-as-Medicine bill would be signed into law the next day. Keith was happy his effort had made a difference. He smiled and said goodnight.

68. Early on the morning of Oct. 22, 1979, Keith died. Later that day Michigan's Lieutenant Gov-ernor, James Brickley, signed the Michigan Con-trolled Substances Therapeutic Research Program into law.

69. During the time Keith smoked marijuana to alleviate the adverse side effects of his chemo-therapy treatments he never once experienced an adverse effect from marijuana. It was clear to us marijuana was the safest, most benign drug he re-ceived during the course of his battle against cancer. Certainly marijuana was immeasurably safer than the lethal chemotherapeutic agents which were supposed to prolong our son's life.

70. Following Keith's death, there was a tremen-dous outpouring of comment. People we did not know and had never met sent us touching cards and letters praising Keith's efforts to help others. We continued to receive calls from newspapers and other media sources asking about Keith. It was clear to me Keith had deeply touched many people throughout the country. Despite my grief, I felt extremely proud of Keith for having had the courage to publicly discuss his disease and to fight to legalize medical access to marijuana so other patients could benefit.

71. In recognition of Keith's efforts, the Michigan legislature passed a Joint Resolution declaring in part: "Be it resolved by the Senate that our sincerest tribute be accorded in memory of Keith Nutt."

72. Several months after Keith's death, I went to see the oncologist who had helped tx-eat Keith. I asked if he needed any volunteer help. He accepted the offer, and I helped to care for other cancer patients.

73. A short time after I began work, the doctor sent a pa-tient to see me. The patient was suffering from debilitat-ing nausea and vomiting and had threatened to stop taking her chemotherapy because of the adverse side effects.

74. I remembered how my son had reached out to other patients. We still continued to receive mari-juana in the mail, though not as much as before Keith's death. The Michigan legislature had au-thorized marijuana's medical use, but acknowl-edged it would be at least 90 days before the state could begin to distribute federally approved sup-plies.

75. After some soul searching, my husband and I decided to use the marijuana Keith left behind for the benefit of other cancer patients. The doctor and his staff quickly learned if a patient was having a bad time they could send the patient to us for help. We would provide the patient with marijuana.

76. Before long we had a booming clinic. As more people became aware of what we were doing, we began receiving more marijuana in the mail or we would find a bag of it on our porch. The more marijuana we collected the more patients we could supply.

77. Within a very short time, I became known as the Michigan "Green Cross," and I was nicknamed "Grandma Marijuana." Doctors in several surrounding counties began sending patients to me for help. On occasion, patients who tried to get into the state program, which was not yet operational, were referred to me. I never asked these patients who in the State Department of Public Health was referring them to me. I simply did what I could to help anyone who had a legitimate medical need for marijuana. I never ran into any jokers; it is hard to fake cancer.

78. Most of the time patients quickly understood how to smoke marijuana. On some occasions, however, we had to provide them with help. I do not smoke. I found a woman in her mid-40s who had smoked marijuana at one time. Together we would make house calls to teach uninitiated pa-tients the basics of marijuana therapy.

79. The "Green Cross" continued throughout the spring and summer of 1980. On several occasions I received calls from patients in the southern part of Michigan or from out-of-state. I occasionally mailed marijuana to such patients.

80. I also tried to adapt marijuana so patients who could not or would not smoke marijuana could also benefit from the drug's medicinal properties. I soon learned I could boil marijuana and butter in a kettle of water for several hours, then let the mixture cool and use the butter which floated to the top.

81. Patients could either eat the butter on bread or bake it into cookies or brownies. However, dos-age problems led me to start putting the butter into capsules.

82. I obtained the capsules from a hospital phar-macy. The pharmacy knew what we were doing and did not object in any way. The capsules made it simpler for those patients who did not want to smoke and who could not stand the smell or taste of food to get relief.

83. On one occasion a mother called. Her young daughter, around five, was undergoing chemo-therapy treatments. The little girl could not smoke. Her mother had made brownies and these worked. But, on occasion, the little girl had fallen asleep after getting her chemotherapy and eating a brownie. Her parents did not wake her up to take another brownie. As a result, when the little girl did wake up, she began retching and vomiting. The mother wanted to know if there was some other way to use marijuana other than smoking or eating.

84. After speaking to some doctors and nurses, we decided to put pinholes in the capsules so they could be used as suppositories. We quickly dis-covered that this proved to be a highly effective alternative. While the relief was not as fast or as predictable when marijuana butter was used in this manner, patients did get relief from nausea and vomiting. Interestingly, we learned several years later federal drug agencies had attempted to de-velop a THC suppository and failed.

85. Despite promises from the Michigan Depart-ment of Public Health, the state marijuana program took far longer to develop than expected. Legis-lators, patients, physicians, researchers, and others throughout the state were pressing for action.

