After building and launching this simple website I sent an introductory message to contacts of the former Kansas Compassionate Care Coalition (KSCCC) announcing the creation of MedCanKan.org.

Among the responses I received were a few from fellow volunteers who willingly became co-conspirators, and thus a small, loosely-knit cadre of volunteers began working together to advance the medical cannabis cause in Kansas.

When I began work on this mission I did not foresee pursuing legislation before perhaps 2014. I knew that a mission of such scope would require extensive groundwork. My initial goal was just to provide a primary place for everyone in Kansas interested in medical cannabis to find solid information and resources, and possibly to connect with one another to further the common goal. From the beginning, my plan was to build a simple grassroots organization and get it rolling and then find someone else to take it over.

Not long after launching medcankan.org I received a message via facebook from Representative Gail Finney (D-Wichita) asking me to call her. Rep Finney said she was interested in introducing medical marijuana legislation so I put her in touch with a Marijuana Policy Project legislative analyst, Dan Riffle.

Several weeks had gone by when MedCanKan's acting chairman, Dan Dawdy (Paola), called from Topeka to inform me that Rep Finney had that very day introduced HB2610, or the Medical Marijuana Act, into the Kansas House. I was dumbfounded! The time for ACTION had suddenly arrived and I was not even close to being ready for it.

By that time, I had heard from a few eager volunteers, so we sprang into action hoping that HB2610 would receive a hearing before the close of the 2010 legislative session. After much uncertainty and dithering, Representative Brenda Landwehr (R-Wichita), chairwoman of the Kansas House Health and Human Services Committee, suddenly decided to give KMCN an "informational hearing," wherein members of the group would be allowed to present testimony without rebuttal from opponents.

On St Patrick's Day, 2010, in a packed hearing room (and hall) in the Docking State Office Building the group gathered and one by one presented our carefully prepared statements.

Despite the group's excellent efforts, HB2610 progressed no further during the 2010 legislative session and died at the end of the 2010 session.

The 2011 bill was HB2330, but given the disastrous state of the state budget, we did not expect legislative action that year. Surprisingly, we were suddenly granted another informational hearing on Jan 24, 2012, which was also unproductive. We are determined, however, to repeat the process until it works, as long as we can find legislators willing to introduce a bill.

Please contact your Kansas legislators and urge them to introduce or sponsor medical cannabis legislation in 2014. If you are successful in convincing your legislator to introduce a medical cannabis bill, please let us know immediately. Thank you.

When I created this group I had no plans to lead it. My only goal was to make information available, and as already mentioned, I always had hoped to find someone who really wanted to lead the group. Enter Esau A Freeman of Wichita, a fine, politically active young man who accepted my request to take over leadership of "MedCanKan." Mr Freeman became our director in late September 2012. He has many positive plans for the future of this group and actions to further our mission. The first of these plans was to establish legal nonprofit status. That has been done under the group's new name, "Kansas for Change, Inc." and we are officially a 501(c)(4) organization.

If you know someone who might benefit from the medical uses of cannabis, please tell them about this group.

cheryl (c.a.) riley
Founder
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