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Jacki Rickert speaks her mind: Selected quotes from Wisconsin MMJ bill namesake over the years
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MADISON: With the support of bill sponsors Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Waunakee) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and a combined public Health Committee hearing on the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act set for Dec. 15, Jacki Rickert, the bill's namesake, is finally looking at the real possibility that Wisconsin may join other states in legalizing medical marijuana.
Although there finally seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, it has taken literally decades of effort to get a bill to this point, and Jacki frequently weighed in.
Below is a collection of Jacki's quotes over the years:
September 1997: Wisconsin "Journey for Justice"
"We're just ordinary people trying to do an extraordinary thing, I'm going to try to make this trip to Madison to bring awareness to the people and hopefully bring justice to those of us who need (cannabis).It's definitely going to be hard, but it's something I have to do." -- Jacki Rickert, Woman seeking to use marijuana gets support for Madison, Eau Claire Leader Telegram
"We've learned how to put bones back in place by ourselves," said Rickert, referring to her and assistants who help with her care. "It can take hours to get dislocations back in place, but with marijuana, it takes maybe 20 minutes.
"I said a long time ago I was not going to give up on trying to get the medication I'm entitled to have." .Rickert, who's tried scores of synthetic drugs, is concerned about results. "I know marijuana has worked for me, that's it. I don't care what studies tell me; I know what works!'
-- Jacki Rickert, "Painful journey", Eau Claire Leader Telegram, 9 August 1997
March 2000: Jacki's home raided by Mondovi Police!
"I felt like Al Capone for a month," she joked sadly. -- 23 October 2000, Home News Tribune, "Activists Demand Legal Marijuana".
"The police were very nice about it and very apologetic, even helping me move from one room to another at times." Rickert said. "But I feel very violated, especially when there's this guy going through my underwear drawer." -- Jacki Rickert, Eau Claire Leader Telegram, "Column: Abuse? Police Raid Vexes User Of Medical Marijuana"
"I don't abuse cannabis. I use it as I would any other of my medications. It's just that this one was created by God and not a big moneymaker for big, greedy corporations, so that's where the illegality comes in." -- Jacki Rickert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Confiscated Marijuana Described As Medicine"
2001: Doug Moe: "She Makes Case for Medical Pot"
In 2001, then-Capital Times, now WI State Journal columnist wrote a great coluimn about Jacki's struggles and the one-year anniversary of the raid:
"I take it day to day,Sometimes hour by hour. I'm hanging on."
"I'm hoping that Gov. Scott McCallum would be willing to sit down and talk with us." (McCallum, of course, did not.)
15 May 2002: Jacki’s reaction to the Supreme Court Decision in the Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Club case:
"I'm just so angry, I'm almost shaking. I feel I've had my wheelchair kicked out from under me," said Rickert, executive director of the group, "Is My Medicine Legal Yet?" -- Wisconsin State Journal, "Supreme Court Nixes Medicinal Marijuana".
June 2003: On the passing of Jacki's friend Cheryl Miller
"IMMLY founder and director Jacki Rickert said, "It's going to be really hard to go to Washington and not see Cheryl. From the first time we met back in 1997, we really hit it off. We made a pact - we would be friends and sisters for life. Cheryl was one person I could never say no to." Rickert said she and Cheryl had dreamed for years of holding a candlelight vigil for medical marijuana patients in Washington, "She kept asking, 'this time?' It's not like seeing Cheryl's physical presence, but believe me, she will be there." Rickert adds, "She'll have the best seat in the house." -- August 20, 2003, Is My Medicine Legal YET? press release, Wisconsin Medical Marijuana Activists To Travel To Washington DC To Ask, "Is My Medicine Legal Yet?"
September 2007: Quest for Justice: First Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act
"You see living, breathing, walking, rolling evidence right here," said wheelchair-bound Jacki Rickert as she and three other medical marijuana patients spoke at the state Capitol during the Sept. 18 introduction of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, a new Assembly medical marijuana bill named for Rickert. -- The Scene, Sept. 2007.
"We have never asked for any special treatment, merely treatment," -- Jacki Rickert, Is My Medicine Legal YET? press release, "Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act To Be Introduced Sept. 18"
On Marinol:
"I took Marinol with a very open mind," Rickert told the small audience of press and fellow medical marijuana advocates at the Capitol ceremony last month. "You wouldn't have to go through all this crap if you could just take a pill. It didn't work. My tongue swelled in my face." -- 10/1/07, The Scene, "Reefer Madness 2007"
"We know it (cannabis) works. We know it's not going to kill us, I have never had an allergic reaction to a God-given herb." -- Jacki Rickert, 9/19/07, Badger Herald, "Medical cannabis supporters unite"
2009: Video: Jacki at Harvest Fest with Mary Powers:
“I’m alive because of cannabis,” said Rickert, who now calls herself “a heavyweight” at 93 pounds. “It’s got to be this bill, this time.” 10/4/09, Wisconsin State Journal, "Supporters Rally For Legal Pot"
Nov. 16, 2009: Press conference for SB368/AB554 Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act:
"I've seen so much different change this time around that people seem to have hope ...you can lose a lot from your body, but when something's taken from your spirit, that's one of the hardest things." -- Jacki Rickert, Channel 3000, "2 State Lawmakers Put Forward Medical Marijuana Bill"
"Everyone knows someone who would benefit if the law were changed, a mother a father, a sister, a brother, someone. We're all in this together, every single one of us, whether we thought this was our cause or not our cause, it's all of ours cause." -- Jacki Rickert
All pictures by IMMLY/Madison NORML
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