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Melissa Etheridge says she smoked pot during chemo


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Melissa Etheridge says she smoked medicinal marijuana to help with the side effects of chemotherapy during her treatment for breast cancer.

The 44-year-old singer, who was diagnosed over a year ago, is now cancer-free.

"Instead of taking five or six of the prescriptions, I decided to go a natural route and smoke marijuana," Etheridge says in an interview that was scheduled to air last night on Dateline NBC.

When asked how her doctors reacted, Etheridge says, "Every single one was, 'Oh, yeah. That's the best help for the effects of chemotherapy.' "

The singer says she smoked marijuana every day for her pain and symptoms and "the minute I didn't feel it, I stopped."

The use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation is legal in California and nine other states, but is against federal law.

Etheridge says she isn't concerned about federal prosecution.

"No, I didn't worry. But it was worth it."

Her new greatest hits album, The Road Less Traveled, includes the new song "I Run for Life," which is dedicated to the fight against breast cancer.

* * *

Ellen DeGeneres will get a fancy tour guide when she takes her talk show to Manhattan next month.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has agreed to show DeGeneres around the city during the comedian's Thanksgiving Week visit.

"We'll go see some theater, and we'll hang out and do some stuff there. We'll go to clubs," DeGeneres said during a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

"You'll go to the clubs," Clinton replied.

DeGeneres also congratulated Clinton on her 30-year marriage to former President Clinton. "He's the kind of person you really want to be married to for 30 years because he washes dishes," Clinton said. She added that Clinton is feeling much better since his heart bypass surgery and is working hard on his foundation and other international efforts.

Compiled from wire reports by Lifebeat editor Alexis Magner Miller

(C) 2005 The Providence Journal. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved

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