GLENVILLE RESIDENT CONTINUES PUSH FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

He bicycled through it all - torrential rain, golf-ball sized hail,
too-close-for-comfort tornadoes, treacherous lightning. And now, he's more
determined than ever to continue his fight for medical marijuana legalization.

Glenville resident Ken Locke embarked on a bike trip across the United
States to try to rally support to change medical marijuana laws. He began
on April 7 in Folly Beach, S.C., and ended 3,283 miles later on July 2 in
San Francisco, Calif.

"I figured I bit off a bigger piece of the apple than what I could chew
because I haven't ridden a bicycle in over 28 years, so the first few weeks
were pure punishment," Locke said. "I went through unbelievable muscle
pains, second-degree sunburns and a lot of crying because it hurt. But
after the fourth week into it, I got used to it, and it was on."

On Nov. 13, 2001, Locke was struck in the head by a tree that fell 85 feet,
and it shattered the front part of his skull. Doctors surgically removed
four hematomas from his brain and used 12 screws and six metal bridges to
hold the part of his skull that they reconstructed into place. This injury
was so severe that Locke had to relearn how to do everyday activities,
including walking.

"When you get hit that hard in the head and live, they said I should be
drooling and nonfunctional, but I'm very functional," Locke said.

Locke attributes his functionality to medical marijuana - something he said
has helped him tremendously, far more than any pharmaceutical drug ever
has. He took himself off the pharmaceutical drugs prescribed to him after
his surgery because in the one year he took them, he had two seizures, lost
an unhealthy amount of weight and suffered from extreme depression. After
he was hospitalized for his seizures, he decided to never again take
pharmaceutical drugs because he did not want to have to go through the pain
he associated with them. That's when he started using marijuana medically,
and he said he experienced positive effects almost immediately.

"I thought, 'God made it, so I'm going to give it a try,' and I dumped my
pills down the toilet," Locke said. "Thank God for the plant He created -
because of it, I am healthy, prescription-free, alive and happy.

"I still face day-to-day problems with this injury, but I'm doing a lot
better than I would be with popping pills."

Locke decided to embark on the bike trip because he said no one listens to
the voices of people who suffer from pharmaceutical drugs. He also wanted
to break the stereotypes associated with medical marijuana users.

"I want to bring awareness that these people are not boozers or
unmotivated; we're good people with lots of perseverance, and the FDA and
the government need to give us a chance," Locke said. "Back in our history,
when women went to get the First Amendment and African Americans did the
same thing, it did not cause chaos, and we want the same treatment - we're
exercising our rights just like they did."

Locke started his trip riding with area residents Hugh Hinote and Tony
Ball, but he rode alone for about two-thirds of the trip. He said the
support he received was "amazing," and he estimated that 99 percent of the
people he came across supported him.

"We stopped at a gas station in Canton, Ga., and I went in to get some ice
for my bottle, and the man in the store looks at me and says 'I know you,'
and I told him 'Sir, I have never been here before.' He said 'You were on
CNN three days ago - you are the man riding across the United States for
medical marijuana patients,' and I told him 'Yes sir, I am.' [He] insisted
on shaking my hand, [giving us] free drinks and donated some funds for the
trip, and he got two shirts which he asked to be signed by us," Locke said.

But not everyone was as friendly.

"We had [police] following us from Folly Beach to the Colorado state line -
highway patrol, state troopers, town police, helicopters, police on
motorcycles - they were looking for every reason to shut that bike trip
down, but they didn't," Locke said.

Another unpleasant run-in Locke had with law enforcement came in Turtle
Creek, Kansas. At 12:05 a.m., Locke heard a knock on his truck, and when he
opened the door, five officers were standing there, demanding that he let
them search his vehicle. Because of the numerous banners and stickers on
his truck, the police said that "raised red flags" so they needed to search
it, but Locke refused to comply.

"I said there is no law that says that you can't have multiple banners or
stickers on your vehicle, and they argued with me," Locke said. "They
brought K9 in, they got on my truck, all around it, and stomped on all my
breakfast food. Then the dogs went to my trash bag, and [the police
officer] said 'My dogs are telling me you have drugs in that bag,' and I
said 'It's all table scraps; I think your dogs are just are hungry.' I said
I could dump my bag out on the ground to prove it to them, but they said
never mind. They said they would come back with a search warrant, but they
never came back."

But the outpour of support he received outweighed the negative incidents
like these, Locke said. He received loads of hugs and kisses from people
with a variety of illnesses - AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis - who were
positively affected by medical marijuana.

During his three-month trip, Locke had run-ins with cougars, antelopes,
deer, bears and more - as well as dangerous weather, like a tornado storm
that wiped him off his bike in Kansas.

"I hit the ditch so [the tornado] could touch down, and then I went on,"
Locke said.

He also rode through a desert in Utah surrounded by pillars full of bullet
holes, something he was a bit wary of, but he pushed through it - all
because he wants others to experience and understand medical marijuana's
life-saving effects.

And Locke is not done peddling for medical marijuana legalization yet - he
will ride his bike alongside paraplegics in their wheelchairs from Oct. 19
to 23 in Ohio; in April 2007, he will ride from Asheville to Raleigh; and
in April 2008, he will ride from Berkley, Calif., to Washington D.C.

Locke hopes he receives 100-percent support from Cashiers-area residents.

"People here seem to support what I'm doing, but you have a few that claim
to be so-called Christians but have no compassion in them and won't listen
to what people have to say because they see [marijuana] as a drug - they
fail to acknowledge it is a creation by God," Locke said. "If they did some
research, they would find out that the anointing oil Jesus used in his days
is 60 percent cannabis oil."

Locke hopes to see medical marijuana legalized throughout the United States
because "if we are a democracy, the laws should be changed," he said.

"I want to get out and speak to people and share the truth about cannabis,"
Locke said. "I can't turn my back on sick people. [This is] my calling from
God, and if I don't step forward, shame on me."

For more information on Locke's trip, or to view video testimonies on how
medical marijuana has improved lives across the United States, visit
http://www.j4j7.info.