The doctors told Regina Denney and her son Brian Smith Jr. what was causing his severe vomiting and abdominal pain.

Neither the teenager nor his mother believed what they said: smoking weed. Smoking marijuana, the two knew, was recommended to cancer patients to spur the appetite. How could it lead to Brian's condition? As the months went by and the pounds slipped off Brian’s once healthy frame, it was clear that whatever was causing his stomach troubles had just the opposite effect. Brian kept smoking. The symptoms continued on and off. Last October, after another severe bout of vomiting, the teenager died. He was 17 […]