Cannabis Routinely Changes Lives

Don Murphy’s Testimony

In 1999, while serving in the Maryland legislature,  Don had a conversation  with Lt. Col. Darrell Putman, a Vietnam veteran who was using cannabis to treat cancer with his doctor’s approval. Putman asked the tough-on-crime legislator, “Do you think I’m a criminal?” Murphy, remembering his own father’s painful cancer death, said, “No.” “Well, you’re a lawmaker, and unless you do something to change the law, I am,” Putman responded.

That interaction, just two months before Putman’s death, led to passage of Maryland’s Darrell Putman Compassionate Use Act and sent Murphy around the country testifying and educating on behalf of patients in dozens of states and on Capitol Hill. 

  • No person should be in prison or have a criminal record for simple non-violent possession of cannabis.

  • Doctors, patients, and their families should make medical decisions without undue interference.

  • No employee should lose their job or future employment opportunities due to prior cannabis use.

  • Veterans should not lose their rights to receive the medical treatment they choose and deserve.

  • Low taxes and minimal fees are the best antidote for the illicit market.

  • Limited licensing and lack of access to capital reduces diversity in the industry.

  • Free market principles and low barriers to entry do more to advance social equity than legislated mandates.

  • A thriving industry (supply) is best for patients and consumers (the demand).

  • Federalism (Descheduling) surpasses a one-size-fits-all federal policy (Legalization).

  • Access to medicine should not be determined by where you live.

  • Incremental policy success beats ‘historic’ comprehensive failure.

  • It is not the government’s job to pick Winners and Losers in the cannabis (or any other) sector.

Amy Kearney

Cannabis has been a game-changer for me.

It's my go-to for pain relief, melting away stress, and ensuring a good night's sleep. With its help, I've found a better balance in life. It's not just a plant; it's my daily dose of well-being.

  • Tiffany Woodman

    Cannabis literally changed my life by helping me manage and live with high anxiety. My anxiety negatively affected people around me and myself. My brain couldn’t slow down to let me use the tools I had but cannabis has changed everything. Now I can slow down, breathe, and it let’s the person I am inside, shine through. My life, relationships, and self love became so much easier.

    Being able to safely access it and know what I’m purchasing is the only way I can consume. I need to know and trust the brands and the fact that it’s certified by the state. Without it being legalized here I would never have used and seen the benefits.

  • Trent Packer

    I am medically retired from the Army. I did not have to be. I am because of how government doctors took care of pain for the military. I was extremely hooked on oxycontin. That addiction over all is why I medically retired. After I finally resigned from the Army. I went through a bad time in life with addiction with no treatment. I didn’t become addicted to oxy from abusing it, I took it as prescribed. They didn’t take me off it for four years until I asked to be sent to rehab. The only thing that was able to help me initially get off oxy and through the withdrawal was smoking a tiny amount of cannabis or smoking a little more hemp. I actually preferred hemp more. If it was not for cannabis. I would most likely be dead

  • Sarah Joy Price

    I was working in the industry for 4 years, and it felt very much like going to school to learn about cannabis, since I had to be up to date on all the different forms people could consume, and all the strains coming out. I absolutely loved it! I was able to try everything on a regular basis so I could explain to my customers how it would affect them and what to expect. For myself personally, smoking has helped me through some very rough times where I dealt with depression and anxiety. I fully support legalization so that people of all demographics can enjoy the health and mental benefits of cannabis!

  • Nikki Lawley

    I discovered cannabis as a medicine after surviving a traumatic brain injury sustained while working as a nurse. Cannabis was never offered as an option to explore and after being on 16 pharmaceuticals at the same time, I discovered cannabis. I credit cannabis as saving my life as I was suffering from chronis pain of my head and neck, anxiety and depression, and major cognitive function challenges.

  • Elitha Diaz

    I got really sick about 10 years ago and my life completely changed. I had to leave my job and find something I could physically do, which lead me to the cannabis industry.

    I learned how to use cannabis as medicine and my life changed again. Having access to cannabis is the reason I can eat food, hang out with my family and drive in a car for longer than 15 minutes.

    Cannabis is the reason I am able to still work and make a living.

    Cannabis has given me my life back.

Leah Heise

For me, I truly believe that without cannabis I would no longer be alive.

In 2001, I was a federal prosecutor interviewing with John McCain to be the Chief Counsel for the Ocean Subcommittee (part of the Finance Committee). Unfortunately, I was hospitalized and diagnosed with a disease called chronic pancreatitis. At the time I was told there was no cure, placed on a toxic load of opiates (methadone as the main pain killer with a nice kicker of dilaudid for breathrough pain) as well as Xanax. I lived in and out of the hospital having recurrent pancreatic attacks that left me exhausted, sick and in pain.

In 2015, after a major pancreatic surgery that left me hospitalized for several months and created even more damage to my pancreas, I left my doctors and went to another practice. They recommended I try cannabis to alleviate pain and reduce inflammation.

I have not been hospitalized with pancreatitis since 2016. I do not have diabetes. I am able to maintain my weight. I can work and enjoy a productive life bringing this incredible plant to the world. Despite the fact that on an MRI, my pancreas looks like it needs to be removed...I am thriving.

Since entering the industry, I have built and scaled two MSOs to public exit, built and sold a dispensary and helped scale a science conference to acquisition. It is a miracle plant.

Stella Morrison

I’ve loved cannabis my entire adult life for both medical and recreational purposes, but it took two pivotal moments to embrace the plant as part of my professional calling. 

The first was reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. That book steered my pro-cannabis stance in a new direction, one in which I realized cannabis legalization could not be uncoupled from the need to repair the trail of destruction left in criminalization’s wake. 

The second was several years later, in 2017, when my co-founder and I realized that we could participate in cannabis as marketing professionals, not just as aficionados. We did not think or know that was a possibility open to us as East Coasters who were in then-medical only states. 

After that moment, it didn’t take long to join a community of others, particularly in NYC, that fervently unite love of cannabis with a desire for justice and a professional drive to succeed. 

There is room for all three focal points - passion, justice, and economic opportunity and growth - in a federally-legal cannabis industry. Beyond simply making space, these three elements are essential for the creation of an equitable and fair industry that they can participate in if they so choose. How this future legislation is shaped is key to holding these three pillars in equal balance and giving all, especially those most affected by the harmful War on Drugs, an opportunity to be a part of a new era. This new era must not be marked by stigma or complicated by policies that, inadvertently or intentionally, lock out small businesses of all kinds.

You do not need to lose sight of the “why” to be successful in this industry.

My hope is that a future federal legalization law will reflect the same.

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