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Xeni Jardin updates her struggle with breast cancer: “Herb seems the least worrisome”

The BoingBoing coeditor continues to offer personal live updates of her treatment, most recently with her perscription for medical marijuana. 

 

Jennifer Abel

IRL

Posted on Feb 1, 2012   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 10:02 pm CDT

BoingBoing Coeditor Xeni Jardin never bothered with marijuana until last December. That’s when her first-ever mammogram resulted in a breast-cancer diagnosis. She’s been live-tweeting her experiences since then. She even changed her Twitter account bio to specify: “Breast cancer isn’t something I have, but something my body is currently doing.”

As a California resident, Jardin has the legal option of obtaining a medicinal marijuana prescription. The day before New Year’s Eve 2011, Jardin tweeted, “I’ve been drug-free for years. Am now holding a letter that makes it legal for me to use cannabis for chemo symptoms. Life’s interesting.” Later that day, she explained why she chose cannabis over all other options:

Compared to the chemo drugs, all of the pharmaceuticals prescribed to mitigate their side effects, and so on—herb seems the least worrisome.

So far it looks like Jardin’s treatment is going well, and on Monday she filled her first prescription for medical marijuana. Then Jardin posted a photo of it to Instagram, where it received 40 likes and an offer for a “voodoo vaporizer.” (She politely declined.)

Anyone hoping to see a High Times-style photo of a lush, luxuriant plant shiny with sticky THC resin will be as disappointed as a Playboy subscriber finding a fully clothed centerfold. Jardin’s photo shows a prim white pharmacy bag next to her caption: “This is the bag my post-chemo medical cannabis comes in, from the marijuana dispensary.”

The bag is printed with an Rx logo, the words “Thank you!” and other tropes found on pretty much every drugstore-pharmacy shopping bag in America, but at the bottom of the bag there’s something different—an assurance that the contents are “[in strict] compliance with CA Prop 215” (the voter initiative that legalized medical cannabis in the state).

In the comments on the photo, Jardin explained, “[The bag is] stapled shut when you leave the dispensary.”

Jardin has not yet shared the results of what happened when she got home and opened the bag in strict compliance with Prop. 215. Here’s hoping those results proved wonderful for her.

Photo by Xeni Jardin

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*First Published: Feb 1, 2012, 11:26 am CST