I cannot say yes fast enough to Prop 1.

Cannabis is already legal in our state, so this vote is about fairness and access. I was never really much of a pot smoker growing up. I had probably smoked four to five times before being diagnosed with thyroid eye disease (TED).

Basically, the muscles behind your eye get inflamed and can push your eyeball out of the socket. Intermittent nausea and double vision meant that I could not work, drive or even sleep and it just got worse and worse and worse. I was taking serious medications for nausea and to sleep, which were habit-forming and that was scary. TED can lead to blindness because your eyelids do not close fully and that leads to scratching and infection. They really can’t do anything to stop TED and give you NSAID’s to reduce the inflammation.

TED usually “burns itself out” in three years, and if you aren’t blind by then, you either go back to normal or have to have eye surgery to put your eye back where it belongs. Since I could not afford to not work or drive for three years, something had to be done. I did loads of research and finally hit on marijuana to reduce the inflammation. A very specific strain in very high doses might work. Since I was not a user, I had no tolerance and had to step up from tiny doses to massive doses. I took it and in three months my eye receded back to normal and I have had no problems since. I did not lose my eye or my home due to marijuana.

Medical marijuana, which is legitimate and useful medicine and recreational pot are both legal in our state. They are both sold in the same store now.

Not having access to legal medicine near my home is not OK. It means that people that need or want to make purchases are subjected to long commutes and onerous travel to get what they need. It also means that without a car, one has to bus (in many cases for hours) to get what they need. This is not OK. and especially affects those with lower incomes.

I was lucky, I had the money to pay for the medicine and to be able to not work. But that couldn’t last forever, I would eventually lose my home if the situation continued.

Vote yes for access and fairness in Federal Way.

Christi Keith

Federal Way