Special Report: Damn the Doctors--and Washington

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The state-by-state movement to legalize drugs of questionable value has chiefly involved Laetrile, which is already being used illicitly by tens of thousands of American cancer sufferers. The substance is smuggled into the U.S., mainly from Mexico. No reputable studies have found evidence to support claims that the drug cures or prevents cancer (TIME, May 23). Its use is opposed by the American Medical Association, and Dr. Frank Rauscher, American Cancer Society senior vice president for research, insists: "We know doggone well that Laetrile doesn't work." But backers put their faith in tales of miracle apricot-pit cures and refuse to be dissuaded. Many are impatient with the pace of cancer research and suspect that doctors and the drug industry are more interested in profits than cures. The median cost of conventional cancer treatment, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, is about $19,000 per patient; Laetrile goes for $1 a capsule and about $10 a shot.

Although some urban liberals are working to legalize Laetrile, the campaign is led by the Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy, based in Los Altos, Calif., which is dominated by right-wingers, including members of the John Birch Society. Well-financed and well-organized, the group claims to have 25,000 members, including a few Communists, meeting in 450 local committees across the country.

Bumper Stickers. To whip up enthusiasm for the bills, supporters have packed committee hearings and state house galleries with vocal supporters, many of whom are elderly. In Wichita, Kans., Virginia Wilson held a Laetrile taste-in at her home, featuring fresh fruits, lima beans, beets and carrots, which proponents claim are rich in the substance. She also showed a 45-minute pro-Laetrile film called World Without Cancer. At the Illinois state house, some 300 Laetrile backers passed out blue-and-white bumper stickers that read: LAETRILE WORKS! YOU BET YOUR LIFE. In Massachusetts, supporters delivered to the legislature 40 shopping bags stuffed with more than 12.000 pleas for legalization of the drug.

Many of the bills' sponsors are cancer sufferers or relatives of patients, and fervently believe in Laetrile. New Jersey Assemblyman John Gregorio, whose father has cancer and whose mother and two uncles died from it, takes regular doses of the drug.

The arguments are often strengthened by the testimony of cancer victims who claim they have been helped by the substance. In Texas, explains anti-Laetrile Lobbyist Ace Pickens, "legislators said, 'Oh hell, if it doesn't do them any harm and if it gives them any hope, why not let them have it?' " Otherwise, says Arizona State Representative Herb Everett, "we are making criminals out of those who want to use Laetrile." Most potent of all has been the plea that people who are dying from cancer should be free to try even worthless cures. The New York Times agrees, and California Governor Jerry Brown believes that people should be allowed to ingest anything that has not been proved to be harmful.