WHEELCHAIR USERS IN CAPITAL TO SUPPORT MEDICAL MARIJUANA

COLUMBUS - Tiffany Landreth traveled from Dallas to join the trip. Dan
Asbury of Oregon just rolled down his driveway for the excursion.

Ms. Landreth and Mr. Asbury are wheelchair users who suffer from
debilitating illness that they contend are eased by smoking marijuana.
Yesterday they finished a 140mile road trip from Toledo to Columbus to
dramatize their cause.

Tired bodies and callused palms not withstanding, Mr. Asbury said the
five day trip, which started Monday, is only the first of what he hopes
will be several wheelchair excursions from points in the Buckeye State to
the Statehouse.

The trips are a protest against action by state lawmakers, who earlier this
year closed a loophole that had created a legal defense for ill people who
used marijuana as a medicine.

"We want to show other people that this isn't a closed issue," Mr. Asbury
said. "The firestorm has just begun."

A Columbus police officer on a motorcycle escorted the group of eight
disabled people and three accompanying vehicles into downtown and stood by
while Florida resident and glaucoma suffer Elvy Musikka lit and smoked a
marijuana cigarette, a legal act in the Sunshine State.

Ms. Landreth, 26, has a degenerative spine condition that causes nerve and
muscle spasms. Smoking marijuana eases the discomfort, she said.

Texans who support her efforts donated money so she could join the trip.
Ohioans along the way gave her the encouragement she needed to finish it,
she said.

"Every time someone stood in their front yard and said, "we support your
cause," that would keep us going."

Mr. Asbury 41, who suffered a spinal injury, was arrested in 1995 and
convicted of trafficking when marijuana plants were found in his Oregon
yard. A judge suspended a prison term.