86. It seemed federal agencies were undermining the intent of the Michigan law. Instead of a com-passionate program of patient care, research, and treatrnent, the federal agencies wanted to create a highly structured, very limited program of pure research. Instead of allowing physicians to treat patients and reach their own judgments, the FDA demanded detailed, complex, and standardized physician reporting procedures.

87. FDA and the Michigan Department of Public Health took nearly one year to implement the Michigan program.

88. The program that emerged from this constant bureaucratic friction was an administrative night-mare for doctors and patients alike. Instead of providing seriously ill patients with compassionate, legal access to quality controlled supplies of marijuana, the program became a research project in the hands of a limited number of physicians at the larger cancer centers. The welfare of patients did not seem to be a criteria under the federal government's procedures.

89. I realized the program my son, Keith, had worked so hard to enact was in serious trouble when the doctor who treated Keith, who knew about marijuana's medical benefits, and who was anxiously awaiting his chance to sign up, decided to drop out. I was furious. He, of all people, was abandoning the state program.

90. He explained he was practicing medicine. The conditions, regulations, reporting, and other requirements of the state program had grown so dense and restrictive he felt they would intrude on his practice of medicine. He said he simply did not have the administrative staff or the time necessary to handle all of the paperwork involved.

91. In 1982, after two years of conflict between the Michigan Department of Public Health and FDA, the program continued to have problems. Patients and physicians throughout the state informally boycotted the program. Physicians and patients decided it was easier to get marijuana on the streets than to deal with the complex paperwork and reporting requirements.

92. In an effort to maintain marijuana's Schedule I classification, federal agencies have failed to ag-gressively pursue information on marijuana's me-dicinal properties and have blocked state efforts to make the drug available for medical applications.

93. In response to the conduct of federal agencies, the Michigan legislature enacted a Resolution detailing these concerns. In part, this Resolution of the Michigan legislature declares:
Federal agencies have...through regulatory ploys and obscure bureaucratic devices, resisted and obstructed the intent of the Michigan legislature.... Glaucoma and cancer patients, promised medical access to marijuana under the laws of Michigan, are being deprived of such access by federal agencies.

94. After outlining a series of complaints, the Resolution then calls on the president and the Congress to seek appropriate legislative or administrative remedies. In part, the Michigan Resolution calls for systemic reform. The Resolution reads:

That the Congress of the United States be urged to seek to remedy federal policies which prevent the several States from acquiring, inhibit physicians from prescribing, and prevent patients from ob-taining marijuana for legitimate medical applica-tions, by ending federal prohibitions against the legitimate and appropriate use of marijuana in medical treatments.

95. As the Michigan program became more and more bureaucratic, there were fewer and fewer physicians or patients willing to tolerate the regu-latory excesses federal agencies demanded. After several years of work, and despite the efforts of many individuals, we realized there was little more we could do. We lost interest in the Michigan state program. I think it has become virtually useless to the doctors and patients that I set out to help.

96. It has been seven years since Michigan enacted a law to make marijuana legally available to patients with glaucoma and cancer. I still work occasionally at the doctor's office and for the last five yeafs I have also worked in a local hospital's cancer ward. Doctors are still telling violently ill patients to smoke marijuana to relieve their nausea and vomiting and the patients are still getting marijuana off the streets. People who work closely with cancer pa-tients know patients are smoking marijuana.

97. Marijuana is being used medically, but not legally. I know many doctors who quietly support marijuana's medical use. Yet, I do not know one doctor who is actively participating in the Michigan Marijuana Therapeutic Research Program. In fact, I have yet to meet a single Michigan cancer patient who ever obtained marijuana legally, through a doctor.

98. Despite its problems, it appears that Michigan fared better than most states in dealing with marijuana's inappropriate Schedule I classification. The doctors in Michigan who did participate in the limited programs that were developed reported great success. It is my understanding nearly 300 cancer patients in Michigan received marijuana during their chemotherapy treatments. Marijuana successfully reduced nausea and vomiting for the vast majority of these patients. Equally significant, there were almost no adverse effects reported.

99. I am saddened the compassionate intent of the law my son helped enact has not been realized because of federal policies. However, I know that Keith, through his efforts, helped hundreds of desperately ill cancer patients in Michigan and throughout the country to become aware of marijuana's medical benefits.

100. The available studies show marijuana is medically safe for therapeutic use.

101. Michigan and more than 30 other states have legislatively recognized marijuana's medical utility. Hundreds of physicians throughout the country are telling their patients to smoke marijuana. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of patients with glaucoma, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other disorders are gaining relief from smoking mari-juana. As a parent, I once had to confront a stark choice — obey the law and let my son suffer or break the law and provide my son with genuine relief from chemotherapeutically induced misery. I chose to help my son. Faced with the same choice again, my husband and I would help our son again. We are confident any parents confronting such circumstances would make the same decision.

Affidavit of Mae Nutt, "In the Matter of Marijuana Reschedul-ing Petition," Dkt. 86-22 (U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, May 13, 1987).