[420 Girl]

As a glaucoma patient fighting each day to save my precious eyesight, I had been using cannabis for 10 years and had lobbied for the bill. The Therapeutic Cannabis Research Act passed both houses easily. Similar legislation was passed in more than two-thirds of U.S. states.

Unfortunately, these bills were written with the expectation that the federal government would supply the program's medical marijuana. With federal authorities unwilling to supply marijuana to sick and dying U.S. citizens, the law became symbolic.

While Dreyfus remained a supporter of medical marijuana in his later years, many of the Republican legislators who followed him in state government have blocked medical marijuana legislation.

This session, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act is awaiting action in the Assembly's Health and Healthcare Reform Committee. Chair Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, a nurse, has stated that the bill will not receive a hearing. If the bill does not receive a hearing soon, it will die in committee like previous attempts dating back more than a decade.

Polling has established that popular support for medical marijuana exceeds 80 percent in Wisconsin. As an advocate for medical cannabis, I constantly receive calls from patients and family members who indicate there is a crisis in pain management in our state. I know the good folks who call me represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Memo to the GOP leadership: The sick and dying are not your enemy. I get calls from Republicans too. Let's get this done, this session, in honor of the memory of not only a man ahead of his time, Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus, but also the thousands of Wisconsinites who died in pain. Please make passage of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act a true priority when the Legislature reconvenes Jan. 15

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