IMMLY Statement on Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act Hearings

Is My Medicine Legal YET?
www.IMMLY.org & www.JRMMA.org
For immediate release: Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009

IMMLY Statement on Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act Hearings

Is My Medicine Legal YET? is looking forward to hearing from the people this bill is about - patients - at the combined health committee hearing on Tuesday Dec. 15, 2009.

And while many patients will be able to attend and share how cannabis benefits them, we remind committee members to be mindful that what they see and hear Tuesday only represents the proverbial "tip of the iceberg".

For every patient that can make their particular painful journey to Room 412 East of the State Capitol at 10am, there will be thousands more who will be unable. Some are bedridden, others may be isolated or without a means of transit. Some are just too scared to even say the "M" word and would not consider breaking the law even to save their own life, even if begged by family.

And there are those patients for whom the hearing comes too late, like our dear friend Mary Powers, a disabled Army veteran and IMMLY board member who lobbied tirelessly for passage of Wisconsin medical cannabis legislation, lobbying Capitol offices up until two weeks before her death Oct. 22, at 50 from cancer, AIDS and Hepatitis C. Mary did whatever she could but died without legal access to the life-sustaining medicine she fought so hard for.

IMMLY's 2002 poll and another from 2005 established that 70-80% of Wisconsinites support legal access with a doctor's note. The people of our state understand they may need this medicine some day. Passing the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act intact correctly removes this issue from the realm of the criminal justice system and places it squarely back where it belongs, in the hands of patients and their physicians. Medical cannabis is healthcare.

Is My Medicine Legal YET? is a Mondovi and Madison Wisconsin based grass roots patient and caregiver organization dedicated to advancing public education about the medicinal benefits of cannabis. For further information contact Jacki Rickert at 715.926.4950 or Gary Storck at 608.241.8922 or visit the IMMLY websites at www.IMMLY.org and www.JRMMA.org.

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Updated Monday, December 14, 2009