Save Lives! Support MS Cannabis Act. A prayer for our small town.
Nothing is more important than life itself. When you lose the life of someone you love, it changes your life, for better or worse, depending upon how you respond.
I lost the life of my dearest brother, Stephen Norman Lynch. I believe he would be alive today, had he never gotten involved with the drug culture.
Stephen was a very talented artist/illustrator. He enjoyed reading fantasy and historical fiction. Plus he relished studying art history and learning about the works of the Old Masters, such as Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Stephen's roll model was Walt Disney and his goal was to one day work on animate films.
Stephen had a speech impediment. His condition improved after taking speech therapy at the University of Alabama. However, that is when he began to use marijuana and became adversely influenced by the drug culture.
On Halloween day some years ago, a juvenile delinquent gave Stephen a controlled substance which resulted in paranoid delusions, altered perception, irrational behavior, and his death, I was told by a Methodist minister who did drug counseling that what Stephen was given was probably dirty drugs laced with strychnine (rat poison), which had been identified as going around campus. This led to Stephen becoming disoriented, ending up miles from home, and being struck by a truck speeding along a rural highway. (Source: Handbook of Toxicology of Chemical Warfare Agents (Third Edition), 2020 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/strychnine).
God works in mysterious ways. The pain, the tears, the loss, the emptiness in my life, these have since been replaced with knowledge and understanding, with faith, hope, and love for God and what bearing the cross has taught me which I will share that this may save the lives of others.
Indeed, I have read everything I could find on the subject of marijuana and substance abuse, including books and a ton of articles at Shands Medical Center Library in Gainesville, Florida. This has led me to realize that those self-medicating for a speech impediment or other medical reasons need help from doctors and therapists, not the paranoia of being arrested or incarcerated.
Today medical cannabis is now legal in Mississippi and a number of other states. This means those who may benefit from a prescription of THC can avoid self-medication using illegal chemical substances that are often laced with toxic chemicals like crack cocaine, Methamphetamine (meth), very addictive opiates, or a cocktail of other harmful substances.
The state of Mississippi has adopted a very good Medical Cannabis Act. This law will save lives because fewer people will engage in using dirty street drugs. Lives will also be saved because people using medical cannabis will be under the care of doctors instead of under the influence of illegal substances provided by pushers 'n' peddlers, criminal characters who care nothing about the lives of those they victimize. Plus they will avoid arrest for possession of marijuana which often effects blacks more than whites, and ends up destroying their whole lives.
Physicians take the Hippocratic oath, "To do no harm." That is why I support the Mississippi Cannabis Act and urge the Mayor of Quitman and Board of Aldermen to vote to save lives and not second guess the people of Mississippi, the state legislature, and Governor Tate Reeves, who approved the Medical Cannabis Act. The life you save may be that of your own son, daughter, or grand child.
People will die from using dirty street drugs. Sadly I know this to be a fact, the utter truth. Thus I pray: Heavenly Father, grant guidance and wisdom to those who represent our small town, that no one may suffer or die from illegal usage of dangerous street drugs, like grass laced with acid (LSD), crack, meth, fentanyl, or other chemical substances in the future. That those we dearly love may live full, rich, prosperous, happy lives, free from substance abuse, that their bodies and minds be clear to do great good work and see the light. Amen.
Respectfully,
TerryLynch@aol.com
This memorial tribute letter is hosted at https://greatusart.com/savelives.html
