This first ever Patient Protection Day 2008 was a statewide lobbying event involving medical cannabis patients from Kansas City, Joplin, Columbia, and St. Louis.
Dan’s wife is a cancer survivor.
During this day-long event, chronically ill Missourians and their advocates met with Missouri Speaker of the House, Rod Jetton. Jetton, who blocked their Cannabis Compassion Bill in 2007, was making every effort to block it again for 2008.
Though Jetton recanted his position while faced with a number of patients in his office, he later killed HB1830 by appointing it to a do-nothing committee too late in the session for it to go anywhere.
Fortunately for Missouri’s chronically ill, Rod Jetton will not be returning to Missouri’s House in 2009.
Patients presented their testimonies beneath the Rotunda of Missouri’s capital building, as their voices carried up through the adjoining floors above them and the corridors that spidered off from the domed enclosure.
The stage and sound system were generously provided by the University of Missouri, Columbia.
Jacqueline Patterson, formerly of Kansas City, conceived this, the first Missouri Patient Protection Day, during a phone conversation she had with Mark Pedersen two weeks prior to the event. She flew in from California to be a part.
Jacqueline had to move to California or risked losing custody of her children. Afflicted with Cerebral Palsy and a moderate stutter, she doses regularly with Cannabis to ease her symptoms.
Family Services of Missouri does not condone the use of cannabis to treat Cerebral Palsy or any of the other many chronic illnesses that have proven receptive to cannabis therapy. They continue to adhere to the 70 year old propaganda that blindly condemns cannabis to being a harmful drug and a danger to our nation’s young people. Apparently, Family Services does not consider “family” to be as important as politics.
Jacqueline has Cerebral Palsy
Jacqueline was featured in Showtime’s documentary “In Pot We Trust”.
Aimee has been battling Autoimmune diseases most of her life; Lupus and Crohn’s, to name only two. In 28 years, she has suffered more than most of us have ever dreamed of. Cannabis has brought her unfailing relief from pain and other symptoms during her many struggles.
Aimee battles Autoimmune Disease
Mark Pedersen of St. Louis has been a Cannabis patient for over ten years. He uses Cannabis to treat Fibromyalgia and severe migraines. For the last several years, he has been an advocate for the chronically ill and a proponent for legislative change in Missouri and nationwide.
Mark suffers from Fibromyalgia and severe migraines
Since 2006, Mark has been collecting video testimonies from Cannabis patients, their families, and physicians, from across the country, but most specifically in Missouri and North Carolina, where he has been most involved in legislation to benefit the chronically ill.
As the chronically ill step up to take an active roll in ending cannabis prohibition, America has finally been given a face to this terrible injustice. The hypocrisy that has dominated this political deboggle is dimming amidst the ever growing number of cannabis patients coming forward to tout the benefits of this age old holistic treatment.
To view all our Medical Cannabis Testimonies, please visit my youtube channel CannabisPatientNet, and to view our legislative reform, go to www.markpedersen.com, www.asawnc.org, and www.gstlnorml.org.
Cannabis Patient Network 