The Monona Public Safety Commission forgot two important things in its flawed vote to not reduce pot fines.

In 2010 and 2014, the Dane County Board placed cannabis-related advisory referendums on county ballots. In 2010, county voters supported legalizing medical cannabis with 76 percent of the vote. And in Monona, voters gave it an even larger edge with 78 percent in favor.

In April 2014, Dane County voted in favor of legalizing adult use of cannabis with 65 percent support. Monona again exceeded the county with 67 percent in favor.

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But Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Others Weigh Getting in Business

Nothing kills a buzz like the sight of federal agents seizing tens of thousands of marijuana plants from a tribe's reservation.

One year ago, a wave of euphoria swept Indian country when the U.S. Department of Justice released a memo that many read as the feds giving the nation's more than 560 tribes an unrestricted green light to grow and sell marijuana on their reservations - even in states such as Wisconsin where weed remains illegal.

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China has nearly 1.4 billion people - four times as many as the United States' 321 million.

So, does the U.S. really incarcerate more people than China (and Russia, too)?

That is the claim from Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Joe Donald, who is challenging recently appointed state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley in the spring 2016 election.

State appeals court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, who was a candidate for the high court in 2011, and Madison attorney Claude Covelli also are running.

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The Ho-Chunk Nation may look to legalize marijuana on its tribal lands.

The tribe's electorate voted in favor of the move at a Saturday General Council meeting by a 2-1 margin. Votes at the annual meeting of tribal members are not binding, and the tribe now is studying the legal implications of the possible policy change.

"The vote overturns previous policy refusing to legalize marijuana. During the session, tribal members spoke of the health benefits and that drug addiction already a problem in the communities," said Collin Price, the tribe's public relations officer.

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Considering the article in Wednesday's paper "State rep plans anti-heroin bills," if Rep. John Nygren really wants to curtail opiate abuse in Wisconsin, he should consider sponsoring legislation legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

Research recently published by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research found that states that allow patients to access medical marijuana through dispensaries have reduced rates of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

In addition, a 2014 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that enactment of statewide medicinal cannabis laws is associated with a 24.8 percent lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rate.

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Members Must Now Design Operation on Reservation That Avoids Raids, Arrests

Now that Menominee tribal members have told their legislators to legalize marijuana, the difficult task begins of designing a profitable weed operation that does not result in the tribe or its customers getting busted.

"Tribes are treading on very dangerous grounds" when it comes to growing and selling marijuana, warned Dorothy Alther, director of California Indian Legal Services. "If I was representing tribes out there (in Wisconsin) I would say it might not be such a good idea."

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Seeking Revenue, Tribe Weighs Legalizing Use

Still burning from the January rejection of its long-sought Kenosha casino, leaders of the Menominee tribe will find out this week whether tribal members want to tap a new vice to help it find economic bliss - growing and selling marijuana.

The approximately 9,000 members will vote Wednesday and Thursday in a two-question advisory referendum asking whether the Menominee should legalize marijuana on their reservation for medical and/or recreational use. If either question is approved, tribal legislators would begin the process of writing ordinances to legalize marijuana on the reservation, located near Shawano, said Gary Besaw, tribal chairman.

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On Thursday, Gallup released a poll showing that 44 percent of Americans have said they've tried marijuana, the largest number the survey has ever recorded.

This isn't too far off from what other polls have found (this Pew Research Center poll pegged the number at 49 percent), and given that people are being asked to admit to behavior that is illegal in most places, the true number is almost certainly higher.

So we're past the point where most American adults have tried pot, which helps explain why support for legalization has also become a majority position.

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Before he tried marijuana, he thought of trying suicide. Heavy drinking hadn't helped. Nor had various pills prescribed by Veterans Affairs doctors. He was still angry, still depressed, still could not sleep.

But he found that marijuana helped. It took the anger and depression away. It took the sleeplessness away. Most of all, it took the 11-year-old boy away.

PFC Jared Hunter never knew the boy's name. He was just some Iraqi kid who liked to hang around the Army base outside Baghdad. "He didn't really speak English or nothing. He would just kind of follow us around and would point things out or tell us if there was somebody there who shouldn't have been." The soldiers adopted him as a mascot. Hunter bought him a soccer ball.

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Public, religious groups, law enforcement coalition support ending marijuana prohibition.

H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as, "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." We may think that is something from the distant past but then we are reminded of it from time to time, even in 21st century Wisconsin.

