ily-Saturday, May 17, 1980-Page 11
Cancer
patients
can soon
procure
legal pot
LANSING (UPI)-Legal marijuana
finally will be available to some
Michigan cancer patients by next
week-nearly seven months after a
measure approving the program was
signed into law-officials announced
yesterday.
Lt. Gov. James Brickley said a ship-
ment of 900 marijuana cigarettes is ex-
pected to arrive in the state Monday or
Tuesday from the National Institute on
Drug Abuse. Only six physicians
currently are authorized to prescribe
the drug, although another 20 are ex-
pected to receive permission soon.
OFFICIALS HAD no estimate when a
second program providing pot for
glaucoma sufferers will begin, even
though both were supposed to be ready
to go 90 daysafter the bill was signed
last October.
Public Health Director Maurice
Reizen defended his agency's handling
of the matter, saying the delay in
preparing the program and obtaining
needed federal approval was less those
experienced in other states.
"The state of Michigan got approval
faster than any other state in the United
States," he said, adding others have
waited as long asa year.
' It's a question of perspective," he
said. "I think we did pretty well."
Here's lookin'at you AP Photo
Colonel Moran, right, watches as the Kentucky Derby winning filly Genuine Risk takes a walk past her stable at Calico
Race Course yesterday. Both horses are entered in today's 105th running of the Preakness.
HOUSE HUNTERS FACE NEW DIL EMMA:
Buy home now
and AP taking out new mortgages at the lower
From UPI nrates now in effect and by repaying
With mortgage rates at 17 per cent their original debts ahead of time.
and beyond a month ago, the choice was The process is complicated, however,
easy. Today at 14 per cent or less, the and penalties and other costs can make
house hunter's new dilemma is whether the switch expensive.
to buy now or wait a little longer. IF INTEREST RATES continue to
Meanwhile, home buyers, who took fall, purchasing a home too soon will
out mortgages at record interest rates add painful extra interest charges. The
earlier this month-only to watch the difference on a $50,000, 30-year, 14 per
rates take a nosedive-don't have to cent mortgage many lenders now offer
suffer through years of high monthly and one at 12 per cent is $78.14 a mon-
payments. th-$28,130 over thelife of the mortgage
They can renegotiate their loans by assuming no refinancing is arranged.
Experts redict steadily
worsening nat'l economy
(Continued from Page 1)
think the government's April figure ployment.
was on target. "FIRST OVERTIME hours are out,
"It doesn't make sense from what we then part-time workers are laid off,"
know from the field, which is that con- Gough said in a telephone interview
struction activity all but stopped," from his office in Lexington, Mass.
Sumichrast said. "The next step is layoffs for primary
HE PREDICTED two more months employees."
of decline before construction levels off. He predicted that unemployment
The declines in manufacturing and would rise from 7 per cent in April to
housing industries came after recent more than 8.5 per cent by next year.
reports that retail sales slumped for the That would translate to an increase of
third consecutive month in April. All more than 1.5 million jobless persons
signal rough sledding ahead for the over April's 7.3 million unemployed.
economy. Unemployment already is at ex-
Robert Gough, director of national tremely high levels in the auto and
forecasting for Data Resources Inc., housing industries.
said the toll would be taken on em-
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STEVE'S LUNCH
* We Serve Breakfast A ll Day *
- Try Our Famous 3 Egg Omelet *
with your choice of fresh bean sprouts, mushrooms,
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See Us Also For Our Lunch & Dinner Menus
1313 S. University Open Tues.-Fri. 8-7, Sat., Sun. 9-7
or wait.
But delay can mean losing a good buy
on the right house. And there's no
guarantee rates will drop further or
won't bulge upward again later this
year.
A UPI nationwide survey of housing
professionals, including lenders,
builders, and realtors shows most feel
the biggest rollback in rates already
has taken place. Those who can afford
today's still-high rates won't do much
better by waiting.
BUT POTENTIAL buyers generally
aren't convinced that rates have
reached bottom, leaving the housing
outlook in limbo.
"People think interest will go a lot
lower, to 10 per cent," said mortgage
broker Robert Brown of Nickels &
Smith Co. of Minneapolis. "That won't
happen-it will be more like 11 per cent
and 12 per cent-but if they think rates
will go down, they will wait."