MAKE MARIJUANA LEGAL FOR PATIENTS

I suffer from severe epileptic seizures. Over the years doctors have
prescribed me some of the strongest anti-seizure medications
available, to no avail. I read that marijuana has shown promising
results for epilepsy patients and tried it. Once I began smoking
marijuana, my seizures completely stopped. I smoked marijuana for
over a year until I started going to church. Two weeks after I
stopped smoking marijuana my seizures came back with a vengeance.

I'm a devout Christian. I've expressed my opinions about medical
marijuana to members, pastors and theologians from different
denominations and have found that the majority of Christians I've
talked to support medical marijuana.

HB642, the Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act, will come up in
committee in late March. It would protect doctors who recommend and
patients who use marijuana for medical reasons. Please contact the
House Judiciary Committee and your representative and urge them to
pass this bill.

Fourteen other states and the District of Columbia have passed
medical marijuana legislation. But, because I reside in Alabama, I am
considered a criminal for trying to alleviate my suffering.
Geographic location should never determine criminality. I am a
patient, not a criminal.

Samuel Barksdale

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