Legislation which would end the prohibition of the use of cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana) has been introduced in the Wisconsin Assembly. What has taken them so long to reform prohibition is a mystery. So far, 23 states and the District of Columbia permit the use of this herb with a doctor's prescription for medical use. A few states are treating cannabis more like alcohol.

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A 62-year-old Milwaukee man caught smoking marijuana in his federally subsidized apartment is not entitled to a second chance at keeping his home, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held Thursday.

In a 6-1 decision, the court agreed that a federal law preempts Wisconsin's five-day notice rule in evictions over criminal drug activity, and reversed a Court of Appeals ruling in favor of the tenant, Felton Cobb.

Cobb argued that he was entitled to promise not to smoke in the apartment again.

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Cannabidiol Rule, Federal Memo Raise Questions

In 1991, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the creation of the Wisconsin lottery meant Indian tribes here could open gaming halls on their reservations - a ruling that paved the way for the explosive growth of tribal casinos in the state.

Today, some tribal leaders are betting that legal lightning could strike again. This time they're hoping that lawmakers may have unintentionally opened the door for tribes to grow and sell marijuana last year when Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill legalizing a derivative of marijuana for limited medical use.

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Menominee Legislator Says Research Must Be Done First

Now that the Menominee tribe's dream of opening a Kenosha casino has gone up in smoke, the tribe is looking for a new way to raise cash - growing marijuana.

Craig Corn, a tribal legislator, opened the door Friday to growing marijuana on the reservation near Shawano. In a tweet Corn sent out Friday, the former tribal chairman said: "Now we embark on a new economic endeavor, it is time to progress forward. We are gonna fast track a effort to legalize Marijuana."

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Panel Delays Action on Ordinance

A proposed ordinance that would all but eliminate fines for possessing a small amount of marijuana in Milwaukee sparked a debate Thursday about racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Study after study has shown that marijuana use among all ethnic groups is the same, Molly Collins, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, told members of the Common Council's Safety Committee.

"In Milwaukee County," she testified, "African-American people are 4.9 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession and in the city of Milwaukee, it's about 5.48 times more likely."

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The illegal drug market causes damage in many developing nations, but there are two countries with major drug booms: Afghanistan and Myanmar. Both countries have a long history of being ravaged by endless conflicts. Amid great confusion, the opium market has bloomed. In Afghanistan, many farmers carry massive debts from the drug traffickers after receiving their help during the start-up period. Unfortunately, most end up never being able to pay the money back as government raids often destroy the crops that were promised to the drug dealers as payment. If such unplanned obstacles appear, many farmers are trapped between two extreme solutions. They either give up their family to the drug dealers for collateral, or they have to flee their land. Both options are very dangerous, and many find themselves taken as hostages or killed. The government intervention of directly destroying the opium fields has turned out to be highly ineffective-farmers encounter desperate troubles that can only be solved through extreme means. The illegal drugs also help give power to militant groups such as the Taliban. They control the opium market and continue to strengthen from its profit. While the fields are getting destroyed, there are new fields created to make up the loss and the efforts of the government only victimize the poor. Therefore, the Afghan government is being ineffective in solving the problem.

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It should apply to everyone who receives taxpayer funding.

The governor has proposed that people receiving state-funded benefits, such as FoodShare and W-2, be tested for illegal drug use.

But why limit this service to just these people? How about the corporate CEOs and boards that benefited from those financial "incentives" doled out by the Wisconsin Economic Development Council? These were taxpayer-funded, too.

If the governor doesn't want to chance "wasting" state money by supporting drug use by the poor, let's have him be fair and start scheduling urinalyses for the economic spectrum's upper end, also.

Jeff Zdrale,

Neenah

[end]

We are a deeply punitive society. One misstep, one act of poor judgment, one stroke of bad luck or fate, and you could be marked for life, a pariah, someone with whom the rest of us "good people" want nothing to do.

Drug users are a prime example of this sad philosophy. The most recent manifestation of our collective attitude of non-forgiveness comes courtesy of Gov. Scott Walker's expected budget proposal to require drug tests for all FoodShare and BadgerCare applicants, as well as certain recipients of unemployment benefits.

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La Crosse County leaders fighting the local heroin epidemic credit a life-saving drug with eliminating fatal overdoses.

