Most families in this country have lost a loved one to cancer, and while each experience is different, most share some characteristics, especially if the loved one undergoes chemotherapy.
In my family, my mother and father both died of lung cancer. My mother smoked for almost 50 years, but gave it up when she was diagnosed. My father never could quit and was sneaking cigarettes until a few days before his death.
Both made decisions early on that they would go out fighting and would subject themselves to any treatment available, no matter the dramatic nature of the side effects.
My father underwent radiation therapy, and both had aggressive regimens of chemotherapy.
The radiation therapy made my father’s hair fall out, but the effects of the chemotherapy on my parents were even more shocking. They lost weight; they were sick all the time. They were in pain. They couldn’t eat.
That, perhaps, was the saddest effect of all. People suffering terminal illness who couldn’t even enjoy the comfort of their favorite foods in their last months on earth.
I’m going to confess to a crime here, but I think the statute of limitations has probably run out.
At one point, I bought some marijuana from an old friend and gave it to my father. The results were immediate. It invigorated his appetite. It quieted his nausea, and also made his constant pain more bearable. It even improved his mood and his outlook. I made the same offer to my mother, but she declined on the grounds that even if it might help, it was still illegal and she didn’t want to spend what little time she had left in court, or jail.
Since then, I have been a staunch advocate of legalizing marijuana for medial uses. It seemed to me that people with terminal or debilitating illness should have every option available to them that might lighten their loads. The last thing they should worry about is whether smoking marijuana might be a “gateway” to the use of stronger narcotics.
And the argument that legalizing marijuana for medical uses sends the wrong message to children seemed simply ludicrous. Even very young children know the difference between medicine and illegal drug use. And if we can’t explain that difference to them, then we are not doing a very good job as adults.
New Jersey has been a holdout among states nationwide that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, but it looks like it is finally about to change — in part because of the case of John Ray Wilson. Wilson suffers from an autoimmune disease that affects his central nervous system and is facing felony drug charges because of the pot he used to help him get by. Because they don’t want to see this sick man in jail, state legislators have put a bill to legalize medical marijuana on the fast track.
The state Senate approved the bill recently and it is expected to pass the Assembly as well. It’s hoped that Gov. Jon S. Corzine will sign it before he leaves office in January, but even if he doesn’t, incoming Gov. Christopher Christie has said he is generally supportive.
I say good for them. It’s about time.
And kids in this state are pretty smart. They’ll understand what’s going on.
• • • Greater Media Newspapers, and its publication the Sentinel that covers Middlesex County including Helmetta, has published stories about the rehabilitation of the old Helme snuff mill for years.
In 2007, the borough Planning Board gave the developers, Kaplan Cos., permission to build an adult community of 225 residences at the 32-acre site.
There were age restrictions on the approval, in large part because while Helmetta stood to benefit from the redevelopment from increased taxes, it didn’t want the cost of educating any children who might live there. Helmetta’s taxes are already some of the highest in the county because it sends all its children to other districts to be educated, and that’s a pricey proposition.
A state law signed last summer by Gov. Jon S. Corzine, however, allows developers to convert portions of their projects to non-age-restricted properties as long as the dwellings have not been sold and 20 percent of the units
are set aside for affordable housing.
Kaplan Cos. has asked the borough to eliminate the age restrictions on its snuff mill development, and testimony on that request will begin this week.
I don’t know how that will eventually shake out, but here’s a little bit of information parents might want to know before they move to Helmetta.
Joe Sapia, a New Jersey newsman and resident of Helmetta who sends out occasional emails about the environment in that community, recently sent out a shocker.
According to Sapia, people told him that an actual alligator has been seen on several occasions at Helmetta Pond. The supposed ‘gator is said to be 5 feet long and has been spotted sunning itself on an island on the woods side of the pond.
Sapia didn’t see the creature himself, couldn’t confirm what is basically a rumor, and noted that even if there is an alligator in Helmetta Pond, it’s unlikely to survive the winter.
But alligators are survivors, and this one’s demise — if it’s there — is not guaranteed.
Just something I thought folks thinking about moving into the old snuff mill with their kids might want to know.
• • •
I’ve mentioned before how much I love the History Channel, but I saw something last week that made me laugh out loud.
The program was about Roman gladiators and the spectacles that sometimes had 5,000 of them fighting to the death over a period of weeks. These spectacles were highly choreographed events that required lots of planning and split-second timing. And do you know what the people who produced those spectacles were called?
They were called editors!
It turns out that in Latin, an editor is someone who puts something forward, and editors put forward, or produced, the gladiator games. If the emperor wasn’t on hand, it was the editors who decided who lived and who died.
Again, just something to keep in mind the next time you write a letter to the editor in which you call the editor a derogatory name or impugn the editor’s morality or ethics.
You reporters already know what can happen if you cross that line.
Gregory Bean is the former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at [email protected].