“Under the chemicals, the chemicals they were giving me, there was no life. There was no quality. I laid in bed, wasting. I went from 140 pounds to 87 pounds.. The chemo and radiation, gave me back, gave me my life. And marijuana gave my life back to me.” You don’t want to be looked at as a pot user or whatever but I did. And I’m proud of it, and if I wouldn’t have, I wouldn’t be here.”

—50-year-old Teresa Boomer,a stage three cervical cancer survivor, Tennessee

“Thank you for what you’re doing today, marijuana which I inhale via a smokeless vaporizer to avoid carcinogens, makes my life easier… I wanted to come here today to represent not only myself as a brain cancer patient, but every patient who is afraid to come here, is afraid to come on camera, or embarrassed, or physically can’t do it.”

—Tracey Gamer-Fanning, 42 years old, President, Connecticut Brain Tumor

“I’m Emily Sander and I’m a student of Cal State Long Beach. And I grew up in Northern California and came down here for school. I got diagnosed with lymphoma non-Hodgkins lymphoma in July it was really out of the blue. I got it from a virus there is nothing I could have done to prevent it. I’ve always been really healthy. Barely ever even take even Tylenol. I’m just not a medication person and poof now I have to take tons and tons of medication for every tiny thing. It was such a big change in my life. Even though the cancer is already gone and very positive in that part of it and I have to take tons of medications still have to finish out chemo, which is not a walk in the park worse than the cancer was. My friends even my parent friends recommended I look in to medical marijuana as a substitute for some of the medications I was taking, and especially to get my appetite back. Which was one of the worse symptoms for me was my appetite was completely gone and even when I felt like eating I had mouth sores from the chemo and I couldn’t eat. So there wasn’t a medication that would make me hungry. Which medical marijuana definitely does. That’s a really good side effect, especially for me.”

—Emily Sander, Northern California

“I’m an 18 year old guy from Watsonville CA that has been though the bad and good in life. At the age of 13 I was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia or CML. As of right now and the stage of my condition I’m still sick, my doctors have me taking chemotherapy orally every night for the rest of my life to keep the cancer cells inside my blood stream from multiplying. The side effects I have from this are: insomnia, depression, body aches, headaches, nausea and it kills my appetite. I’ve used marijuana before in the past to help myself because I didn’t want to take another pill. Since then, medical cannabis has been helping all my symptoms and has made my life and illness easier to cope with everyday.”

—John, 18, California

“Cannabis is very strong and the idea is to build up the daily dose over time. One dose is a drop on your finger about the size of “half a grain of rice”. The syringe is the easiest way to store and produce one drop of oil at a time. I took all 6 syringes, which totalled 18 grams, in 46 days. Most people take about 90 days… I started my new treatment on the day I walked out the hospital, declaring my “independence”. It’s been a journey… Mostly hilarious, but some not so funny experiences as well… I feel strong, brave, invincible… and I’m so loved… that’s worth staying for, I would say!”

—Lindsey, Cape Town, Africa

“At first, Mykayla wasn’t responding well to her treatment, and doctors said she might need a bone marrow transplant. The she started taking the cannabis oil pills. Be early August, Mykayla was in remission and the transplant was no longer necessary… “I don’t think it’s just a coincidence… I credit it with helping – at least helping – her ridding the cancer from her body.”

—Erin Purchase

“OK, let me get this out right away “yes I inhaled” – and hell, our last three President’s smoked pot. So yes, I did in my youth. In the 80s I got into some harder stuff and quit all drugs and alcohol and I’m still clean and sober now. That said, the kind of cancer I was diagnosed with is very commonly treated effectively with marijuana. In fact there is a new study out about the reduction in pain that it helps with in Leukemia who undergo massive chemo. And I did… the chemo doses I got were so strong they pretty much killed my thyroid and for sure blew all flippin hair off my head… it ain’t never coming back. LOL… So I have a ton of pals how medical mj has really helped. I was in Texas for treatment and — well can I just say it’s Texas… pot is not real big on the Gov’s list of likes. So I was reading about what was going on in Colorado and wishing I could partake… and hearing from pals how STRONG the new stuff is. But by the time I got back to Colorado, I was past the point of really needing it… I was in Texas 8 months… so I didn’t start up… but I’m a total believer and I earned my pot badge many many times over in my youth.”

—Chris Daniels