Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A Judge’s Plea for Pot

I first learned of medical marijuana in the mid-1980s, when a friend of mine was undergoing chemotherapy for AIDS-related cancer.  (He died in 1989.)

By GUSTIN L. REICHBACH

THREE and a half years ago, on my 62nd birthday, doctors discovered a mass on my pancreas. It turned out to be Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I was told I would be dead in four to six months. Today I am in that rare coterie of people who have survived this long with the disease. But I did not foresee that after having dedicated myself for 40 years to a life of the law, including more than two decades as a New York State judge, my quest for ameliorative and palliative care would lead me to marijuana.   

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