Dear Senator Correa,
I don’t know if you remember me but we met on election night 2006. I was the tall, blonde lady with Aaruni Thakur and his lovely wife Pamela. I was an OCYD canvasser who helped you squeak out your election over Ms. Daucher (who by the way sent out calendars and pens and all kinds of cool swag but of course I voted for you!). One of the pins that campaign gave me said, ‘Pot Heals.’ I have a jacket from which that pin has never been removed.
Despite my chronic anxiety I was able to help the campaign that year largely due to my medicine. I had actually applied for a much easier, better paying job as a taxi driver. I paid over $230 that I really didn’t have for permitting and drug testing with my application to OCTA after they promised that my medical marijuana would be exempted. They lied.
Despite months of searching, I have not been able to find suitable employment without a drug testing requirement. I’ve been self-employed before and have temporary financial support until the decision on my disability benefit is made, but I’m still scared. If my businesses are unsuccessful or my benefits are denied, what then?
Fact is, the way most people lose thoughts when they are affected by marijuana is very similar to what I feel like when I’m not. Instead of my thoughts being too slow, they race too quickly for me to remember. My medicine allows me to exist at the same pace as the rest of the world. Without it, I find it hard to concentrate. hard to eat. hard to sleep, and I tremble. A lot. My eyes go in and out of focus, I get light-headed. I oversleep yet wake up exhausted. The smallest problem causes me to have a panic as if a family member had died. It’s like a series of miniature heart-attacks. My doctors agree that marijuana is not only a beneficial medicine to treat to my condition, but the most effective, most natural remedy for it.
Please, I urge you to support Assembly Bill 2279, which would ban employment discrimination against patients who use medical cannabis in compliance with state law. Employees who possess a physician’s approval to use medicinal cannabis should possess similar workplace protections as do those workers prescribed other prescription drugs, many of which are far more impairing than marijuana.
In many cases, marijuana is a superior and all-natural substitute for other, more dangerous FDA-approved prescription drugs whose use is protected under California law.
Please vote for ‘Aye’ on AB 2279 and end discrimination against California patients.
SMS
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