Katherine Rasmussen is a 44-year-old woman in Grayslake, Illinois. She was monitoring the trial of a former associate who'd been charged with theft. The morning of May 29, before entering the court, guards searched her bag. They found 2.5 grams of marijuana and a small pipe.
Some of you may be thinking that was a foolish move on her part. Everyone knows bags get searched when entering court. Rasmussen knew that too, she'd been monitoring this trial since it started back in December.
The former PTO treasurer had been charged with stealing more than $20,000 from the Frederick School's chapter in Grayslake. Rasmussen had, until the end of this school year, been president of that PTO. She stepped down because she no longer had a child in the school, which serves 5th and 6th graders.
Rasmussen has serious health problems. She underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2006, which is when she first tried Marinol. She also suffers from lupus and multiple sclerosis. The Friday she was arrested, Rasmussen was on her way to her chemotherapy appointment. She has now been charged with Class C misdemeanors for marijuana possession and for paraphernalia.
Rasmussen told the media she'd been given the pipe and marijuana by someone because of the treatment she's undergoing. Rasmussen said she'd forgotten that the pipe and marijuana were in her bag.
Personal note: I've been through chemotherapy, so I'm not surprised she forget something like that. My nurses warned me about “chemo brain," a sort of mental fog that a lot of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy develop. They were right, if anything they understated it.
Chemotherapy is very harsh, difficult process. That's one of the reasons there are so many states with legal medical cannabis, because the prescription drugs available to control the pain, nausea, depression and anxiety associated with cancer and chemo are more dangerous and often less effective than marijuana. If Katherine Rasmussen were living in a state with legal medical marijuana, this would not have happened.
Now here's the paradox: Illinois is days away from becoming a legal medical marijuana state. The Illinois legislature passed HB0001, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, in May. The bill was sent to Gov. Pat Quinn on June 5.
He has yet to sign HB0001. He has not yet even indicated whether he will.
Need a pen, Pat?
