EON

Actor Patrick Swayze has turned to marijuana for help in relieving his pain from his cancer treatments, The National Enquirer had reported.

The former “Dirty Dancing” heartthrob has been battling pancreatic cancer for over a year now amid almost constant reports that he is at death’s door. Now in his final days of chemotherapy, the 56-year-old star has turned to marijuana to help him cope with what traditional medicine cannot—the side effects of this treatment.

An unnamed source told The National Enquirer that Swayze is smoking marijuana to quell the insomnia, nausea, and anxiety caused by his chemotherapy treatments.

Such “medicinal” uses of marijuana are not new. Much research has been done on marijuana’s medicinal properties. According to the National Organization for the Return of Marijuana Laws, the majority of research suggests that smoking marijuana relives pain, nausea, and glaucoma. These studies prompted many states to try to legalize so-called “medical marijuana” with mixed success. To date, 13 states—including Swayze’s state of California—has legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes.

But the federal government has yet to recognize marijuana’s medicinal properties, leaving those that legally use it in their own states vulnerable to federal prosecutions.

But federal prosecution is the least of Swayze’s concerns. He is reportedly in the third and final stage of pancreatic cancer. Pictures that showed the star as painfully thin and gaunt caused concern, and rumors to swirl, of his impending death. Recent pictures, however, are showing a much healthier-looking Swayze. A source close to the star credits marijuana for bringing back some of the health that Swayze had before beginning chemotherapy. The source told The National Enquirer that marijuana enabled Swayze to gain weight because it has helped reduce his nausea, allowing him to “keep his food down.”