In a tribute in the Herald-Tribune earlier this year, Floridians learned about one of the many heroes in the long struggle for medical marijuana in Florida, a brave woman named Cathy Jordan. Jordan spent 22 years leading the fight to bring medical marijuana to the people suffering from long-term and chronic conditions in the Sunshine State.
It was a personal fight for her as well, as, during that entire time, she was also suffering herself. Diagnosed some 24 years ago with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, she found that medical cannabis was one of the only things that helped to treat her symptoms.
According to the Herald-Tribune, Jordan always knew that victory would be tight, but that it would always come.
“I always knew we were going to win,” she said in an interview.
Medical Marijuana in Florida
ALS can be devastating, but it’s only one of the illnesses for which Florida residents can now receive approval to begin medical marijuana treatment. In Florida, and here at Marijuana Doctor, the following list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis include but are not limited to:
- Cancer
- Epilepsy
- Glaucoma
- HIV/AIDS
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Crohn’s disease
- Parkinson’s disease
- Multiple sclerosis (MS)
There are related conditions that may qualify patients also, and those need to be discussed with a physician or caregiver. And it took a long, hard fight in Florida for patients to have the right to use medical marijuana for these conditions. Which brings everything back to the main point here.
These are five things learned from Cathy Jordan, over the long course of her fight with ALS, and with the Florida authorities to find reasonable access to lifesaving medical marijuana.
Five Essential Things Learned from Cathy Jordan’s Activism
1. Even the weakest among us can make a big difference: Maybe this is just part of being human, but everyone who needs help can contribute to the good of all of us, by speaking up, being counted, and making their positions known. Jordan attended protests and actions in a wheelchair. It was the only way she could make her way there, but thousands have now benefitted and will suffer less, because of the extra effort she made.
2. “There’s no shame in sickness.”: Jordan’s husband Bob remarked the Herald-Tribune this past March. Bob spent the past 22 years, not just watching his wife suffer from what’s long been considered a fatal disease. He spent those years cultivating and perfecting a strain of perfect but still perfectly illegal Marijuana to treat her condition. It was the only thing that worked. When she was diagnosed, Jordan’s life expectancy was about five years. Rather than submit to the shame and despair of the illness, the couple fought back. They suffered police-raids, the confiscation of the plants growing in their garden, and the humiliation of being treated like criminals. And that’s all in addition to being ill in the first place.
3. Marijuana is medicine: It may be a lot of other things, too. But for Cathy Jordan, and others like her, outliving a five-year life expectancy takes courage, an outstanding will to live, and determination. But now outliving your life expectancy, in Florida anyway, doesn’t mean you’ve also got to fight to get the medicine keeping you alive. No black markets. No seedy illegal dealers. No risks to your name or your police record. And that’s a pretty big deal.
4. Florida is NOT the most screwed-up state in the Union: We’re sometimes just one hanging chad away from throwing in the towel. But Cathy Jordan showed us, too, that sticking with system and fighting within the courts and the legal channels that we’ve got can pay off. Sometimes it’s a slog, even a long, hard, miserable slog. But in the end, Cathy Jordan won, and so did thousands of others who will suffer less and enjoy far better quality in their lives.
5. The world is better when you decide for yourself: During the debate as to whether the 2016 amendment allowing medical marijuana could still let the state ban “the smoking” of medical marijuana, it looked like we’d lost. It looked like some law-and-order types would stop at absolutely nothing to prevent you from deciding what’s best for you. Cathy Jordan helped win that battle too.
So, you can decide.
You still need to talk to your doctor, but when is that a bad thing? Marijuana Doctor is here to help you navigate the process from beginning to end and supports all of our veterans who have served in the armed forces. We have board-certified physicians to evaluate your case and determine if you could benefit from medical marijuana.
After you’ve received a recommendation, we’ll help you with the registration process with the Florida Department of Health as well. Best of all, the process is risk-free with a 100 percent money-back guarantee. If you don’t qualify, you don’t pay.
You can check to see if you’re eligible for a medical marijuana card in Florida, or you can schedule an appointment online with us now.
Contact Us
If you believe that you may qualify for a Florida medical marijuana card, don’t hesitate to ask for help! Call us at (844) 442-0362 or schedule your free consultation online.
