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- * ** ** ******* *** ** ****** ******* * STEVE'S LUNCH * We Serve Breakfast A ll Day * - Try Our Famous 3 Egg Omelet * with your choice of fresh bean sprouts, mushrooms, green peppers, onion, ham, bacon, and cheese. 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."