I have a good friend whose mom had ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease. I'm so sorry your mom has received that diagnosis. That's not a good disease to have, and it's an awful progression to watch.

Go ahead and try and read up on some of the basics. It's not hopeful, good news, but the second site below has info on clinical trials. The more you know, the better. Especially regarding ALS.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/a...lsclerosis.htm
http://www.alsa.org/

Be very careful about giving her cannabis, Geonagual, at least for smoking. My friend Patti learned this the hard way. Her mom was receptive, too, but ALS is a motor-neuron disorder, so it affects the nerves that support the muscles of the body--all of them, inside and out. Patti's mom had muscle/nerve pain and numbness, too, along with weakness. She'd been a smoker of cigarettes a long time before, and so Patti thought smoking cannabis would work for her. Well, it didn't. She didn't have the nerve/muscle strength to cough effectively, and she reacted violently to the two inhalations she was able to take in but couldn't really clear her lungs. The irritation was overwhelming, and it seemed to aggravate her muscle weakness in her chest. If you can, do as much research into cannabis and ALS first, and after that, check with her doctor. It's just not worth it to do something that might cause discomfort. And with ALS, things get progressively worse as it is. My recommendation would be let her doc give her Marinol if he thinks it'd be helpful--or to have her try real cannabis in something edible. Hash tends to work best for medical, edible applications, at least from what I've read. You also need to give consideration to what strain (Indica vs. Sativa) she would be using and what effect that might have.

There are plenty of people who've had good luck with combining cannabis and ALS, and we have three or four members here who use cannabis to treat other types of sclerosis and motor-nerve diseases/dystrophies. Do a Google on "cannabis and ALS" and you'll see some good reports. If it can relieve the depression and help alleviate the salivation/drooling that can be troubling, that's good. But in my friend's particular case, it backfired.

My heart goes out to you and your mom, Geonagual. I'm so sorry.