Cannabis caravan on way to capitol

As Elvy Musikka prepared to fire up a marijuana cigarette, she looked into
a TV camera and said, "We have to break the law every day. [But we're] not
criminals."

Ms. Musikka, a Hollywood, Fla., resident who has glaucoma, says she smokes
10 marijuana cigarettes a day to ease her condition.

In Florida it's legal to do so. In Ohio, it's not.

That's why Ms. Musikka joined quadriplegic Dan Asbury of Oregon and six
other people with debilitating illness in front of Mr. Asbury's Wheeling
Street home yesterday. The group left for Columbus in a caravan that
included two motorized wheelchairs, a scooter, and three support vehicles.

The group expects it will take them five days to reach the capitol, where
they will protest a decision by the legislature last winter to close a
loophole in state law that provided a legal defense for ill people who use
marijuana for medicinal purposes.

A more immediate concern, however, was whether the Ohio Highway Patrol will
allow the wheelchairs to complete the 140mile trek, which organizers are
calling a "Journey for Justice." State law considers motorized wheelchairs
the same as pedestrians, which means they must travel against traffic.

However, Lee Kay, the event's organizer, who has severe rheumatoid
arthritis, said the caravan will mostly travel with traffic, which is what
it did as it headed down Curtice road toward its first overnight stop in
Fremont.

The caravan stayed partially on the berm, so vehicles were able to get
around it with relative ease. No state troopers were in sight.

"We will do our best to try to follow the law," Ms. Lee said.