A Personal Story by Stormy Ray

I'm a grandmother of seven who grew up believing that marijuana had no place in my life. I was Type-A personality with a career, children, and a keen mistrust of drugs.

In 1985, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and my body was shutting down fast, both from MS and from all the pharmaceuticals I was given to mask the symptoms.

I was wasting away, physically drained, unable to eat, my body was continually contorted from pain and muscle spasms. I was not going to live much longer, my family had begun preparing for my death.

It was at this point, during the lowest period of my life, that a friend held something to my lips and told me to breathe in. The smoke had barely reached my lungs when I began to relax and the pain subsided. Since that day, I have been able to control the brunt of the pain with medical marijuana alone.

-- In 1998, Stormy Ray was asked to be the chief Petitioner for Measure 67 along with Dr. Rick Bayer. In November of 1998 voters proclaimed Oregon would not put patients in jail for using medical marijuana, and a month later OMMA became law.