MONDOVI WOMAN, 48, WON'T FACE DRUG CHARGES

She Has Admitted Using Marijuana To Relieve Pain, Give Her An Appetite

Drug charges will not be filed against a disabled Mondovi woman who said
she smokes marijuana for medicinal purposes, an official said Wednesday.

Buffalo County District Attorney James Duvall declined to file charges
against Jacki Rickert after police confiscated a small amount of marijuana
from her home last month.

"I will not file charges because of the particularly unusual facts of the
case," said Duvall, who declined to comment further.

Rickert, 48, weighs 98 pounds and uses a wheelchair because of debilitating
illnesses. She admitted using marijuana to relieve chronic pain and to give
her an appetite.

When Mondovi police showed up at her home in March to investigate a theft
complaint, an officer asked Rickert if she had marijuana in her house. When
Rickert told them she did, police got a search warrant and confiscated
marijuana and other items from her home.

Rickert could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But her daughter said
she was happy to learn from a reporter that charges would not be filed
against her mother.

"I was hoping for this," said Tammy Rickert, 28. "Mondovi is a very small
area and my mom is a very quiet person, never harmed anybody. She's kind of
a church mouse.

"I'm extremely happy. I think they realized that if they put my mom in jail
it would kill her," she said.

Rickert suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder,
and reflex sympathetic dystrophy. She has lost much of her muscle and fatty
tissue, and her joints dislocate easily.

She lives on her own but relies on caregivers for help. Rickert said in
March she was allowed to participate in a federal program where the
government issued marijuana cigarettes for medicinal purposes. But the
program folded before she received government-supplied marijuana, Rickert said.