Lesbian rocker Melissa Etheridge says that she believes marijuana should be legalized after she needed to rely on medicinal doses to deal with the pain caused by her breast cancer diagnosis in 2004.
Etheridge underwent strong "dose dense" chemotherapy after her diagnosis, she wrote on
CNN.com. She was advised to use marijuana "as a natural way to help with the excruciating side effects of chemo. It worked. The entire experience changed my life. It opened my mind to a new way of thinking about my body, my health and the future."
Etheridge was moved to write about her medicinal marijuana use because of the
ACLU's recent report, "The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Report."
"The ACLU report on racial bias in pot possession arrests is enlightening. The fact that people of color are arrested four times more often than whites is disturbing. This imbalance is coming to a head. We can be the generation that makes the change. We live in a nation that holds freedom as a sacred right."