No heroin users died in 2014, thanks in large part to the availability and skyrocketing use of Narcan, the antidote for an opiate overdose. Two people died in 2013 and five in 2012 of accidental heroin overdoses, La Crosse County Medical Examiner Tim Candahl said.

Nationally, heroin deaths surged 39 percent in 2013 in 8,260, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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If any journalist needs to stick to the facts, the "dean of the state Capitol correspondents," Matt Pommer, has a special need to be accurate.

But accuracy was sorely lacking in his recent opinion piece, "Community policing under fire in Madison."

Pommer notes that the Dane County Board rejected a federal grant, the "Cannabis Enforcement And Suppression Effort" (CEASE), but goes on to wrongly state "the grant provides money to fight heroin, other drugs and gun traffic."

Not true. The $5000 federal grant was solely for cannabis eradication.

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BLACK RIVER FALLS - Authorities and community members are becoming increasingly concerned about the prevalence of heroin use and dealing in Jackson County.

Use of the highly addictive opiate is rising, based on drug investigations, arrests and other information provided to law enforcement, and its impact in local communities continues to expand, local authorities say.

"Overall, I believe that heroin is having an effect in Jackson County because it is not just about recreational drug use. It is about a drug that many times takes lives because people buying and using the heroin don't know exactly what they are putting into their body," Jackson County Sheriff's Department Capt. Tim Nichols said.

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When we learn of the accidental murder of a baby by shooters intending to hit a rival drug dealer two doors away, it's time to think about what might be done to stop such madness.

Because one-issue gun advocates are willing to spend unlimited money to sway an election, we cannot regulate possession of firearms or ammunition. It may be time to carefully consider whether we can tamp down the greed that propels this violence. That means examining whether legalizing drugs would result in fewer deaths.

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To the Editor:

Your recent editorial, "Our View: Not everyone is on board with marijuana enforcement," raises some very valid points.

When President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs in 1970, marijuana prohibition was a new thing. But 45 years later it has become an industry. We have become so conditioned to the negative indoctrination of almost five decades of anti-pot propaganda that we often blindly accept it.

In 1997 President Bill Clinton, responding to the legalization of medical cannabis in California, commissioned the Institute of Medicine Report on medical cannabis. This federal report was released in March 1999, and although heavily politicized, still acknowledged that cannabis had great medical value. It also debunked the so-called "gateway theory."

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Dear Editor: Republicans had a great election Nov. 4, but so did marijuana legalization.

Florida's Amendment 2, which would have legalized medical cannabis, drew 57.6 percent of the vote, a little short of the required 60 percent. Despite falling short, it still drew a half million more votes than Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

Alaska's Measure 2, legalizing adult use of cannabis, won with 52.15 percent, just a shade less than Scott Walker's 52.29 percent in Wisconsin.

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In a governor's race full of twists and turns, it has now come to this:

A national conservative group - a Super PAC supported by the Koch brothers in the past - is lighting up social media with nine light-hearted ads promoting the Libertarian candidate for governor, Robert Burke, because he wants to legalize marijuana.

The videos almost immediately stoked concerns within Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke's camp that this was a cynical Republican ploy meant to peel off young voters or confuse people. Five of the nine marijuana ads attack Mary Burke, who is opposing GOP Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday.

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A Madison couple investigated for possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia in Baraboo will not be charged with a crime for possessing the controlled substance.

The Baraboo Police Department and City Attorney Mark Reitz declined to prosecute the offenses and found the couple provided authorities with valid Wisconsin medical marijuana prescriptions.

While investigating a complaint about a dog left in the vehicle of Greg and Karen Kinsley on Sept. 13 at the Sauk County Fairgrounds, Baraboo Police Sgt. Mark Lee and Det. Jeremy Drexler spotted a marijuana pipe through the car window. The officers confiscated it along with a small amount of marijuana after resolving the pet issue.

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My name is Robert Burke and I am a Libertarian running for governor of Wisconsin. Our state and nation are at an inflection point of change, both social and economic, unrivaled in history. Wisconsin will need a leader for a 21st century economy, and I would like to share my vision for one small part. It's time for legalization of marijuana, and I'd like to share why.

In my youth, I worked as a certified nursing assistant in both a nursing home and a hospital. Our CNA's care in very intimate ways for the most vulnerable of our society. I remember caring for a doctor's wife with Alzheimer's. I remember meeting my first patient with Multiple Sclerosis and learning how it shuts down and wastes away the body. I remember meeting my 3-month-old niece as she had seizures every few minutes. I remember breaking down in tears in the hospital linen closet after floating to the Oncology department and meeting a mother and her children as she fought cervical cancer.

