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Compelling Stories Tie Medical Marijuana To Relief From Symptoms Of Trauma, Disease

DETROIT (WWJ) - The Mayor of the tiny town of Montrose, Michigan put in a plug for medical marijuana dispensaries as a State Senate committee takes testimony on a bill Tuesday.

Ray Foust says the drug helped his niece live a better quality of life in the year before she died of cancer.

"They've get it set up - the books are open all the time, they can walk in anytime they want to and I call it a safe transfer center, I don't see why any body would have to go to some low-life place to get a medicine," said Foust.

Beverly Phillips of Bloomfield Hills testified that  whose 20-year-old daughter has a condition which includes symptoms of uncontrolled seizures. His doctor's recommendation: "he suggested cutting out the rest of the left side of her brain."

Phillips refused to consider the surgery and tried medical marijuana instead. Phillips said her daughter's condition has improved 90 percent.

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But she says she lives in fear of being arrested: "We don't have time to wait to get something where we can not be scared we are going to lose our children, lose our jobs."

Dakota Serna, a marine corp vet, who fought in operation Phantom Fury, one of the fiercest battles in Iraq. "I watched my best friend die in at my feet," he said. "And that is something you just don't forget about, if you don't have the experience to see what it looks like to see a child murdered on the streets of a city ... that's something you need to consider."

Serna said he suffered severe PTSD, "I literally had a rifle in my hand, ready just to snap and lose it, because I had no idea what was going on ... it turned out that the medications were causing this," now he says,"To simply put it marijuana, cannabis, gave me my life back, and it's not just me this is veterans all across the country."

The bills would allow local communities to regulate the facilities and also provide immunity for cardholders. The committee will take more testimony from those opposed at a later date.

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