Marijuana Is a Wonder Drug When It Comes to the Horrors of Chemo
After a successful surgery to remove a cancer-
ridden section of Jeff Moroso’s large intestine
in the spring of 2013, the oncologist sat down
with his patient to prepare him for what would
come next: 12 rounds of punishing
chemotherapy, once every two weeks for six
months—standard practice for the treatment
of colon cancer.
Moroso’s oncologist spent most of that
appointment writing prescriptions for
medications he said would minimise the
debilitating side effects of chemotherapy.
He gave Moroso scripts for ondansetron
(Zofran) and prochlorperazine (Compazine)
for nausea, and lorazepam (Ativan) for
anxiety and insomnia.
Because the nausea drugs are known to cause
gastrointestinal problems and headaches, he
also recommended three over-the-counter
medications for constipation and one for
diarrhea, as well as ibuprofen for pain.
In total, he instructed Moroso to take more
than a dozen prescription and non-
prescription drugs and supplements.
Moroso says the first three rounds of
treatment were more awful than he could have
ever imagined.
After chemotherapy, he felt so ill and weak
that he could barely stand up, and it took him
days to rebound. And the prescription drugs
just made him feel worse. “I felt real sick,
incapable of doing anything except for lying
there and trying to hang on,” says Moroso,
who is 70 and now cancer-free.
Moroso couldn’t afford to lose days of work
while he was doing his chemo.
He’d heard from friends and read in the paper
that cannabis can help a patient through
chemotherapy, so he got a letter from his
oncologist that allowed him to obtain medical
marijuana. (He chose coffee beans infused
with 5 milligrams of cannabis, a low dose that
he took when he felt he had to.)
By the seventh round of chemotherapy,
Moroso had dumped his prescription pills. “I
would get blasted on the stuff and be happy as
a clam, no problems,” he says.
A growing number of cancer patients and
oncologists view the drug as a viable
alternative for managing chemotherapy’s
effects, as well as some of the physical and
emotional health consequences of cancer,
such as bone pain, anxiety and depression.