At four years old I was on the front lines of medical marijuana prohibition in our state of Kentucky. My father, an awarded Purple Heart Vietnam Veteran, was murdered on his own soil by exploding bullets without any negotiation attempts and while his arms were in the air. The slaying of my father happened after seven long traumatic hours, while thousands of tax dollars were being wasted by multiple enforcement helicopters flying directly overhead and by overwhelming amounts of law enforcement, which were continuously arriving throughout this Sunday morning and afternoon.
My father had 13 cannabis plants in his vegetable garden and he took medical marijuana for multiple aliments which would have qualified him, today, to become a medical marijuana patient. But my father choose to improve the quality of his life, by taking medical marijuana, while state law wrongfully prohibited its possession and growth. As a result I screamed out my father’s name, Gary, after being stunned by law enforcements gun blasts and seeing my father draw his last breath and depress onto our ground.
Law enforcement was able to bring war to our land, to choose firing multiple professional grade firearms toward my father, my mother, and myself, killing my father, injuring my mother with a head wound, and covering me in both of their blood, to the extent, I, even thought I was shot. And law enforcement was able to call all of their actions on that Sunday just in the name of the law. The slaying of my father and the shattering of my family is not just! Cannabis is medicine and has been known and used as such for over five thousand (5000) years!
No one deserves to fear their state using military equipment and tactics against them for medicating with marijuana. My father defended his accurate belief of marijuana being a medicine for him in 1993 and the 20th anniversary of my father’s murder will be here next august. Our state law needs and is ready to be changed. After 20 years since I witnessed one of the most devastating cases of medical marijuana prohibition, I wonder if Kentucky legislators and their voters will have captured this feasible and necessary opportunity to change our depriving and life shattering state policy regarding medical marijuana by passing the Gatewood Galbraith Medical Marijuana Memorial Act during our 2013 General Assembly.
Our patients and families in Kentucky deserve to be protected by the enactment of the Gatewood Galbraith Medical Marijuana Memorial Act. Please get involved. Take a few minutes and inform your districts congressmen that our patients are not criminals and we deserve safe access to this effective medicine without fear of state penalties. Continue to raise awareness of our well written medical bill and the necessity for Kentucky to join the 18 other states, along with the District of Columbia, who have enacted similar legislation to our Gatewood Galbraith Medical Marijuana Memorial Act of 2013! Thank you.
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