MEDICINAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE LOSES BATTLE WITH CANCER

Medical marijuana advocate Michelle Rainey died Wednesday night from
cancer, which she had been battling for more than a year.

The 39-year-old passed away at her home in Maple Ridge with her
husband, Jeff Tek, and her mother Emilie at her side.

"The drug and peace movement has lost a warrior," said her friend and
fellow activist David Malmo-Levine.

Rainey was receiving high doses of an experimental tumour-fighting
cannabis treatment to fight melanoma and lymphatic cancer when she
died.

"While the treatment didn't save her," Malmo-Levine said. "There is
important information that needs to be looked at."

Diagnosed with an inflammatory bowel disease at 17, Rainey was in the
middle of a successful 10-year banking career when she had to undergo
two surgeries to remove damaged parts of her bowel.

For years, a cocktail of prescription drugs failed to curb the
disease's symptoms, so she tried marijuana to relieve her nausea.

It worked and she was able to wean herself off every prescribed
medication.

Rainey joined the marijuana movement in the late 1990s after meeting
self-proclaimed Prince of Pot Marc Emery while working at a bank in
Gibsons.

Together, they started the B.C. Marijuana Party and she helped Emery
run his multi-million dollar cannabis seed business.

In a statement posted on cannabisculture.com earlier this month by
Emery, he wrote: "Considering the considerable pain her health has
given her, she was heroic in so many ways and represented the movement
with class and clout."

Rainey was his "teammate", the person who made sure his employees were
paid, "marijuana seeds were shipped on time, the producers paid and
happy, the media fully informed, Pot-TV running smoothly."

Rainey and Emery's relationship soured after they and Greg Williams
were indicted in the U.S. on charges of growing marijuana, conspiracy,
seed sales and money laundering.

In July 2009, Rainey and Williams were sentenced to two years
probation in Canada. Emery decided to sign a plea deal for a five-year
sentence, which he is currently serving in a U.S. federal prison.

In Maple Ridge, Rainey was an articulate and vocal advocate for the
medicinal marijuana movement, speaking out recently in support of
marijuana dispensary and against a bylaw to prevent medical grow
operations in Pitt Meadows.

She was at the helm of an alternative medicine journal, Treating
Yourself Magazine, and helped many navigate the maze to get a medical
marijuana exemptions from Health Canada.

Emery wrote: "She was an engine for great change in the world,
committing money, her health, and her whole soul into this great
movement that is forever in debt to her."

A memorial for Rainey is being planned.