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New Law Would Only Make People More Desperate, Leading to More Crime

If re-elected Gov. Scott Walker will push for legislation requiring mandatory drug testing for unemployment and SNAP benefits.

It's a cognitive dissonance at best and a willful evil at worst to attempt to force social responsibility and morality through a socially irresponsible and immoral tactic.

This wholesale denial of benefits to people belies the complexities inherent in drug use and addiction, ranging from socioeconomic and environmental factors to issues of mental health and genetic propensity for addictive tendencies -- notwithstanding that those who receive unemployment benefits do so because they have paid into that system, as any other employed person has.

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Dear Editor: Despite popular support, medical cannabis has had a rough time gaining traction at the Capitol. Early in 2014, both houses unanimously passed a hastily and poorly drafted restrictive medical marijuana bill that required federal approval to use an extract containing only cannabidiol, one of the 60-plus cannabinoids in whole-plant cannabis. Not one patient has gained access under the new law.

After this debacle, state medical marijuana advocates came together to find a new way. A grass-roots campaign was created and raised $7,500 for a billboard to call out opponents and create more public awareness and support for passing comprehensive legislation like the Jacki Rickert Medical Cannabis Act.

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Citing a history of inefficient enforcement and racial disparities, Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said he supports the idea of legalizing marijuana.

As some serious drug issues are rising in Madison, such as a surge in heroin-related crimes, Koval said he would rather see his force's energy go toward solving those rather than continuing to pursue controlling marijuana crimes.

"Frankly, I've reached that threshold in my professional career, where I realize that the enforcement efforts have proven largely unsuccessful," Koval said. "It just didn't work. It wasn't effective."

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Madison Police Chief Mike Koval came out in support of legalizing marijuana last week.

Below, you'll find some of his expanded comments from an interview with the State Journal in which he endorsed legalizing the drug and using tax revenue from its sale to support drug treatment programs.

The comments came soon after Koval said his department must enforce laws against marijuana because the state prohibits it. Asked how he would like Wisconsin to treat the drug, Koval responded:

"I would like us to see -- much like we've seen in those pioneering states (Washington and Colorado) -- a discussion of decriminalizing it, regulating it, taxing it, and then using the funds and monies generated .. (for) treatment programs, drug courts and other things that go to the core of our more substantive drug users."

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A married couple so far has avoided marijuana charges after providing Baraboo police with doctors' notes and other documentation during an incident in which they were found with a small amount of pot and a smoking pipe during a local political event Saturday.

Baraboo Police Department Sgt. Mark Lee and Det. Jeremy Drexler investigated a report of a dog left in a car during Fighting Bob Fest at the Sauk County Fairgrounds in Baraboo. While speaking with Madison residents Greg and Karen Kinsey about the complaint, the officers reported seeing a marijuana pipe through the car window. Police confiscated it along with a small amount of marijuana found in the car, though the issue involving the pet was resolved.

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Dear Editor: Thanks for publishing Gary Storck's thoughtful letter: "Best help for ALS may be to legalize medical marijuana." I'd like to add that cannabis not only treats ALS and many types of cancer, it can help prevent these diseases.

I strongly suggest the readers read Clint Werner's book "Marijuana, Gateway to Health: How cannabis protects us from cancer and Alzheimer's disease."

Why has our government not informed us about the many health benefits of cannabis? Because research into cannabis' therapeutic effects is blocked by the government due to its classification in the most restricted category of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

Our government can only research and fund research into the potential harms of cannabis, but never any benefits. Is something wrong with this situation? I certainly think so.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

Dear Editor: The "ice bucket challenge" to raise awareness about ALS is all the rage among politicians these days, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his wife, Tonette.

As there are few conventional treatments for ALS, perhaps the best way to help those suffering would be to instead advocate for legalizing medical cannabis in Wisconsin.

In May, I attended a conference in Portland, Ore., presented by Patients Out of Time, "The Endocannabinoid System and Age-Related Illnesses."

In a presentation on ALS and cannabis, Dr. Gregory T. Carter, a clinical professor at the University of Washington, stated that medical cannabis is "almost custom-made to treat ALS. It dries the mouth up, relieves pain, eases muscle spasms, improves the appetite, and may well have a disease-modifying effect."

