PRESS RELEASE: WISCONSIN MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACTIVISTS TO TRAVEL TO WASHINGTON DC TO ASK, “IS MY MEDICINE LEGAL YET?”
For immediate release August 20, 2003
WISCONSIN MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACTIVISTS TO TRAVEL TO WASHINGTON DC TO ASK, "IS MY MEDICINE LEGAL YET?"
Mondovi & Madison Wisconsin - Two longtime Wisconsin medical marijuana activists are helping to spearhead a Washington D.C. memorial for a New Jersey multiple sclerosis patient and fellow medical marijuana activist who died of complications from the disease on June 7. Jacki Rickert and Gary Storck, from the group, Is My Medicine Legal YET? (www.immly.org) will be traveling to Washington to memorialize the late Cheryl Miller (www.cherylheart.org), and visit congressional offices with other medical marijuana patients and advocates September 22-23, 2003. The two worked closely with Cheryl and her husband Jim, joining them on a number of lobbying trips to Washington, including one in 1999, when Jim Miller was arrested as the foursome blocked the former Georgia Republican Rep. Bob Barr's office doorway, to protest his opposition to medical marijuana. Barr went on to lose a GOP primary in 2002 after the Libertarian Party began airing a tv commercial featuring the seriously ill and paralyzed Cheryl Miller asking Barr why he would keep medical marijuana from her
(http://drugpolicycentral.com/real/cherylmiller.rm).
Events will include a candlelight memorial vigil at the U.S. Supreme Court on the evening of September 22, and a press conference and lobbying day on September 23. Supporters who cannot make the trip to Washington will be encouraged to contact congressional representatives by phone on September 23. Earlier on the 22nd, multiple sclerosis patients attending the event will visit offices of the MS Society to protest the group's refusal to support legal access to medical marijuana for MS patients, and their failure to provide accurate information on the medicinal benefits of marijuana
IMMLY founder and director Jacki Rickert said, "It's going to be really hard to go to Washington and not see Cheryl. From the first time we met back in 1997, we really hit it off. We made a pact - we would be friends and sisters for life. Cheryl was one person I could never say no to." Rickert said she and Cheryl had dreamed for years of holding a candlelight vigil for medical marijuana patients in Washington, "She kept asking, 'this time?' It's not like seeing Cheryl's physical presence, but believe me, she will be there." Rickert adds, "She'll have the best seat in the house." .
"I last saw Cheryl in Washington last summer," said IMMLY director of communications, Gary Storck. "The Millers and I were part of a press conference in the Capitol, for last session's medical marijuana bill. That day, we started planning what would have been Cheryl's 10th lifetime trek to Washington for late spring, but she ran out of time. Nevertheless, her spirit will definitely be with us at the Supreme Court, the halls of Congress and at the D.C. office of the MS Society." Storck added, "I can't think of a better way to celebrate her life and honor her memory than by doing what Cheryl loved to do."
For further details, please visit the website of the Cheryl Miller Memorial Project:
http://www.cheryldcmemorial.org/, contact IMMLY director of communications Gary Storck, 608.241.8922/608.217.4136 or IMMLY Founder Jacki Rickert 715.926.4950, or visit the IMMLY website at www.immly.org
-30-
|
