"Scientists have learned that marijuana smokers are less immune to certain health problems than are nonsmokers"(Somdahl 39)#. This is because the drug stops white blood cells from growing. Though marijuana can cause problems, advocates say it can also assist people with certain illnesses. In 1996 voters in California and Arizona passed laws making marijuana legal for health purposes under these laws, marijuana can be used only if a doctor recommends it. Cannabis boosts patients" spirits, helps them to eat and combat the excessive weight loss of wasting syndrome, and is also a potent antiemetic. Just a few puffs of marijuana cigarette can drastically reduce or even completely eliminate the gut-wrenching nausea triggered by chemotherapy and radiation treatments. "Whatever the mechanism it follows, studies on cancer patients in New Mexico, California, Michigan, New York, Georgia, and Tennessee found that cannabis often reduced nausea and vomiting when all available prescription drugs failed to work"(Conrad 89)#. Another illness marijuana helps is AIDS. Many people with AIDS have an improved appetite and weight gain after they began smoking cannabis. People with AIDS who use cannabis regularly allows them to continue to live a more normal life with relatively few side effects. One last illness that is helped from marijuana is asthma. Marijuana smoke is an excellent dilator of the tiny air tubes in the lungs called the bronchi and the bronchioles, opening them up to allow more oxygen into the blood. Smoking marijuana can actually relieve asthma by relaxing the bronchial muscles and expanding the bronchioles. This facilitates the exchange of gases within the lungs and increases the total oxygen flow. The smoke acts very quickly, and a few puffs can bring fast relief to an asthmatic attack. Marijuana smoke contains components that cause small, temporary lesions in the lining of the lungs, which heal quickly with no demonstrated long-term effect.