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Methamphetamine use is climbing as desperate heroin addicts search for a cheaper way to get high and avoid a fatal overdose.

"Meth has never gone away," said Tom Johnson, who heads a regional drug task force. "We just never gave it enough credit."

Local law enforcement saw meth use rise again in mid-2013 when heroin prices ballooned. Heroin can fetch up to $280 per gram; meth sells for as little as $50 to $100 for the same quantity, said La Crosse police Sgt. Andrew Dittman, who heads the department's narcotics unit.

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A 20-year-old woman stopped breathing and turned blue this week in the Town of Raymond, the victim of a heroin overdose.

Her family dialed 911 just after 4 p.m. Tuesday and dispatchers instructed them in CPR.

Racine County sheriff's deputies arrived, reached for their emergency kits and pulled out nasal naloxone, better known by its brand name Narcan. They sprayed it up the woman's nose. In a few minutes, the woman regained consciousness and was talking with first responders before she was taken to a hospital.

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Police Explain Tactics

Drugs have been around Lodi for a long time, but nearly two years ago, the death of a 17-year-old Lodi teen made the community strikingly aware of its ramifications.

That's when Lodi Police acting chief Scott Klicko said the community rose up demanding police address the issue.

"I don't think the public really knew how much investigating went on prior to Jacob Adler's death, but since then, we have obviously been in the public eye more, as they are expecting us to keep combating it," Klicko said.

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JUNEAU - The Dodge County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved doubling the alcohol and other drug abuse counselors employed by the county. The county will add two more Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse counselors to the Dodge County Human Services and Health Department staff.

Dodge County District Attorney Kurt Klomberg and Human Services and Health Department Director Janet Wimmer addressed the board about increasing the treatment options for addicts in the county.

Opiate and heroin use is a huge problem for the county, Klomberg said.

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When you run a small town head shop, it's no surprise you draw the scrutiny of local law enforcement.

That started at The Smoke Shop in Delavan, in Walworth County, in 2007. The store sells tobacco, smoking accessories, novelties, health drinks, clothing, jewelry, bumper stickers and small foil packages called incense or potpourri, but which drug agents say is meant to be smoked like marijuana.

Officers seized glass pipes and made undercover buys of Mimosa root bark.

Now owners David and Erin Yarmo are facing the biggest crackdown yet. Federal prosecutors have seized $776,000 from two of the couple's bank accounts, along with a parcel of undeveloped land in Walworth County, claiming it's all proceeds or was bought with proceeds of the sale of illegal substances, and therefore constitutes money laundering.

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In 2002, 27 people died of heroin overdoses in Wisconsin. A decade later, the toll skyrocketed to 187 deaths.

Heroin has quickly become the most visible drug on the radar for those who work with addicts and in the state's criminal-justice system. Experts say it is the emergence of this drug that partially accounts for the racial disparities in Wisconsin's drug courts.

"When I look at the racial numbers from 2009 to today, the proportion of African-Americans has gone down as the proportion of heroin addicts has gone up," said Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Ellen Brostrom, who runs that county's drug court.

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Even before Dane County Circuit Judge Sarah O'Brien crunched the numbers, she knew something was amiss. Her strongest evidence: "The courtroom didn't look right when I walked in."

O'Brien, who retired in 2012, was referring to the stark racial disparities in Dane County's drug court. The people in front of her - the ones who had gotten the chance to reduce or avoid criminal convictions in exchange for completing treatment and other programming - - were overwhelmingly white.

In 2012, about one-third of those arrested for drug crimes in Dane County were black, according to the state Office of Justice Assistance. But African-Americans made up just 10 percent of those participating in the county's drug court that year, according to Journey Mental Health, a Madison nonprofit that provides treatment and case management for the program.

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Marinette County, with one of the worst heroin problems in the state, has taken the offensive in its fight against the drug and other opiates.

The county has launched a drug specialty court, similar to one Brown County has been running for five years, but geared specifically to Marinette's unique situation.

In 2013, the county of just 41,610 people had the state's 14th highest number of heroin-related court cases. It led the state from 2008 to 2012 in per capita seizures of heroin by police.

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Three More Suspected Overdoses Locally Last Weekend

Three people died of suspected heroin overdoses within 72 hours last weekend.

According to Kenosha County Medical Examiner Patrice Hall, two men and one woman died of suspected heroin overdoses. The causes of the deaths still need to be confirmed by toxicology, she said.

"When you have three potential overdose deaths over the course of a 72-hour period, that's alarming," Hall said.

Hall would release little detail on the deaths as the cases are still under investigation. However, she said two of the deaths occurred in the city of Kenosha and one in Twin Lakes. The victims were in their 30s and 40s, she said.

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Live music fans gathered near the stage at the Marquette Waterfront Festival in Yahara Place Park a few weeks ago barely took notice of the smell of marijuana smoke in the air. The unmistakable odor is as ubiquitous at east side festivals as ethnic food, jewelry vendors and men with beards.

Along with Colorado, Washington state a=C2=80" which both recently legalized marijuana a=C2=80" and California, where a crick in the neck or

sleeping problems can qualify for a medical permit to buy marijuana, Madison is well known for being lenient on casual pot smokers.

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Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said legislators have done what they can and can't force doctors to prescribe cannabidiol oil. Gov. Scott Walker says it's frustrating, but he's not sure what to do.

These are not the words of leaders. All this was known before the bill was even drafted.

As a lifelong glaucoma patient, I lobbied for the Therapeutic Cannabis Research Act, which state lawmakers passed in 1982. After the act was enacted, state regulators advised me federal approval was needed.

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Doctors in Wisconsin Worried About FDA Provision in New Cannabidiol Law

Madison - Nine-year-old Nicholas Volker asks his mother every day when he'll be able to get the medicine that could end the scores of seizures that shake his body every day.

His disheartened mother, Amylynne Santiago Volker, tells him, "Not yet."

Two months after Gov. Scott Walker signed into law a measure allowing the use of cannabidiol, a marijuana derivative used to treat epileptics without giving them a high, Wisconsinites have not yet been able to access the drug. That's in part because of obstacles written into the legislation at the last minute.

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WAUSAU - If you have a stereotype in mind about who wants to change marijuana prohibition laws, the meeting held Saturday afternoon at the Marathon County Public Library likely would have broken it.

The Northern Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws held its Talking Hemp and Cannabis Tour event there, a two-hour event that was part political action movement, part economic development sales pitch and an all-out rebuke of the political and legal system that has declared the so-called war on drugs.

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Dear Editor: I have suffered from glaucoma and other serious medical conditions since birth. Thirty-five years ago, my ophthalmologist wrote in a letter, "I am familiar with reports that marijuana lowers intraocular pressure in many people who have glaucoma. If marijuana were available for me to prescribe to this patient, I would be willing to do so, in the hope it would adequately control his condition with fewer side effects than the medications currently available."

Eight years earlier, when I had smoked marijuana before a checkup, another eye doctor found my usually highly elevated eye pressures were normal.

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Child Who Inspired Movement for Cannabis-Based Treatment Dies in Her Sleep

Though Sally Schaeffer and her family were successful in legalizing a new form of treatment for seizure sufferers, the change in law did not come in time to help daughter Lydia Schaeffer.

The 7-year-old whose Burlington-based family became the de facto face of cannabidiol legislation in Wisconsin died in her sleep early Sunday morning.

Lydia's story was featured in local and national media because of Sally's efforts to get a new, marijuana-based seizure treatment legalized in Wisconsin.

[continues 451 words]

Lydia Schaeffer, the 7-year-old girl with a rare genetic disorder whose plight inspired lawmakers to legalize a marijuana extract to treat her condition despite their opposition to medical marijuana, has died. Lydia's mother, Sally Schaeffer, had been lobbying the state legislature to legalize the drug, an experimental extract from cannabis plants known as Charlotte's Web, for use on children with seizure disorders. The lawmakers moved to pass the law in record time and Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed the bill in April. But Lydia, who died in her sleep on Mother's Day, never got a chance to try the treatment because the law's implementation was still being worked out.

[end]

The approval of a marijuana derivative to ease seizure disorders in children came surprisingly fast in the state Legislature this spring, but sadly not soon enough for 7-year-old Lydia Schaeffer.

Lydia died in her sleep Sunday at home in Burlington before she had a chance to try the treatment that her mother, Sally Schaeffer, fought so hard to legalize in Wisconsin.

"I kept thinking to myself we've just got to buy Lydia some time, we've just got to buy her some time. And I guess we didn't buy enough," Sally said Tuesday.

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